Best of DC: possibly the longest post ever

The weekend I was in Washington DC, April 11-13, was the tail-end of the National Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival. A lot of the pink petals were on the ground, but it was still really pretty around the Tidal Basin area and also along the streets in general. I stayed with a friend's friend who lives in Virginia, which is on the other side of the Potomac river, and is connected to DC by the same metro system. It's only 10 minutes away from downtown DC. Virginia is so freaking cute.

Oh, and newsflash, I had my first funnel cake after waiting in line for 20 minutes.

We went on a guided tour of the Capitol building lead by an intern at the office of the Illinois Senator. It's an awesome building. In fact, all of the monuments and museums were awesome. And the best part were they're all free! I loved the layout of the city, the height restrictions of the buildings, the clean and modern metro system, and the wide streets. DC doesn't have a big city feel, but it was a nice change of pace. It feels orderly. Like it always has on its serious face. Or maybe that's got to do with the fact I didn't see a single Gap (or enter a store, or buy anything apart from sunscreen) while I was there. For reals. I didn't buy a single thing apart from Starbucks coffee and sunscreen.

Above is the view of the National Art Gallery from a spot on the grass where I took a nap. And below, a Segway group at the back of the White House. Man, I don't care if I look like a fool. This summer I'm gonna be a total tourist and do a Segway tour here in Chicago. And I'm going to take photos.

This is the back of the White House. (Because my photo of the front of the White House isn't particularly good. There was a long, long line to get up close and I probably needed to pee.)

This dark place is the inside of the National Archives building, the room where the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are stored. There's no natural light in there and the wait to get in, even if the line outside isn't bad at all, is around 40 minutes. I should point out that the documents are barely legible now. They're over 230 years old! But oddly, the Magna Carta, which is from the 1200s, is in great shape and the link still clear. It's in Latin though, so maybe that's why no one cares. Latin is so dead.

On Sunday afternoon before heading to the airport, we went to Arlington Cemetery, the military cemetery on the Virginia side of town. It was a really nice way to end the trip. I read in the travel guidebook that each tombstone can have one of around 20 symbols on it to represent the soldier's faith, like the cross, the Star of David, etc. If the soldier was atheist, they could choose to have an "atom" on there instead. I kept looking for one, but couldn't find it. Disappointing.


Above is the Arlington Memorial Amphitheater, made mostly of marble.

So that about wraps it up. Oh wait, how could I forget this. At Dulles Airport before the flight, I had a burger at Five Guys. It was the Best. Burger. Ever.

Comments

[j-perv]

how fun! I really want to go to DC now...

[BWJ]

Um... FIVE GUYS is the reason I put off going veg for soo long. There is no comparison to their burgers and fries...anywhere!

I just got the worst craving ever.

I was just in DC the weekend before you.