Washington, D.C.

Last August (2007), I went on a trip to visit my old roommate and good friend Melissa in Washington, D.C. She had recently moved to Arlington, VA. It was only a 4 day trip, so we tried to pack in as much as we could while I was there. We visited the D.C. temple in the evening, and there were a bunch of bats flying around the spires in the lights. Apparently that's a usual occurrence at night.

The next day, we wandered all around the National Mall and saw the Washington Monument, the WWII Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. We saw the Jefferson Memorial from across the Potomac, but by that point our feet were pretty tired and it was still pretty far away.

Link to pictures of memorials/monuments: http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/WashingtonDC

Melissa had some connections, so we were able to go on a tour of the White House and also the Capitol Building. We weren't allowed to take pictures in the White House, but I did take some of the exterior. The building wasn't as big as I thought it would be, and of course some areas were off limits for the tour, so it wasn't a very long tour. We went on the Capitol Building tour the next day, and it was cool to see where the House and the Senate meet.

Link to pictures of the Capitol Building: http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/CapitolBuilding

After the Capitol tour, we visited the National Botanical Garden which was very pretty and had lots of beautiful flowers. We ate lunch and looked around at the Museum of American History and then headed to the National Gallery of Art. We literally spent hours walking around and looking at everything, but it was so big that we didn't get to everything. I got in trouble at one point because I was showing Melissa something in a painting and pointed at it a little too close, so the security guy reprimanded me. We also looked at the sculpture garden outside and then rested for a while by a big fountain.

Link to National Botanical Garden pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/NationalBotanicalGarden

The next day, we went to the National Zoo and looked at all the animals. We went to Old Town Alexandria, VA that night and saw Jamey Turner perform by the waterfront. He is a glass harp musician and plays songs on wine glasses. It was really amazing. We got some food at a Thai restaurant after that, and I thoroughly enjoyed the mangoes and sticky rice. mmmmm....

Link to National Zoo pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/schmelode/NationalZoo
Link to a YouTube video of Jamey Turner: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuBqg-AwetY

It was a great trip and I had a lot of fun visiting Melissa and seeing all the sights of our Nation's Capitol.