Rally to Restore Sanity and other Washington D.C. goodies
Okay, so to sum up sightseeing in Washington D.C.: We went to the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials, walked by the White House (where the president was possibly leaving in a helicopter) and the Washington Memorial, went to the American History Museum to see Kermit and the Holocaust Museum to see... well, all of it. With the exception of after the rally, we walked from our hotel in Arlington around the Arlington National Cemetary, past a silly-looking statue for the Seabees that reminded me of the cover of a bodice-ripper (Disturbingly so. Seriously, take a look at this thing.), and also past a very lonely, simple statue of a medic who is doomed to forever stare across the road at the ripped, half-naked Seabees man (to emphasize my point as to how sad this was, I can't find a single pic of the statue online, whereas I can find plenty of the Seabees statue). We then crossed a bridge over the Potomac that came out directly behind the Lincoln Memorial. All in all, a very, very pleasant walk.
The rally itself was very cool. Had some opening bands and a crowd experiment by the boys of Mythbusters. Unfortunately, we didn't realize the rally was being held at the Capitol building rather than at the Lincoln Memorial (not really sure how we made that mistake). We arrived at the Lincoln Memorial early, wondered that there was little sign of a rally, and by the time we figured out our mistake, we had just enough time to get to the rally before it started. Boo! We ended up squashed into a crowd behind a police tower and a family reunification tent. James was between these two enough that he could sometimes see the screen, but I only caught glimpses very rarely. Also, a sad thing happened: shortly after Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert (awesome entrance, by the way!) came on stage, I felt sick and had to get out of the crowd before Something Bad happened. I don't know if it was my crowd claustrophobia (usually I just go short of breath) or if it was something else (I did get sunburned... maybe something about being in the sun?). I had to get out of the crowd and go sit with a pretzel and water until I felt better--which took about an hour. I ended up circling around the rally because going straight back to get out of the crowd was both foolish and nigh impossible. After feeling better, I made my way back to the Mall and sat on the steps of a building I never did figure out the name of or its purpose. I could hear the rally a little bit from there, but mostly I just enjoyed the signs and costumes going by. At one point, there was an Alice in Wonderland group consisting of an Alice holding up "That was the worst tea party I've ever been to," the Queen of Hearts holding up "I <3 death panels," the Mad Hatter holding up "Make sense, not tea," and the March Hare holding up "I <3 masturbation." There was also a guy dressed as a robot with "Metal as fuck" written on his robot head. Another sign I liked was "God hates nags." A less funny but still cute version of that was held by a couple dressed as the Joker and Harley Quinn that said, "God hates bats." My sign said, "Spellcheck is awesome," and got a lot of hearty YEAH!s and some pictures taken of it. James' sign said, "I'm not entirely happy with various aspects of government, but I'm okay with tolerating it for an indefinite period of time," and it got a TON of attention. He got stopped quite often so people could take pictures, and while we were waiting incorrectly at the Lincoln Memorial, we got filmed making a statement for a documentary on the rally. I wonder if it will be any good and if we will ever see it? Still, it's cool knowing it's out there somewhere! Aside from those signs I've mentioned, there were a LOT of great signs that I'm just not remembering or not mentioning here. There were a ton of people having a great time, and I was very pleased to have been there--even if I did have to leave the rally proper.
On our first night in Arlington, we came across a place called Ray's Hell Burger. James pointed it out and wanted to go there for dinner after we checked into our hotel, so we walked over. Those burgers were DELICIOUS. I am positive they were the best I've ever had, and James couldn't get enough of them. We went back there for dinner all three nights and probably would have gone more often (for lunch) if we could have! I got the same thing the first and third nights, a jalapeno-topped Cajun burger with roasted peppers and garlic, grilled onions, and pepper jack cheese. The second night I had a pretty basic bacon-topped American burger, but had them top that with the roasted garlic because that stuff was fantastic on a burger. And you will all likely be very surprised to hear that it was the jalapeno burger and not the bacon burger that was my favorite! Another point of interest was that they had foie gras and bone marrow burgers on the menu. If I lived in the area, I probably would eventually try the bone marrow burger, but being there for just for a few days... I wanted the most excellent beef burgers!
It was altogether a most excellent vacation ^_^ Now, to spend the rest of today recovering from it! Haha!
The rally itself was very cool. Had some opening bands and a crowd experiment by the boys of Mythbusters. Unfortunately, we didn't realize the rally was being held at the Capitol building rather than at the Lincoln Memorial (not really sure how we made that mistake). We arrived at the Lincoln Memorial early, wondered that there was little sign of a rally, and by the time we figured out our mistake, we had just enough time to get to the rally before it started. Boo! We ended up squashed into a crowd behind a police tower and a family reunification tent. James was between these two enough that he could sometimes see the screen, but I only caught glimpses very rarely. Also, a sad thing happened: shortly after Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert (awesome entrance, by the way!) came on stage, I felt sick and had to get out of the crowd before Something Bad happened. I don't know if it was my crowd claustrophobia (usually I just go short of breath) or if it was something else (I did get sunburned... maybe something about being in the sun?). I had to get out of the crowd and go sit with a pretzel and water until I felt better--which took about an hour. I ended up circling around the rally because going straight back to get out of the crowd was both foolish and nigh impossible. After feeling better, I made my way back to the Mall and sat on the steps of a building I never did figure out the name of or its purpose. I could hear the rally a little bit from there, but mostly I just enjoyed the signs and costumes going by. At one point, there was an Alice in Wonderland group consisting of an Alice holding up "That was the worst tea party I've ever been to," the Queen of Hearts holding up "I <3 death panels," the Mad Hatter holding up "Make sense, not tea," and the March Hare holding up "I <3 masturbation." There was also a guy dressed as a robot with "Metal as fuck" written on his robot head. Another sign I liked was "God hates nags." A less funny but still cute version of that was held by a couple dressed as the Joker and Harley Quinn that said, "God hates bats." My sign said, "Spellcheck is awesome," and got a lot of hearty YEAH!s and some pictures taken of it. James' sign said, "I'm not entirely happy with various aspects of government, but I'm okay with tolerating it for an indefinite period of time," and it got a TON of attention. He got stopped quite often so people could take pictures, and while we were waiting incorrectly at the Lincoln Memorial, we got filmed making a statement for a documentary on the rally. I wonder if it will be any good and if we will ever see it? Still, it's cool knowing it's out there somewhere! Aside from those signs I've mentioned, there were a LOT of great signs that I'm just not remembering or not mentioning here. There were a ton of people having a great time, and I was very pleased to have been there--even if I did have to leave the rally proper.
On our first night in Arlington, we came across a place called Ray's Hell Burger. James pointed it out and wanted to go there for dinner after we checked into our hotel, so we walked over. Those burgers were DELICIOUS. I am positive they were the best I've ever had, and James couldn't get enough of them. We went back there for dinner all three nights and probably would have gone more often (for lunch) if we could have! I got the same thing the first and third nights, a jalapeno-topped Cajun burger with roasted peppers and garlic, grilled onions, and pepper jack cheese. The second night I had a pretty basic bacon-topped American burger, but had them top that with the roasted garlic because that stuff was fantastic on a burger. And you will all likely be very surprised to hear that it was the jalapeno burger and not the bacon burger that was my favorite! Another point of interest was that they had foie gras and bone marrow burgers on the menu. If I lived in the area, I probably would eventually try the bone marrow burger, but being there for just for a few days... I wanted the most excellent beef burgers!
It was altogether a most excellent vacation ^_^ Now, to spend the rest of today recovering from it! Haha!