Washington 10!
So, last weekend I flew into Washington with my Dad to join him in a National Jamboree meeting (since I'll be working there this summer) and do a couple days of touristy shit. And let me tell you, it was ~awesome~. I loved everything, and would rather be there now, I think..but don't we all say that about places that aren't home?
It seems cool and all until you actually move there, and then you figure out you're living a shithole four and a half miles from the sun and a mile away from a beach full of gross, sweaty fat girls in thongs and an ocean full of things that want to kill you. Sup, Orange County.
Sorry, I just had to put a little shout out to my homie OC in there. On that note: it seems to be every Southlakeian teen's wet dream to move to Orange County. Fucking newsflash, you don't know how nice it is here. You are not used to living within 3 meters of various strangers in 6 different directions in a moldy one bedroom apartment that costs you a thousand a month. God damn it.
Okay. Okay. Now that I'm done foaming at the mouth, ima tell you about the best trip of all time. Far before I actually went, it was on my awesome tier because a) I got to miss some school, and b) It was just Dad and me. Like I said, it's already a good trip.
Alright, I was just joking about the tree thing. Mostly. I tried to save you from the crappy tourist photos you've seen a billion times, so there's only a few of the actual Capitol and other big buildings that people like to look at. I was quite honestly more interested in taking pictures of the ducks in the reflecting pool and discreetly taking photos of people on the metro than actually taking images of landmarks. No one wants to see that shit anyway, a billion people have taken pictures of them from every angle that are infinitely better than mine. Google it, son.
Okay, so: first thing we do for two days is hit the town, since the meeting isn't until Monday.
DAY 1/2
The Capitol!
One thing I absolutely loved about DC, and big cities in general, is that you can actually walk places without getting hit with a car. It's actually possible! You don't walk places where I live. Case in point: I barely made it across the street next to town square alive a couple weeks ago. I was stupid to try in the first place, the street is 6 lanes and busy as hell, but there was a cross-walk so I thought I could, you know, cross. Too bad the signal changed before I was across the road, even though I had instinctually ran the entire way.
Where my homeslice Obama at. We actually saw one of the escort choppers fly over us. Pretty neat.
The number of ducks rivals the number of people, I swear to you. It was like some sort of alien birthing hive. The ducklings were everywhere.
Yeah. I'm only here because I'm the only in focus picture taken the entire trip. Enjoy me.
It was so windy. God awful. I'm liking my pained "take the picture so we can go inside oh my god" expression.
Lincoln getting his sit on.
Girl for size comparison. The buildings are so huge. This was the entrance to one of the Smithsonians.
Both days we accumulated a list of awesome restaurants. Not one place we went to sucked, and we just picked the closest things on Google maps. Food is my favourite part of the day, so this made the entire experience very pleasurable.
DAY 3
Turns out I wasn't just "getting up early". We got up at 3:45. Read that again. Think about it. Nothing should ever be alive that early. Alas, I was. The drive to the Fort Hill Military Base (where the Jamboree is always held) was about 2 hours across the freeway, and we had to be there at 7.
I continue to be amazed at the countless trees.
Turns out Fort Hill is actually on a hill. Clever.
I had to put away the cam so I wouldn't look suspicious as they're rooting through our rental for explosives. The first thing we see is a tank parked on their lawn. Awesome.
All of these people are from any of the US agencies. If you're not familar with the Jamboree, most agencies have "booths" out on our trail that boy scouts go through, and it's a huge amount of labor for everyone involved, so there is countless meetings. Only a few agencies were here, actually, which tells you something. I had no clue some of these existed. Or why they exist, in some cases.
Case in point: What do you think NWTF stands for? No. It's the National Wild Turkey Federation. I'm dead serious. And no amount of exposure correction could fix whatever the hell this guy has on.
One of the Wildlife Conservation ladies.
We go out and scout the trail so all the agencies can complain about their respective rented spaces. The "trail" is literally a trail out in the forest. This is also when city-girl discovered that ticks actually fall out of trees using their godless spidey-senses to suckle your blood. This horrified me. Instead of interacting normally with people, I kept pausing to stare up at trees like some kind of paranoid schizophrenic. Luckily, before the Jamboree, the Army sprays the joint with some sort of life-draining chemical weapon. Nothing is alive. Nothing. So don't go licking trees out there, because we don't know what it is and we don't ask.
Some people from what I believe is Water Management (?) scouting out their flagged area.
Aaaand then it was back to the grind. At least school's almost over.
It seems cool and all until you actually move there, and then you figure out you're living a shithole four and a half miles from the sun and a mile away from a beach full of gross, sweaty fat girls in thongs and an ocean full of things that want to kill you. Sup, Orange County.
Sorry, I just had to put a little shout out to my homie OC in there. On that note: it seems to be every Southlakeian teen's wet dream to move to Orange County. Fucking newsflash, you don't know how nice it is here. You are not used to living within 3 meters of various strangers in 6 different directions in a moldy one bedroom apartment that costs you a thousand a month. God damn it.
Okay. Okay. Now that I'm done foaming at the mouth, ima tell you about the best trip of all time. Far before I actually went, it was on my awesome tier because a) I got to miss some school, and b) It was just Dad and me. Like I said, it's already a good trip.
Alright, I was just joking about the tree thing. Mostly. I tried to save you from the crappy tourist photos you've seen a billion times, so there's only a few of the actual Capitol and other big buildings that people like to look at. I was quite honestly more interested in taking pictures of the ducks in the reflecting pool and discreetly taking photos of people on the metro than actually taking images of landmarks. No one wants to see that shit anyway, a billion people have taken pictures of them from every angle that are infinitely better than mine. Google it, son.
Okay, so: first thing we do for two days is hit the town, since the meeting isn't until Monday.
DAY 1/2
The Capitol!
One thing I absolutely loved about DC, and big cities in general, is that you can actually walk places without getting hit with a car. It's actually possible! You don't walk places where I live. Case in point: I barely made it across the street next to town square alive a couple weeks ago. I was stupid to try in the first place, the street is 6 lanes and busy as hell, but there was a cross-walk so I thought I could, you know, cross. Too bad the signal changed before I was across the road, even though I had instinctually ran the entire way.
Where my homeslice Obama at. We actually saw one of the escort choppers fly over us. Pretty neat.
The number of ducks rivals the number of people, I swear to you. It was like some sort of alien birthing hive. The ducklings were everywhere.
Yeah. I'm only here because I'm the only in focus picture taken the entire trip. Enjoy me.
It was so windy. God awful. I'm liking my pained "take the picture so we can go inside oh my god" expression.
Lincoln getting his sit on.
Girl for size comparison. The buildings are so huge. This was the entrance to one of the Smithsonians.
Both days we accumulated a list of awesome restaurants. Not one place we went to sucked, and we just picked the closest things on Google maps. Food is my favourite part of the day, so this made the entire experience very pleasurable.
DAY 3
Turns out I wasn't just "getting up early". We got up at 3:45. Read that again. Think about it. Nothing should ever be alive that early. Alas, I was. The drive to the Fort Hill Military Base (where the Jamboree is always held) was about 2 hours across the freeway, and we had to be there at 7.
I continue to be amazed at the countless trees.
Turns out Fort Hill is actually on a hill. Clever.
I had to put away the cam so I wouldn't look suspicious as they're rooting through our rental for explosives. The first thing we see is a tank parked on their lawn. Awesome.
All of these people are from any of the US agencies. If you're not familar with the Jamboree, most agencies have "booths" out on our trail that boy scouts go through, and it's a huge amount of labor for everyone involved, so there is countless meetings. Only a few agencies were here, actually, which tells you something. I had no clue some of these existed. Or why they exist, in some cases.
Case in point: What do you think NWTF stands for? No. It's the National Wild Turkey Federation. I'm dead serious. And no amount of exposure correction could fix whatever the hell this guy has on.
One of the Wildlife Conservation ladies.
We go out and scout the trail so all the agencies can complain about their respective rented spaces. The "trail" is literally a trail out in the forest. This is also when city-girl discovered that ticks actually fall out of trees using their godless spidey-senses to suckle your blood. This horrified me. Instead of interacting normally with people, I kept pausing to stare up at trees like some kind of paranoid schizophrenic. Luckily, before the Jamboree, the Army sprays the joint with some sort of life-draining chemical weapon. Nothing is alive. Nothing. So don't go licking trees out there, because we don't know what it is and we don't ask.
Some people from what I believe is Water Management (?) scouting out their flagged area.
Aaaand then it was back to the grind. At least school's almost over.