Day 2: Walk-ington DC
Exciting but exhausting. Thus Day 2 is summed up in three words.
I've been having photo issues - rather, photo server issues - so hopefully by tomorrow I'll have some pics up. I'm also rather annoyed that everyone's moved to Myspace which is not a blog-friendly site in my opinion.. whereas people have abandoned Livejournal and especially Xanga. Oh well, whatev.
Woke up fairly well-rested this morning and had a glorious breakfast in the hotel. Circular scrambled egg-patties, nonetheless, but they were delicious along with sausage patties, Krispy Kreme, and more. Then a shuttle drove us to the Metro station and we took the public transit to the U.S. Capitol where we had a scheduled tour. Coming from a spread-out suburb, public transit is fun and different, but like anything else I'm sure if it were part of my everyday life I'd come to take it for granted. Seeing the Capitol building and Washington Monument from afar was neat.
So there are all these Congressional and Senate buildings, and of course the big Capitol, all connected underground by tunnels. I swear Washington DC is really just a private school for kids. There were more dressed up kids than adults walking around. Interns, pages, and whatnot. Still, it was kind of nifty feeling in the middle of all the action. We wrote to our congressman Miller whose people scheduled our tour, so we actually just went to his office. Pretty crazy. We came early, then left for the gift shop - and apparently missed actually seeing/meeting this Miller guy in his office - before returning for the tour.
Anyway, the tour was cool...best part though was actually getting to sit in on some Congressional proceedings. Although it wasn't for very long, two things of interest: Half of what we heard was formal arguing about time, going over time, being given more time, etc.. i.e. bullshit. And it was all soooo formal too. Kind of made you think, "So this is our government at work?" Embarassing for them. But finally they got on track, and they were debating passing a congressional amendment against flag burning - a very pertinent issue to me, one that I studied in First Amendment Law. (I believe I'd be against such an amendment)
After this we grabbed a bite to eat, saw some demonstrations related to PBS (signs included "Save Big Bird" and I saw Clifford), and raced to the Library of Congress for another tour. Classical, European-esque architecture...biggest library in the world. Then we walked up to the Supreme Court...that was awesome. It's huge, and we saw the actual Court room where the judicial proceedings actually take place.
Following this we trekked to Union Station, an elaborate train station of sorts that resembles an airport with a mall. Snacked on some McDonalds and then rode the Metro to Dupont Circle, a hopping place home to Embassy Row and DC's "gay community". We walked along some nicely built, old-fashioned buildings and houses, many which served as embassies of other countries like Greece, Ireland, India, Indonesia, and more. Then on the way back we heard a crazy array of sirens and saw a parade of cops and black cars zooming by - the president? That'd be crazy.
After some Baja Fresh we Metro'd it to Arlington National Cemetary in hopes of catching a war veterans memorial service. After an excruciatingly long walk we caught the tail end, the band playing, Marines shooting off their rifles, marching, yadda yadda.
THEN we walked across a bridge over the Potomac to Lincoln Memorial. We saw fireflies too - that was neato and quite magical. Lincoln Memorial was astounding, however. Huge and awe-inspiring. And of course seeing the classic image of Washington Monument across the water, in person, was priceless.
So, we were getting really tired by this point. My mom, anyway. I'm concerned with her being able to keep up with our pace. We trekked wearily through what's known as Foggy Bottom...it actually turned out to be home of George Washington University. The campus was spread out over several city blocks and it was all urban... different, but cool. Finally we found the Metro station and took it to the hotel where we are now.
Whew. Goodnight.
I've been having photo issues - rather, photo server issues - so hopefully by tomorrow I'll have some pics up. I'm also rather annoyed that everyone's moved to Myspace which is not a blog-friendly site in my opinion.. whereas people have abandoned Livejournal and especially Xanga. Oh well, whatev.
Woke up fairly well-rested this morning and had a glorious breakfast in the hotel. Circular scrambled egg-patties, nonetheless, but they were delicious along with sausage patties, Krispy Kreme, and more. Then a shuttle drove us to the Metro station and we took the public transit to the U.S. Capitol where we had a scheduled tour. Coming from a spread-out suburb, public transit is fun and different, but like anything else I'm sure if it were part of my everyday life I'd come to take it for granted. Seeing the Capitol building and Washington Monument from afar was neat.
So there are all these Congressional and Senate buildings, and of course the big Capitol, all connected underground by tunnels. I swear Washington DC is really just a private school for kids. There were more dressed up kids than adults walking around. Interns, pages, and whatnot. Still, it was kind of nifty feeling in the middle of all the action. We wrote to our congressman Miller whose people scheduled our tour, so we actually just went to his office. Pretty crazy. We came early, then left for the gift shop - and apparently missed actually seeing/meeting this Miller guy in his office - before returning for the tour.
Anyway, the tour was cool...best part though was actually getting to sit in on some Congressional proceedings. Although it wasn't for very long, two things of interest: Half of what we heard was formal arguing about time, going over time, being given more time, etc.. i.e. bullshit. And it was all soooo formal too. Kind of made you think, "So this is our government at work?" Embarassing for them. But finally they got on track, and they were debating passing a congressional amendment against flag burning - a very pertinent issue to me, one that I studied in First Amendment Law. (I believe I'd be against such an amendment)
After this we grabbed a bite to eat, saw some demonstrations related to PBS (signs included "Save Big Bird" and I saw Clifford), and raced to the Library of Congress for another tour. Classical, European-esque architecture...biggest library in the world. Then we walked up to the Supreme Court...that was awesome. It's huge, and we saw the actual Court room where the judicial proceedings actually take place.
Following this we trekked to Union Station, an elaborate train station of sorts that resembles an airport with a mall. Snacked on some McDonalds and then rode the Metro to Dupont Circle, a hopping place home to Embassy Row and DC's "gay community". We walked along some nicely built, old-fashioned buildings and houses, many which served as embassies of other countries like Greece, Ireland, India, Indonesia, and more. Then on the way back we heard a crazy array of sirens and saw a parade of cops and black cars zooming by - the president? That'd be crazy.
After some Baja Fresh we Metro'd it to Arlington National Cemetary in hopes of catching a war veterans memorial service. After an excruciatingly long walk we caught the tail end, the band playing, Marines shooting off their rifles, marching, yadda yadda.
THEN we walked across a bridge over the Potomac to Lincoln Memorial. We saw fireflies too - that was neato and quite magical. Lincoln Memorial was astounding, however. Huge and awe-inspiring. And of course seeing the classic image of Washington Monument across the water, in person, was priceless.
So, we were getting really tired by this point. My mom, anyway. I'm concerned with her being able to keep up with our pace. We trekked wearily through what's known as Foggy Bottom...it actually turned out to be home of George Washington University. The campus was spread out over several city blocks and it was all urban... different, but cool. Finally we found the Metro station and took it to the hotel where we are now.
Whew. Goodnight.