Things You Didn't Appreciate When You Were 14.

First off, let me just say that today was awesome!  And now my feet hurt.  As much as I love my TOMS, it just might be time to retire them as my go-to walking shoes.  (Sorry, TOMS, I love you, but my feet are currently screaming otherwise!)

Alright, so today I woke up a bit late, took a shower, went upstairs to say hi to my aunt & uncle who were doing the crossword puzzle, ate breakfast, did a sudoku, and straightened my hair.  Then, mid morning-ish, my aunt and I headed into the District.  (Sounds like something scary out of The Hunger Games when you say it like that, doesn't it?) So we fought with traffic a bit, it wasn't too bad since it was mid morning, and parked near the Pentagon again to get on the metro.  Let me just say that I love cities with metros.  I feel so official as I walk toward them, figure out which stops I've got to get to on which lines with my shoulder bag slung over my shoulder so that no one nicks my things.  Its awesome.  Maybe its because I come from a small city and I've never had a reason to feel so decidedly urban, but I think I just may have to live in a city with a metro before I get too old, or have a family, or decide I don't like it anymore.  Anyway....

Right, so we get on the metro, and we didn't really have much of a plan for exploring the city except that we were going to start with the Library of Congress and then from there, we'd just walk around and explore whatever we saw or whatever struck our fancy!  My aunt really wanted to see the Library of Congress because, despite that she's lived here for the last 11 years, she's never seen it!  It really is true that you're never a tourist in your own city.  (Which reminds me, when I get home, I'm exploring the living daylights out of  Albuquerque! Anyone want to join me? Super!)

So after getting slightly lost on the metro, we found the Library of Congress.  It, and the White House, and the Smithsonian, and the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial, and the Capitol Building are all right around the same basic (rather large) area.  The Mall runs through the middle and is basically these massive chunks of grass and trees: essentially a park.  So so so beautiful.  And right in the heart of the city.  The buildings are massive structures that really look like they've come from the past, but in an imposing sort of grandiose way, not like an ancient oh-dear-you-might-fall-over-at-any-minute way.  I looked like such a dork of a tourist walking around taking pictures of everything and staring up (in awe) at these buildings!  Now apparently I've been to DC before, but I was quite young and I can tell you that I didn't appreciate it at all.  My aunt tells the story that the last time we were in DC, me and my brothers wanted to go to "the mall", when my aunt took us to this beautiful grass monstrosity in the middle of the city, we all (allegedly) said, "This isn't the mall! We meant like a shopping mall!"  Apparently, that (rather bratty) high schooler in me has since been put to rest because every bit of the Mall that I saw today, I loved.

Right, so the Library of Congress is actually two buildings.  We only went in to one, and most of the exhibits were closed (because of the earthquake, I think), but the building itself is beautiful.  There are stone mosaics on the floors and some of the ceilings which are so intricate that they instantly transport you to the past.  They also had a Gutenburg Bible on display which I wasn't supposed to take a picture of, but I did anyway, because it reminded me fiercely of high school!

library of congress

gutenburg bible

From there we walked to the Capitol building.  We couldn't go inside, so we took pictures!  From there we just started walking down the Mall.  At one end is the Capitol Building, at the other end is the Washington Monument, and on either side are the various museums, all of which are free thanks to the dude who donated the money for the Smithsonian Institute (I think.  I learned a lot today, and I'm having trouble keeping it straight!).  We then went into a couple art museums, but didn't stay long because our time was limited.  A cup of coffee later, we were back outside, now walking toward the Washington Monument, which for whatever reason, absolutely fascinated me.  Maybe its because it looks like nothing else around it, whereas most of the other buildings are wide, the Monument is skinny and it seems to reach even higher because of it.  So I took about a million pictures of it.

capitol building

washington monument

Then we walked to the White House.  You can't really get all that close to it, and you can't really see it all that well because the grounds around it are beautifully covered in massive trees and other vegetation.  I guess even the President deserves a little bit of privacy!  Next, we were headed to the Lincoln Memorial, another fine imposing building!  More pictures!  But before we made it there, we had to cross through another beautiful park, which has various war memorials.  The one we stopped at was the Vietnam War Memorial which is a series of polished black stone (?) walls with the names of all the soldiers who died in the war etched onto the stone.  It's a rather somber wall to walk past.  The list of names is massive.

lincoln

vietnam memorial

From there we went to see the newest memorial that Washington had to offer: a memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr. Apparently this weekend is the grand opening or dedication or whatever, but the memorial is already set up and open to the public.  It's Dr. MLK Jr. carved into stone surrounded by various quotes of his.  Another fine structure.  History can be beautiful.  Who knew?

dr. mlk jr memorial

Now, by this time we had been walking for a few hours.  It was starting to wear on our feet, and we needed to be back by 5 to pick up my cousin, so we started to head back to the metro.  But we had had an absolutely perfect day for walking.  The sun was shining but there was a breeze (which nearly turned into a wind, but not quite), the humidity wasn't unbearable, and the sky was a crisp (almost New Mexico) blue.  Just perfect!

So we got to the metro, no trouble there.  Drove out of the District, picked up some Chipotle for dinner, and picked up my cousin.  Chipotle is still awesome, btw.  I will never tire of those burritos, so c'mon ABQ, get a move on!  After dinner, my aunt & I got to talk some more.  She told me all about how she & my uncle met.  Great story, by the way.  It's fun to be able to connect with your aunts and uncles in a more mature way.  I'm not a kid anymore, and that means that (to some extent) we get to be adults together.  I dunno.  Maybe I'm the only one who sees it like that.  But the point is that I really enjoyed talking to her.  And then we watched Field of Dreams, which I hadn't seen in forever.  That movie is still awesome.

And now, I'm off to bed.  I slept so poorly last night that I'm hoping tonight will make up for it.  Tomorrow, is goodbye to DC and hello to NYC.  Tomorrow's a nice short drive, only 250 miles.  (Take that, 680!)  I'm scared to death for NYC traffic but I'm considering it a rite of passage.

Expect to hear from me again soon!

PS. Here's a link to my other pictures from DC.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150415842414972.448728.545464971&l=98438394bb&type=1

OH! PS. I got word from a few of you that you were unable to comment on my blog.  I think I have fixed the situation so that you don't have to be signed in to your google account (or even have a google account, anymore) to comment.  So, please, if you'd like to comment, I'd love to hear from you!

Thank you ALL so much for reading!!!