Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing

When I was in the 4th grade, my parents took us on a trip to Washington DC. I hated it. My sister hated it. My parent's love DC, but that trip....they hated it. Beth and I were brats the entire time and my parent's vowed to never take us back! And they didn't! I just wasn't very interested in all the history and all the museums. I remember having to get up really, really early to get tickets for the White House and back then, I had this weird thing where if I stayed up too late or got up too early, I threw up. So, that morning I threw up right in the middle of a street near the White House. It was a great trip!

Since I'm now living in the Northeast and haven't really seen much of it at all before, I have a lot of places I want to conquer while I'm here. DC was on my list because I thought that now that I'm grown up, I'll enjoy it. Also, a friend of mine was there on work for a short-term assignment, so I had a free place to stay! Unfortunately, I discovered that my feelings towards DC in the 4th grade might have had less to do with my age than I thought. I'm just not a history buff. I was never really a C student, but I started making C's in my History classes in 8th grade and continued to make C's until I took my last History class my Freshman year of college. I'm just not interested. However, this time I did discover that DC is a very pretty place and walking around it was very nice especially with the great weather I had. DC also has some really nice neighborhoods-- DuPont Circle and Georgetown. I really liked walking around them. Unfortunately, I only had 48 hours in DC, so by the time I realized my lack of interest in the museums, I didn't have much time to spend exploring these communities! The other downfall was that I was having slight stomach issues and am now 2-for-2 for throwing up in DC....lovely! Anyway, here's what I did with a link at the bottom to my pictures!

• Went to the Supreme Court and got to watch about 5 minutes of the case they were trying. I actually did find this interesting to watch and enjoyed seeing the Supreme Court Judges.
• Went into the Senate Office Building to grab a muffin in their cafe-- my mom told me to go here to try to spot Senators! The most vivid memory I have of being in DC when I was 9 was being in this building and my mom seeing some famous Senator. She got SO excited and had us following him all over the place until he got on an elevator we weren't allowed on. So, she made us get on the elevator for the public and try to GUESS which floor this Senator was going to so we could see him again. I had know idea who he was, but I sure did think this was exciting!! That's my mom for ya! Anyway, this time it was VERY quiet...Senators were out campaigning, so my dad says.
• Went to the National Cathedral-- attempted to go to an organ concert there, but got confused getting there and was too late. It was a pretty place though.
• Saw the monuments/memorials-- Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR, WWII, Vietnam Vets, and the Korean War Veterans. I went late afternoon so that I was able to see most of them in daylight and after sunset...very pretty!! The FDR Memorial was my favorite-- it's much bigger than the others and is basically just a ton of different waterfalls and quotes from FDR.
• Went to the Holocaust Museum. This museum I did like. It was very interesting. Luckily, the day I went, it was very quiet. My only issue was that there was SO much information, to me it was overwhelming and I began to feel a little ADD. It took me about 2 hours to get through-- I had been told it takes 3, but I started skipping over stuff after a while. Also, I can see how it could get very crowded and you get stuck behind people waiting to see the next thing which would not be fun.
• I was disappointed that the Smithsonian Museum of American History was closed for renovations....until summer of 2008!!! Two years-- wow! Anyway, I had read that they had moved their best exhibits temporarily to the Air & Space Museum, so I went by there to check it out. Unfortunately, the temporary exhibit wasn't open yet. So, I did walk around the Air & Space stuff and some of it looked cool, but for the most part, I just wasn't interested.
• I went into the White House Information Center-- it had some pictures of the inside of the house and some history, but really not very much stuff of interest in there.
• Walked up as close as you can get to the White House...very pretty. It looked as expected from the front, however, on the side, I was surprised by the size...much bigger than I thought.
• I walked around Georgetown...both the neighborhood and the shops. Like I said, I could have spent much more time here! The houses are really cute and I had a list of houses JFK lived in, so I looked for those, mostly just because I enjoyed walking through the neighborhood so much! If I had had an extra day, I really could have done some damage shopping around there! The restaurants looked interesting, too!
• I also did a bit of walking around DuPont Circle. Again, if I had had more time, I would have enjoyed the shopping and restaurants!

So, that was my whirlwind trip to DC! If you want to see pictures, they're located here!