Epic DC 2015 - Day 3

Saturday morning found Deidra and me at the Eastern Market for breakfast. It's this farmer's market type place, famous for it's weekend breakfast/brunch. I had buckwheat blueberry pancakes and they were FANTASTIC.

Kanien and Cyndi met up with us later and while they ate we went to find an old high school friend of Deidra's who just happened to be in town that weekend. It was fun to see Deidra with her friend. :) (It made me wish I could run into some old high school friends somewhere. My 20th reunion is next year and I've already decided not to go because it's gonna be some booze cruise around the bay and is $150 a pop. Ignoring the fact that I don't drink and I don't think many of my good friends will be there, we'd have to pay $300 for Lance and I to go (and I wouldn't go without him) in addition to travel expenses. No thank you.)

Okay, tangent. Back on track.

While Deidra chatted with her friend, Kanien, Cyndi, and I headed out for the Mall. The day before had been so mild and pleasant. That day? Cold. And WINDY. Seriously, ridiculously windy. But it was still fun to pal around and take tons of pictures of the sites. The thing is, the National Mall looks big on a map, but in real life it is just SO MUCH BIGGER. We walked forever.

The view of the White House from the Washington Monument.

The Lincoln Memorial. Which didn't really look that far away. But looks are deceiving. It wasn't really all that crowded, though, so that was nice. And there were about 20 different kickball teams playing on the grass throughout the mall, a good majority of them gay men, complete with mascots, costumes, and more than one pair of pink, knee-high athletic socks. So if we got bored of the monuments there was plenty other stuff to keep us entertained!

The WWII Memorial. It was pretty neat.

And sobering at the same time. I tried to imagine what it would have been like to be a young woman then, all the men my age going off to ward and many not coming back. Or worse, having your husband or your son(s) leaving for war. It's hard to fathom; we live in such a different place now.

One of my favorite ladies right here. Even though I'm not really into self-help books and stuff like that, she is and she has rubbed off on me and made me really think about being a purposeful mother. Thank you, Kanien! (Did I mention, in all our walking and staying up at night, we chatted a lot about views and theories of motherhood. Kanien would often lead the discussion because she's read the most and done the most research. We'd all chime in and give our opinions.) ((Actually, I feel like I did a lot more listening than opinionating this time; I was listening and then thinking about it all. It's probably for the best - I could stand to do more listening than talking!)

Kanien and I are those 2 small specks up there on the balcony.

400+ stars to represent the 400,000+ US servicemen who lost their lives during the war. Kanien and Cyndi had wisely bought those cute knit hats at the Eastern Market. I tried on hats and remembered how bad I look in them. (Do I really look bad in all hats, or do I just not know how to really wear a hat? Probably a bit of both.)

I didn't bring a heavy coat because the forecast had said it would be so nice. The forecast did not include the wind chill! Brrr! It wasn't that bad as long as we kept moving.

But now I really want a coat like Deidra's. Or Cyndi's. Man, they're cute.

Oh yeah, there's Abe. And, as you can see, Deidra finally caught up with us. (She booked it up the Mall!) The memorial was pretty cool. It was one of those places that makes you think "Yeah, our country has its problems. Boy, does it have its problems. But we're also pretty great." Or something like that. It reminded me of the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial in Taiwan, only smaller. (I know. Crazy.)

I like this picture because: 1) that girl is waving in the background and 2) it looks like I've been hiding behind Cyndi and Deidra and am just poking my head out for the picture.

Then we made it down to the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial. I didn't realize they still added names to the wall as veteran's pass away. And there were so many names there already!

After the mall we decided to hit a few museums but just see the best they each had to offer. The Natural History Museum seemed really promising, but really we didn't want to see a bunch of stuffed, dead animals. So we checked out the Hope Diamond. It was big. And sparkly. And... that's pretty much it. I mean, it was cool to see it, but after about 30 seconds we were done.

Then we split up: Kanien and Deidra to the art museum and Cyndi and I to the Air and Space Museum. I remember being really, really impressed with this when I went to DC as a kid. This time? Still impressive. But just so BIG. And full of STUFF that we couldn't all see. I mainly took pictures for Cole because I thought he would be impressed by them.

An entire plane in a building? Impressive to Cole.

The original Wright Brother's plane? Not impressive to Cole. (Note the blue shoulder in the lower right corner: there was this teenage couple there totally making out. Because the Air and Space Museum - and especially the Wright Brothers exhibit - is totally and completely romantic. In fact, I also saw kissing couples at the WWII memorial and along the Mall. Because when I think DC I think romance.) ((No, no I don't.))

Old Russian and US rockets? Impressive to Cole. Until he realized I didn't have video of them taking off. Because they don't take off. NOT impressive, and a little disappointing.

At this point I was dying, so we made a pit stop at the McDonald's in the museum for a Diet Coke, only I realized too late that there was no exit from the museum from the McDonald's, so we were stuck in there as I chugged my drink. (Because I was NOT going to waste the $3 large soda I had just bought!) It was also at this point that we realized we were becoming desensitized to all of the amazing things we were seeing. So many great things to see in DC, so many things we felt obligated to see, but we were just wearing out and it was all becoming a blur!

We went over to the wrong art museum. (We thought Kanien and Deidra were in the West Wing. We were wrong.) It was so nice and calm there! We should have spent our afternoon there instead.

So while we waited to get back with the others (Kanien and Deidra were hitting some gift shops), we poked around and asked a docent what we should see. When he mentioned Vermeer I knew where I needed to go! There was supposed to be a line to see the Vermeer, but I didn't see one. So I left Cyndi (who had collapsed onto a couch) and went into the Vermeer room. It was crowded, but I headed straight to this painting, "Woman in Blue Reading a Letter". It was so pretty. I even snapped a picture of it. It was then that I saw, through another doorway, the line for getting into the room.

Oops.

I looked around guiltily. No one seemed to notice my rule-breaking. In fact, the docent in the room was entirely focused on this French guy who was talking to a small group, gesticulating quite a bit and getting rather too close to the painting. I'm pretty sure the docent was about to tackle him to make sure he didn't touch it! (The docent? Pretty big, tough guy. There was a reason why he was in this particular room!)

I got one last look at the painting and snuck out, still feeling pretty sheepish about my mistake. But also kind of like I was living on the wild side! Totally Maren Gone Wild.

We eventually all got back together and decided to eat at a burger place called Good Stuff Eatery, which was actually right next to We The Pizza, where we had eaten the night before. So we trudged back up to Capitol Hill and ate dinner. It was SO GOOD. Mine had cheese, bacon, and a fried egg on it and it was heavenly. (Especially because we hadn't really stopped for lunch and had walked so far that day!)

That night Cyndi collapsed into bed at the apartment, Deidra decided to fulfill a college bucket list item by going to ice skating, Kanien went to support her, and I decided to go check out Union Station. I had really wanted a DC zipper hoodie, but hadn't been able to find one that fit. I figured I'd be able to find one at Union station, of all places! Nope. The only ones I liked were all men's sizes, which means they were all way too big in the shoulders and way too narrow in the hips. The women's hoodies were all ugly and about $15 more. No thanks.

But I got to see this pretty ceiling, some interesting people, and ride the metro a bit more, so not a total loss.

Kanien and Deidra's fieldtrip was much more of a success!

That night we chatted, ate goodies, and marveled at the fact that we had walked over ELEVEN miles in one day. No wonder we were so wasted!

I feel like I'm forgetting a lot of stuff. I guess that's what happens when you blog a week after it happens... *sigh*