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*

Boots!

Last year I got these Ugg boots for super cheap at a sale at Purdue that my friend Deidra told me about. They had this weird crusty kind of stuff on the front, almost like the boots had been melted a little and then had glue put on them. I dunno, it was weird. But I figured I'd either come up with a way to fix it or Tess just wouldn't care about it.




Love those bows on the back!

Last week an epiphany came to me while I dropped Tess off at preschool: cap toes!

So I rummaged around my craft stuff and found a bunch of gold glitter fabric paint and figured that would do the trick. A little masking tape, several coats of paint, and viola!



Pretty cute. I kinda wish I had some myself! (Maybe in black, though. I can't pull off pink like Tess can.)



As you can see, she's finally deigned to start signing her name. She's refused to do so for a while even though she could. I say it's the boots that got her to do it.

Epic DC 2015 - Day 2

Day 2 of our trip took a while to get started - I think we were all tired from traveling the day before. But we eventually got out of the apartment and into the city.

Like I mentioned, I love good public transportation, and the Metro was pretty great.

We got off the metro and thought we were going the right way, but of course weren't and took the LONG way to the National Museum of American History.

But I got to get a picture of the EPA building for my dad on the way, so I'd say worth it. (My dad has no love lost for that government agency...) (Nothing like squinting into the sun...)

The thing about DC is that there are so many BIG, heavy, imposing buildings. They're everywhere!

We finally made it to the museum and scouted out what we most wanted to see with the time we had. Giant Lego flag? Check.

Dorothy's Ruby Slippers? Check.

This was a really cool four-sided grandfather clock. On this side was the planets, which I took a picture of for Cole, but it's hard to see how cool it really was.

Original Sunstone from the original Nauvoo temple. (It felt good to see this. It's been hard to be Mormon lately.)

Kermit the Frog! (Our first celebrity siting.) ((Some would say our only...))

Archie Bunker's chair and hat - I remember my dad watching that show.

An oooold Apple computer. I offended Lance by asking if he had one of these when he was a kid. (He was not offended by the age reference, but that I thought he had ever owned an Apple product.)

And they took Julia Child's entire kitchen and put it in the museum. How cool is that?! (You can even see her handwritten labels on the coffee maker down on the left.)

We also got to see Old Glory, the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the national anthem. It was a lot bigger than I expected! (And a lot more tattered. Apparently people used to take pieces of it as souvenirs. Go America.)

You couldn't take pictures there (besides, it was too dark), so I stole this one from the interwebs.

I could've spent the entire day at that museum. I really love American history! But alas, we had bigger plans - a tour of the White House!

We found a Segway Tour along the way. I thought it was cheesy at first - but by the end of all our walking on the trip I wasn't quite so judgmental. (Yes I was. I still think they're silly.)

The White House tour was why we didn't have any bags or anything with us that day. They were VERY strict about what could go into the White House, which was pretty much your phone and your wallet and that's it. We had to stand in this long line and then go through not one but two ID checks and then walk by a drug/bomb sniffing dog who was hidden behind a curtain like the Wizard of Oz or something. It would've been intimidating, but the Secret Service guys were all very friendly and nice.

We got really good at asking people to take our picture for us. (And returning the favor!)

Did you notice something else? No coats or jackets! The weather was soooo nice for mid-November. A bit breezy, but just beautiful.

It was so cool to be inside and see places I had only seen on TV or the movies. (I just finished rewatching The West Wing, and it was great.)

Here's our other celebrity siting of the trip - the First Dogs! Bo and Sunny came walking through the hall with their walker, like it was no big deal. (It was no big deal. But still. First Dogs of the US! Everyone get out your phones and snap a pic!) You can see them there in the middle of the photo. (Way to get them, Deidra!)

I can't remember the order of the rooms we went through, so if they're out of order, oops.

Here's the portrait of George Washington that Dolley Madison saved from those dang British in 1814. I didn't realize it was so big. Well done, Dolley!

The Green Room.

Kanien and Cyndi in the Blue Room. They are just so cute!

Deidra and me in the Green Room. The walls were so pretty!

I promise I wasn't playing on my phone - just taking pictures. (In fact, I didn't even take my camera on this trip. My new phone takes AWESOME pictures!)

The Red Room. Very original naming. Doesn't Deidra's hair look great? Man, I need a deep waver.for my hair!

The dining room. The flowers on the table smelled so good!

My shoes weren't the cutest - but they were SUPER comfy. Which is what was needed on this trip!

We got really good at posing while other people took our picture. :)

Okay, I need posing lessons from my friends. They always look so cute and I look all stiff and awkward.

We got really good at taking pictures for other people, too.

Taking pictures of each other happened a lot, too.

And goofy selfies? Abundant. (I love this one so much.)

This is when we looked over and realized the Eisenhower Building was RIGHT NEXT DOOR and how close we had been to it the day before. We're awesome. 

Another selfie gone awry.

We wandered Pennsylvania Avenue for a bit. Just us a thousand of our closest tourist friends. And loud pro-Trump people. Ick.

So then we had to wander a bit to find some lunch. By this point we were getting pretty tired - we had already walked A LOT and had to get up to the Capitol by 3:20 for a tour. Unfortunately, we misjudged how long it would take us and we got there a bit late. The intern in Congressman Rokita's was so nice and helped us get where we needed to go, only then we discovered that they weren't giving any more tours. SO SAD. The exceedingly tall intern had just told us how busy he was, but he kindly offered to take us on a tour. While he was calling his office to let them know what was going on, another intern overheard us talking about a Brigham Young statue that was supposedly somewhere in the Capitol building. She asked if we were Mormon and it turns out that she was too and she offered to let us join the tour she was just about to give. Woo-Hoo! So we joined two homeschooling moms and their gaggle of kids and went on a rather busy (with kids) and quick tour (again, kids). But it was fine because between the 4 of us we have 14 kids and we're no stranger to things like this with kiddos. (We are strangers to women openly nursing their toddlers while walking around the Capitol Building... but more on that later.)

The "crypt" in the Capitol.

The Capitol rotunda is under renovation right now, so most of the art is covered and there was scaffolding everywhere.

But the ceiling in the hall of statues was really pretty.

So that lady in the center with the white blanket over her front? She's the nursing mom and she was in our group. I mean, we are total advocates of nursing. Even in public, no big deal, really. But she had a toddler strapped to her front and wasn't really covering herself much. Let's just say we saw a lot more than we bargained for during our Capitol tour!

The Brigham statue that got us our tour!

My most favorite selfie of the trip. :)

By this point we were really dragging, but that didn't stop us from getting a few more pictures.

We tromped back home and melted onto the chairs and couch. So. Tired. But eventually we decided to get some pizza for dinner from We The Pizza (best pizza joint name). We would've had it delivered only it was like an hour and 45 minute wait. And it was only a 10-15 minute walk. So we decided to walk, except we, as per usual, went the wrong way and probably walked an extra mile and a half. Blergh. So tired!! But the pizza was good and the company was even better, so we survived.

During our wanderings I took a few pictures of the Capitol at night because I thought it looked like it was wrapped in bubble wrap.

After dinner and trudging back home I looked at my FitBit and realized we had walked 10.5 MILES that day. No wonder we were so tired! Of course, that didn't stop us from talking late into the night. :)