Day 4: Washington, D.C.

After a great evening of BBQ (and more staring at the corn field by yours truly) it was time to get a couple of hours sleep for our next adventure on the east coast...

WASHINGTON, D.C.!

I have never been to our nation's capitol, and as most of you know, I am a huge American history and political buff, so this place is my friggin' Disneyland (yeah, I'm a nerd)!

But first, we needed energy...

The perfect blend of cream and sugar!

So we're off!

One thing you will notice when traveling around the east coast are the highways. The freeways (or interstates) out here have a shit load of vegetation! I'm not kidding, as I write this I have been from Mechanicsburg to Harrisburg, Harrisburg to York, off to Washington, D.C., through Baltimore and am currently on my way to New York and it has all looked the same.

Anyway, on to D.C. After an hour or so of driving, Jin Hei was starting to critique the "less gifted" drivers on the road...

Here was the culprit, if you see him on the HWY tell him she's still pissed:

 

After a couple of hours and a "spirited" drive, we arrived in DC. The room wasn't ready yet so we decided to make a game plan for the day.

Once the room was ready, we were escorted to our lovely room:

(No pic of our room, but a pic from out the window!  Beautiful view of the Potomac River.)

Our first adventure was going to lead us to the Capitol Mall, where most of our desired sights were located. After our utter confusion buying Metro tickets, we finally made it above ground to our first customer...

I have read that the designers of the Washington Monument desired a striking and simple design to honor our great first President. I still haven't discovered why it looks like a giant penis, though.

Next up was something I have waited a long time to see, and because they don't allow cameras where it is held I will have to improvise here a bit

The Constitution, Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights were inches from my nose! The Declaration & Bill of Rights are VERY faded, though the Constitution itself is in pretty good condition, all things considered.

One great thing about the National Archives building: There aren't many countries that would be so open about their mistakes and house them so prominently like this place does. As a country we admit our mistakes and (hopefully) try to learn from them. Hearing video of President Reagan apologize for the Japanese internment camps, Nixon freaking out on his tapes in the Oval office, or our sad history on women's civil rights were displayed prominently. It reminds me of a great quote I read recently:

"There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right in America"-Bill Clinton.

Amen.

After that we walked over to a place that many have recommended we see. The Newseum is a great place that celebrates and showcases our great freedoms of the press and the publications themselves. Once we got to the door and saw that it was $22 we decided to head across the street. Print is dead. I can read about it online.

Next was the Air & Space Museum at the Smithsonian. I must say that I was pretty impressed with the exhibit that showcased older airlines and how they ran things. They seemed much nicer 50 years ago than the rip-off crap we have now.

A bit of lunch, and a few more Smithsonian stops. The Museum of Natural History is cool because of how all-encompassing it is. At this point though it was 7:00pm and the museums close at 7:30, so we had to pick and choose. What did we choose?

The Hope Diamond and the World's Giant Squid, bitches!

Hope Diamond video & commentary provided by Jinu

The Museum of American History was our last Museum stop for the day. With 15 minutes left we had to make a choice of what to look at. Entertainment, television and Music was the choice.

I give you the greatest painting in Washington...

A few other cool things currently on display at the Smithsonian

I have to say, after seeing the other possibility for a Washington Monument I think the one we have is even better now. For a guy that refused to be called "Your Highness" or anything other than MISTER President, I get the feeling George wouldn't have dug the half naked creepy Zeus thing...

After that we were kicked to the curb by the Smithsonian staff. Nice crew, but they were ready to go home. The four of us sat on a park bench and planned our evening. I took the opportunity to declare that Sarah Palin will never work in this town, and we kept moving to our next destination that were were to see at sundown...

Once the sun went down, we walked down the Potomac surrounded by fireflies past the Roosevelt Monument and back towards the Washington Monument. It was finally time to see the ones that I had heard were amazing at night...

 

To me, this was the most amazing of the monuments (followed closely by Jefferson's). He is one of the presidents I respect the most, and his presence in that chair is incredible up close. It's an incredibly detailed sculpture, and it really was amazing to see in person. On the left side of Lincoln is the Emancipation Proclamation, and on the right is his incredible 2nd Inaugural Address. I suggest you look them up right away if it's been awhile since you've read them!

With that, our trek of museums and monuments was at a close. It was late, we were hungry and everything was starting to close. Time to head back to the Hotel Palomar to get cleaned up for dinner and head to...

Georgetown!

Charming town. Though I was disappointed by A.) That there were so many drunk douche bags around and B.) I didn't get to see the house from "The Exorcist." That didn't stop me from whispering, "Hello Father Merrin...," in Jin Hei's ear all night, though.

With all that build up of the great college town of Georgetown, we were a bit disappointed that there really isn't any good food open past midnight. Just a lot of bars and greasy spoons, though we did have a very special guest join us for the meal...

After a few tables ran out of the diner screaming we decided to FINALLY head back to the hotel and get some sleep.

No doubt we all walked at least several miles, and had a heck of a lot of fun seeing all of these monuments that I have heard about since I was a kid. The city is incredible, and I was proud to see it. I love America, baby!

Tomorrow, we finish our time in DC with a most somber of memorials, then off to Baltimore and...New York!

Day 3: York

Uh... so... I thought Josh was gonna post on York, but I was CLEARLY wrong.  Hence, no update until now. 

Actually, that's not true, we've been really busy to the point that when it nears the end of the day, we are ready to pass out. 

What happened?  Why didn't Josh want to blog about York?  Was it really a terrible town?

Day 3: I wanted to show Josh York and how it's alike to Placerville.  The similarities were uncanny, like the photos you'll see from our Baltimore stop.  Creepy.

Josh has started a love affair with Dunkin' Donuts.  Anytime he sees one, he calls out it's name, just like whenever he sees a KFC.  I don't get it.  I thought he was in love with me, he doesn't say -my- name like that.  Perhaps I need a different strategy to get his attention...

I've introduced him to Munchkins.  Do you guys remember the commercials DD had with the guy dressed in a costume that made him all round like a Munchkin?  Isn't it weird that there are commercials like that?  It condones cannibalism.  I don't find that socially acceptable.  I apologize if any of you are closet cannibals... I'll still be your friend, just don't invite me to dinner.  I won't be offended. Awkward.

Also! Munchkins are NOT the donut holes' punch-outs.  *big sad face* They make round donuts.  That was a HUGE disappointment when I found out some years ago.  I had this fantasy that they didn't waste any part of the donut as a kid.  That would be a truly perfect donut world, right?

Enough about donuts... moving on...

York sorta looks the same, but it's changed a lot.  I can't exactly remember the last time I went... Most everyone has moved or I've lost touch with them.  My old street was extended.  The farmer that owned a donkey and a horse sold his land and they started building new houses on it.  I have a funny story about that horse.  It involves these elements:  1. my dad  2. 10-year-old Jin Hei  3. a male horse that looks like it's got a 5th leg forming from it's gut. 

My neighborhood is quite picturesque.  I didn't realize how storybook of a childhood I had until I moved away.  I still don't have much love for my hometown, but I certainly have good memories of family and friends.  The old yard looks bare. They eliminated the pine trees that encompassed the back deck area.  The new occupants didn't use the lower lawn as a vegetable garden as we did.  My most favorite detail of the front yard, the Japanese maple, was removed.  At least the giant spruce is still there, but they trimmed that one down too.  The ginko tree that my grandfather raised from a seed still grows and it's huge!  You can see it in the pic on the left on the left side. You don't see the entire driveway, but it's still the same.  It's big and too much work when it comes to winter snows.  My brother and I learned to ride our bikes and had many an argument as to who had control of the water hose during those hot summer water battles.

More country roads from my hometown.

I almost thought Mack's ice cream had gone out of business when I drove by to see that the old shop was all ragged and the lil' mini-golf course out back had become completely unkempt.  I was IRATE! I thought Handel's down the street put them out of business.  I had a bat ready, but then just a little further down Mack's appeared.  Good for them, lucky for Handel.  (Although, I admit, I've had a tryst with Handel some time ago and it went pretty well.)  I got the coconut ice cream at Mack's.  It was delightful.

Under the rouse of  "Hey let's go check out the mall I used to hang out at", I took Josh to the York Galleria Mall.  It was fun for ten seconds.  He was miserable while I was wondering what I wanted to buy.  No sales tax and everything is cheaper!  I really should have taken a picture of him while I was shopping, it woulda been classic.

What we learned: 1. Dallastown = Placerville   2. Our school colors are both blue and white  3. I wish my Dad hadn't locked the glove compartment to keep the GPS safe from bad people because the key he gave me doesn't open it. boooooooooo

Next: Washington, D.C.