Awesome weekend...horrible ending

Wow…I can honestly say that I’m glad that I made it home a) in one piece and b) within one day of leaving BWI, but before I explain all of that wonderful stuff, let me explain how wonderful my weekend was (so that you can be jealous of me and my coolness or something…well, actually, the only reason I had a great weekend was because I’m dating the most awesome woman in the world).

On Thursday evening, I was talking with groovy online and (to make a long story short because I’ve been told I tend to take too long in telling stories, and yet even mentioning this fact makes the present story even longer than it should be) it was decided that we would split the cost of a ticket for me to fly up to visit on Friday evening till Sunday evening. Now, a quick note: I am not usually this spontaneous. I’m one of those people that is usually very calculated and reserved…very sure of what I want to say and do long before I say or do it. This new spontaneity has been quite fun and very refreshing. Anyway, I purchased the ticket and rushed home that evening to pack.

Friday passed in a blur. I mean, I really don’t remember much of what happened at work (except for being yelled at by one of the oldies who I promptly put back in her place (don’t you hate it when you agree on doing something at a specific time only to be yelled at for not having it completed 3 days in advance?! Don’t worry, dear reader, I was very gentle in my rebuttal)). I got to MLU at about 5 pm and was actually standing behind the Vice President of the school that I work at (that was interesting). The flight went from MLU to ATL (I got to ride the underground railway thing again: “Please hold on, the train is leaving the station”…BELIEVE THAT!!!), and then from ATL 1 hour later to BWI.

I was pretty dumb on the flight from MLU to ATL and strained my eyes which gave me a wicked headache that was MUCH worse by the time we landed in BWI. It was so bad that I really couldn’t keep my eyes open anywhere that there were lots of lights (yeah, I was dumb…but, I can’t help looking at the lights that are 27,000 feet below is…it’s amazing and very peaceful). Groovy could tell that something was wrong right away (that was the first thing she asked, actually) and thankfully once we got on 270, it wasn’t that bad.

Saturday, we got up went to an animal shelter. There were so many Pit Bull dogs there it was scary. Pit Bulls are just about the meanest looking dog that I’ve ever seen, or at least, I would never want to own one of my own simply for the fear that I would wake up one morning with it’s jaws clamped firmly around my throat. Anyway, they had several beagles, tons of cats (which includes the most vocal cat I’ve ever heard…it was like listening to the Meow-Mix commercial AT VOLUME!), 3 rabbits, and a bunch of other dogs (one HORRIBLY annoying toy poodle). Why were we there? Well, we were just looking at animals on the internet and were trying to find what all animals there were offered in that area.

We left there and went to a Sushi place for lunch (maybe I have the time table backwards…actually, I’m pretty sure I do, but that’s ok…you’ll understand why later). Now, I ordered the California Roll and then the Tuna Roll, and groovy had the California Roll and a Smoked Salmon with cream cheese roll. Believe it or not, it was excellent! There is this green pasty stuff called “wassabi” that you mix with soy sauce for a nice dipping sauce. Want to know what it’s like? Pour lighter fluid down your throat and swallow a lit match. I’m kidding, it’s nowhere near that bad. It wasn’t even that hot (until I happened on a bit that I didn’t mix up that well…whew!), and was really yummy. The California roll was also rolled in caviar for color (it was orange), so it looked as interesting as it tasted (which was really good…yes, I’ll go back and yes, I’ll order sushi again).

We ended up taking a nap on Saturday afternoon and then woke up to go have dinner with groovy’s coworkers at this place called Cacique (which is Spanish for “What” and a weird spelling for house…so I think that means, “Are we home yet?”, “What house are we at?” or something similar). Anyway, I’ll go around the table and introduce everyone (just on the off chance that anyone that was actually there (besides myself and groovy) reads this, all names are meant to be funny or something and in no way reflect what I think about anyone): At the head of the table was Mr. A. Mr. A isn’t a distant relative of Mr. T or anything like that. Very interesting person with an interesting sense of humor. To his right was Mrs. A, or more aptly named, Mrs. B. Mrs. B works in a school (I know in what capacity, but I won’t put anything too specific here so as to protect everyone’s secret identities!). Mrs. B is another interesting person. She seemed much more extroverted than I am, but then again, that could be because she was surrounded by people that she knew (except for yours truly!) and was comfortable. Next was Mrs. Ulcer, named thusly because she’s going to work in an air traffic control center, and I can only imagine, after watching such movies at “Pushing Tin” that 90% of those that work there have stomach issues of one form or another. She was very quiet (probably as quiet as I was, now that I think about it), but seemed rather nice. Next to her was Mr. Ulcer (previously named The Joker – from the snow tubing expedition). Mr. Ulcer was in rare form once again and dazzled the audience with his renditions of the Blue Collar Comedy Tour acts and Star Wars characters. This is not to say that he’s just one of those people that is ALWAYS joking…he can be really serious as well, but in a funny way. Next was Mrs. Hollow leg (please remember, this is supposed to be funny!!!). At one point in our dining experience, there were 2 empty bowls of chips, 4 empty bowls of salsa, her drinks and several empty beer bottles surrounding here (pictures were taken, I assure you). The items that were located around her weren’t exactly put there as a joke, most of it was asked for. Thin people that can eat more than me make me sick (just kidding!). She was a very funny person, although she’s prone to beating people and making poor individuals stand on balconies for non-apparent reason (inside joke…”Three walls!”). She tried to bond with me at one point, but I answered a question incorrectly and she had nothing to do with me after that (another joke). Next to her was Mr. Toothless, named thusly because of an accident involving a tooth flying through the air and landing in an orchestra pit (which was later found and unsuccessfully re-implanted in his face). He seemed like a very nice guy. The only other two people sitting at the table were yours truly and a most lovely, very witty, and dazzlingly intelligent groovy.

Sunday, we woke up and had coffee, donuts and a Washington Post for breakfast (the Post was read, not ingested!). We ended up leaving for the airport around 5 or so, and quickly realized that because of the impending snow storm and delays out of Atlanta that I wasn’t going to make my connecting flight. We sat in line (twice) only to realize that (thank you for your level headedness, groovy!) I could reschedule myself on an earlier flight that would give me an extra hour to make the connecting flight! Well, we went ahead and did that, even though it meant that we would have 1 hour less to sit and talk. I made it to the terminal with 15 minutes to spare. We boarded the plane at 7:50, and proceeded to sit, definitely not in the air, for the next hour. After ages, we finally left BWI airport (at this point, the plane was only 1 hour late, so my 2 hour 15 min window was down to 1 hour 15). We landed at ATL after flying through snow, rain, high winds and cats and dogs at about 10:25. I knew my plane was supposed to leave at 11:25 or so, so we went ahead and went to the terminal to check in so that I would be sure to be able to find it when the time came. I walked up to the counter and saw “Departure time: 1:38am” on the board. Thinking my eyes were crossed, that I forgot to read numbers and several other less nice things, I asked the ticket agent, “Um…hi. I don’t mean to sound stupid, but is that the REAL time the plane will be leaving?” “Yes,” she replied. JOY! I think to myself. Not only did I rebook my flight for an hour earlier so that I would be SURE to make my connecting flight, but the airline company had enough foresight to reschedule the LAST flight out of ATL headed to MLU an extra 3 hours later…just for me (You gotta love airlines that have THAT much customer service running through their veins!! (please don’t slip and fall on the sarcasm that is pooling under your feet)). I decided that if I was going to be stuck in ATL for 3 hours that I would get something to eat, so I did, and I also looked around for a calling card because I was going to call groovy for no more than 5 min so that I could explain the situation, but they wanted $10 for a 20 minute card (which is even more expensive than those in flight phones!) and I, wisely, decided I would rather eat than wake groovy up. Finally, at 1:30 or so, the flight boarded and FINALLY took off at 2 (yes, 2 am). After a nice 1 hour 15 min nap, I woke up to find us on the final approach to MLU. It took me 45 min to drive home, at which time I wrote a quick email to groovy, and promptly fell asleep (thankfully, I had enough foresight to set the alarm).

Anyway, it was a really excellent weekend, as long as you ignore the last 12 hours of it!

Last weekend...more fun!

Ok, ok…so I forgot to update the both of you on how my last weekend went. In all honesty, I didn’t forget…I’ve just been really busy with work and trying to get stuff done at home. It’s kind of interesting, I guess, how much work there is to do in a place when you aren’t there much to do it normally. Not that I mind one bit, you see. If I had my way, it wouldn’t be an issue at all.

Ok, so…I flew to BWI on Thursday of last week and got there around 5:35 or so (a full 15 minutes before I was supposed to be there that was spent standing near the wall looking for groovy in an attempt to see her before she saw me so that I could surprise her or something which, of course, failed miserably because I only had about 3 seconds to surprise her before she saw me (what a delightfully long sentence!)). We got in the car and went to eat at this Italian place in the ball in Baltimore. Yes, there is more than one mall in Baltimore, but I neither remember the name of the mall nor the place that we ate, so I’m being intentionally vague! So there! We had this thing that was supposed to be a panini sandwich or something, except it wasn’t. It wasn’t that it was horrible or anything, it just wasn’t what I was expecting at all…but that’s ok! We got back to the apartment around 8:30-9 and just kind of hung out and talked for a while.

Friday morning, we went to Dunkin’ Donuts for breakfast. It’s been YEARS since I had Dunkin’ Donuts! They were, of course, better than I remember them being (then again, that could have something to do with the coffee and being too hyper to realize what the food actually tasted like…who knows!). After that, we went to this place called Costco (it’s a non-Wal-Mart version of Sam’s…or something like that) and got all kinds of stuff there (gum, book, food, detergent to last a lifetime…you know, the basic necessities of life, and all in sizes that were sure to make your dwelling seem smaller than it actually was!). We ended up cooking a chicken casserole thing for supper that was especially good (it’s the one that my mom used to cook for us when we were kids with the tortillas and stuff), except we did some slight modification/experiments with it. Instead of using canned peppers, we got some fresh jalapenos and diced them up as well as adding a small can of corn to the mix for color. We decided that it needed some more color (as if orange, yellow, green and white weren’t enough), so we got these red peppers that were in this jar of stuff that she had and put a couple in there. It was, in a word, really, really good. Ok, so that’s 3 words…so sue me. We also made one of those cherry cheesecake things that you don’t have to bake at all. It was also good, even if we didn’t wait long enough for it to set up (laughs).

Saturday, we woke up and made pancakes for breakfast. Pancakes…that has to be an American tradition for breakfast on Saturday mornings or something. Then again, it’s also pretty dang good just about any other day of the week, for just about any other meal of the day…so I guess it’s just good all around (and the crowd yells, “Get on with it!”). Ok…we were trying to think of something to do during the day because we were going to head to DC that evening to go to this area of DC that groovy had never been to (I’m getting ahead of myself). We decided that we would try to go to a winery or two that just happened to be in the area. I, having never been to a winery, really had no idea what to expect except for glass bottles, oak casks and maybe some cheese. We ended up going to 3 different wineries that afternoon. If you’ve never been to one, I highly suggest you go sometime…they are really pretty interesting. After we left the last one for the day, we made our way (as you could guess if you were paying attention) to DC.

We parked groovy’s car at her work and then rode the Metro to the Woodley Park Zoo/Adams Morgan exit. Now, for a little background on Adams Morgan, go here: http://www.beyonddc.com/profiles/adamsmorgan.html . I can sum it up real quickly, though, by saying that it’s probably one of the most ethnically diverse places that I think I’ve ever been to. There are places to eat from just about every continent (sans Antarctica, of course) as well as several dance clubs and other “night life” areas. It was a really interesting place to visit (18th Street NW is exceptionally cool if you like seeing interesting restaurants). The walk to Adams Morgan was really cool too because you cross this bridge over a park (the tour guide in me forgets the name of the park, sorry…Rock Creek, I think), and then you make your way through this area of VERY nice looking apartments/houses (pictures located at that site). Anyway, we went there and decided to eat at this Ethiopian place called “Meskerem” which is Ethiopian for “A tasty restaurant with interesting foods.” No, no…I’m just kidding (about the name). The food was interesting. I mean, it was definitely NOT American (duh). You aren’t given utensils, but rather this “bread” called “Injera” that you pick up your food with ( http://www.meskeremonline.com/ is the site for the restaurant). It was interesting. While we were there, we also tried this stuff called “Tej” which is an Ethiopian Honey Wine (supposedly). To be honest, it tasted more like Vic’s 44 to me than anything I’ve ever had. It was a chore to finish it off, I can tell you. Anyway, we left there and walked back to the Metro (OH! The escalator that goes down to the Metro there is the longest escalator that I’ve ever seen…it’s EASILY 50 yards long!) and then drove back to the apartment.

Sunday morning, we kinda just hung out and read the Washington Post and drank coffee for a while. Then, we decided to go to this other winery that was located in Maryland (the others that we went to were in Virginia). As it turns out, the one we went to was the “largest” one in Maryland and produced 60% of all the wine produced in Maryland (that’s equal to over 100,000 gallons (or was it liters?) of wine annually). The tour through that one was really cool and we learned a lot of stuff (for instance, there is an acid that forms on the sides of the vats/casks in the wine-making process that is crystallized, powdered and bleached, then sold under the name “Cream of Tartar”…how about THEM apples?!) and “sampled” several different types of wine including a Dandelion Wine that tasted, not to sound weird, exactly how a dandelion smells (when it’s yellow, of course…if you smell a dandelion when it’s white, well, you’re liable to sneeze a lot). On the way back to the apartment, we stopped in this little town (the name escapes me) that is known for its antiques (“The most antiques in all the world…or is it all of Maryland?”). We went through this one place that was old…you could tell (I hit my head on the doorway on the way in, and the owner said that there was a doorway upstairs that was only 5’4” tall…sheesh!) and when we asked how old it was, she said something about the 1700’s. Can you imagine?! Anyway, it was a really cool place to visit and if I could remember the name, I would suggest you go there. Erm…yeah.

Monday, as is usually the case, was a bad day. I never like leaving groovy. We ate lunch at Panera (yum!) and got to the airport with 2 hours to spare. As it turns out, we got there with 3 hours to spare, but we didn’t realize that the plane would be delayed further than it already was (which caused me to have 15 minutes to make my next plane in Houston (yeah, I hate that place)). Anyway, all in all, it was another excellent weekend…I can’t wait to go back for good.

The rest of the weekend

Well, I’m impressed with the lack of accuracy that I put in the last post. As Suns pointed out, there were at least 2 technical errors (as well as countless grammatical and spelling errors…thank goodness that Microsoft Grammar check works so well!) that I haven’t yet fixed, and probably won’t. It makes more sense to leave the errors there so that it proves just how human I am. I know, I know…this is a big shock to some of you, but I AM human. (laughs)

Ok, so apparently I finished off with Day 1 of the visit, which would now put me at Sunday (yes, dear reader, I realize it’s Thursday in every other part of the world right now, but we’re going to do a sort of Wayne’s World flashback complete with doodle-o sounds…)

Sunday, we woke up and had coffee for breakfast and were trying to figure out what to do with the day. We finally decided on visiting Antietam (Maryland) and Harper’s Ferry (West Virginia). It was a nice day out (probably in the 50’s for the high) and we decided to pack a sack lunch so that we wouldn’t have to search for a place to eat (little did we know that Harper’s Ferry has at least 2 dining places…well, I didn’t know that anyway!). So, because of the time (11:30 or so) we decided that we would go to Harper’s Ferry first, then hit Antietam on the way back.

Harper’s Ferry is really a cool place. You get there by driving. Yeah, that’s amazing, I know. I mean, you could probably fly there, or parachute in, but driving is the best way probably. Once you actually arrive at the place, you get on this bus that actually takes you to Harper’s Ferry proper. It’s about 2.5 miles from the park entrance to the bottom of the hill, which (believe me) is a long way to think about walking if you miss the bus…especially if you’ve just walked up the side of a hill, fallen down and then walked back down the hill, but that’s getting ahead of myself a little.

So, we got to Harper’s Ferry and rode the bus to the bottom of the hill. We looked around a bit at the shop and stuff and generally made our way to these guys who had this crowd surrounding them next to the river. As it turns out, they weren’t in some sort of cult or anything, but were playing music with an authentic (to the era) CD player (they also had a guitar, but by the way one of the guys was holding it, I think he thought it was a weapon or something…he was from West Virginia…you could tell). We then crossed this bridge over the Potomac River (or, I think it was the Potomac anyway) and were once again back in Maryland.

There is this hill (compared to the “hills” in Ruston, this was a mountain) on the other side of the river that has a trail up it that you can hike to some Civil War military sites. Well, we decided that we would hike up the “hill” to these places and have a picnic lunch while at the top of said hill in this rocky area that overlooked Harper’s Ferry. We slushed (I say “slushed” because it wasn’t a normal trail, but one composed of partially melted snow, mud and rocks that, when met by sneakers, made hiking somewhat difficult) up this hill and then were following this small trail down to an overlook place where cannons once stood, when gravity got the best of me and I fell. I didn’t fall far (probably a total of only 3 feet (I’m 6’ tall, and I fell to my knee)), but I landed right on my knee that found, of all things, either a stick or a rock that was buried in the mud there. That hurt a bit. I scraped as much of the mud off my knee with some grass that I could and took a seat on a log that was resting there (it, too, was on a journey before it fell). Once the numbness wore off, we continued on our merry way up the side of the hill.

Once we got to the lookout place on the “top” of the “hill”, we sat down and had a nice lunch of carrots, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, apples, animal crackers and some water. It was a great place to sit, eat and laugh at one another. I don’t remember what all happened other than that. The view was spectacular! I mean, here you are, sitting on a “hill top” surrounded by big rocks, trees, and some snow…you look down below you and you see “hills”, 2 rivers, a small town, automobiles, the sky…pretty much everything you wouldn’t see in Kansas (inside joke). “Behold…before you lies the antithesis of all that is Kansas.” It was awesome. There were other strange people there as well. People who were from West Virginia, no doubt…you could tell. Anyway, we threw some snowballs and rocks for a while and then decided that we rested for a bit too long, so we began the trip down the “hill” shortly thereafter. Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever hiked up a “hill” before, but uphill is kind of a challenge sometimes, but downhill…the only challenge you face is not falling on your butt – especially when you’re dealing with slushy trails and snow. Well, we got to the bottom of the hill without incident (although I stopped once or twice to put snow on my knee which was a nice shade of red).

Once we got back to Harper’s Ferry, we realized that it was 4:45 and the last bus to the top of the hill (remember, it’s 2.5 miles…uphill…both ways…) would maybe be leaving shortly. So, what did we do? Did we rush across the bridge back into town so that we could hop on the bus so that we wouldn’t have to hike out? No…that would not be what we did. We ended up stopping at the Cannonball Diner (or something like that) and got ice cream. Yes…here it is, February, it’s 50ish outside, and we’re ordering ice cream (from someone who was definitely from West Virginia…you could tell). We then got over to the bus stop (where we were asked “Where did you get that ice cream?”…I’m not kidding) in time for a bus to pick us up. Apparently, “The last bus from Harper’s Ferry leaves at 5:45” in West Virginia means the same thing that it does in Maryland…go figure. We got back to the car around 5 and decided that it was too late to visit Antietam…so we went back home.

Groovy had to go to work on Monday, so I was at the apartment with Sasha (“kitty cat”). She and I hung out for a while and talked about all sorts of stuff. It’s amazing how much of a conversationalist she really is. Really. Anyway, I drove groovy’s car around town a bit and didn’t get lost but once (I took a right instead of going straight…sheesh…stupid New Design road!). Frederick is one of the most messed up towns that I’ve been to. It isn’t that hard to find things, but it’s still not designed very well. Anyway, I went to Boarders and to the “Mall” there (“Mall” because, while it is a mall technically, it’s pretty cheesy). Groovy came home for lunch and we talked, then she had to go back to work. Sasha and I took a nap, which was much needed.

Tuesday, groovy also had to go to work, so Sasha and I did a little cleaning (dishes, clean the floors etc) and then we took another nap. When groovy got home, she said that we were going to go tubing in Pennsylvania. Some of the people that she works with were going to join us there. So, we got all dressed up (“It’s going to be COLD up there!!” hahah!). I wore some insulated wind pants, a jacket that was supposed to have a liner, but I took it out and gave it to groovy, some waterproof boots, and a t-shirt. We met the people at the place where groovy works. I was introduced to Mr. Greek, The Princess and The Joker. They were the ones that were actually in the office (pseudo-names used to protect the innocent). Once we got outside, we met one other guy (can’t think of a good name for him, sorry) and then we were on the road. The Princess was talking to another one of their work people (I’ll call her “Number 2”…she was bring her son who I’ll refer to as “Mr. Excitement”). We all arrived at the place about the same time (6:30pm) and purchased a 2 hour ticket to go tubing.

Now, if you’ve never been tubing, let me describe it to you: Imagine yourself on the side of a 400-500 yard slope (around 45 degree incline) that is situated on the side of a “hill”. There is snow everywhere (thankfully!) and a lift that consists of a motor driven cable that is attached to this handle on the inner tub that pulls you (sitting) up the side of the hill to the top. Once you’re at the top, you look down the slope and realize that the only way down is…well…down the slope. The first time you go down, you’re holding on for dear life…praying that you don’t end up on America’s Funniest Home Videos, or worse, the local news. Once you reach the bottom of the “hill” you pick yourself up, dust off the snow that splashed up on you, and you get back in line to do it all over again. It’s FUN!

The first time, I wasn’t too sure because I went down the hill on my butt (in the tube…thankfully). Speed? Yeah…it was kinda fast, but there was no real feeling of a rush. The second time I went down, I went down face first (again in the tube…hehe) and that was SO much better. I mean, the snow is flying past your face at something less than 10,000 miles an hour (ok, much MUCH less, but it’s still cool). At one point, groovy and I went down the hill together (we tied the tubes together), and that was even faster (the whole mass vs. gravity thing, no doubt…physics is your friend). This went on for the better part of 2 hours when we decided to go inside and chat with the others who had gone inside earlier.

We sat down and chatted for a while with the crew (what else do you call a group of people you just met?) and I was introduced to another member of the group who I’ll call “Ert”. She had apparently gotten there later and I, being so entranced by the snow and the fun, hadn’t noticed…sorry! Holy crap…I’m almost at the end of page 4 in this word document…quick wrap-up…

The Princess rode back with groovy and I and we let her off at their building and then went home where we “thawed out” (my right nostril and my left ear lobe were cool…(laughs)).
It was, without a doubt, one of the best weekends of my entire life.

1 day in DC...how it went

First off, let me just say that I haven’t left Maryland yet. Yes, I am still here, but I knew that I needed to write something before I forgot what all happened. That much stuff has gone on so far and it’s all starting to flow together! Yeah, that’s bad. Sasha is sitting here on my lap.

This weekend has been awesome. I’ll do a day by day so that you can follow along easily.

I left Ruston at 4:30pm on Friday and made it to the airport in Monroe by 5:10. It was a pretty nice drive, I guess. It was pretty nice outside and was probably in the mid 60’s. The plane from Monroe to Atlanta was just a little late in leaving. It left probably around 6:45 or so and it was dark by the time we crossed over into Mississippi. The flight to Atlanta was great. Just a little turbulence and stuff (I happen to like turbulence) and we landed almost on time. If you’ve never been to the airport in Atlanta, this next bit won’t make much sense. By the time I got off the plane, I had 50 minutes to make it from Concourse E to Concourse A. That’s a LONG trip! Thankfully, they have this underground tram system that rockets you along at a nice speed. I go to A with plenty of time to spare.

The flight from Atlanta to Baltimore was on a Boeing 757 that was maybe a quarter full. It was awesome! I had a whole row of seats all to myself (that’ll never happen again, I know). Anyway, the plane landed in Baltimore at 11:50 or so, and I finally saw groovy around 12.

We had been contacted by one of our friends, Pacemaker, and were told that he was going to be in town for an interview on Saturday. We ended up picking him up at his hotel for breakfast at IHOP. Breakfast was really great because we got to catch up with all the time that we had spent apart. We dropped him off at the airport later on and then went to DC to begin out sight seeing.

We parked groovy’s car at the underground parking garage where she works, and then hopped on the Metro to go to the Smithsonian station. Riding the Metro is like riding on pretty much any other subway car that I’ve ever ridden on (read: Just like in Boston…except cleaner). It’s very well planned out with stations all over the place (we even walked back past one of the stations on accident…oops). We got off the Metro, and groovy said, as we were riding up the escalator, “This is really pretty.” As we got to the top, I looked around and was amazed. The Smithsonian station is right in the middle of the grassy area that goes between the Capital and the Washington Monument. I just stood there for a second or two and just looked around. It was amazing.

We walked around for a little while. I took a bunch of pictures of the grassy area and the Smithsonian complex (it is on both sides of the grassy area and is comprised of 10 buildings or something…very extensive). We then walked toward the Air and Space museum. As someone who is interested in almost everything that deals with flying and or space, I thought the museum was awesome. We were there for several hours, I guess…much to groovy’s chagrin. We then sat down to get something to drink at the McDonalds located inside the museum (yeah, you read that right), and we decided that we would go to the museum located right next door that was all about American Indians and their artifacts (“There were American Indians in France?” “Um…yeah.”). We ate lunch there at the Indian place and had a Buffalo burger and Buffalo chili in this weird bread “bowl” thing. It was really good.

After we went through that museum, we decided that it was getting kinda late, so we went to walk down the grassy area toward the Washington Memorial. Words really can’t describe the feeling of walking around the buildings that you’ve heard about your whole life. I mean, here is a building built a long time ago, that I’ve seen pictures of since I was a little kid…but until you see it…it really means nothing. We weren’t able to get close to the Washington Monument because they were working on it or something, so we walked WAY around it to get to the Lincoln Memorial. On the way there, we saw the WWII memorial. It is very awesome even in the winter, but groovy said that it wasn’t as nice as it usually is because all the water was frozen up. That didn’t matter to me, so much because I still thought it was pretty cool. We then walked down the Mall to the Lincoln Memorial. At one point, I turned around and looked back at the Washington Monument with the Capital building in the background…it was awesome. I tried to take a picture of it, but I’m pretty sure it didn’t turn out worth a crap as it was getting dark.

The Lincoln Memorial is amazing. You look at it in pictures on the internet and stuff…but there is nothing that can even come close to explaining the size of the place. It’s HUGE! I mean, Lincoln is sitting on a chair inside…I was thinking it was a normal sized statue…but I was quite wrong. It was huge….HUGE! We walked around there for a bit and then went to see the WWII wall. I can honestly say, it’s quite moving. Depressing, yes…but moving. The number of names contained there are the names of Americans my age and younger that died in the service of their country. It’s amazing. Horrible, but amazing.

That pretty much ended our day in DC. I mean, we went back to the car and then back to groovy’s apartment where we cooked a pizza and just hung out, but that really didn’t sound as exciting as all the other stuff. Now, please note, that was just Saturday…it’s now Tuesday, so I have a lot more to write about, but it will have to wait for a while.