After that, it was across the street to the National Portrait Gallery and Gallery of American Art, which were (I think) the final two Smithsonian museums that I had never visited. Not much to say about that. Anyway, after that it was a little after 1PM, so I grabbed lunch and headed toward the national mall, where I had been avoiding because of the huge number of tourists. On the way, I stopped at the National Aquarium, which, weirdly enough, is in the basement of the Department of Commerce building. It was not that great; definitely not worth the $10 I paid to get in, but you win some and you lose some.

Post-disappointment, I headed over to the National Museum of American History to sneak a peek at the Stradivarius violins. They are beautiful.

Then it was over to the National Mall for some people watching, which is where this story of the trip to DC ends. My flight back home leaves at 6AM and the cab is picking me up at 4:15 (the last subway train for the night leaves at 3:15 and doesn’t start up again until 6, so that wasn’t really an option because I hate sitting at airports for hours). Pictures will be up on Facebook eventually…I know the plan for when I get home is to have a nap. And some home-cooked food.

Overall, traveling by myself has been a great experience. I’ve talked to people from all over the country (and Canada) and gone on my own schedule. I’ll definitely be taking more solo trips in the future.

**No pictures tonight. The camera’s already packed up. They’ll go into a future post**

Outside Union Station

I didn’t have a lot of picture-taking opportunities at Union Station, mainly because there were so many people there. The weather today also started out poor and got worse…more about that later.

So after Union Station I wandered on down to the Supreme Court building. The last time I was in DC I wanted to get inside but there was a ridiculous line. However, that’s one benefit of early-morning tourism: no lines. I got right in, and I’m glad I went. I didn’t go on the actual tour, but you can see most of it in a more self-guided fashion. I appreciate architecture, and I can definitively say that the Supreme Court building is my favorite building in all of DC. Did you know that there are two identical, self-supporting, marble spiral staircases? They’re awesome.

The West Entrance

Anyway, then it was on to the exciting adventure of the day. Last week, I had requested a meeting with Senator Al Franken’s staff regarding for-profit education (it should go without saying that I both work for and attend for-profit schools and my opinion is markedly different than the Senator’s). I trekked over to the Hart building and got to meet with Jake, one of the Senator’s aides. Unfortunately, all he really did was try to placate me. But he did accept the Anthem pennant that I had brought with me…the Senator has a ton of college pennants hung up in his DC office, but no career college ones. Until now, anyway.

After that…interesting meeting, I hit up the Capitol. Since Congress is in session, no one can go inside, so I just walked around the outside of the building and managed to get some nice shots of it. Then it was on to the US Botanic Garden, then the National Museum of the American Indian. As of today, there is officially one Smithsonian museum that I haven’t been to (the National Portrait Gallery), but I hope to get there tomorrow, assuming there isn’t a government shutdown that closes down the museums. It’s funny because it’s true…

The US Capitol

When I left the NMAI, it was raining. Hard. And it had also gotten cold out. Now, being a ***TRUE MINNESOTAN*** I hadn’t worn a jacket when leaving the hotel at 8AM when it was 50 degrees and overcast. Lucky for me, there are vendors everywhere, and I picked up a pretty sweet zip-up hoodie for $20. Yay souvenir that’s actually practical!

However, rain meant that I really didn’t want to be outside. I hadn’t originally planned on going to the Air & Space Museum, since it’s always packed and I’ve been there several times, but I needed to get out of the rain and it was the closest option. I actually ended up going to see the “Journey to the Stars” planetarium thing and got to hear Whoopi Goldberg tell me about how the sun works. I didn’t learn anything, but planetariums are always fun.

After that, it was STILL raining and after 4PM. Since I had spent a good 8 hours being a tourist already, I decided to head back to the hotel. A quick jaunt through the rain to L’Enfant Plaza got me back to Rosslyn station, which is only three blocks from my hotel. After a quick dinner in the hotel restaurant, here I am.

The plan for tomorrow is to go to the National Portrait Gallery and possibly the Spy Museum (I’ve heard good things. You know who you are). The forecast says 55 and scattered showers, which hopefully means an improvement over today. Only time will tell.

Look! A squirrel!

Hint: Yes, those are cherry blossoms.

Background:

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that I had to use some of my PTO or I would be losing it. So I said to myself, “Self, you need to get out and see the world.” I didn’t really mean it at the time, but I was fooling around on Hotwire to see if I could find any decent last-minute deals and, what do you know, I did. So I booked my trip to Washington, D.C. where I currently find myself. Did I mention that today it was 70 degrees and sunny, which is a huge difference from MN?

Day 1:

This morning started at 3:30AM, when I got up to ensure that I made my 6:55AM flight. In all honesty, I probably could have stayed in bed until 4:15, but I couldn’t sleep as it was so I decided to get up and clean up my apartment a bit before I left. In any case, I got to MSP about 5AM expecting long security lines because of early-morning business travelers.

Nope.

I was sitting at my gate by 5:40. And then the first leg of my trip (MSP – O’Hare) was delayed because of weather in Chicago. I got a little worried because they originally said we were going to be an hour late and I only had an hour and fifteen minute layover in Chicago, and every other time I’ve been to that airport on a connection I’ve had to sprint across the entire thing to make the next flight.

This time I got lucky, and even though we did leave 45 minutes late, the gate for my connecting flight to Reagan National was only 5 gates down. I even had time to grab a bagel!

So I made it to DC, braved the Metro (which, by the way, is easy) and checked into my hotel about 2PM.

(the quick shot I snapped while dragging my luggage toward the hotel). Now, this hotel is actually in a perfect location. It’s literally less than 100 yards inside Virginia (so technically in Arlington), but in easy walking distance of one of my favorite areas: GEORGETOWN.

Anyway, I was starving at that point, so I pulled up Foursquare and found an intriguing listing for a place called Ray’s Hell Burgers. It was quite a walk to get there…about 8/10 of a mile and mostly uphill, but damn if it wasn’t the best burger I’ve had in my entire life. Yes, yes, I know, “pics or it didn’t happen” but honestly I was so hungry and tired that I didn’t even think of it. Anyway, if you are ever in the area, you definitely need to put that place on your list. It wasn’t too expensive ($13 for a giant cheeseburger [blackened Cajun style with pepperjack, lettuce, and tomato] and a raspberry milkshake) and the atmosphere was awesome!

So then I headed back to the hotel and caught a quick nap. It was kind of funny; I only meant to lay down for a minute and was watching the end of “Sherlock Holmes” on HBO, but then suddenly I woke up and “Daredevil” was on. It was only about 4:30, but still. It was time to get moving.

Remember how I said that my hotel is in a perfect location? Well, it really is. I walked right across the Francis Scott Key bridge and into Georgetown, which is one of my favorite places in the world. I could wander around there for hours, but I had a mission: I had heard about a cupcake shop that was famous. If you know me, you know I like famous places AND cupcakes, so this place was a must-see. It ended up being only about a 15 minute walk, and you definitely know when you get there:

Georgetown Cupcake

OK, so you really can’t see the line of people all that well, but it went a good part of the way up the block. Normally, I’d scoff at waiting 20 minutes for cupcakes, but this was a one-time thing. And I’m glad I waited. It was decently priced ($2.75 each). I got three different ones: Vanilla/chocolate, key lime, and cherry blossom (vanilla with real cherries in it). So far I’ve only had the cherry one, and it was amazing. Not too sweet like cupcakes tend to be, and the fact that there were real cherries in it blew my mind for some reason. I blame the exhaustion.

Clockwise from top left: Cherry Blossom, Key Lime, Vanilla/Chocolate

Anyway, after that adventure, I ended up back at the hotel. It really has been a tiring day, but I am realizing that I didn’t know how much I needed to get away and BREATHE until I actually got here. It’s going to be an exciting few days!

Ugh.

But I started a new long-term project (which may, someday, link here). We’ll see if it pans out.

Also, you should go see “Black Swan” and “The King’s Speech”. Like, right now.

Movies watched:

Theater: The Warrior’s Way (much better than expected), Megamind (adorable), Harry Potter 7 part 1 (okay but that was expected)

Notable Netflix: The Deaths of Ian Stone (great SFX), Cropsey (creepy as F***), S&man (also creepy), The Girl Next Door (not really that good. also depressing), and Senseless (AWESOME).

Work: Same old, same old. Always a pile of paperwork on my desk that I never tend to get to, unfortunately. However, the students are going on winter break pretty soon so we’ll get a couple weeks of catch-up time.

Life: Still good