My D.C. Trip

What a bad blogger I am!  Here I've been back from my D.C. trip for four days now, and I haven't blogged about it yet.  For those who don't subscribe to my Facebook status updates, the short of it is that I was in the Greater D.C. Area for the past two weeks.

The long of it was that I was on assignment assisting the historians at work collect records at the National Archives.  Not at the famous National Archives from whence Nicholas Cage stole the Declaration of Independence,* but at NARA II, in College Park, MD, where records from WWII and later are housed.  Essentially my duties were to request records from a particular battle and photograph them until my shutter-release thumb doubled in size.**

That was the work part, which was pretty cool (for one thing, the research room has a spectacular view of deciduous trees).  The not-work part, however, was freaking awesome.  Traveling on the government's dime is a nice way to travel, and I'm definitely a fan of advance per diem.  It's great; it's like the government is like, "here's enough money to feed a family of three for a month; spend it on food for two weeks."  Thanks to Marriott Rewards and government rate perks, the money stayed safely nestled in my savings account while I dined on free hotel cheesecake.***  The hotel room was also fantastic; I had a king-sized bed all to myself (biggest bed-to-person ratio ever, I'll bet) and it was so comfortable.  I almost wanted to steal one of the pillows, but I settled for stealing tiny lotion bottles instead.

On the weekend I took the Metro into actual D.C. to do the touristy stuff.  My favorite thing that I saw was the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.  I geeked out at so many things; it made me want to go into museum curation a little bit (it's a valid career choice for someone in my field!).  After that I went to all of the monuments and memorials.  When I was in first grade we learned about the geography of D.C., but it was never put to scale, so I had no idea how far apart everything was.  Thankfully, I had my walking shoes on.  Despite everything being crowded with schoolchildren (on a Saturday? really?) and European tourists, I had fun sightseeing.  I have this idea that if I don't meet the love of my life in Boston, I will meet him on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial (I might have to start making more trips to D.C.).  It didn't happen on this trip, but I was kind of sweaty, so just as well.

Me and Abe.  See how sweaty I am?  No way am I meeting any menfolk like this.
I will also add that it's hard to take pictures of oneself in front of national monuments.

Also on the trip I was able to meet up with Laura, who traveled down from Baltimore.  We went to a bakery called PAUL and I ate the most delicious lemon meringue tart that has ever existed, probably.  Then we saw the American History Museum (the place that has Archie Bunker's chair) and the National Gallery of Art.  I think I felt the most fulfilled at the National Gallery.  I wouldn't describe myself as an "art-gallery person," but being able to stand two feet away from van Gogh's "Self-Portrait" or from Monet's "Waterloo Bridge, London, at Sunset" was surreal.  I can't describe why exactly, but I think that was an important life experience for me.

Stopping to take a picture before detaching my jaw to devour this tart was the
greatest display of willpower I've ever shown.

I spent Saturday night at Laura's place where I met President Nixon.  He drools a ton, but other than that, he liked me.  I would have taken a picture of him but he's afraid of the camera.  He's a quirky dog.  But the faux-slumber party was fun.  We ate Nepalese food and watched a movie about arranged marriages (it's much better than it sounds), and then I slept in the Tauntaun sleeping bag (it smelled as good as it sounds).  Then I went to church in Baltimore and I felt a little better about not getting into Johns Hopkins because there are absolutely no cute men in that ward.

Overall it was a fantastic trip, and I was sad to leave.  The only perk of being back is that I'm still on Eastern time which means I get up super early so I can go into work super early and, in turn, go home super early.  As I close, I will leave you with a picture of me with a giant Albert Einstein.

Big Al and Little Al, I like to call it.

*Now that I've been to the Archives, I can tell you, that whole thing would never have happened.  Mr. Cage would have been attacked by at least a dozen angry staff members if he even looked at the Declaration funny.  Boy, was that staff angry all the time.
**There's no good way to take a picture of both of my thumbs to prove it.
***I also ate real, nutritious food, because I'm a responsible, fiber-loving adult that way.  The cheesecake wasn't actually that good, come to think of it, but it was free and it was there, which gives it a lot of up-front credit.