Washington, DC

When summer first started I thought I'd all of a sudden get really good at this blogging gig. Like I'd have tons of spare time to type blog posts and write stories and I'd be able to bring something to this little space of the Internet three or even four (gasp) times a week.

I've since learned that what I think will happen and what actually happens usually differs quite vastly. Even though I spend a majority of the seven days of the week at home binge watching Parks and Rec and reading other people's blog, I ironically have spent very little time on my own actual blog that I've been curating for almost two years now.

Funny how things turn out.

On another note I did actually get out of the house during the summer, I just failed to blog or even mention it. Two weeks or so ago I spent a few days in Washington, DC, which is the capitol of the good ole USA. I went there some time in middle school with my classmates, but like most school trips you spend more time chasing down adolescent boys and calming crying hormonal girls (true story), than actually doing the fun things you envisioned would happen.

(The above picture had the best waffles in all of DC. The entire place was run by Asians and was by far the best food I ate the whole trip. Also it was one building over from the place where Lincoln died and was across the street from where Lincoln was shot, so the name made me love it oh so much more.)

Luckily this trip had no such problems and was an extremely enjoyable two days of marveling over the tourist industry and how this nation runs (somewhat smoothly). I also took a political science course this year, so personally I loved the government aspect of the city a lot more than my parents (I was sadly outvoted on taking a tour of the supreme court building).

My dad's really into history, so we hit up as much of the Smithsonians as we could see in two days. The Smithsonians (for anyone who may not know) are a "chain" of 19 different museums/galleries and a national zoo. I use the term chain as 17 of the museums and the zoo are located in DC (the other two are in New York) within a relative close proximity (most of them are along the national mall, which is in fact not a mall at all). There is almost literally a museum for every interest of every person somewhere among the Smithsonians. There is an American History Museum, two Air and Space Museums, American Art Museum, African American History Museum, American Indian Museum, Natural History Museum and about a bajillion more.

(An unimportant but very pretty building.)

I'm pretty sure you could spend an entire year exploring the 19 museums of the Smithsonian and I'm not even exaggerating. We went to one of the Air and Space Museums where we spent almost three hours. Granted my dad wanted to look in depth at almost every thing (which I didn't mind too much as I love my own fair share of history), but even with him spending thirty minutes in the Orville and Wilbur Wright exhibit we could have probably lasted another two hours.

We also went to the American History Museum which was no joke NEVER ENDING. I mean, we're a relatively young country (238 years old) and yet somehow the museum went on and on and on. We spent a good bit of time on the first floor (two hours I'm telling you and I didn't even get bored once) only to realize there were TWO MORE FLOORS. I'm not kidding you people, we have a three floor museum on American history.

We eventually didn't even venture onto the second and third floor as we had reservations at the Holocaust museum that we couldn't miss. I was a tad disappointed I missed the first lady exhibit in the museum, but you always need a reason to return.

(This was me protesting Michelle Obama and her healthy kids program. Also street vendor pretzels are the best kind of pretzel if you ask me.)

(There was a rather large protest going on outside of the White House while I was there. They were urging Obama to help free Palestine from their conflict with Israel. It was just another reminder that I needed to get myself together and get caught up on the conflict as I still don't have as much of an understanding as I want. 

It seems most people around here (as in the southern part of the US, not necessarily all of America) support Israel, but part of me thinks this is mainly because Israel is a (generally) white, Jewish nation and a majority of those in the south are white Christians and Christianity is in some ways similar to Judaism (and the Bible mentions that we must "protect Israel") and so on and so forth. I'm certainly not trying to discredit anyone who supports Israel, but I have my suspicion that most people from "my parts" aren't exactly doing their homework and are simply supporting Israel because of religious reasons and Palestinians are generally Muslim and any use of the word Muslim rings fear from 9/11. Many of the ignorant folks of my country still think all Muslims want to blow up our country and gosh darn we would never support anyone like that. *sarcasm*

I'm not necessarily saying I'm pro-Palestine, but I'm not pro-Israel at the moment either. I'm still trying to figure out which side I'm on as I have quite the limited knowledge on all this. Sorry end rant.)

(The Washington Monument.)

We also went to the Holocaust Museum where we spent WAY too many hours (four and a half of them). It was an extremely well put together and fascinating museum/memorial that I would go back to in a heart beat.

(The house on the left with the green shutters was where President Lincoln died (called the Peterson House) after being shot at Ford Theatre which was across the street. One may wonder why the picture is focused on the non important house to its right, but that's merely because I found out the historical importance of the other house ten minutes later. *Face palms*)

(A close up of the Peterson House.)

(A very large, 34 foot stack of books all written about President Lincoln. He was quite the famous man.)

(Washington had all these weird sort of midway crosswalks. You would cross half the street and end up at a slab of white bricks in the middle of the road and then get stuck because there wasn't enough time to cross the other half of the street. Granted it made very good picture opportunities. The building in the distance is the Capitol where the good ole productive Congress meets.)

Overall it was a great trip that I would do a hundred times over. I love the city and I love politics, so maybe some day I'd end up here permanently.

Have a fabulous day.