The Adventures of the Roaming Southerner: Taking on the Nation's Capital

June 4, 2011

Washington, DC

This morning Ashley my friend and fellow MTSU grad student drove down from PA to pick me up. It was road trip time to DC. So we got to DC and realized that the Breast Cancer walk around the mall was today! Holy crap parking is bad enough and now they shut down the roads to the mall. I dug out my quarters and got a parking ticket to put in the window (once we found a space, which was just as hard as finding a needle in a hay stack). We then walked the block and a half to the mall where we noticed the blockade was now down. OH FATES How you annoy me sometimes!! So we went back got the car and parked for FREE on the mall! If you are ever visiting DC try to get there early and park on the mall. It says three hour parking until 4:30 but Ashley says they do not really check it that much, so try it. Our first stop was the Smithsonian Castle. It was so pretty. There is not too much inside but I did get to see a piece of the Hindenburg and the gloves and helmet of one the US 1980 Hockey team players worn at the miracle game! We then walked to the National American History Museum (we are both history nerds). I love the NAHM. There is so much cool stuff! They just redid a bunch of the museum so there is a lot to see! I won’t list everything but I did get to see a vest from a Titanic survivor, Lincoln’s hat, Julia Child’s kitchen, the American flag that inspired the Star Spangled Banner, and Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers. Also, there are so pretty fun statues in the transportation part of the museum. We had fun taking pictures with them. I can’t resist a fun picture with a statue. I think it may stem from that time Dr. Walker let us loose in Fort 96’s museum and Parrish and I took funny and inappropriate pictures with the mannequins. Good times. Well anyways, we looked about the museum for a couple of hours (not enough time, but we had a lot to see- I am just going to have to go back!) and it was awesome. I want to work for Smithsonian so bad. Mostly, so I can play with all the old stuff, wait that might not be allowed, oh well at least I could look at all the HISTORY.

After the NAHM, we headed outside to walk to the National Portrait gallery. First, it was time for some food. We walked to Chinatown and found this restaurant called R.F.D Washington. They have about 300 beers for one to buy. It sounds like a good place to stop and check out. I got the fish and chips. The fish was the length of my beer bottle. Sadly, it was a bit bland ;(. But it was still good to get some food. After eating, we headed down the street to the National Portrait Gallery. On the way, we passed this man on the crosswalk singing and busting a move while listening to his iPod. It made my day. I mean it was like watching America’s Best Dance Crew Solo. The NPG is a very large three story square building. There is so much there! I was blown away at some of the stuff I got to see. My favorites were the painting of Pocahontas when she went to England, Queen Elizabeth, the original Obama HOPE Poster, and Marilyn Monroe (a Andy Warhol). By the time we got to the top floor and saw that there was an additional 3000 art pieces on the fourth floor (did not even know it was there) are brains were on information over load. I am going to have to come back and see all the stuff I missed on the first round of the museum, plus all the stuff on the top floor! By this time, it was 5:30. We were exhausted! It was time to head back to Baltimore. When we got back we headed to Ledo’s Pizza for dinner. It was quite yummy. I am super tired. Going to bed so I can get up and go to the Farmer’s Market in the morning!