First of all, I just wanted to throw a huge shout out to Rachel, Amanda, and Ashley! I don't know how Wendy and I lucked out and got to stay with the three coolest girls in D.C., but that is exactly what happened. I guess I need to try this whole spontaneous thing out more...it seems I'm pretty good at it. So where to begin?
Eager to see the city, Wendy and I woke up in time to follow Rachel to work on the metro. This was my first time on the metro, so of course I looked like a straight tourist in front of all the daily commuters- much to my dismay. Keep in mind that I've been in the woods for two months, so cities are far from my thing. Someone (everyone should read Rachel here) gave me a bus pass that had a negative balance. I swipe my card and an absurdly loud buzzer goes off, similar to the buzzer at a basketball game (ok maybe not, but it was loud!). *BAAANNN*! I about come out of my skin. The bus driver prompts me to insert a dollar into the machine, so I start fumbling with my stupid hiker Ziplock wallet. She asks me to swipe my card again. *BAAANNN*! The bus ride was only supposed to cost $1.50, but I insert 2 more dollars before the buzzers stop. At one point I drop a dollar on the ground, but I don't even bother to pick it up. Instead, I offered up the extra dollar to the D.C bus Gods as a small sacrifice so that they may allow my suffering to end. Finally, after what felt like an hour, I was allowed to ride the bus.
The rest of the day however was fantastic! We tried to do all the awesome tourist things that we could in one day, which included the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the White House, the Capital Building, and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. We spent 3 hours in the museum alone, but I could have spent all day in there! I am completely obsessed with NASA's Apollo program, and the space race with the Soviets during the Cold War. I read every single word of both those exhibits. Another one of my favorite exhibits was the Wright Brothers. Learning how they built their own wind tunnel to test wing designs and calculate drag coefficients blew my mind. Those were some seriously smart guys. As an engineer, I'm completely in awe of their genius. All day I was a kid in a candy shop, running around like an idiot shouting out awesome facts and figures to Wendy. "Dude, this Apollo Rocket burned a half a million gallons of fuel in 2 1/2 minutes, creating over 7 1/2 millions pounds of thrust!!!" Oh my, is my geek showing?? Sorry guys.
By around 6 o'clock, we were touristed out. D.C is a tiring city. Luckily, Rachel and Ashley rode to the rescue and invited us out for some food and drinks! Wendy and I had a great time hanging out with them, and were super sad when we had to leave. We are already scheming about a possible return to D.C once we hit Harpers Ferry. Maybe a Nationals game? Six Flags perhaps? With Wendy and I, you never can tell what we're going to do next. I guess you'll just have to keep reading the blog and find out for yourself.
Hope everyone is doing well,
Breeze
No comments:
Post a Comment