DeeCee!

Friday

-I stopped by Arlington National Cemetery to put some flowers at Granddaddy and Mum's graves.

I call dibs on Mum's name if I ever have a daughter.

-I made it to Justin's (grad school classmate) place pretty easily and dropped my stuff off. We parked my car at his brother's place in the Woodley Park neighborhood. He took me down to part of Rock Creek Park and when we were walking back up the hill, the Bosco's (Laura was a crewmate and former roommate) literally ran into us. Random! Who runs into someone you know in a city of millions after only having been in the city for like 2 hours? Me, that's who.

-We (Justin, Laura, Miz and I) went to Laura's friend's party and then went out in the U Street area. When Justin and I tried to leave the bar and took a left out of the door, we discovered that we couldn't because there was crime scene tape. Turns out that there was a shooting, oh city life. But that meant that I got to try chicken and waffles for the first time and had some tasty mac & cheese from Oohhs & Aahhs. Soul food.

Saturday

-Justin and I biked around the monuments/tourist stuff and the millions of tourists and to the waterfront and to Georgetown. Biking is definitely the best way to see all of that stuff in the summer. SO HOT OUT.

What's up Lincoln?

 I like signs and apparently they don't like box blocking in DC.

-Then I drove out to Chantilly to see cousin Kim & family. I picked up this obnoxiously large speaker that Shaun wants me to bring out to Denver. It takes up two seats in my backseat. I am such a nice cousin!

-I went out with the Bosco sisters by Dupont Circle and watched some of the Olympics/attempted to play darts. We met up with Brett (undergrad and grad school classmate and former coworker who is also in the midst of a roadtrip) and walked to Tryst for dessert (duh, I was with the Bosco's). We people watched (drunk girl fell underneath a parked car and couldn't get up) and then we had a long trek home on my sore knee. I was struggling to keep my eyes open on the walk home.

Sunday

-Harper's Ferry, WV. I didn't realize how much I needed to get out of the city and hike around. It was an awesome day trip and I'm really glad that I got to see the town. I had no clue what I was going to see, except Brett was hyping it up, so it was neat to learn about the area's history (Civil War buffs, forgive me for living under a rock). We stood on a rock that TJ stood on. We swam in the Potomac River (amoebas and dirty water ewwww). 

 Again, I like signs.

 I don't quite know why they're "rafting" such a shallow river..

 We took the train (tracks).

 Practicing for the olympics.

Bars don't change.

 The town of Harper's Ferry

Churches get the prime real estate.

TJ stood here.

 Sweet view from on top of TJ's rock.

My third cemetery of the trip. 

Trying to figure out if we can get down to the water from a place we weren't really supposed to be.

Found an old railroad tie.

Did these six acres really change the world?

They were here.

If I ever live in DC, I will bike out to Harper's Ferry on the C&O one day. 

App trail came through here.

Justin and I went out with Sarah (another grad school classmate) and Brett that night to a cool little hipster bar. After we left the bar, we hung out on Justin's roof that has a view of the Washington Monument. Bad ass roof. His back porch is also astroturfed and has a few holes so you can practice your putting.

Justin's sweet ride. car2go: http://www.car2go.com/washingtondc/en/concept/

Fat cat posted up on the post in front of rat alley.

There's a flag pole right out front of his house because we love America (and it's part of the African American Civil War Memorial).

Monday

-We biked over to the EINSTEIN statue. Favorite statue EVER. One of my favorite family traditions is to go sit in Einstein's lap.

Einstein chillin' by himself.

Me & Einstein just hangin' out.

-From there we went to check out the National Botanical Gardens. Kinda disappointed that weed wasn't in the medicinal herb section (Mom, that's a joke. I don't smoke).

-I had my first food truck experience (I think?). Mojo truck. It was DELICIOUS. Food trucks are awesome. So much food on this leg of the trip, ugh.

-After our little picnic, we went to the Library of Congress. I got a library card so I could go in the main reading room (instead of look into it from above like most tourists do). It took like 10 minutes to get one next door in the Madison building, I recommend doing that. Holy Dewey Decimal that library is cool. The building is so crazy. There was also an exhibit called “Exploring the Americas” that I highly recommend, especially if you're into maps, history, and/or urban planning. After that we went over the the Geography & Map reading room (!!!maps!!!) in the basement of the Madison building. It was cool to see old Atlases, but I was a little disappointed about the lack of attention that it seems they pay to that portion of the collection.

Me taking pictures from the reading room when you're not supposed to take pictures.

The Abel Buell map (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel_Buell)

Congress, the building where nothing gets done.

-We took the bike lane in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue. It was SO COOL. Can I have a favorite bike lane? If I can, then it would definitely be that one.

-Bert (grad school classmate) came into town for the night. He brought two original Four Lokos, ughhhhh. It was quite the Monday night. I was definitely still in recovery mode for most of Tuesday.

Ben's Chilibowl. I can't believe I ate that. Sorry body.

Overall, it's going to be hard to top how much fun I had in DC. It was a whirlwind of a trip and an extremely exhausting long weekend. I had the best host that I could have asked for. Justin's house is huge with an extra bedroom and cool roommates. He had an extra bike that I was barely tall enough to ride. I'm kind of attached to the bike now. I miss it. If you're hosting me and want to attempt to top DC as most fun city, then you're going to have to have a bike that I can borrow.