Mini Vacation

My parents came for the weekend of March 2. It was nice to see them and get some of the stuff I wanted from home (like my Chacos).

I met them at the Rosslyn McDonald's after getting off from work early, because Fridays I get to leave early. :) After a snack, I went back to my apartment and grabbed some stuff for the weekend. Then I joined them at the hotel and Meredith arrived soon after. That night we went to Ray's Hell Burger Too. It was better than Bobby's Burger Palace. There are like three incarnations of Ray's Hell Burger and, if it matters, President Obama ate at the original, which is like four store fronts down from the one we ate at.

Saturday we went to the National Geographic Museum and saw "The Anglo-Saxon Horde" exhibit. It was cool to see super old gold found by some British guy with a metal detector. The best part, however, was learning that the United Kingdom actually has a legal definition of "Treasure." After that we walked to the Capitol City Brewing Company for lunch. It is a microbrewery, which was not as exciting for me as it was for, well, everybody else. They had pretty good food though (I had their version of a Cuban). After lunch, we walked to Union Station, also pretty cool. It must have been a pretty sweet place when trains were a big deal. I wouldn't mind taking a train to/from there, just for the experience. After Meredith left for a concert, we went back to the hotel for a rest. Being tired, we ended up at a local Red, Hot & Blue, a BBQ joint that we'd been to in January.

Sunday we started out in Georgetown and had lunch at the Tackle Box. It was OK but not the best I've ever eaten. Then we took the Circulator towards Union Station and walked to the National Building Museum. Also a pretty cool place. They had a Lego exhibit. The other stuff was cool too but there was a lot of reading. In the atrium, there was some sort of model plane exhibition. The remote control side was kind of cool but the other side had the ones with rubber bands powering them. Those were cool. By far the best part was the people watching and actually knowing stuff about model airplanes... and they didn't have kids with them... yup. We walked to Chinatown and had a snack at a Corner Bakery on our way to dinner at Ben's Chili Bowl. I'd never had a Chili Dog until Sunday but it was quite good. Apparently, Ben's Chili Bowl is pretty famous, and another place Obama ate, if you're keeping track at home.

Monday I had to work but my class got canceled, so instead of rushing to eat with my parents and get to class, we went to Georgetown. I can't remember the name of the place we ate but it was near the river. After dinner we walked around until dessert at Serendipity 3, frozen hot chocolate. Both were very good. I said bye to them at the hotel after.

Our field trip Wednesday was to the White House and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. We toured the White House in the morning. Everybody else had to wake up early but I actually got to sleep in an hour. The tour was cool. We had 2 hours after the tour before the EEOB stuff so I went to Caribou with some of my friends. After coffee we walked around the block and then went to the Renwick Gallery. It was OK but we didn't spend a lot of time there. We had about half an hour until we had to meet so we sat by the First Division Monument. I didn't know it was there but it is pretty cool. To get into the EEOB we had to go through almost as much security as to get into the White House. A guy from the program that interned at the White House last semester and got a job there coordinated the visit (he went to Augie). After walking around the building and seeing the West Wing entrance to the White House, we went to the room where our panel was. The panel was interesting. Most of the people were in their 20s. One guy was talking and said that even though they were all Obama supporters they were not there to push a message... and then proceeded to push a message... but it was funny. The worst part was their advise on grad school. Everybody says that most people should work first... and other scary stuff that really freaks you out when you aren't quite sure what you are doing with your life and really need to figure it out soonish...

Wednesday night I didn't have class so I went to see Lilly Ledbetter at the Sewall Belmont House. The recent Fair Pay Act was named after her. She was a plaintiff in a Supreme Court case recently. It's all fascinating. I got a picture with her. Hearing her speak was cool because I read about her case in one of my books for my Supreme Court class.

Thursday, my friend Megan and I tried to watch the Exorcist for class but only got 40 minutes into it before we gave up and watch something else. We watched part of the movie Forever Strong before we had to go to bed. It is a pretty good movie, we finished it yesterday. Tonight we are watching Strangers On A Train for class as well.

Pictures soonish...