New England Day 2: DC

Rachel and her roommates all work and go to school during the day, so Jaime and I were on our own to explore DC. Rachel assured us that the metro stop was only a few blocks from her house and from there we could get wherever we wanted to go. So we started on our way, only to realize fifteen minutes and one billion degrees later that the metro stop was in fact one mile from her house through the stifling, blazing sun. For the record, that is not a short walk. We were already sweating by the time we got to the metro station and it was only an indication of the greater misery to come.

We hit Arlington Cemetery first, and it was there that I realized I am a descendant of the Wicked Witch of the Wast. (That's the one that melts, right?) We walked around the cemetery hitting the most important spots, starting with JFK's grave and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It's an impressively sacred place, and it's humbling to see how many soldiers have served our country, and to know that it is only a fraction of the number to whom we should be infinitely grateful. Still, it's hard to enjoy anything when your entire body is covered in sweat. As we were climbing the hill to JFK's grave, I heard a girl behind me crying (she was probably nine or ten years-old) because she was so hot. Her mom was trying to instill in her some gratitude and respect by explaining that our service men and women have to work and fight in full gear in all conditions, including extremely hot weather, and we can show our gratitude by honoring them, even for only a short time in the sun. I was proud of the mom for teaching good principles to her child, but I also commiserated with the girl. When we were huddling under some shade next to JFK's grave, I showed Jaime my arm and it looked as though I had just stepped out of a pool. Absolutely no dry spots. A lovely way to start any day.

JFK's grave has some stonework around it with some of his greatest quotes. Our presidents (and their staff writers) have an impressive way with words.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is a particularly special place which honors those who have died in battle without recognition. There's always a guard positioned there and they change each hour (or on the half hour during the summer) by way of a special ceremony.

While we were there, we were able to see a funeral procession with a small army band playing "Onward Christian Soldiers." I love the order and respect that are present in this cemetery.

We very happily got back on the air-conditioned metro and rode into the District to the National Archives. Inside we got to see the original Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of rights. You can't take pictures inside, but you can enjoy the very intense air conditioning. I think I actually got too cold in there. Something about preserving the documents.

I'd been to DC once before in 2005 with my brother, Isaac, so a lot of these things were repeats to me. We decided to go to one of the Smithsonian museums, though, which I hadn't been to. We chose the American History Museum, which I really enjoyed. There were a lot of interesting artifacts, including the original American flag which inspired the Star-Spangled Banner (That's not it in the picture. You can't take pictures of it) and one of the sunstones from the Nauvoo temple.That was a fun surprise.

Built in 1776, the gunboat Philadelphia is the oldest American fighting vessel in existence.

Dorothy's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz and a clock that I believe belonged to John Hancock.

From there, we set out to tour the monuments. We hit the Washington Monument first then headed to the White House. By this time, by divine intervention, some clouds and breeze had rolled in and taken the edge off of the heat which was a huge blessing. We didn't have time to do any tours so we just admired from the outside.

 

 

We had planned to rent some bikes to tour the monuments, but the one closest to us at the time didn't have two available. So we continued walking to the World War II Memorial. We had walked so much already and our feet were killing us, so the pool at the memorial was a welcome relief for our aching feet.

That's the Lincoln Memorial in the background.

A lot of the area around the reflecting pool between the WWII Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial was blocked off for construction or something, so we had to take the long way around (great for our tired feet) to the Vietnam Memorial and then the Lincoln Memorial. When I visited DC previously, I especially loved the Lincoln Memorial, but by this time in the day we were both tired and hot and cranky, so I was pretty over the memorials. Maybe Jaime was too, based on her expression in this picture.

 
To end our day, we planned to get some bikes (there were more by the Lincoln Memorial) and ride through the remaining memorials, but mine wouldn't come out of the holder so we ended up on the phone for about 20 minutes trying to get a bike or my money back. We ended up running out of time so they just refunded the money and we walked another mile to get to the metro station. But they have air conditioning, remember, so we were happy once we got there.

We took a train out to somewhere in Maryland to meet our friend Emily Petty at an Argentine restaurant for dinner. It had been so long since I'd had good Argentine food, so we ordered all our favorites, including empanadas, tarta, milanesa, choripan, and alfajors. It was so, so good. And it was good to see Emily, too. :)

 

When we got back to Rachel's house, we waited excitedly for her to get home from her "special date" with her boyfriend. She was pretty sure he was planning to propose, and she was right! We got to hear all about the night and celebrate with her. It was really fun to be there with her on such a special night.

New England Day 1: Ohio and D.C. and Everything in Between

I started planning this trip several months before it happened. I have a personal goal to hit all 50 states, and lately I feel a sense of urgency about it. I just think it's silly that there's anywhere within driving distance that I haven't been. "Within driving distance" is relative, since I could drive to the southern tip of South America, but whatever. The largest chunk of states I hadn't visited was in New England, so it seemed logical to hit them all at once. I knew I was done with teaching, which meant this may have been my last summer off, and to do New England right, you've gotta have a few weeks. It took me a little while to convince Jaime (she wanted to go international), but I sold her eventually (I wasn't ever really worried). She flew in on a Monday evening and we drove to Columbus, Ohio that night.

One of the greatest parts of this trip was our accommodations. Knowing we'd be gone for a long time, I thought it might be good to spend a few nights with some friends to cut down on hotel costs. I tossed the question out into Facebookland, and by the time we got started, we had thirteen of our seventeen nights covered. By the time we'd finished, we only had to stay in a hotel two out of seventeen nights. We were so grateful for the generosity of our hosts, who really made it financially possible for us to do this trip (I don't know why the heck I thought it would be feasible to pay for a hotel for seventeen nights. Goodness gracious). Our hosts saved us well over a thousand dollars.

Throughout the trip, we only stayed with three people I knew personally. Everyone else was a friend of a friend or a friend of a relative or a relative of a friend, or in the case of our night in Columbus, a friend of a friend of a friend. Throughout the trip, I was continually touched by the generosity and goodness of the people we stayed with. Most of them didn't know us, but trusted us based upon the recommendation of our friends and relatives. All of them were members of our Church, which is such a strong unifying force. Because of our shared values, I had no qualms about staying with people I'd never met, and from what I could tell, none of them were worried about us either. In fact, at the end of almost every single one of our stays, each of them seemed genuinely delighted that we'd stayed there and sincerely invited us back. People are so surprisingly wonderful.

Anyway, we stayed in Columbus, Ohio at the house of someone who we had a very distant connection with. My friend Mischa is from Columbus originally so she was going to have us stay at her parents' house, but that didn't work out, so she combed through her singles ward and didn't find anyone there either, so she went to her home ward. A woman in her home ward asked if anyone would be available and willing to house us, and a family - who didn't know me or my friend Mischa - volunteered. They were awesome. 

This was by far our longest drive day, since we were going from Columbus, Ohio to Washington, D.C. We tried to listen to an audiobook, but didn't even make it past the second chapter. I think we tried that once before on a different trip and didn't get very far. I guess we've learned our lesson now. It just makes me so sleepy!

One time on my mission, my companion Beth Doyle was describing the guy she thought I'd marry, and she made him sound like a dumb hillbilly. We named him Butch and joked about how he wouldn't even be able to spell his own name right. He'd spell it Bucht. And wouldn't you know it, Bucht has his own town in Ohio.

Thankfully, the drive was really pretty. I love driving through West Virginia and Maryland. Also, there are a ton of bridge pictures. Just prepare yourself now. I just really like bridges.

In an effort to see if West Virginia really is as wild and wonderful as it claims, we stopped in Clarksburg to have lunch. To our pleasant surprise, it was the birthplace of Stonewall Jackson himself. I have no idea who he is except that he was an important Civil War guy. I'm pretty sure...Probably a general. Yep. A Confederate general (I looked it up).

That's pretty much all there was in Clarksburg, West Virginia, other than Ritzy Hot Dogs, of course. It was as ritzy as it appears to be in the picture. Either they're incredibly sarcastic or they don't have dictionaries. We had hot dogs, and ordered them exactly as prescribed in the lunch special, which you'd think would be the best way. Except they really were just boiled hot dogs with some chili sauce and onions. Mouthwatering. Fortunately, WV's definition of ritzy applies to prices, too, so we didn't have to fork over too much for these delicacies. 

We made it to D.C. in time to meet our friend Rachel Potter (also from the mission) for dinner. We picked her up from work then drove to one of her (and now our) favorite restaurants - Dangerously Delicious Pies. Residents of the District (I'm down with the D.C. jargon, alright?) are a bit more familiar with semantics, because these pies really were dangerously delicious. Savory pies for dinner then sweet pies for dessert. Oh man. They were so good.

After dinner we walked around the neighborhood there and visited her boyfriend (now fiance) at his newly purchased house that he's remodeling. I love these historic row houses - they were everywhere along the East Coast.

From there, Rachel took over driving because I thought I was developing an ulcer from the crazy traffic. We drove through a few other neighborhoods then visited the capitol building. It was too late to tour the inside, but it's a gorgeous sight even from the outside. We also saw the Justice Building and Library of Congress which are just across the street (the Justice Building is pictured below).

Rachel lives in Virginia, so on the way home we stopped by the Pentagon. They have a gorgeous memorial to victims of the attacks there on 9/11. Each row of benches represents the birth year of someone who died there (so the years of the adults were much more populated than the birth years of the few children who were on the plane). The ones who died on the plane faced one direction while the ones who died in the building faced the others. Along the outside, there's a wall with each person's name on it. It was interesting to sit on those benches and look at the reconstructed building and imagine what the scene must have looked like that day. It's a testament to the resiliency of the human spirit that something so beautiful and peaceful can be built in a spot where such tragedy and chaos took place. 

We stayed with Rachel and her roommates in their adorable house in Crystal City, Virginia, which she says is a hot spot for young Mormon professionals working in D.C. I loved their historic house and yellow door.