Week 4: Washington, D.C.

The White House
American Folk Art Exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum of National Art

USHMM

Statuary Hall

Rainbow over the Kennedy Center

Father John Carroll, founder of Georgetown

Stairs from "The Exorcist"

(I wrote this post while sitting in LaGuardia waiting on my flight to go back to the Vineyard. Michael is currently deciphering my shorthand as I transcribe it)

Currently I am without paper or computer, so I'm documenting my trip on my copy of the US Senate Directory. I can see Ewalt cringing as he read that. The original plan for the week was to fly into D.C. on Sunday night, take a rental car to Manassas, stay in a hotel, and spend 9-5 on Monday in a special US Airways training course. Regrettably (and I say this with the slightest hint of sarcasm) bad weather and air traffic prohibited me from getting on a flight out of the Vineyard, thus training was taken off my itinerary. I was completely fine with this turn of events as it gave me an additional day to spend in D.C..

My trip to D.C. officially started on Monday afternoon after making flights out of MVY and LGA. We're slated to add a direct flight from MVY to DCA this week but unfortunately not soon enough for my trip. After boarding the Metro, I made my way to Foggy Bottom Station with the intention of exploring the Georgetown neighborhood. My good friend Kevin spent a summer in D.C. working for Senator Isakson and was nice enough to plan a 2 day, 2000 word itinerary of things to see and do around the city, and Georgetown was my first stop. The walk from Foggy Bottom to Georgetown was great. It took me down M Street (Georgetown strip) past the Exorcist stairs (the staircase that was used in the film--creepy!), past The Tombs (served as the inspiration for St. Elmo's Fire), to the Iron Gates of Georgetown's campus. Conveniently as I entered campus, a tour had just started, and being a former college tour guide myself, I relished the opportunity to sneak onto a campus tour. Although UGA's tour is far more humorous, and we don't walk backwards, the tour itself was very enjoyable and certainly gave me something to think about for future career sites. I could definitely see myself ending up on Georgetown's campus. I loved it.

After the tour concluded, I spent the better part of 2 hours losing myself in the Georgetown neighborhood. Kevin had mapped out a great route through the streets of Georgetown that enabled me to to see some of its historic buildings. By then my friend Tim had gotten off work, so we regrouped at his condo before going to see the free nightly performance on the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center. The performer was Robin Bullock:

"The multi-instrumentalist, who displays virtuosity on guitar, cittern, and mandolin, blends the ancient melodies of the Celtic lands and their Appalachian descendants."

You can see the June 23rd performance here: http://www.kennedy-center.org/programs/millennium/search_results.cfm?RequestTimeout=500#

The performance was great, and the views from the waterfront were spectacular. We spent some time watching the Potomac (rowers!!) and we stopped by GW's campus so Tim could give me a tour of the Law School before grabbing dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant (and it's driving me crazy but I can't remember the name of it) for which I felt terribly under-dressed. Tim dropped me off at Mr. and Mrs. Parker's (Laura's parents) house in East Falls Church for the night.

Day 2 stared early. Kevin was thoughtful enough to schedule me a tour of the Capitol headed by Sen. Isakson's interns, so I spent the bulk of my morning checking out the Russell/Capitol buildings. I also had an opportunity to sit in on the Senate Gallery. The Capitol building is incredible and I was very fortunate to get a personal tour on such short notice. When I had wrapped things up on Capitol Hill, the next item on my list was the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The USHMM was the one destination that was an absolute must while I was in D.C. As a history major whose specialization was 20th century European military history, I have taken every class that UGA offers on the Holocaust, and much of our course literature has come from information compiled from the USHMM. It was one of the most personal and intense experiences I have had to be able to walk through the exhibition and see firsthand the artifacts, documents, photographs, and videos that I've spent so much of my college career studying. It is a truly sobering and terrifying experience. Part of me wishes that I was pursuing my M.A. in history because the whole formation and execution of the Nazi's "Final Solution" just seems so far out of the realm of human capability. Needless to say the visit meant a lot to me. The USHMM also had a special exhibition on the 1936 Berlin Olympics which was very interesting, especially since the Summer Olympics are about a month away.

Tim met me outside with a pair of road bikes and we made our way to Old Ebbitt Grill for lunch (again on Kevin's suggestion). I ate altogether way too much and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. I couldn't leave D.C. without visiting one of the Smithsonians, so we elected the National Gallery of American Art/National Portrait Gallery. The museum had some really amazing artwork, but having just visited the Met in NY, it's hard to compare the two. I would have liked to do the National Air and Space Museum, but we were running short on time, so instead we put our road bikes to use and did a tour of the nation's highlights: US Supreme Court, the White House, Washington Monument, Jefferson, Lincoln, and WWII Memorials. Biking around D.C. was fantastic--it is definitely the best way to get around. D.C. itself is beautiful. It's very clean, has tons of green space, and it's reasonably easy to get around (I love cities with good public transportation systems!). I've already told Mom and Dad that I could really see myself in a job at GW or Georgetown in the future. After the bike tour, Laura's parents picked me up from the Metro and we watched Game 2 of the College World Series. It was bleak.

My two days in D.C. were a ton of fun and I look forward to going back. After 3 weeks, doing Boston, NYC, and D.C. back to back has made me a bit of a professional tourist, but unfortunately my travels might slow down a little in July. My next confirmed destination is Atlanta (home for the Peachtree Road Race), and the week after that, some coworkers and I are planning a ridiculous 3 day getaway to destination TBA (right now Amsterdam, Aruba, and Las Vegas are all contenders).