Early July was spent in the US Capital. I was venturing over to Arlington, VA for the DPhiE Convention, so it just made sense to take the opportunity to visit DC while in the neighbourhood.
DC is quite a city, except for the people ... they make New Yorkers look like the politest people on earth. Despite its denizens however, it was a spectacular place to visit.
We stayed in an area called DuPont circle. This was a hip little neighbourhood which reminded us of the West End. It was home to some great restaurants, and the best frozen yoghurt you will ever have! We were eating dinner at this great pizza joint, and noticed all these people walking past with (what we though was) ice cream. We figured it had to be near the restaurant, and decided it would be a good idea for dessert.
Turns out it was right next door, and it wasn't ice cream, it was frozen yoghurt - literally!
You had three choices: plain, green tea, and pomegranate. And you had your choice of three toppings, with a variety to choose from. The yoghurt was delicious, and had a nice, tangy flavour - hence the name Tangy Sweet. It was such a popular place, the line-up was right out the door. It was also like that when we returned the next evening. Gotta have our Tangy Sweet.
Ok, there is more, much more to DC than rude people and damn good frozen yoghurt. Our first day in town we took an indoor tour around the city that included stops at: Capitol Hill, Ford Theatre, the White House visitors centre, and the Smithsonian (Aeronautical & Space Museum and the Native American Museum). Afterwards we ditched the tour and ventured over to the Library of Congress.
We ventured out of DC our second day, taking a boat cruise down the Potomac to Mount Vernon, George Washington's plantation. It was quite a spectacular place. We even saw were George and Martha are entombed, and George's wooden teeth.
After the jaunt to Mt. Vernon we returned to DC for some more touring. We walked the length between Captiol Hill and the Lincoln Memorial - 8 KM in 100 degree heat! We visited the WWII, Korean, and Vietnam war memorials, and the Lincoln memorial. By the end of the day we were very hungry, and more sweaty and dirty than any of us had been in our lives, which made things interesting come dinner time. We found a brew pub to have dinner at, but we swear they were going to refuse us service. They did let us in, but stuck us at the back of the restaurant - there was plenty of space up front... I have never taken such a satisfying shower in my life as I did that night.
For our final morning in DC we visited the Whitehouse. Normally foreign visitors have to sign up six months in advance through their embassies, but our sorority arranged the tour. It was a bit of a gong show... but all worked out in the end. I have to say, the secret service guys are some of the friendliest people around.
The White House was very opulent. It reminded me of a European palace. After our tour we returned to our hotel, checked out, and made our way to Virginia. We checked into the Convention hotel and looked into heading to the outlet mall. But it was too far away, and too expensive to get to, so we settled for the local mall: The Pentagon Mall. It was one of the most amazing shopping days of my life. I kept finding deal after deal, and everything fit. I went a little nuts in Banana Republic.
During Convention we had a free morning to do as we pleased, so we headed over to Arlington Cemetery. I can't even explain how immense it is. We saw the resting places of JFK and RFK, and watched the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier.
And that concluded our trip to DC, and DPhiE convention.
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