My aunt and two uncles came down (and up) to visit this weekend. I got to play tourist/tour guide for two days and got a bunch of free meals from it. Friday we walked from the Capitol to the White House, and then went to Cap City for dinner (Raspberry Wheat beer is back! yum!), and then I gave them a quick tour of the school when I went back to pick up my laptop.
Saturday morning I got up bright and early to meet them for breakfast and then head into the city to pick up tickets for a tour of the Capitol. During our wait between tickets and tour time we went to the Botanical Gardens, a personal favorite, since the boyfriend and I skipped class first year and had our first "date" there. Our tour guide at the Capitol unfortunately was a raging bitch, who clearly was a Catholic school teacher in a former life and should not be allowed to interact with people from other countries when showing them one of the most important buildings of our nation. She totally treated us like children, shushing everyone (when there were maybe a few whispers, probably between the foreign visitors who were having it translated by those with them who spoke English well) and yelling at us not to wander off (including chastising someone for leaving our group who was not even with our group). Not to mention, she kept referring to us as "guests," but in a totally patronizing way, as in the "Guests, stay close. Guests, be quiet. Guests, does anyone know the birthday of our country?" Seeing the old Supreme Court in the basement of the Capitol was really interesting though, and the woman who was there to talk about that room clearly has dealt with human beings before.
Afterwards, I went with one of my uncles to the National Air and Space Museum... definitely find the "Space" more interesting than "Air," but I thought the aircraft carrier exhibit was pretty interesting. I love the space exploration exhibits though - as a kid, one of my favorite books was just full of all these facts about the planets and stuff and I totally wanted to be an astronaut (and I would not have been the first person with my name to be one!). Of course, I don't remember it all now, but I did get an A in my Solar System class at Union so some stuff must have stuck. (Although, it was a baby-science class so clearly not a difficult feat. Labs included measuring shadows to figure out the path of the sun.) After Air and Space, we met my aunt and uncle to go to the National Archives and see the "Charters of Freedom." Then we went back to their hotel to pick up their car and drive in to see the FDR memorial (my favorite) and drive out to Georgetown for dinner, coffee and dessert. We then drove back to the Mall and saw the Vietnam, WWII, and Lincoln memorials all lit up. (Well, the Vietnam not so much b/c it is under construction.) Then this morning we had some IHOP for breakfast and they are now headed to Baltimore for the football game and I have to get back to being a law student instead of a tourist.
Whew - I am exhausted.
confessed on September 19, 2004 10:28 AM