We drove up Thursday night with Emily. Nick made us rice krispy treats and turkey-muenster-bacon sandwiches for dinner. We spent the night in a double room at the conference hotel at Gallaudet University (where I almost attempted to communicate in my 6th grade-learned sign language) in a cozy arrangement with four other people.
The career fair wasn't that great, so as soon as I could, I left the fair and took the metro from Union Station to meet Nick at the National Mall. Navigating the metro was simple since I had experience with the subway system in New York. I randomly put in $3.90 on my fare because there was this guy creeping me out so I punched in numbers as fast as I could. Nick and I met at the Smithsonian and he told me about his adventure that morning:
Since he couldn't take the shuttle to get to Union Station, he ended up getting onto some random bus at the stop outside Gallaudet and rode it until he had the US Capitol building in sight. The he got off and figured out he was on the opposite side of the Capitol from the mall. So he walked around the capitol to the Washington Monument.
I told him he was damn lucky that the bus he happened to take went anywhere near the Capitol. Really. Damn lucky.
We had an outrageously priced lunch at the National Air and Space Museum and looked at all the exhibits. We lamented the loss of Pluto as a planet. We played a virtual air-mail game. We pondered space necessities. Then, we went through a checklist of requirements for a 1950s air hostess:
1. between 5'2" and 5'6" - check
2. between the ages of 21-26 - check
3. under 135 pounds - check
4. single, never married or divorced, no kids - check
5. white - damn it, nope
6. beautiful, as in "just under Hollywood standards" - not even gonna go there
Guess I wouldn't have made it. Seems like a pretty stringent list, and full of political incorrectness.
Afterward I left Nick to his sightseeing (he ended up walking to the Lincoln memorial, the Vietnam War memorial, and the White House) and went to check into the hotel we had booked for the night. I got a great rate on the Grand Hyatt and its location couldn't be beat.
That night we had dinner at Zaytinya, a Mediterranean mezze restaurant, as recommended by Tali, a fellow Nicholas student. The interior is a study in modern, hip design, but it was warm and inviting too. The food was amazing. Review will follow because the experience merits a post of its own.
The next day we woke up late and had lunch at Full Kee in the tiny Chinatown area. I had wonton mein and Nick had roast duck mein. It was good, but not great. I really needed a noodle fix though, so it hit the spot.
Afterward we checked out the National Portrait Gallery. The Presidential gallery was very interesting and made me realize that I had no idea what some of these presidents looked like. My favorites included an abstract piece of JFK and the Norman Rockwell painting of Nixon. I also had to take a picture in front of the Obama street art poster that is now world famous:
Washington DC definitely merits another visit, but only when I can afford it. =)
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