So I went to Washington D.C. for a week to visit my sister Andrea who lives out there with her husband Adam. He is going to George Washington University for law school,
and Andrea just got her paralegal degree from there and is now working for a law firm. Needless to say, they are both crazy cool people who are very accomplished.
I had the privilege of having my wonderful friend Audrey come with me on the trip, and I am so glad that
she did. I had so much more fun because she was with me! My sister had to work during the weekdays, and so Audrey and I kept ourselves very entertained by running around D.C. to all of the monuments, memorials, and Smithsonian museums that we possibly could. It was excellent. Audrey was in her history-nerd happy-place, and I had a blast observing her joy. And I loved going to see everything as well. Both me and Auds loved the mall the best, and the outdoor me
morials and monuments surrounding it. We saw all of them at least once, and then went back to see our favorites at night. We went to the Air and Space Museum, the Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Engraving and Printing, the Holocaust Museum, the Library of Congress, the Capitol (we got a tour through our senator's office), the Supreme Court, the National Archives, Arlington National Cemetary, and other places I am sure that I am just forgetting at the moment. I also made Audrey go through the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden of Contemporary and Modern Art, which was totally awesome and amazing, and I loved :) It reminded me of how much I totally love art! Which is a lot.
This whole trip brought back so many memories of my trip through Europe it was
crazy. It made me miss Europe and that whole experience so much! And the architecture of all of our national buildings didn't help. They were all designed by European architects, and are therefore all totally reminiscent of Roman, Greek, and especially French architecture. Like for example, the Library of Congress looks so much like the Paris Opera house on the outside, it is crazy. And the whole layout of Washington D.C. was done by some french dude who modelled it after Paris after the Hausmannization. The mall is completely reminiscent of the Champs-Elysees... Anyway, you can imagine me talking about the European influences on architecture and Audrey spouting off facts about U.S. Presidents and various historical events, and it is easy to see that we weren't the typical tourists. We saw about three times more of D.C. than Andrea has seen of it, and she has
lived there for a year :) I am so proud. Audreys feet were literally bleeding by the end of the trip because of all the walking we did. It was hard-core. Go big or go home, and we really didn't want to come home :)
P.s. the first picture is of a group of college students protesting abortion on the steps of congress (congress is currently not is session and we were wondering if they knew that). props to them, and i love this country's freedom of speech. it was cool to see it in action in our nation's capital.
p.p.s. the bottom two pictures are of the library of congress and the paris opera house. they are ridiculously similar! there is just a lack of unique creative thought that makes our national buildings "American" rather than just copies of European grandeur. this reminds us of how young our nation was when these things were being built. craziness!
