The first stop we made was at the U.S. Federal Supreme Court House. We checked out the hallways and saw the outside of the main courtroom--but were not permitted to go all the way in. It amazes me how beautiful and materially rich all of these buildings are. The courthouse was a mammoth mountain etched in marble, even the steps and the railings! The elevators appeared to be pure gold and the only carpet or wood in the building (besides the cafeteria) was in the courtroom for the seating. After exploring we grabbed some lunch in the cafeteria which was actually very good and not too spendy.
We decided to check out the Library of Congress next. Ricky had said that it was a really cool building but I had no idea what I was in for. Words cannot describe how beautiful it was. From the floor up the walls to the ceiling's.... everything was covered in beautiful murals and sculpture's and tile design's.... like it was straight out of an italian church! There were great quote's etched at the top of all the walls and that quote at the title of this blog post was one of them. We couldn't go in to where all the actual books were kept... but there was a lookout looking down. I swear I drooled when I saw the many thousands of books perfectly organized in the most beautiful library I could have ever imagined. It was like 4 floors of pristine literature beauty! TO DIE FOR.
Miles later, we got ourselves to the National Museum of the American Indian. I was especially excited for this, to see what I could learn about my own heritage. For those of you that don't know, my Grandma Mary (dad's mom) is Yu'pik Eskimo. I wasn't sure if I would find anything of real substance, but the history of native people is still close to my heart. We began on the 4th floor of the museum and worked our way down. We saw tons of old weapons from spears to knives/swords and then guns. Native artwork dating back thousands of years. Native tools and traditions. There were smaller exhibits focused on various tribe's from Mexico to the Arctic. And then, on my rounding of a corner I actually found an exhibit on my tribe, the Yu'pik's!!!!! It was a fantastic surprise. I took picture's of every square inch of it and read (and tried to soak in) some of the dialect for their words and traditions. There were really cool snow suit's and snow shoes worthy of only the finest Eskimo's :) After I left the exhibit I found a few more pieces of art that were created by Yu'pik artist's. And I would've been content ending the day with that.
But of course, there is much too much to be seen and done in our nation's capitol! My other roommate Mariah flew in today with the rest of our Bremerton Oxford crew that will be attending the conference. Their arrival put our group number to 13!!!! So we had to go out and do more exploring. It was so much fun running around the city in a group as large as our's and the chaos and excitement was aplenty!
We almost made it on a double decker night tour, but unfortunately it didn't work out with the timeing of everyone's flight. So we decided to hop on the metro instead and go check out the Lincoln Memorial. After all the walking I had already done today, I knew my feet weren't going to like me for this one. But on the subway I felt it was all worth it when a D.C. native informed us that tonight was going to be one of the best nights of the year to check it out, as the weather is perfect and not too humid. We had to walk through George Washington University from metro to the memorial and it was interesting to see a different kind of college then I'm used to (Western or UW) When we finally arrived at the memorial the first thing I gawked at was the view of the National Monument with the Capitol Building behind it and that whole skyline bouncing off the reflecting pool. What a sight, to say the very least. Then when I turned around, the Lincoln Memorial was even bigger than I was expecting and it looked so glorifying even at the bottom of the hundred steps it took to get up. It was very quiet and respectful once you finally got up top and I kept thinking how everything in this city is so much more gargantuan than I could even fathom in my own imagination.
I'll bet you think that was when we headed home, right? NOPE. We then went and checked out the Korean War memorial, which was one of the most hair raising experiences I've had yet. As we walked down the dark pathway way all we could hear was a peaceful echo of thousands of crickets in the bushes and trees all around. It was the most somber melody for the view's of these soldier's barely glowing in the darkness. All of the face's on the soldier's looked tired, scared or sad. Ricky said, and I must agree that they really appeared to be ghost's rising from the ground. Behind these silhouette's was a long wall with picture's of many different soldier's etched into them. It was crazy how clear their face's were for being carved out of stone.
After touring all this, I really didn't think I could handle more than the mile walk it was going to take to get back to Metro and then home. So 6 of us split up fro the other 7--4 of us headed to our hotel at the Mayflower and Charlie and Tammy Jo came along with us until we had to take opposite train's, as they were going to the Hyatt. Until my delirium set in tonight, I have done amazingly well navigating public transit (and as alot of you know from my past adventures this is kind of a big deal) But yes TONIGHT was a little different. I pointed Charlie and Tammy Jo in the direction of their platform and we walked towards ours. It wasn't until 2 stops after we had boarded that we realized we were headed the wrong direction-- and so were our 2 friends who were riding the metro for the first time and had no idea where they were or what to do!!!! Furthermore, there is--believe it or not--no cell phone service while underground (besides Verizon which Charlie has but I do not) so i was literally chewing my cheek off from the moment we switched trains and finally reached high ground. They had realized there was a problem very shortly before I called them. And then go figure, the train they boarded next broke down. But hey guy's, really though, don't mind me, I am just here to make everyone else's life just a little more complicated. Or I prefer to say-- eventful :-DWell that is all for now, I don't think I can keep my eye's open for even 5 more minutes. In closing, I just want to reiterate how fabulous my life has become in 8 short months, and I can't wait for what is around the next bend! XOXO
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