Washington DC in the city

After all my excitement and buildup about Colorado, it seems only fitting that I now get excited about something entirely different...Washington D.C. For more DC shenanigans, see my Waiting for Magic post from last spring. We went at a time that was most convenient for everyone (aka Spring Break), but this year Kerry and I had a plan. No more school schedule to accommodate. We were determined. This year we were going to see the cherry blossoms. We scheduled our flight for the weekend of the Cherry Blossom Festival and then...grrr...DC decides to go and have a mild winter. What's so bad about that? It means that the trees bloom early. Early! Kerry's convinced that there wont even be petal remnants left by the time we get there. I'm still foolishly optimistic.

Washington DC Play-by-play

Day 1

7:12 a.m. (Mountain Time)
Right now we're winging our way to Minneapolis (direct flights from Denver to DC are a bit pricy). Kerry and I booked our flights separately, but thanks to our charm and good looks (or perhaps the kindness of strangers), we've still managed to have seats next to one another (we managed to convince a woman that she'd be just as happy in the window seat two rows up...she was pretty pliable). We're full of greasy McDonalds breakfast (it seams to be a food trend I only follow when I fly anymore), sleepy from our 4:00 a.m. alarm clock ringing, and trying to resist having a soda (okay, that last one is just me, as Kerry gets closer and closer from moving to having a stare-down with her Diet Pepsi toward attacking it with vigor. Diet sodas of the world beware!).

11:38 a.m. (Central Time)
Whoo-hoo! We're on the actual flight to DC. Kerry and I weren't able to finagle seats together this round, but I've so far enjoyed a brief cat nap, eaten a granola bar, and seen a cloud so dense and delicious looking, I could have sworn it was freshly scooped vanilla ice cream. I also felt a little nervous when I looked down and saw only dark dark blue, quietly wondering to myself if we were over water or if I simply couldn't see the ground (the idea of the latter was the nerve-wracking part). Before too long, however, I saw the gentle green crescent of the shore and brown fields and buildings not to far behind. Just a Great Lake. Not a giant expansive abyss waiting to swallow me up. I know you were all concerned.

Evening
It was warm when we landed (70s + humidity). The evening has gone fairly well. Alana met us at the airport. After a few hours we ended up a bar for happy hour (1/2 off beers and burgers). I'd been laying off the beer for a while (it's a health thing), but now...I'm on vacation! A few beers every now and then is quite swell. While were at the bar, Ty met up with us (he was late getting off of work). Although he looked a bit haggard at first, a few beers and a few hugs and some happy conversation seemed to cheer him up. After a few beers and a bit of fun later, I received a phone call from an eHarmony fellow (previously unmentioned and unmet). Our email conversation thus far had been rather short and uninspired, but our brief phone chat was fairly fun (granted I was a bit buzzed and happy in DC) and I'll probably be giving him a call when I get back from this lovely vacation.

The Girls (Kerry, me (duh), and Alana)


Ty and Alana

Day 2

What an amazing day! The weather was awesome, the company was amazing, and I wanted to makeout with pretty much every flower I encountered (and seeing how spring has come quite early in DC, that's a lot of flowers). Rain. Sun. Clouds. 70 degrees all day. Just when I was getting a little too warm or chilled, the weather changed for me :)

We got a little bit of a late start on the day. Ty and Alana live about 5 minutes away from the Metro (the awesome underground public transit system here) so we hopped on it to Chinatown (a stop really close to the National Mall). We spent the afternoon wandering through what was left of the cherry blossoms (the hard rain from Friday night knocked off pretty much all that I had seen from the plane window), took lots of pictures, moseyed through the National Mall buildings (the buildings are MY favorite part because I'm an dork for cool old architecture...actually I just love scampering about outside...spiffy buildings, lovely flowering trees, yummy green grass, oh my!), saw Ancient Sea Monsters of the Deep in 3D at the IMAX at the National Museum of Natural History, and got very excited about a Starbucks run (funnily enough, Alana, Kerry, and I all had Starbucks gift cards from Christmas...none of us really drink it all that often and we figured that coffee that had already been paid for sounded super awesome...and my chai frappuccino far exceeded my expectations. OK, OK, it was the best thing ever!). The day ended with more drinking and merriment at their apartment.

Quintessential DC Pic


Who's this happy chippy?
The reason I'm laughing so hard is that about a second before Kerry took this picture, Alana said I was posing so well for my Senior Picture.

Day 3

Today was a pretty chill day. We were all a little hung over (except Kerry) and getting up before 11 proved to be an impossible task. After "breakfast" (I'm not sure I can call it that at 1:30), Tyler and Alana went back to their apartment to take a nap and Kerry and I decided to do more DC stuff. The weather was quite a bit chillier today (50s, windy, and cloudy) so despite wanting to do some walking around to look at more monuments, we decided to go do a few indoor activities at the National Portrait Gallery and the National Botanic Gardens. The latter was one of my favorite places from the last trip and this time didn't disappoint. They had a new orchid exhibit that looked and smelled especially delicious (apparently vanilla is in the orchid family). We still managed to get a decent walk in between our visits and the trek back and forth between the Metro. We're taking it easy tonight (we had Chipotle for dinner...mmm Chipotle! and it looks like an evening of Star Wars on TV).

I love orchids!