Friday, February 29, 2008

D.C. Chronicles: Day 1

"The lucky daughter." That's what my sister called me. She said that to my dad when she asked about us going to D.C. My dad takes me on little trips with him sometimes. In the past seven years we've been to New York a couple times, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis and Toronto. I wouldn't say I'm the "lucky" one. I'd say I'm the "unmarried" one who has the freedom to take off on trips. I guess that is lucky. Of course Lisa did come with us to New York both times. She was even married for one of them.

I've only been to D.C. Once. I went there with Maria and Kaila and we had a great time. I also remember us having a great hotel. Dad and I are staying in the Hilton Homewood Suites in downtown D.C. Our hallway smelled like chocolate chip cookies on the way down here.
We had a full itinerary today. The nice thing about traveling with Dad is that I get to be a little kid and let him handle almost everything. I don't have to think about how to get to where we need to go. I just follow. Until we get lost and then I step in. But another good thing about traveling with dad is that we have similar traveling styles. We're both kind of nerds. We love history and museums so I don't need to worry about the people I'm with being bored.

NATIONAL ARCHIVES

I visited the archives last time I was here, but we just looked at the Constitution. There is so much to see there! We scheduled a private tour, which was good so we got a glimpse of everything before we looked around on our own.

Highlights: Of course the rotunda with the Delcaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and the Constitution. We were the first tour of the morning so it was empty. There was a power and reverence in the room.

It's amazing how much they have to keep. They even had some of President Kennedy's doodles during a meeting he was sitting in on. My favorite part was where I got to make (well, edit) my own documentary about D-Day by selecting various clips. The movie played back on a big screen for everyone passing by to see. I could have spent hours there. It exceeded my expectations. I went a little nuts in the gift shop. Nothing like my mom, but I bought a few books.


SUPREME COURT

That was a cool building. We heard a lecture in the Chambers. Our intern/guide was very good. Let me see how many justices I can name: Roberts, Thomas, Scalia? and then the woman's starts with a G...shoot. I was kinda tired at this point. The eleven minute video was really great though. I felt a renewed interest in American History and politics.

THE CAPITOL

I toured this last time I came. Our guide (Dean from New Jersey) was brand new. Considering we were his first tour he did pretty well. But he was totally making stuff up. I knew I couldn't trust everthing he said when he called the paintings in the rotunda "photographs". And when he told a story about one of the paintings with Thomas Jefferson and John Adams he said they were rivals (true) but he also said how Jefferson was still alive when it was painted and how he had the artist paint him more attractively than John Adams who had already passed away (false). Jefferson and Adams actually died within hours of each other.

CAFE MOZART

This restaurant was recommended to me by Newell Dayley, board chair of the ARts Council and Dad's colleague at BYU. It was German food, which I like, but I have a thing where I like to order fish when I go out, especially if trout is on the menu. The watiress scolded me saying "that's not German" in her thick, Japanese accent. I almost said, "neither are you" but that would have been rude. She was good though. She called me "Honey" which, is a little weird, but I prefer it to "ma'am".

Good day. We got our judicial and legislative fill. Tomorrow we'll get the executive branch tour when we visit the White House.

5 comments:

Joel said...

Ginsburg, Ruth Ginsburg. I could name the rest of them for you (Kennedy, Stevens, Souter, Alito, Breyer) but that would make me sound like some kind of nerd.

I have to admit even though I was just in NY I am jealous that you are in DC. I love DC, there is this palpable energy and feeling in the air. It is the seductiveness of power really. That and all the wonderful free museums.

While you are there I would strongly suggest that you go to the Library of Congress, especially if you have not been there before. It is an amazing building that I never tire of visiting.

As for restaurants If you like middle eastern food, I really enjoy Lebanese Taverna, it is on Connecticut Ave up by the Zoo. It is right across the street to the Adams Morgan subway station. Also there if you want a great burger and Fries go to Five Guys, they are all over the DC metro Area but I usually go to the one in Georgetown, it is couple blocks up from M street, on one of the state streets, I think it is Wisconsin.

Cameron's Corner said...

Man. You and Joel make me wish I had a life. And money.

Laura Lee said...

Way to use your college knowledge Joel!

Johnny Metropolis said...

Did the hallway smells like freshly baked chocolate chip cookies... or old sort of stale chocalate chip cookies... or like wet chocolate chip cokies that had been sucked on by a little kid and then droppedon the carpet and the dried up and got stomped on by passers by...
I need help with the visual in that part of your story.

Laura Lee said...

freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. The kind that are the perfect warmth when you pick them up. The kind that are still so fresh the chocolate chips are barely holding their shape as a "chip". The kind that you eat and then think about the next day.