MuffinShower.ShowerMuffin.

HomeSweetHome.
At Last.
But Parting is such sweet sorrow.

I am very tired.
Emotionally.
More than physically.

We saw the east wing of the National Art Gallery.
It was beautiful.
Margaret got a history lesson on Pompei...not sure on the correct spelling.
The conveyor belt ride to the west building was awesome. It was a light show.
THere were Pollocks and Picassos and O'keefes and MORE Stylls. And I fell in love with that building. I could walk around and never tire.

And I obsconded with a muffin. It was glorious. It never made it out of DC though. I ate it after the museum.

We stopped in RIchmond to see the Poe Museum as well. It was ok. Quaint. But not the best in the world. Ecspecially not after seeing DC.

Noodles. Pretty Girl. What's your Name?

Rule #1: Avoid Eye Contact at all cost....and that's all we have to say about that.

Rule # 2: Don't let the sleepy talk in their sleep...sometimes they try to give away roomate #3's bunk in the middle of the night. Enough said.

Rule #3: Rachel isn't allowed to cook or clean. Margaret is more efficient at both.

Rule #4: Look at ALLLLL of your surrounding before you just keep walking. You could be right next to Albert Einstein and never even know it. Also...the WHITE HOUSE. We walked right past it. Three Times!!! Too concerned about looking for Theodore to worry about Obama.

Rule #5: They check your bags at the museums. Do not get tangled in your ipod cords or your camera or inside your jacket (or all 3) knowing that you're going to just have to hand your bag right over...you can seriously injure yourself. And we didn't even see the museum! We were just asking for directions!

All in all. We are very tired. We saw the White House today. It is very white. And quaint. I expected much larger things. Actually. But. Albert Einstein was twelve feet tall. And that was not dissappointing. Neither was seeing Lincoln for the second time. Or eating a midmorning snack on the wall of the Washington Monument, while people stared at us. You would have thought that no one had ever done that before.

Puma Boy. Who could forget about Puma Boy. Without fail he eats breakfast and dinner beside us every night. And we ended up seeing him everyday in the city. Oddly enough. Out of all the people. There is a photo of him....don't call it creepy. Call it...photojournalism. :)

The Renwick was awesome. Painting after painting after painting of American Indian. And Campfires. There was a Game Fish. And a Ghost Clock. And A banquet table. And stairs. That we had to walk up.

Then we dared to walk all the way to Chinatown to see the Portrait gallery. But Im glad Margaret dragged me there because it was AMAZINGGGGG. Ecspecially the third floor.

And the courtyard. We found more running water.

Oh yeah.

And we went shopping again. We bought an avacado. Ice cream. Noodles: for me. And bandanas for the ice cream sundaes. It was almost as/more sketchy as the Safeway.....but not really...safe at all? Luckily we didn't get raped mugged or molested. Our parents would be happy to know. I think they would like it better if we took the metro at night to waterfront. Honestly.

Now for Pictures:

Rock On.

We all slept in today. All four of us. At least until 9 anyways. Went downstairs and ate breakfast. The muffins are amazing. If I take away one thing from here it will be that the muffins are fantastic. Margaret is in love with the kitchen. Its pretty awesome. She's been in there pretty much the entire time. Cooking. Cleaning. Its amusing.


The shower. I have learned that you can't shower in the morning here. The water is cold. Very cold. 6 floors of people showering all morning long....leaves no hot water. :(


Today we headed out towards the museums. After packing our lunch. Smart of us to do. Right?


Things done today:


*Starbucks* (margaret)
The US Navy Memorial
National Gallery of Art: West Building.
Castle for Lunch. Ran into bunk number 3.
Freer Gallery of Eastern Art.
Sackler Gallery of more Eastern Art (and paint fumes).
Natural History Museum...awesome.
The Holocaust Museum...by now we couldn't walk. We did....painfully so.


All the way to the metro where we got on and took the greenline to Waterfront (one of the semi-sketchy parts of town) and headed to the grocery store. And back to the Smithsonian. And back to the hostel. To cook. :) Because we were starving.
Now....we have lost our roomates again. Seat covers have magically appeared in our bathroom. And I can't wait to get into bed. Bed. I am tired. And its only 7:38 pm.


We have yet to see the White House. And Margaret is convinced the trip will not be complete until we visit the 12 foot tall Albert Einstein. He resides in Foggy Bottom.

-Rachel/Margaret

More Photos....

Oh the fun you'll have.

Day Two. Posted on Day three. If that tells you anything. We were so tired by the end of Monday that we could hardly do anything. We visited the Lincoln. The Washington. And saw Franklin. The Jefferson. FDR. The Archives. The Old Post Office. The IRS Building. The Environmental Protection Agency Building. The Hirshorn. The National Gallery's of Art Sculture Garden. The Air and Space Museum. (Aerospace Museum...is what I called it). THe Vietnam memorial. The World War 2 memorial. The Korean War Memorial. Rode the Metro on a round trip to the grocery store. We....saw the Washington again at night because our roomate wanted to go out. We walked foreverrrrrrrrr looking for lunch. Then lost the ice cream truck. We probably walked across the national mall about 5 times. Just on Monday. We met our fourth roomate and finally saw our third. The blinds got fixed. But our towel rack fell down. And our mirror was mysteriously moved. All in a day.

And we still need to see the White House. Havent seen that yet.

Overall. Monday was a very long day. We woke up early. Got back around 7. Slept till 9. Ate dinner. Went to bed around midnite. And here are some photos of the day:

-Rachel

Capital Lights.

Your mother probably told you something along the lines of...

"don't go walking around downtown washington dc late at night.. especially not by yourself."

our's did.

Necessity is the mother of invention.. Or at least Rachel's need to not give the peeping tom's on 11th street a show is... School supplies are soo handy!!!

Note the clever window covering we had to improvise...in all it's glory.

So all in all...today was a long day. Productive if you will. We left early. Only to get turned around a time or two....

But we made it here safely...and found out they lost our reservation. But that's ok. Because they practically gave us a single room. 4 beds instead of 10. 1 bathroom. And a stove. AWESOME. We can have food. And water. Oh.....And we found a parking spot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Fears.

We haven't even left for our trip yet, and my mother has placed this fear in me that Margaret's car is going to be stripped of nothing but the frame.

Chris told me to not get kidnapped.

And my father told me to not starve.

These are all realistic fears.

Seriously.

Nothing to laugh about.

-Rachel