The Plane Ride from Hell

OK so my trip back from Boston, MA was an absolute NIGHTMARE!!!!!
I get to the airport and it was quite ironic because I had just received a text from my friend telling me there was a bad storm in DC and I said jokingly hahaha I bet my flight will be delayed and I also told her I would not be happy if it was.

So of course I get to the airport and my flight is already delayed an hour and a half! And of course I got through security in 10 minutes so I had 3.5 hours to wait for the plane! But I kept telling myself that an hour and a half delay wasn't so bad plus my friends told me they would pick me up at the airport at 9pm when I got in so I wouldn't have to make my way home on public transit.

But then the plane that was supposed to take us to DC was coming from LA and got in later than 7:30 - it didn't get in until maybe 8 or 8:30 and then they had to deplane and clean it before we could board. Then as they were preparing the plane for us to get on they found out 2 out of 3 of the toilets were broken so they had to get maintenance in to fix it. This part was ridiculous because it is only an hour and a half flight to DC so we could manage with one toilet - and the pilot even told us later when we got on our plane to DC that he wanted to just have everyone use the restroom before boarding so we could just get to DC instead of waiting for maintenance but they wouldn't let him.

Also this whole time the people who worked at the desk were not giving us information about when the plane would be leaving so we couldn't leave the area to go get dinner! Then finally at 9pm they told us that they were going to be getting another plane for us because the maintenance was taking too long, so then we had to wait for another plane from San Diego which wouldn't be there for another half an hour! By this time every food place was closed and the only thing I could find was a newstand where I got bugles and gummy worms for dinner - this really made my mood so much better - NOT!

So finally after 30 minutes the flight lands from San Diego, they deplane and we end up boarding around 10:30pm finally - which was four and a half hours later than we were supposed to have left Boston! What makes the four and a half hour delay worse is it's only an hour and a half flight from Boston to DC, so it was awful waiting for such a long time for such a short flight! We finally got into DC at midnight and luckily my friends were nice enough to still come pick me up. When I was going to meet them though the floors were really slippery because they had just been mopped and I was wearing flip flops so I ended up crashing with my suitcase on the floor directly on my knees! So I have some nice scrapes and bruises from that!

At this point I was fed up with the whole day - it had been a LONG exhausting day, and I didn't even get to sleep until 1:45am and then had to get up at 6:30am for work...the morning at work was definitely a rough one!

So I am now really hoping that after that I have had my awful flying experience of the summer and that my plane does not get delayed coming home to Seattle!

Amy & Bob's Wedding - July 24, 2010

The beautiful location of their wedding

Me waiting around for the wedding to start

Amy gettting walked down the aisle by her dad - my Uncle Bruce

I think this was the vow part

Their first kiss as husband and wife

At the reception

View from where the reception was held

The tables - absolutely BEAUTIFUL

Cutting the cake

This past weekend I flew up to Massachusetts to go to my Cousin Amy's wedding. I flew to Boston on Friday where my dad picked me up and then we drove 4 or 5 hours to get to my grandparent's house in Williamstown, MA.

The one REALLY nice part about being in Massachusetts was that it was MUCH cooler - I could even go on a run outside which was absolutely lovely! I also was able to swim in the pool that was in my grandparent's condo place which was also nice since I haven't been in water ALL summer!

The wedding was at 4pm on a Saturday which is a bit of a scary time to do it for a summer wedding on the East Coast because that tends to be the time for thunderstorms. We woke up on Saturday morning and it was pouring down rain which was a HUGE problem since the wedding was supposed to be outside so everyone was pretty nervous and hoping that the rain would blow off. Finally at 3pm it miraculously cleared up in too a beautiful sunny 80 degree day! It was PERFECT!!! So thankfully they were able to have it outdoors and as you can see from the pictures it was in an absolutely beautiful location! The wedding was gorgeous - the colors were purple and green and Amy's dress was amazing. It was a halter that was beaded on the top and had a corset in the back and she looked so great! And the ceremony was very nice and went very smoothly!

Then afterwards we headed to a Masonic lodge, that Amy's brother and dad are members of, for the reception. It was a beautiful location and the place was great! We had a really yummy dinner and their cake was delicious and everyone all around had a great time! I even got to see Amy a few times which was nice and I got to see family I hadn't seen since I was 11 years old!

We headed home around 10:30 and got home around 11pm and then we were all pretty exhausted and went to bed!

I am SO glad I ended up on the East Coast this summer and I was able to go to the wedding and see everybody and also it was my first wedding so it was all quite exciting!

Intern Summit at the Dept of State

The special badge we got that we then weren't allowed to keep!

Our escort required badge - at this point I have now had
3 different colors of this badge from the 3 different time I have visited
the Dept of State and I have no idea what the colors mean cause the
badges always say the same thing


The room we were in for the speech and Q&A panel discussion
It's the diplomat receiving room of the State Dept

On Thursday I went to an Intern Summit at the Department of State which was pretty cool! One of the best parts was that I got to leave work early, pretty much right after lunch, because we had to be at the State Dept at 2:15pm to get cleared through security before 3pm.

The Intern Summit had a few different parts. After we got cleared through security we were escorted in groups of 10 to what they called a Bureau Information Fair which was where several Bureau's from the State Dept + the Peace Corps + USAID (which I guess is technically a bureau of the State Dept) + a few of the fellowships were there! Unfortunately they did not have a Pickering Fellowship table so I could not go and talk to them about it, but I still learned a lot from visiting the other bureaus. The one bureau I am most interested in right now is the Bureau for Population, Refugees, and Migration because it is all about helping countries deal with the inflow of refugees and trying to work with the country so they won't send them back, and also help the communities be able to afford to take them in. I think the mission of the bureau is great and what they do is so important! I also learned a bit more about USAID and the Peace Corps and also got some handouts on all of that and on the Foreign Service!

After being at the Bureau Information Fair for about an hour we were escorted into the Loy Henderson Auditorium to listen to our keynote speaker and also our panel participants.

Our keynote speaker was Jacob J. Lew who is the Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources and they call him Secretary Clinton's alter ego. It was actually pretty neat that he came to talk to us because he just was nominated for a new position as the Director of the United States Office for Management and Budget which is pretty major. It is an office he previously held under Bill Clinton where he operated at a surplus for 3 years so he is definitely the right person for the job! Anyway apparently his staff told him that he needed to start deleting things from his schedule because he didn't have time for everything, and they asked him if it was really that important to come and speak to the interns, and he said that there was no way he was going to delete this speaking engagement from his schedule! I thought that was really cool that he felt talking to us was so important!

He talked to us a lot about the importance of serving in the Federal Government and public service in general. It was a really good speech and it was cool to meet another person who is pretty high up in DC!

Then we also had a panel of speakers - we had one from the State Dept who was in the foreign service, one who from the State Dept who was in the civil service, one from USAID, one from the Peace Corps, and one Presidential fellow (a fellowship for grad students).

It was nice to hear from people representing all aspects of what we could do and I learned a lot from their speeches and also people's questions.

Then we had a reception and then finally headed home about 7pm! And then I had to pack for the wedding because I had a flight the next day around 12:30pm, but I had to leave my apartment at 8:30am to take a metro, and a bus to the airport.

Paddle Boating in the Tidal Basin next to the Jefferson Memorial

The paddle boats

Perfect picture op with the life jacket and Jefferson
Memorial in the background

Washington Monument view from the Tidal Basin

Jefferson Memorial

Today we fortunately were able to go and do some sightseeing because our afternoon class was cancelled, and we were let out of our morning class early which meant that we were done at 10:40am which was GREAT!

So we decided to go paddle boating at the Jefferson Memorial. I had seen this one of the first weeks I was here and had wanted to do it ever since and we finally had time to go and do it - and it was also finally a cool enough day - in the high 80s - to go!

It was so much fun and it allows you to get pretty close to the front of the monument and you can paddle around to all sides. It is also an AMAZING workout - it's basically like riding a bike but with LOTS of resistance! Paul and I were the ones paddling and we also had to compete against the wind so by the time we got back our legs felt like jelly - but it was totally worth it! It's kind of one of those things that you need to do in DC just to say you've done it! So there is one more thing to check off the list!

Georgetown Cupcake

In front of Georgetown Cupcake

Inside Georgetown Cupcake

I want this painting for my room - it's so colorful!

All the boxes that they wrap the cupcakes in

The finished cupcake with the pretty flowers on each table

Kim and I decided that this week we need to take advantage of time after work to go explore the city instead of just going home. It's getting near the end of our time here and there is still SO much we want to see! That is honestly how much there is to do in DC, you can be here for two and a half months and still not see everything there is to see - it's pretty amazing!

So we began this new plan of ours on Monday and headed to Georgetown after work! It was an interesting place to go first because neither of us really knew how to get there since the Metro does not go straight to Georgetown. Luckily one of our roomates had been to Georgetown and told me which metro stop to get off at, and then from there I had to walk about a mile to meet Kim - who took a bus - at Georgetown cupcake!

We really wanted to go to Georgetown cupcake because they are making a TV show out of it that will be on TLC on fridays beginning in August - so it's pretty famous and a MUST DO in DC! Also what is better than a cupcake to cheer you up after a Monday at work!

I got a mint chocolate chip cupcake and Kim got two - one chocolate3 cupcake and one vanilla birthday cupcake. They were SO good and it was well worth the mile walk to get one!

After we were done eating cupcakes and taking lots of pictures like the good tourists we are, we began the hike back to the metro to go home. Luckily Monday was not too hot, though we did get rained on during our walk, but at this point if it is not in the high 90s I am quite happy. We also luckily ran into a Trader Joes on our walk back and were able to stop and get some groceries!

We returned home feeling very productive and felt much better than if we had just come home straight after work like normal!

Weekend with Grandma and Lukas

The Holocaust Museum

Family Picture with Washington Monument in background


Gate to Chinatown

Lukas at WWII Memorial - one of the only smiling pictures

WWII Memorial

Me at the Lincoln Memorial

It was a very busy Saturday with Grandma and Lukas. We started off by waking up around 7:15am to meet for breakfast and then go to the Holocaust Museum. My roomate Hope's fried Ariel came with us as well. I had just met her the previous wednesday, and she is here nannying for the people I babysat for earlier on in the summer. Saturday was her first day off so she wanted to come and see the city with us!

So we got to the Holocaust Museum a little before 10am after nightmares on the metro where

three different lines were all having repairs on the same weekend - probably the worst planning on the part of DC Metro. So instead of taking 10 minutes or less for a metro to come, it would take 20 minutes or more. This problem became even worse on Sunday, where we had to wait even longer for the metro to come. I feel like I am going to have a lot of trouble coming back to Seattle where buses run every 30 minutes, because I am spoiled here with a metro coming normally every 3-5 minutes on the weekday, and every 8-10 minutes on the weekend.

But once we finally arrived at the Holocaust Museum we got in a very long line to get our ticket for the permanent exhibit and ended up getting a 10:30am spot which was perfect! It meant that we could see the other smaller exhibits in the museum and then go up to see the permanent exhibit. So we went to go see an exhibit I hadn't seen the last time I went to the Holocaust museum - it was an exhibit on other genocides in Darfur, Rwanda, and Bosnia. It was horrific, but it was also really interesting to learn about the genocides that I don't really know a whole lot about. Also at the end of that exhibit there was footage of the Nuremburg trials where they tried the high up Nazi officers in court to convict them of crimes against humanity. It was shocking how these people did not think they had done anything wrong! And it was also interesting to see the way that they used evidence in those trials.

After that exhibit we went into the permanent exhibit which I won't talk much about since I have already written on it - the only thing that was tragic this time is my person died, instead of survived. I was gased in an extermination camp and was from Poland which was where some of the greatest devastation happened. Grandma also had a person that died, but both Ariel and Lukas survived.

After completing the permanent exhibit we went to lunch in Chinatown which was really fun! We all ordered different dishes and shared - we had orange chicken, sesame chicken, chicken lo mein, and brocoli beef. It was DELICIOUS!

Then I had to get home because I was picking up Annie - a friend from church who was staying with me one night before starting a program at Georgetown University - from Ronald Reagan Airport at around 4pm.

After I picked up Annie we headed back to my apt for a little bit, grabbed some dinner, and then at around 9pm we went out and did the night monument walk so that Annie and Lukas could see all the monuments at night! It was pretty fun but I took a lot less pictures since I had seen it before! Also, if anything, it's amazing exercise, because it is pretty much walking for 3 hours!

So Saturday was an extremely full day, and I took it easy on Sunday and did laundry and ran some errands to get ready for the week! But I did have dinner with Grandma and Lukas before they left to head back to Seattle on Monday evening! It was so nice having family here and being able to show them the city and all that I have seen since I have been here! It also made me feel like a DC resident because I could explain a lot about the city and where they needed to go and such!

The White House/Ford Theater

Ford Theater (The box where Lincoln was assasinated)

Today was my day off which is always nice, but it was especially nice because Grandma and Lukas were here too. So we started off the day with a 9 am tour at the White House, which meant I got up around 6am - not the funnest part of my day off but it was worth it!

The White House tour was actually a lot better than I thought it would be. It was a self-guided tour which meant you could take your time walking through it, and we were able to see most of the East Wing which is where a lot of the entertaining rooms are. It has the big state dinner dining room, and also some sitting rooms, and a few other rooms. It was pretty neat, and it is also just cool to say you've been into the White House.

The only bummer of the tour was that we were not allowed to take pictures so I uploaded some photos of the things I saw even though I did not take them since I was without a camera all day!

After that we met a cousin of Grandma's and her 1 year old daughter and went up the old post office tower where you can see all of DC, it is pretty much as good as going up the Washington Monument but without the long lines! I really wish I had a camera for that one because you can see everything and I could have taken some really great pictures!

After that we went out to lunch to an amazing restaurant and I had the best Arnold Palmer I have ever had! I also had this amazing tuscan chicken pasta too!

Then we went to the Ford Theater which was AMAZING! I had tried to go 8 years ago when I was here but the lines were too long, and so I was so happy to finally get to go! They had just re-done the museum and it was really nice and I learned a lot more about Lincoln's Presidency. And then we went into the theater where a representative from the National Park Service was giving a presentation and basically talked us through what happened on the day Lincoln was assasinated. And then afterwards I went and was able to see the box where Lincoln was assasinated! Obviously it was horrible to think that a president was assasinated there, but it was also really cool to see that it was left exactly the same as that day. Also when you exit the museum you can see the house where they took Lincoln after he was shot and where he ended up dying.

There is just so much history in this city and the best part is how much of it was left for us to see 150 years or more later, and how well intact it all still is!

Delegation of the European Union

The EU Flag

At the podium - I like to pretend I'm important!

On Wednesday for class we went to the Delegation of the European Union, which is basically the Embassy of the European Union, it just can't be called an Embassy because it's not an individual country! It was a really fun place to visit especially because of all that is going on with the European Union right now! We had two people talking to our class and we got to ask a lot of questions and I learned a lot! Also at the end we got free stuff which was awesome - we got a magnetic clip and a USB drive! It was a great visit!

Mount Vernon

Mount Vernon

Me and George Washington's Manservant

Me and Mount Vernon in the background

George & Martha Washington

The view from George Washington's House of the Potomac

I realize I have not updated in a long time but that is because it has been a long week. Last friday I came down with an awful fever virus and I had a fever over 100 until Monday. After being sick that long I went to UrgentCare in Arlington and then they did a bunch of tests and ended up giving me antibiotics which really helped.

I also maybe was not the smartest person because I thought that I was doing A LOT better when I woke up on Sunday and so I went to Mount Vernon with my roomates because we had booked a tour a long time ago and I really did not want to miss it! However I was not better and so half way through Mount Vernon I got a fever and a stomachache so we had to go home. We were also supposed to go to the beach but because I got sick I was not able to do that, so hopefully we can go another weekend.

But even though I got sick part way through it was totally worth it to go to Mount Vernon! I love Mount Vernon, and it is probably one of my favorite places that I have been to! When we first got there we went on our National Treasure Tour where they talked to us about how they made the movie at Mount Vernon! We also got to see the basement of George Washington's house and the inside of the ice box! It was a cool tour because we got to see a lot of things we wouldn't have otherwise gotten to see!

After the National Treasure Tour we went on the Mansion Tour where you get to walk through George Washington's house and it was SO COOL! As we were walking through the house there were interpreters in each room who told us about each room and everything in it. The coolest parts were that they had the original bed frame of George & Martha Washington's bed, and it was the same bed he died in, also we saw a cradle that Martha Washington gave her granddaughter, and also as we were walking up the stairs and touched the banister the interpreter said that all our forefathers had touched that banister so that was pretty cool!

That was most of what we saw, we also went down to the wharf by the Potomac River as well and saw some places where they saw food. All in all it was a great experience!

THE FIRST HISTORIC HEAT WAVE OF SUMMER 2010

From the title being in all caps you can already tell it is bad...yes just as you all have probably seen on the news we are having an historic heat wave in the NE right now, and it will last until it thunderstorms which will hopefully be tomorrow! This may honestly be the first time that I cannot wait for it to thunderstorm because thunderstorm = cool weather again, well at least in the 90s which will feel SO much better than the hundreds that we have been having.

This historic heat wave began on Monday and there were warnings that we had to be careful and not use too much water and not turn on too many hot appliances, because if you turn on the oven you will turn up the AC because your apartment will be hot. You wouldn't think that would be a problem, but it is if everyone does it because then the whole city can lose power! And if we were to lose power in this heat that would mean no AC with temperatures above 100 which I don't even want to imagine! Luckily though the power has not gone out yet, it has in other cities like Philadelphia though, and they actually are worried about people dying from the heat, so it is a bit scary, but it is cooler in DC by a few degrees compared to the rest of the NE so I think we will be ok.

So on Monday when it started we pretty much stayed in AC all day, but on Tuesday we had to go to work. On our way to work at 7:55am it was already 85 degrees, and by the time I left work it was over 100, I think the temperature was 103, but with the humidity it got up to 108! Last night at 10pm it was still 100! So pretty much MISERABLE weather! Today it was a little bit better, it only got to 100 or 101, but again that is not factoring in humidity so it could have been 105 with humidity!

Basically at this point I am just ready for it to go back down into the low 90s because the air feels heavy and sticky, and it is even hard to breathe when it is so hot because the air is so stagnant. HOPEFULLY it will thunderstorm soon and then by the time we go to the beach this weekend it is supposed to be back in the low 90s which at this point sounds heavenly!

Fourth Of July

My cool american flag light up necklace that the best

roomate in the world, Hope, sent me for the 4th

The whole group

Abe Lincoln and Ben Franklin


My flip flop tan after only 2 hours at the parade

The capitol lawn - we were thank goodness in front of all these people

How Patriotic - because we were in the front we got lots of free stuff

this is how good of a view we had of the fireworks

more fireworks over the Washington Monument

So finally here is my fourth of July post, it took awhile because it has literally taken me this long to fully recover from the day. I have never sat in 10 hours of 100 degree heat in my life, and to put it lightly I was EXHAUSTED! I woke up on Sunday morning and was sick because I had been SO hot!

But even though it was so hot and such a long day of sitting and waiting it was DEFINITELY worth it! It was probably the most amazing fourth of July I have ever had. First of all you cannot get much better than being in the nation's capitol for the Fourth of July, and second of all DC has the highest rated fireworks show in the country, so yeah it was pretty amazing!

We started our day at 11am and headed to the mall, and we got there just in time for the 12pm parade. It was a fun parade with lots of bands and patriotic music, and there were even two bands from Washington State, the All-City Seattle Marching Band and a band from Gig Harbor whose director went to UPS for his music education degree. So that was 2 hours in the sun, and then we went into the National Gallery of Art, not to look at art, but just to sit in AC and cool off and refill our water bottles before the 6-7 hours of sitting at the mall. This is a time when you are so grateful that museums are free because you don't have to pay to cool off which was a blessing of the 4th.

Then at 2:30pm we went to the Capitol Lawn to get in line for security so we could get a good seat for the 8pm Capitol Fourth Concert. The security was really strict and they wouldn't allow umbrellas, and I had brought mine for shade so we wouldn't get so sunburned. So I tried to hide my umbrella so I wouldn't have to throw it out but unfortunately security found it and so I had to throw away my really cute purple and white polka dot umbrella. I was not happy, but what can you do, and at least I didn't pay a lot of money for it. I bought a new one the next day, and though they didn't have the exact same one they did have one that was opposite of my old one, so I guess it was ok in the end.

So finally around 3:10pm we got in to the Capitol and went to find Bonnie, who had gotten through security first and had gotten us AMAZING seats, they were right near the rope which is where they rope the "normal" audience off from the VIP audience, so basically we were as close as we could get and we also had a perfect view of the Washington Monument.

After we sat down we had to wait 5 hours for the concert to start, so we did lots of sitting and snacking and chatting, and thank goodness the musicians rehearsed for us because otherwise it would have been so boring. And then part way through the 5 hour wait the PBS filming crew came and gave the people in front free patriotic stuff so that we would look good on TV and all decked out. The coolest performer that came and rehearsed was Gladys Knight because she had us participate in her rehearsal which was fun. But David Archeletto also rehearsed a bit and so did Darius Rucker. It was pretty cool, and we were able to get close-up pictures that we wouldn't have been able to get during the concert.

Then finally at 8pm the concert started, and it was AMAZING, all the musicians were so good and I even got on national television more than once which was pretty cool - something to check off the "Things to do before I die" list. Then after Reba McEntire sang they began the fireworks off the Washington Monument which were incredible, it was truly the best and longest firework show I have ever seen. The pictures don't really capture how incredible it was, but I tried. And the Capitol was the best place to be because the National Symphony Orchestra and a Marine Band were accompanying the fireworks, and it was pretty cool hearing the 1812 overture live and seeing fireworks at the same time.

After the fireworks were over we walked to the metro, and even surprisingly got a seat on the way home which was amazing considering the amount of people at the Mall for July 4th, I think there was something like over 3,000 people, basically imagine the mall filled with people from the capitol to the lincoln memorial and even more people at the Jefferson memorial.

It was crazy but was an AMAZING 4th of JULY!!!

Day off

I get every Friday usually off, and today has been my most effective day off because I have gotten A LOT done but also have had time to relax.

I woke up at about 10:30am which was SO nice and then I did a bit of homework, and then got dressed and went grocery shopping at Costco. I did not need very much so I was able to put it all in one of my re-usable shopping bags and carry it home instead of having to drive with a friend. After grocery shopping I went to California Pizza Kitchen around the corner and bought a personal pan pizza to take home for lunch. Then I got home and put all the groceries away and went and laid out in the sun to try and get rid of my atrocious tan lines from when I got sunburned at the very beginning of the summer. It was kind of effective, they are starting to dissapear but I also didn't want to stay out too long because I didn't want to get badly burned like last time. It will be a slow process to get rid of them, but we luckily have ALL day to lay out in the sun on July 4th at the National Mall while waiting for the fireworks! Then after laying out in the sun I went to the post office and mailed some things! So I got a lot of errands run which felt good!

I also signed up for an Intern Summit today at the Dept of State! They have a day for all interns in DC to come to the Dept of State and speak to people that work there, listen to people give speeches and learn about both the foreign service and the civil service. A few friends and I are going, and I am really excited! It's also a nice perk that I will get to leave work early since it starts at 3pm on Thursday July 22.

I am also getting really excited for July 4th in DC! It is such a huge event here which makes sense since it is the capital of our country. There is a 20 minute fireworks show off of the Washington Monument, and there is a concert at the capital, and a parade at noon. It should be a fun day, but it's also unfortunately going to be in the 90s which is a bummer since lately it has been in the high 70s which has been really nice. Although honestly at this point, the high 70s feels a little bit cold, the 80s without too much humidity is the ideal temperature. And I feel like I can't complain about the weather on July 4th because at least it will be warm and sunny and I won't have to get all bundled up in a sweatshirt to sit and watch fireworks like you have to in Seattle!! It will be TRUE July 4th weather!

The Pentagon

On Wednesday we went on a tour of the Pentagon for class and we were also able to talk with a woman who did WII 8 years ago and told us about her work in the Pentagon.
It was definitely cool to go in the Pentagon and see it but I felt like we barely got to see any of the building on the tour, we only really saw two wings which was a bummer.

But we learned some interesting things about the building: it is the largest low rise office building in the world, on our tour alone we walked 1.5 miles, and we barely saw any of it, so it's HUGE!
We also learned that each window is over $1000 because they have to be sound proof, wind proof, bullet proof, etc...and also they are tinted so that no spies can see into the Pentagon building and get classified information. Also it would be a pretty cool building to work in because they have everything inside it, it almost looks like a little airport. They have places to eat like panda express, wendy's, sbarro and other fast food places. They also have nail salons, doctors offices, dentist offices, places to buy suits and lots of other stores. If you worked there you could accomplish quite a bit on your lunch break! Also the Pentagon is a certified "green" building, as in environmentally friendly, who knew!

We also got to see the 9/11 memorial inside the building, and then we visited the 9/11 memorial outside the building after our tour as well. The one on the inside is really nice and it has the purple heart award for all the Pentagon employees and the defender of freedom award for all the non-military people that died, like the people on the plane. The defender of freedom award was made specifically after 9/11 for all the victims that were not a part of the military but lost their lives. They also had a book where the family members of the victims wrote bios for them and it was heartbreaking reading some of the bios and it definitely put faces to 9/11. We also met a woman at the memorial whose husband, who worked at the Pentagon, had died on 9/11, she explained to us the importance of the memorial to her, and it was so great, and we talked to her for about 20 minutes. That really hit me because I have never met someone who knew a person who had died.

So even though the tour wasn't that amazing the experience was pretty amazing, and I recommend that everyone coming to DC goes to see the Pentagon memorial, because it is quite amazing.

Washington DC At Night

Vietnam War Memorial

Me and Mr. Abe Lincoln

Korean War Memorial

Korean War memorial - We found La France

Lincoln Memorial

Me at the World War II Memorial

I found WASHINGTON

World War II Memorial and Washington Memorial

World War II Memorial

Flags at the Washington Monument

It looks like I'm walking up the Washington Monument

The Washington Monument

We went into the city on friday night and we did a night monument walk. It was one of our goals of the summer to go around and see all or at least most of the monuments/memorials during the day and at night. I thought the night walk might be creepy and not very safe because we weren't leaving until 9pm and we didn't get home until midnight, but it wasn't scary at all. Actually lots of tourists do the night monument walk and there are security guards and rangers at the monuments still even at midnight.

It is also much better to walk around and see them at night, one because there are not as many tourists so it is much less crowded, and two because it is MUCH cooler and you don't feel like you are about to die of heat exhaustion. Also the monuments and memorials are quieter and I think much more magnificent at night.

So it was a pretty long walk around but definitely worth it, and I loved seeing all the monuments lit up, especially the World War II memorial. I think that one is the most magnificent at night because the water is all lit up and every state is lit up. This memorial has become my favorite, both during the day and at night.

Today, Saturday, I babysat again and made some money which was good, and I also LOVE the kids I babysit for, they are adorable. I think I am going to babysit for them one more time, and then they are going to have a nanny so I will be done, but that is probably good because I won't have very much time after next weekend. Also next weekend is July 4th in DC which should be VERY exciting!!!! Then the next weekend I'm going to Mount Vernon and the beach FINALLY, and then next weekend Grandma and Lukas come to visit, and the next weekend I go to Massachusetts for Amy's wedding! And then only two more weekends I think before I come home! The time here is going so fast and I still have so much to see and do! But even though we are so busy, we have so much fun, and I feel like I can just come home back to Seattle and crash at the end of it!