DC, Day One: Accepting That We Are Tourists

Shane and I are at the end of a very very long day one here in DC. The drive down was relatively uneventful aside from the fact that we almost didn't find our way out of New Jersey along with the occasional torrential downpour...but by the time we actually got into the city the weather was warm and beautiful, albeit a bit humid. Here are some of today's highlights...

On the way down we planned a stop at the ever illusive Sonic. There are commercials for this mysterious fast food chain in the CT area but there aren't any that are actually close by so we were determined to partake in what we've only heard was incredibly good, quick eats while we could.

Here is the drive-up menu. When you're ready to order you push the little red button that can be seen at the bottom left of this picture. Someone eventually takes your order in a similar fashion to a drive-THRU.

BUT instead of driving up to a window and taking your food away, someone actually comes out to your car and brings you your food. What a novel idea! However, much to our disappointment, we only saw one server on roller skates.

The food was alright...Shane got a chili cheese "coney" (a.k.a. hot dog) and some popcorn chicken and I got a grilled chicken sandwich and some tater tots. I think he enjoyed his food a lot but mine was really only on par with McDonald's...although the tots were very good. We also each got a cherry limeade which was, in my opinion, the highlight of the meal. Mmmm...


This is a picture that Shane took of the people in the car next to us. He was attempting to get a picture of the guy in the driver's seat eating his hot dog.


Here is me with my tots.


Shortly after eating we switched drivers (I drove for the first part of the trip). Here is Shane driving my car...


Before long we were in our nation's capitol and driving around trying to find a place to park. While driving around Shane kept grumbling about the tourists crossing the road at inconvenient times (mainly when we needed to quickly make a turn) and I kept reminding him that we are, in fact, tourists ourselves. This is something that I don't think really settled well with either of us. I mean...who really WANTS to come across as a tourist. Not us, that's for sure.

Which is why the sign we discovered on our hotel was particularly humorous...


You can't really tell in this pic but it says "Hotel Harrington: Washington's Tourist Hotel."

Uh oh...they're on to us.

We were both pretty tired and achy from being in the car for 6+ hours so we collapsed in the room for a little while as we tried to figure out what to do for dinner.


And I forced Shane to take the first of many "at arms length" portraits of the two of us.


Not bad...not bad at all. We finally decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner which happened to be about one block down from the hotel...I had requested we go there purely for nostalgia's sake because it's one of the few things I remember from my first DC trip around the time I was 10 (if my family is reading this I have only one thing to say to you...boy scouts).


Then we started our walk over to "the mall" to see the White House, Washington Monument, etc. On the way over there we caught a glimpse of the Capitol Building in the distance.


And then we saw Barack's house.


And then we took pictures in front of the Washington Monument...which is so much bigger than these pictures suggest. Also for some reason Shane looks normal size in his picture and I look like a miniature version of myself. I'm not actually half Shane's height. The pictures are a bit dark in the foreground...oops...



Then we headed down toward the Lincoln Memorial alongside the reflecting pool which was actually in pretty sad shape, as you can see in the picture below. The water was oddly low and dirty looking.


The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is right next to the reflecting pool so we took a quick detour over there. This memorial is really very striking in person. There are so many names on that wall it's staggering...


Finally we arrived at the Lincoln Memorial and ascended the steps to see our 16th president.


And I got to stand where Martin Luther King, Jr. stood when he made his "I have a dream" speech.


Here is a picture of me with Mr. Lincoln...


And then the second of the forced pictures...



Before heading back towards the hotel to get some ice cream and turn in we stopped by the Korean War Memorial...which I'd never seen before.


The looks on the statues faces were truly haunting.

And now, my friends, I am completely exhausted. I've probably made lots of grammatical errors but in the interest of going to bed, I am not proof reading. Baseball and IMAX tomorrow...goodnight!