On Friday July 1st, Marco and I had an extremely busy day. We went to the Library of Congress, Jefferson building as planned. We actually spent quite a bit of time in there, looking at the exhibits and seeing a bunch of stuff I had missed the first time I visited, including the Gutenberg Bible and actual books from Thomas Jefferson’s personal collection (Mom I wish you had seen this!).
Marco playing with the interactive "Passport" which lets you add aspects of the building into an online account for you to read about later.
We then took the metro to Smithsonian station and walked the National Mall; we passed the Freer/Sackler museum which houses Asian art and decided to go in. It was a pretty museum that we were able to get through in about an hour or an hour and a half.
I took this picture for Ben, my best friend Priya's dad because he collects elephants, although this one is crazy and is tearing apart a human!
The Peacock room!
Marco with a Buddha
I saw this and thought of my Daddy! lol
Marco saw this Buddha and said it reminded him of me....I thought he meant I was chubby but he said it was because it has its hand on its hip!
We then continued walking down the mall and came across the Smithsonian Castle. It is a gorgeous building that was actually the first Smithsonian to be built and although we expected there to be more in the castle, it is only a visitor center and we were in and out in about 20 minutes. Although, we did walk through a garden in between the Freer and the castle and that was pretty nice.
I think I already posted this one, but it is just so cute!
The remains of James Smithson
We then began to walk towards the Air and Space Museum. Before heading inside, I had to show Marco the McDonald’s cart that is outside of it; it only offers 6 meals, but the prices are absolutely ridiculous!
We went into the museum completely amazed as to how many big airplanes are inside. We were able to go inside many airplanes and view what the pilots see, or how first class planes used to be back in the day; I would say it is the biggest Smithsonian and it is pretty impeccable how many huge aircrafts can hang from the ceilings.
However, we were on a mission to find a model that Marco’s Great uncle Lou made during his time working with NASA in the Mountain View/Santa Clara area (unfortunately we were unable to locate it. But I have been in contact with the NMAS staff who have told me if I find out what the model is of, that they may be able to locate it for me and allow me to look at it. I was unable to get this done before Marco left. Sad. Maybe he can come back!). We walked around probably half of the museum and decided to stop for lunch. Just for future reference: this museum does not have a great food selection. They have Boston Market, Pizza, and McDonalds. We ended up with McDonalds and I joked that Marco came all the way to DC to have fast food that we eat on a regular basis back at home. Oh well.
2 meals at McDonalds in DC: over $17???!!!
It was after lunch that we decided to go back to the hotel because I wasn’t feeling well. Migraines tend to get in the way of fun! So I took a nap, while Marco finished one of the books he brought and then we went to Tortilla Coast for dinner! Yes I went to my favorite restaurant twice within 2 days, but when I went for happy hour with the interns I only had tortilla chips and a margarita =)
On Saturday we went to Mount Vernon. However, I think that post will have to wait until later because it could end up being quite long and I gotta get to bed.
<3 Ally
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