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Well, vacation was good...but HOT as hell! Jeez, it was 100% humidity and over 95 degrees every day. Let me tell you it made walking around not so nice. But, we did see a lot despite the heat.

Day 1: Arrived in DC at about 10am local time, got to our hotel, they had screwed up our room a bit...had to take care of that. Then we checked our bags because we couldn't get into our room yet and decided to go test out the Metro and go to the National Zoo to see the animals. Well...it was 95 degrees already, so by the time we got to the zoo, it was nasty and none of the animals were very active at all. The zoo was actually a disappointment because it had a lot of construction going on and you could only see one panda because the female had just had a little baby. Plus...all you could see of the Panda was a black and white rump because he was crouched by his air conditioning in his cave. Can't say I blame him because thats what I would be doing! At any rate, stayed there for many hours...mom looked like she was going to die. She doesn't sweat at all so had the hardest time during the trip. After the Zoo, had a great Vietnamese dinner, then went back to the hotel and rested all nite. Aaron, Dad, and I then went for a walk around our neighborhood, which was near Foggy Bottom and Dupont Circle, a cool trendy area. Lots off good shops and places to eat. We had smoothies at a place called Wrap Works. They were tasty.

Day 2: Got up early and went to the the offices of the Representatives near the Capitol. Got to meet the helpers of Rep. Sensenbrenner and went on a Capitol building tour. That was ok. Airconditioned. Then we wandered around the Mall, went to the Aeronautics museum and looked at most of the monuments (Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam, Korean, and WWII.) We then were really hot and tired, walked back to our hotel...rested and went back to Wrap Works for dinner.

Day 3: Got to finally sleep in because we didn't have to be at the Holocaust Museum till 11. That museum totally lived up to all expectations. Lots of good exhibits, very moving. It was really super crowded though, and had way to much to read on the exhibits, keeping things pretty clogged up. It was a very good museum, but didn't really teach me anything I didn't already know. The architecture was awesome. We had a little incident at the very end when we were watching a movie. The security guards made everyone get out, said there was an emergency, and had dogs sniffing around. Of course, my mom freaked out...but it turned out to be nothing. We couldn't stay too long then in the Memorial hall...i would have liked to spend more time there. Ah well. Then we took a little break from the depressing and had a good lunch at the Capitol Brewery. I had yummy Philly Cheesesteak.

After that, we decided to go to China Town and go to the Spy Museum. That was awesome!! Too much to describe about that here...but definitely worth the 14 dollars. (only thing we had to pay for to see). Lots of cool stuff to see...wish I would have bought that tshirt that said A ninja took my homework. Darnit. Then we went home and to bed.

Day 4: Had to be up early to go to the White House tour. Couldn't bring ANYTHING with us. NO purses, backpacks, cameras, anything like that. If you bring it, you get it confiscated...no lockers either. I wasn't too impressed by the tour. It was self guided and all you really saw was the colored rooms. Whoopee. W was there somewhere...was hoping to see him, but alas no :-P The whole tour only took 15 minutes and really wasn't worth the hassle.

We then went to the Museum of Natural Science. That was really cool. Basically like a huge version of the MPM. I bought myself a cute little panda. I have fallen in love with them :-) We went back to Chinatown then. In Chinatown we shopped at this little Chinese shop. I bought a really cool teapot for seven bucks. Love it...now I finally have one. woo hoo! Plus there was an H&M! I only got three shirts, plain ones at that, but oh well. Gotta wait for new fall stuff anyways.

After that, we wandered back to Foggy Bottom, and went to a bar called Brickskeller which had a selection of 1000 beers. It was cool, but our waitress sucked. Plus I wasn't hungry anymore, so I just drank some beers. :-) I had a heife-weiss, and then another. Yum. Then home to bed.

Day 5: Aaron and I were on our own for half the day. We decided to go to Crystal City on the Metro that said they had lots of shops. It wasn't very good though, but it was fun to walk around with Aaron. We went back to our area of town and had lunch at a restaurant called Thaiphoon. Super good. I had a good stir fry thing with chicken, shrimp, and beef. We then walked to the hotel, met up with mom and dad, then walked to the Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts for a tour. We passed the Watergate complex on the way there. The tour was pretty decent, some very beautiful chandeleirs. Wish I could have seen a performance but oh well. We then went and got Adam's lazy butt and went back to Thaiphoon for mom and dad to have dinner. Aaron and I just had some ice tea (thai iced tea which i did NOT like). I then bought icecream and some champagne to drink in the hotel. Aaron and dad helped me drink that and i fell asleep at some point. :-)

Day 6: Woke up very early to get to Arlington before it got too hot. Saw the tomb of the unknown soldier, and the changing of the guard, plus the Kennedy grave site. It was very peaceful and nice in the cemetery looking at all the gravestones, seeing the ranks of all the people and what wars they were in.
I started to cry a bit at one memorial. It was dedicated to all the soldiers who died in Iraq. It was inside a building, and consisted of a portrait of EVERY soldier who had died since the war began. (it only went to Nov. 2004, and they were still working on the rest). The portraits were lined up in rows, and had little platforms were people had put money, pictures, letters, and flowers. Among them were wedding pictures, baby pictures, and little notes. Yeah...made me cry. But very touching...but so sad to see such a memorial for such a horrible war that shouldn't have happened. :(

We then left Arlington and were pretty burned out...but decided to walk around the Mall some more.

Here is where I run out of time...will finish my story later. :-)

Hugs to all!!

Bethy