The weekend after the fourth was pretty eventful for me. On Saturday, I met up with a high school friend and we toured the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, which housed jewels, fossils, bones, insects, mummies, an African elephant, and just about everything in between. Afterwards, we went on to the Hirshhorn Museum of Contemporary Art, the Air and Space Museum (my favorite museum at the Mall), the US Botanic Gardens, the Archives Museum, the Sculpture Garden, and the American Art Museum. Let’s just say we were super touristy that day. Since it’s DC and almost everything free is owned by the government, a lot of places close at 5:00pm. Although I’m not the biggest fan of nature, I enjoyed the Gardens because of the variety of different plants and environments on exhibit. It was possible to walk through the jungle, Hawaii, orchids, rare and endangered species, and desert exhibits within ten minutes, which made the experience interesting.
Later that day, Jonathan and I did something all tourists need to do: go monument hopping at night. With (surprisingly) no tourists and lots of people to push and shove through and the illuminated monuments, it’s definitely a sight to see. After taking a couple of pictures with the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and the World War II Memorial, we walked up to Foggy Bottom to hang out with some intern friends staying at GW.
On Sunday, the plan was to go to a free pool party in southeast DC at a shady hotel since it was hot and humid out (understatement of the century). We got there at exactly 1:04pm after having to deal with metro delays as usual only to find out that they were strict about their getting there before 1:00pm policy to get in for free. Refusing to pay $20 each to get in, we decided to go paddle boating at the Tidal Basin as another way to cool off, especially since I was fasting and Jonathan was observing with me, which said a lot. Although I’ve been paddle boating before, I always underestimate the energy required to peddle in water. I enjoyed it hour-long adventure though since I got to cool down a bit and see the Jefferson Memorial up close, which I’ve never been to.
I always heard the Holocaust Memorial Museum was a great place to visit, but I couldn’t agree after touring the three-story museum. Except for the children’s exhibit, I didn’t find it to be engaging nor interactive, but very informative. We then met with my friend Madison again and headed to Gravelly Point Park, near Reagan Airport. That’s supposedly a place that not many tourists know of where people can plane watch as planes and and take off at the airport that’s within walking distance. I’ve always had a fascination with planes, which could be attributed to me flying so often ever since I was a young child. That’s why I was so excited about going there only to be slightly disappointed by the view that wasn’t exclusive to the Park. After our long walk over the bridge from Virginia to DC, we stopped by the Jefferson Memorial, where I actually got to see the inside of it for the first time.
