Finally made it to D.C!

James had work to do in D.C. and invited me to go with. However, I needed a friend to go, too, so I had a travel buddy during the day while James worked. So, we invited Jake. It was our last hurrah together before he left for his mission in Brazil.

It was a bit rainy while we were there which actually was quite nice. And even when it wasn't rainy, it was pretty humid. You can see the foggy effect it had on my camera. (It's also the evidence of a dying camera which has since been retired! YAY! Look for great pictures taken with our new camera - coming soon!)

We went first to the Smithsonian castle info center so we could get acquainted with the museums and formulate a plan. We went first to the Natural Science Museum which I hadn't even planned to go to just for lack of time. But that was Jake's first pick and I'm glad we went. He LOVED it! As you can see...

These skeletons reminded us of Jenny our sister. She wrote an essay when she was young - like 6 or 7 - about how she was a sloth. Well, these skeletons are Giant sloths from way back when. They were somewhere between the size of a polar bear and a small elephant. Not even joking. HUGE!

We also went to an art museum which happened to be an abstract art museum. Abstract art is not my favorite although I can appreciate it thanks to my Art History 201 and 202 classes at BYU. Jake, however, saw very little value in this museum... except for these great zodiac sign statues outside. :)

After the Mall of America closed, we rode the metro over to the Union Station to find some dinner and do some shopping. (Jake was dying to do some shopping.) The Union Station architecture was really neat and old. I loved it! We shared a Chinese entree to keep from spending too much and getting too full in case James hadn't eaten - which turned out to be true.

It was about 8:30PM or so when James and a co-worker were driving around trying to find us and take us with them to dinner at an old restaurant just across the street from the White House. It used to be a bar and they still have the original bar area that looks just like the ones from old western movies.

Well, Jake and I had just walked about 20 blocks from the Union Station to the White House hoping they would meet us halfway but they didn't. At one point, I was on the phone trying to tell James where we were. We had been walking on one road that had merged with another without us realizing it so I wasn't sure exactly what the new name of the road was, and I couldn't read the sign across the street because of the darkness and fogginess. So I asked Jake, "Hey Jake! What does that sign say?" I guess I had assumed he had heard my end of the conversation and knew we were trying to meet up with the guys and would know I was asking about the sign that had the name of the street on it.

But, alas, I assumed wrong. His answer was, "One way." Ha! Thank you, Jake. You're a big help! So I told James, "We're on the corner of 15th and One Way... See you soon!" So, here is a picture of Jake, on the corner of 15th and One Way - probably the biggest funny of the whole weekend.