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5:30AM... I woke up with a start at the sound of the alarm, fatigued at the early hour but with that innate excited energy of a traveler about to embark for places unseen. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 7:35AM, to give us plenty of time in the afternoon for some sight-seeing, and although I cursed the insane hour at the time, by tonight I feel it paid off.
After landing in Reagan International and collecting our bags, my friends and I headed straight for the metro station to find our hotel. We got off to a bumpy start with our plan to capitalize upon public transportation, this trip, as the ticketing kiosks were nearly all out of order and we were short on cash (yes, yes, a rookie travel mistake, but our brains were not fully on even after a bit of rest on the flight). It turned out well though, since as I was feeding my fiver into one of the only functional kiosks for a ticket out of there, Brad had disappeared on a quest of his own, returning shortly with enough fare for the rest of our intrepid party to make our way into the city. Gina, meanwhile, had been dumped with our baggage in a corner of the station, wondering no doubt whether we guys would ever figure this ticket thing out.
A couple of quick hops between metro lines later, we finally arrived a DuPont Circle, the nearest stop to our hotel... the metro was looking marvelously efficient! Getting up to street level, however, seemed to be more difficult. The escalator to the street was inoperable, and carrying our luggage up the lo-o-ng tunnel and many stair-steps under our own power wasn't a pleasant prospect. Thankfully, just a few minutes after pondering our fate and mustering the fortitude to start the climb, the attendant got the central unit operational again and we were thankfully borne upward mechanically. This, however, was not to be the last of our encounters with the perpetually frozen metro escalators in DC... just, no longer would we be lugging around all the extra weight!
Scrounging together exact change somehow, we grabbed a bus to our hotel and dumped our baggage in the rooms, and I at least took the opportunity to cool down a bit and flop on the bed for a short rest before we started our sight-seeing for the evening. By then it was after 1PM, and my stomach was telling me the granola bar I had on the plane wasn't going to cut it for much longer. Our trio met up again and tramped down to the street, taking the recommendation of a fellow bus passenger to look for food down 18th Street, near our hotel. We didn't find any of the places she'd named, but wound up in a little hole-in-the-wall quasi-Mediterranean deli called either El Khartoum or Pizzeria Trattoria (possibly both). I ordered a slice of pepperoni pizza that proved to be about the size of a small kite, flopping out over the edges of the plate, and no less than three bottles of water since it was a pretty warm day to be walking around everywhere and hydration was becoming paramount. Brad finished off nearly an entire 2-liter of Diet Coke himself, in the short time we ate there! The pizza was excellent especially for the price, and my friends similarly complimented the cheese-steak subs they had ordered. Dining choice #1, approved.
Our first order of tourist business became a trip to the Smithsonian to visit one of the many museums we had planned to see on our itinerary. Once again, the metro got us where we wanted to be in short order, and we exited out into "The Mall," a great strip of open area connecting all of the central hot-spots of the District of Columbia between the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building. After taking in the exhilarating views of both ends to our right and left from our vantage point in the middle, we crossed over to the Museum of Natural History and began the first of what should be many enjoyable Smithsonian excursions. We actually managed to make our way through every room in the 5 hours we spent there, seeing everything from intricately assembled prehistoric fossil skeletons to cross-sections of the layers of soil from each of the United States to infinitely fascinating geological artifacts. To sum up the experience, I don't think any one area of the natural world was excluded and all were awesomely collected together. My Canon's battery gave up the ghost with one room remaining though! An extreme disappointment until I remembered the iPhone at my hip had a camera as well, albeit a far inferior one. After the last of the rooms, which was devoted to precious gems included a view of the famous Hope Diamond, my feet were quite sore but my mind was quite pleased.
Exiting the museum, we crossed back over the Mall to a castle-like structure Gina had spied as we had made our way across earlier, which proved indeed to be the Smithsonian Institute Castle, and I think the original building of the complex. It was quite architecturally engaging, and I managed a few more photos before we headed off to find Georgetown and a place to eat dinner. The Castle and its environs would have to wait until tomorrow... We took the metro to Foggy Bottom Station, which an attendant had informed us would bring us to Georgetown, and I placed a quick call to another good friend who had recommended this borough for our Saturday evening experience. Unfortunately the two locations for good food that he recommended were a bit out of our walking radius rom the Foggy Bottom metro station (especially after our legging it through the Natural History Museum pretty much non-stop), so we put a pin in those ideas for later on in the week and took a quick survey of closer opportunities. We wound up in a very good Thai restaurant not far away from the Fairfax Hotel, called Thai Kitchen. Once again Brad and I were in desperate need of liquid refreshment, and drank three full glasses of beverage each before they even got the order for our food placed (the curry I had was excellent, by the way). Gina informed us it was 86 degrees today, but that the rest of the week would be cooler. Thank God! I don't mind walking around especially in a new city with lots of urban flavor to offer, and using the metro transportation only enhances the Washington DC experience in my mind, but I definitely think we will need to invest in more hydration opportunities tomorrow or wind up getting sick.
All in all, our first day in the nation's capitol has been an awesome and fun experience. I look forward to tomorrow and the rest of the week!
Poor Gina, though, as she has to put up with Brad and I making this trip into a scavenger hunt for locations we recognize from playing Fallout 3 ;-)
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Pictures Taken: 423
Fallout 3 Locations Found: L'Enfant Plaza, Metro Center, DuPont Circle, The National Mall, Museum of Natural History (Underworld), Foggy Bottom Station, Georgetown
Fallout 3 Items Found: Metro Ticket
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