DC Wins Over Maui Part IV

More national icons! But first, we needed to get out of the parking garage. Our reactivated room keys were not working again. The valet came to let us out and then we headed out to get bagels at Brooklyn Bagel. I'd found it online that morning and figured we had to go to Brooklyn in the DC area. Eddie ordered scrambled eggs on a plain bagel and the guy did not know what scrambled eggs meant. He had no problem with egg whites on whole wheat, however. Strange! The bagels were really good.

What was not really good was getting back into the parking garage. The room keys didn't work so we grabbed a ticket instead and then went to the front desk for a third time. The woman was like, I have to add parking to your room. I was like, But I have free parking. She was like, I still have to charge your room for the room keys to work. I said, Okay then.

1. Why didn't anyone do this in the first place?

2. What exactly does "charging" the room entail when I have free parking?

Two questions I would have asked if the woman hadn't been so grumpy and dismissive. But she was grumpy and dismissive so I didn't ask.

To the metro once more! The plan was to see the Library Of Congress and the Capitol. On the shuttle to the metro, a dad was telling his kids that the first stop was going to be the Museum of Perpetual Boredom. Hee hee heeeeeeee.

We found our way into DC once more and up the escalator and over a few blocks and finally we got to the library, and it was the first attraction we went to that required metal detector security. Going through didn't take that long and it would have been even quicker had the people in front of us followed instructions like "take off your belt" or "remove your metal bangle bracelets." Once in the library, we checked out the Gutenberg bible, the fancy pants paintings on the walls, and the maps exhibits because I love maps. We also found Jefferson's library in which we were not supposed to take any pictures. Then we waited on line to see the third floor. When we got there, I was like, tell me this isn't the whole thing. We were in a hallway that overlooked the main reading room. That was it. The two of us laughed hysterically, took a lot of pictures, and then headed out, realizing we'd spent 20 minutes waiting on line to walk through a hall.

Metro!

Metro!

Ceiling

Ceiling

Entrance

A view from the steps

Ceiling

A view from the third floor

Worth a 20 minute wait?

We touched but nothing began.

This is not a picture of Jefferson's library.

Batman!

There's that Washington Monument again.

Wouldn't even dream of it

And another ceiling

The Capitol also has heavy security. We couldn't bring in even water. Instead of doing the tour, we went through the first floor exhibit. It had statues of people we mostly didn't recognize and a bunch of monitors with quizzes. For shame on us, for shame! I scored 5 out of 10. Eddie scored 0 out of 10, but in his defense, his monitor wasn't working properly so when he pressed an answer, it wouldn't register immediately, so he'd press something else, so there was no telling what he got right and what he got wrong. We came out the other side of the building, still in shame for getting everything wrong.

How Hawaiian!  Thanks, Obama.

After wandering the streets of Washington hungry and unable to find lunch, we fell into a McDonald's and rested and ate. We walked a bit more to decide what to do next, bought an ice cream sandwich to share, and then hailed a cab to go to Ford's Theater. Eddie was like, I don't think I could have made this walk. I was like, Me neither, as we traveled all the way across town once more. We passed Carmines and the yogurt place and found the theatre quickly. We devoured the ice cream and got tickets to the next showing. Eddie was like, how much are these? and the woman responded, They are free, sir. Yeay! More free stuff. We were unaware until the presentation inside that the theatre is like a national park, and that's why it's free. We stood on line, waiting to be let in. That's when I realized that we seem to really love Lincoln. The distance we'd walked to get to the memorial. The amazement at the writing on the wall. The cab we splurged on to get to the theatre. The tickets. The waiting. This is the most we did for anything else. Plus, we've seen the movie Lincoln and though Eddie claims he was falling asleep during it, he was the one who remembered everyone's name in it while I couldn't follow along.

Waiting to go inside, but unsure of what was inside.

Oh, that's what's inside.

Before seeing the presentation, whatever that was going to be, we were corralled into a museum that explained everything about the day Lincoln was assassinated as well as a lot about Lincoln's life and presidency. There was a looped video of our most recent presidents reciting the Gettysburg Address and also the gun that killed Lincoln. There were also statues of the people involved in the events. We were taken with them.

This was the most interesting thing I learned about Lincoln.

We?

Are assholes.

I don't know if it's purposely pointed at poor Abe like that.

When we finally got into the theatre, we headed up to the balcony and sat down and it was lovely to sit and have someone tell us about stuff instead of walking and reading and standing and hurting. The theatre was chilly but it was still better than walking at this point. Also? There were giant heads.

Lincoln's giant head

Someone else's giant head

The stage where the park ranger presented his talk.  It was really great!

President's Box. Before the presidential seal was created, they used a picture of Washington to indicate it.

The door Booth went in to kill Lincoln.

Refreshed from sitting, we headed out of the theater. When I told Eddie I'd hold his ticket for him in my bag, he was like, Aren't we going across the street to see the bed where Lincoln died? I was like, Do you want to? He was like, Nope. I was like, Then I'll hold your ticket because I'm just about Lincoln'ed out. We walked a bit back towards the center of town, deciding what to do next, when we ran into the National Gallery of Art, and I'd been on the fence about going there, but since it was right in front of us, we went in. It was spectacular. First, it was manageable, easy to navigate, and well put together. Second, it had mostly my kind of art. Third, the current exhibit was all about defining cool and since we're very cool ourselves, we felt right at home. We weren't sure when and where we could take pictures, so we have a sporadic photographic account of our visit. Mostly, we acted like assholes again, but the museum was pretty empty so we weren't really bothering anyone with our assholeness.

Me and Suzie B

Dancer

Good stretch

Fitting right in

I did not take this photograph.

Warhol!

Me and tea

Eddie and one of the many baseball people displayed in the heroes exhibit

That boxer had a big hand.

I have a photo of me and this guy from Cooperstown just like this!

Attention S! Eddie found Hawaii!

Being an asshole takes a lot out of a person, so the both of us were beat. We sat on the steps and thought about how to hunt down dinner.

A view from the steps

Sports happen here

Using a combination of Yelp and HopStop, we found a pizza place across from the museum where we dined al fresco. We split a pizza. This is the most Eddie and I have ever split meals. Tired and delirious, we hopped on the metro and headed to Crystal City once more. Waiting for the shuttle, we were entertained by musicians who were tuning up but never quite getting to play an actual song. Once we got to the hotel, we unwound and then got snacky. Unfortunately, the hotel store did not have very good snacks, so we relied on vending machine goodies and my stash of oatmeal bars I'd bought at the CVS before hitting the pillows hard.