Whoever said traveling is all fun and games was sorely mistaken. These trips have drawn out our blood (see Lincoln Memorial visit below), sweat (or swack, as Mindy calls it), and tears (apparently one of us gets a little emotional when she’s low on sleep). But somebody had to use these Jet Blue passes, right?! And we couldn’t be happier that it’s us. Here’s what happened during our fabulous trip to D.C…
We thought we'd hit the jackpot when we found ourselves in the front row of the airplane. Turns out there is a huge disadvantage to sitting on the first row for a redeye flight—the armrests don’t go up. After trying a variety of positions (legs over the top of the arm rests, curling up in a ball on the seat, lying on the tray), Emily noticed that there was a TON of wasted space right there in front of them on the floor—just enough for her to lie down comfortably. After weighing the pros and cons (Pros: Possibly getting a few winks of sleep. Cons: Unidentifiable crumbs and germs on the floor; the embarrassment of being shooed back to her seat by a flight attendant), Emily decided it was worth the risk. She curled up in a little ball on the floor and got a solid 20 minutes of sleep before she started shivering from the cold air seeping through the air vents. We got a combined total of around one hour of sleep on the flight, but arrived in D.C. bright-eyed and ready to take on the city.
The morning started off just the way every Saturday should in D.C.—with blueberry buckwheat pancake goodness from Eastern market. Dr. Pepper isn’t a natural pairing with this particular meal, but it was essential to get us moving after our sleepless night. To our surprise, we ran in to our friend Julie from Palo Alto who was in D.C. for the week doing some interviews (good luck, Julie!!). We were so excited that she joined us for breakfast.
Mindy, one of Emily’s dear friends from college, also met up with us for breakfast and spent most of the day touring around the city.
Luckily we had a lot of walking ahead of us to work off our hefty breakfast. We hit up the National Mall to take in all the sites that make D.C. such a hot destination for travelers from around the world. We met some very friendly gentlemen from India who were nice enough to ask for photos with us. As you can see from the picture, one of them really thought he and Brittany hit it off.
Even though Emily has lived in D.C. and has visited the monuments countless times, seeing their majestic wonderment and enjoying their sentiment never gets old.
Oh, we almost forgot. We decided that because each trip is only 36 hours long, there is really no need to bring any more than a backpack. Plus, this allows us to hit the ground running straight from the airport rather than making a luggage drop first. For all intents and purposes, this makes perfect sense. But just because we’re only there for 36 hours doesn’t mean we can cut back on the beauty essentials and clothing/shoes choices. Our packs were bulging at the seams which invited plenty of strange looks. We also noticed that the packs contribute significantly to the sweat factor (which without the pack would have been a mere “glow” rather than actual sweat). Mindy informed us that the technical term here is actually “swack” (sweat on back=swack). Pretty gross, but hey—at least we’re making the most of our time!
Did you know that D.C. has a fashion week? Neither did we! But thanks to Brittany’s stellar research skills, we found out that a fashion show was being held on H Street to wrap things up for D.C.’s annual week of fashion. We hopped off the metro at Union Station and followed the directions from the website. Now, anytime you head in the southeast direction in D.C., it should be cause for concern. But because Emily lacks any sort of sense of direction, and Brittany wasn’t aware that this should be a red flag, we continued along our merry way.
After walking a solid 20 blocks and passing a number of obvious drug deals, we arrived at the “fashion show.” It turns out that D.C.’s fashion week has nothing to do with fashion, but does have Obama shirts on sale for $1 (we couldn’t resist), a booth where you can get your face painted on a rock (darn line was just too long), and free spaghetti (very posh). There was a “runway” in the middle of the street where a few models showed off some clothes, but they were clearly made by a high school home ec class, rather than actual designers. Needless to say, I don’t think we’ll be seeing these styles on the rack any time soon.
That evening we met up with Palo Alto friends Brandon and Don for dinner at one of Emily’s favorite places on Earth—2 Amy’s. The restaurant was a regular destination (meaning weekly) when Emily lived in D.C. The Neapolitan-style pizza lived up to her memories and was just as tasty as she remembered. Had the trip had ended after that meal, it would have been complete in her mind.
That night we found another party to hit up where we ran into fellow BYU and U of U grads. So is it any surprise that we ran in to co-workers and neighbors from freshman year of college, siblings of friends and people we’d been setup on blind dates with? We didn’t think so either. It was fun to mingle with some of the D.C. residents and hear about their exciting endeavors.
After the party, we had to do another one of Emily’s D.C. favs—visit Abe. There’s nothing more D.C.-esque than sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial overlooking the Washington Monument and reflecting pool.
Spectacular view + good friends – Brandon kicking Brittany in the face = perfect night.
(He claims her face hit his foot—not the other way around.)
The next morning we attended church at the Colonial 1st ward. It was fun to see the friends we had made the night before, along with several other familiar faces from when Emily attended this ward as a regular. After church, we dined at the infamous Old Ebbitt Grill with friends and took an afternoon stroll by the White House to say hello to the first family.
And just like that, the trip had to come to an end. We headed for the airport and made it just in time to walk right on the plane (we’ve gotten really good at not getting to the airport until the very last minute).
This week we’ve done our best to catch up on the sleep we’ve missed from all of our traveling. Some of the effects have started to show through, which has caused a bit of embarrassment. Brittany became frustrated by not one but TWO sinks that weren’t turning on. Emily gently reminded her on both occasions that it helps to turn the faucet handles. Emily found herself confused about her whereabouts during a conversation with someone at the party and actually had to ask “wait, where am I?” Apparently it’s hard to keep track of where you are when you’ve been in 4 states in the last three weeks. And finally, one of us had a small meltdown for no explainable reason other than she needed a nap. She is now well-rested and ready for this weekend in....NEW YORK!
B&E
Soundtrack from this trip: D.C. Chillin and Ghetto Superstar
