Ryan the Girl Goes to Washington

This past weekend, I visited a good friend of mine in Maryland. We went to college together and hadn't seen each other in way too long, and I must say, I had a lovely time! :)

We decided to take the Metro into DC on Saturday, cuz that's what cool people who live within walking distance of a Metro Station do, and because I hadn't been into the city in a very long time.

And who knew? All the cool stuff in DC is FREE. Free, ya'll!

First, we went to the National Zoo, which was surprisingly cool, although crowded and overrun with strollers and children. The best part was seeing the otters. I love otters. If I could be any animal, I would totally be an otter. They seem so happy all the time!

We walked all over the place, saw tons of animals, grabbed a quick bite, and then decided to head to The National Mall.

Now, here's a helpful hint to any and all of you who are planning weekend trips to DC anytime soon: Whenever the Metro needs maintenance, said maintenance is completed on the weekends. This makes sense, as rush hour would be a total nightmare otherwise. Anyways, the line we were traveling on had two or three stops that were closed this past weekend. So, the Metro's solution for getting travelers where they needed to go was to shove a bazillion people on shuttle buses and drive to all the stops the train couldn't get to. We got to the National Mall with very little hassle. However, this poor kid who was sitting next to where I was standing on the overcrowded bus was having a total freakout... I think he was claustrophobic or something. I felt awful, as I was unable to do anything but stand in my 1 square foot of space, which made it so I was practically hovering over him.

Anyways, by the time we got the The Mall, our feet were already starting to hurt. So, we decided to hit up some highlights at two museums. We first went to the American History Museum, where we saw the very cool First Ladies' Gowns exhibit, an instrument exhibit, and the lunch counter and stools from the famous sit-in at the Woolworth's in Greensboro, NC. Very moving to see.

Then, we went to the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaurs and giant sea creatures (well, their fossilized bones...). I have lots of memories of that exhibit from when I was a wee one. Though, I remember everything being bigger.

After that, we stepped outside, and the sky had turned this ominous black color off towards the Washington Monument, and the wind had picked up. It was obvious that a deluge was coming our way.

We speed walked to the Metro station, and got there as the first drops were falling. We had to wait about fifteen minutes for the train, and, as we were waiting, soaked people kept walking by. We were worried, because we knew we were going to have to go outside to get on a bus once we got to the stop before all the closed stations. Neither of us had jackets or umbrellas.

We got to the last stop and sprinted up the stairs of the metro station, ready to fling ourselves out of the rain and onto the waiting shuttle... however, they had people waiting in line to get on... while people on the bus were trying to decide whether or not they were getting off (no dirty jokes please...). So, we got SOAKED.

The problem was that the bus drivers weren't telling anyone which stops they were getting to. If you didn't know the area, you had no clue if you were at the right stop or not! So all the people on the bus had no clue if they needed to disembark or not.

Anyways, we got on another jam-packed bus (but this time got seats!). Unfortunately, traffic had picked up, so it took us like 40 minutes to get to the metro stop where we could catch the train back to my friend's hometown. That's 40 minutes sitting with a dude's elbow in my face. So, a bunch of soaked people were crammed into an air conditioned bus and then had to sit in traffic for forever. People got grumpy.

Oh yeah, and the temperature dropped from 92 degrees to 65 degrees. Once we finally got back to Maryland and were walking back to my friend's place from the Metro stop, we were freezing! Earlier in the day we were sweating profusely! Crazy September weather.

Anyways, that was my weekend adventure in the Nation's Capital.

When we got back, we made pasta and roasted broccoli (my new favorite thing EVER), and then proceeded to drink an entire bottle of (much-deserved) red wine.