Recall that my best friend was coming to visit me from New Jersey. Traffic was so horrible coming into the area that we missed our tour of the Capitol Building, and my passes for the House and Senate are still sitting on my living room table unused. I would like to point out that the process of reserving a tour online for the Capitol was very easy, but trying to reschedule (so that someone else could take our spots, I'm considerate!) was a NIGHTMARE. Following the instructions simply got me a second confirmation email sent to me- not a cancellation notice or a prompt to change the date or time. After two tries I gave up and hoped someone would see my efforts on their end. I will probably go later at some point in my life, but for the purpose of this blog I will not be able to post about it.
THE WHITE HOUSE
I also wasn't aware there was so much hoopla to try and get White House passes (seriously, pick up to ten vague dates as far as six months in advance? I understand it's the POTUS, but that's a bit ridiculous. Especially since you aren't even GUARANTEED any of the dates you request!). I put in requests for two separate dates- one of which was to to be this Saturday, but a last minute White House event cancelled that and had me rescheduled for the day BEFORE my original date in the middle of the work day. Epic fail White House!
Despite all this, I still managed to get a tour. Keep in mind that cameras and purses/bags are absolutely not permitted, so (again) I only have some bad shots of the outside taken with my camera phone to show you. The good thing is that there are several souvenir guides on sale all over the city that show the interior rooms- which by the way are absolutely grandiose and beautiful (especially if you like antiques and old stuff). Not too sure how practical it would be to actually LIVE there, but it is rather nice to imagine the First Family walking around and doing normal stuff like we would.
The confirmation you receive (which you MUST bring with you) advises that you should arrive at least 15 minutes before your assigned time. This is 100% necessary, as there are THREE checkpoints where you will be required to show your ID before you can even enter. Everyone must be accounted for- even babies- a fact I learned while one family was referred to a supervisor because their 5 or 6 month old wasn't listed on their party. The tour is self led- meaning there is no official guide. You walk on a predetermined path past the most popular room on the East side of the building (not the Oval Office or West Wing) and pretty much just look at all the antiques racked up over the years by different Presidents and their families. All but one of the guards stationed in each room were pretty quiet- with the one exception being a guard who obviously loves his job and was having a great time telling stories about events that took place in his room (the largest room in the White House). It was much appreciated, and very entertaining. You get to walk through the hallway where the President made the announcement about Osama Bin Laden's death (which isn't as grandiose as it looked on television) and hen head out the doors to leave. The entire process takes between 30-45 minutes, depending on how into reading labels you are. The cool part for me was as I was asking a guard a question on my way out, I saw what looked like Charlie Sheen in my peripheral vision (which of course made no sense) to be told that was one of President Bush's brothers (hopefully he wasn't pulling my leg)!
Very cool experience if you are super patriotic or obsessed with the Presidency- but if you find yourself unable to go, Googled pics of the most popular rooms will give you the same experience.
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| (image from AOL Travel) |
THE INTERNATIONAL SPY MUSEUM
I have to admit, I'm very spoiled by living in the DC area. This is one of the many private museums in the city that you have to pay to enter (versus the Smithsonians and the National Gallery of Art that are free), so I had high expectations. $21 dollars (yes I'm counting my online transaction fee!) is pretty steep for someone who is looking at having to pay her first student loan bill in mere weeks, but I went ahead and decided to go. (By the way, cameras are not allowed in here so the only pic I have IS of my ticket. Everything else is from the Internet. Also, not very spy-like to put my entire government name on my ticket! I've blocked out my last name for my own privacy.)
First, you are herded into an elevator, where an employee tells you that you have 5 minutes to assume the identity of a generic profile that will be on the walls of the room your are let into. That was a bit nerve racking (I wasn't prepared for memory tests! lol) but I got my cover down. Then you are led into a theater to watch a brief movie about espionage that is kind of an intro to what you are about to see. This was pretty decent- except at some point either other tourists got too pushy or someone didn't man the doors properly, because a second group not only burst in for the middle of our film, they had the gall to walk in front of the screen as if the twenty or so other people in the room weren't watching a film!
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| One of the galleries (image from businessweek.com) |
Towards the end of our stay we were approached by a staff person asking if we were staying for the adults-only tour afterwards. He explained that for about $10 more, we would go on a specialized spy mission and afterwards get a free cocktail. We had no other plans, so we went, and had an even BETTER time than in the museum! (Special thanks to our tour guide Miguel who probably thought me and my BFF were absolutely certifiably goofy by the end of the tour lol) Making up code names, tapping into "video surveillance" and "phone conversations", breaking into a man's "house" to search his office, making a getaway, and deciding on if our spy organization had been compromised was waaaaaayyy more fun than anything I've ever done in a museum before (and I love museums!). I won't go into too many details because you truly should check it out for yourselves- hint hint fellas, it makes a GREAT date. My best friend and I were one of two non-couple duos there. Everyone else was obviously in some sort of relationship.
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| Cracking into a safe on the "adult only" after hours experience. (image from americanzoom.org) |
I was 100% overjoyed with my experience, and feel it was worth every penny! But I do have two down sides to my trip here.
First, the wild out of control kids. I get it parents; you want your children to have fun, learn, etc. I don't even expect kids to be quiet or even walk calmly in places like this that encourage interaction. But the children that were in the museum that afternoon were totally insane. Yelling and squealing like they were in a playground. Climbing on displays (and not the ones you are allowed to climb on). Opening doors that said "Do Not Open" while parents stood by and said nothing. One little girl kept running (and I mean RUNNING) into me so frequently that the fourth time she did it I grabbed her arm and told her I would tell her mother on her if she did it again. Only then did her mom apologize to me even though she witnessed all the other instances! I don't mean to get preachy, but it's unfair to everyone around if your kids don't know how to act reasonably around other people. The main selling point for me that day to go on the adults only after hours tour was the fact that there wouldn't be kids around- and that's a shame.
Second, the bartender at the end of the after hours portion was absolutely terrible. I don't drink alcohol, so all I was going to get was a tonic water with lime juice. I had to wait nearly 15 minutes for him to make everyone else's drinks (there were only about 8 of us total in my group) because he was completely unaware of how to make drinks, and when he figured it out, he took his sweet time to make them. When I finally got to order my water, he gave me a spiel about how he was new (OK, cool I get it now) and how he hoped to make lots of tips from my group (um, what? I don't think you are supposed to cajole your customers into giving you tips!) I feel for the guy, but I was a little put off by that.
THE MLK MEMORIAL
I made the trek (and by trek I mean about a 25-30 minute walk from the Air and Space Museum because there are no buses or subway stops close to the actual monument) down to the memorial the day it was originally supposed to be dedicated after I got off work. In case you missed the news, Hurricane Irene ended up causing the festivities to be postponed "indefinitely", but also left hundreds of people that had traveled to DC left without any formal programming.
As you can see, the weather cleared up, and it seemed everyone came down to the site regardless of the fact that all formal activities were off. It was PACKED, and I was very nervous of an overeager camera phone photographer was going to bump someone (namely me!) too hard by mistake and we would go flying into the Tidal Basin because there were no rails or other boundaries keeping you from jump hopping into the black water. The monument is kind of hidden if you aren't determined to find it- the National Parks Service hasn't yet updated the outside signage, and to be honest, I simply followed the flow of Black people to ensure I was going the right way. (Hint, stick to Independence Avenue and keep walking until about halfway past the (currently under rennovation) Reflecting Pool- the walkway to MLK will be on the left hand side of the street). It was a bit tricky trying to cross a busy street with no traffic signals or formal walkways to get TO the memorial, but as a city slicker I was ok with that.
Cool experience since it was new, but I don't see myself making that long walk there (or back) anytime soon again.
THE NATIONAL AQUARIUM
I have to admit that I was very hesitant to go to this place. One, I was skeptical about going to a teeny tiny aquarium when I have had my heart set on getting to the uber big one in Baltimore, Maryland for years. Turns out they are sister aquariums. So, after walking from the White House and ending up near their facility (in the basement of another Federal Building) I dedcided to go ahead and experience it for myself.
Overall, I think this place was worth my $9.95. The few staff members I actually got to meet were very friendly and seemed proud of their jobs, and they hinted at membership twice- but not in a used car salesman way, which I thought was appropriate. This place looks like it is SCREAMING for financial assistance, but that's probably because everything was so old. This is America's first aquarium, and it's current physical location has been in place since the 1930s. Everything was neat and clean, if not a little too dark, and there was a much wider variety of animals than I was expecting. Many of the fish seemed used to being gawked at, and returned the favor. One fish in particular followed me along the case- as if making sure I didn't try anything funny, which was a total hoot. I appreciated that many cases had notes added to them about interesting things happening at that time within them (for example, the shark tank pointed out the two types of shark eggs that were inside. First, who knew sharks laid eggs?? And second, the fact that one varitey looked like brown silly string and the other was shaped like a corkscrew really shocked me...I mean, corkscrew shaped eggs? Wow!) At 2PM there are various animal feedings that you can observe- the day I went was for the pirahanas, but I was way too early to watch that (even though your reciept from admission allows you to enter and exit once during the day, so I could have come back). The most frustrating parts were that many of the animals were sleeping (like the sharks- I thought they had died until I saw their bodies breathing!) or were missing altogether (like the octopi). Also, the pictures and names above many of the tanks did not match what was actually in there, so many of the fish I have no clue what they were. The gift shop was packed with stuff (almost to the point to too mnay options) and they had a lot of cute options for any and everything even partially related to the sea and nature available (including Sponge Bob...which made me chuckle when I saw him there).
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| He wanted me to know who was boss! |
The kids in the aquarium were very excited, and I think this would be a good warm-up place to bring kids that haven't been to a really big aquarium or zoo yet. I could also see this as a really cute date spot, or a place to cool down after navigating the busy DC tourist pedestrian traffic.
You can see the rest of my pictures on my Facebook page (and make sure you "like" it as well! Oh, and cut me some slack, I wasn't able to take my new camera with me so there are grainy Blackberry photos. AND kudos to those that take pictures of swimming fish...that was very frustrating getting their attention long enough to take a photo without them whizzing past my poor cell phone!) Finally make sure you give me your feedback on places I should go (or avoid!) and let me know how you are liking things thus far.
Thanks for reading! I hope to have more updates for you soon!
