Becoming a Scoot Master Part 2

And then we got to Washington DC!

We had a mooring just off The Wharf, which is a half hour walk or five minute shuttle ride from the National Mall. It was great; we were able to see the Washington Monument from the boat.

So tall and pointy!

The next day, we met up with my cousin Marcy, her husband Andy, and baby Ryder. They currently work in and around Washington DC (when they aren't in frantic new parent mode) and were able to pick out a great restaurant for us. It was in an historic building, but best of all, it was warm. After driving the boat out in the open in 50 degree weather, it was great to relax with a bowl of hot chili.

I need to get a selfie stick.

After the restaurant, we were able to walk a few blocks to the White House! I don't think the president was there at the time. I'm not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing....

Everybody say "impeach!"

And then began Museum Week. Our routine became waking up between eight and nine, heating up the water for Justin's shower, getting to the shuttle a little after ten, and making it to the National Mall by eleven. That gave us plenty of time each day to see a ton of museums. And did we see museums. I think the final list (in no particular order) is:

1. Air and Space Museum
2. Native American Museum
3. National Gallery of Art
4. National Archives
5. American History Museum
6. African American History Museum
7. Natural History Museum
8. Capital Building
9. Library of Congress
10. United States Botanic Garden
11. National Mint
12. National Cathedral

You would be super bored if I did a day by day description of each museum, so I'll just give you guys some highlights to go along with the best pictures. 

One of the museums Justin was looking forward to the most was the Air and Space Museum. I had already been there a couple times , but it was still pretty cool to come back to it. While we were not able to take our cats into the museum, I made sure to find Sputnik and Apollo's namesakes!

Not a very photogenic piece of Sputnik (The satellite, not the cat)

Command module from Apollo 11 (Also, not a cat.)

This is Amelia Earheart's actual plane! (Not the one she was lost in...that one's lost...)

SPACE TOILET! This one is for girls. 

The Capitol Building was really neat too, but we weren't allowed to take pictures of the good stuff. We wound up walking past it a few times before finally figuring out where the tourist entrance was  and going in for a tour. It turns out the senators and representatives don't walk up the main steps to get into the building either. They have a separate entrance in the back, or there are tunnels to office buildings nearby. I was a little disappointed to learn that. I liked imagining some of our chunkier representatives wheezing their way up all of those steps. The tour itself was pretty short and didn't give us much of a chance to see a lot. But then, we found out that if you go to your senator's office, you can get a pass to see the senate and house rooms. 

Those security guards looked pretty bored.

I think I can hear patriotic music in the background.

That led us on an adventure across the street into a very nondescript office building where we found Kirsten Gillibrand's office. She wasn't there, but I still felt important walking into a real senator's office. The bored college kid sitting a desk in the main room was very nice and handed over some pre-signed cards that would be our tickets into the house and senate. 

I was so star struck that I forgot to take a picture of her office. 

They won't let you take pictures inside the house and senate rooms, but I was able to take a picture of Justin breaking the rules in the hallway outside of it. 

Justin is such a BAMF.

Congress wasn't in session when we were there, so when we went into the House of Representatives, we didn't see much action. In the Senate, however, they stationed a guy in the gallery to stand there and answer everyone's questions. He was very knowledgeable, but failed to tell us the most important thing: one of the desks in the senate is the "Candy Desk" and is filled with snacks for the senators. We had to find that out from the brochure later. 

Another one of my favorites from DC week was, surprise surprise, the library. 

I'll take all the books. Thank you.

Inside, it was definitely cool. I got to check out Thomas Jefferson's personal library. I've always really liked Thomas Jefferson because we share a birthday and both like to write things. Unlike TJ, however, I'm not super racist. Anyway, he had lots of really neat books. 

Thomas Jefferson actually touched these.... not in a dirty way.... I think...

The main reading room of the Library of Congress is usually closed to visitors. I guess they don't want too many nerds like me gawking and drooling all over the pretty books when people who are really supposed to be there are trying to work. However, I happened to visit the Library of Congress on Halloween, and they were doing a special reading of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. And the reading was, naturally in the reading room. So I was able to go in and get you this panorama.

I wouldn't mind moving here. 

Oh, and speaking of Thomas Jefferson, we got to check out the memorials around the Tidal Basin just outside the mall.

Hey TJ!

Sunset at Jefferson Memorial and a bunch of very bored high school kids

I wonder how they got the dog to sit still enough for a statue to be made of him.

This is the Korean War Memorial. Alan Alda is not in this picture.

One of these people won the civil war and the other can eat an entire bag of Doritos in one sitting. 

The American History Museum was surprisingly neat. Three days in a row we finished our initial museum of the day with an hour or so to spare, looked at each other and said "American History again?" I was originally reluctant to go to this one because my experiences with American history in high school was kind of boring. Pretty much all I learned was the white people are terrible and ruin everything. That's still the case, but I got to look at some really cool things too.

One of my favorites was a display of first ladies' inaugural dresses. After looking at lots of stuff about old white men (other than the African American History Museum), it was really refreshing to see an entire display all about women. Although I can't say it wasn't interesting imagining some of those old white men wearing these dresses.

Hillary wore this one. Too bad it wasn't for her own inauguration....

This one's Michelle's. So pretty. 

The past few weeks living on the boat had been fun, but definitely very cold. At home, you can go inside, light a fire in the fireplace and crank up the heat. If you light a fire on the boat, you have a serious problem. I've been surviving by turning the stove on when I can, running an electric heater when we have power, and wearing between three and ninety layers of clothing at all times. When I saw these heated socks at the museum, I nearly broke the glass and stole them. Instead, on our next WalMart run, we bought a heated blanket, which is heating my toes at this very moment.

Shut up and take my money!

Those socks would probably look good in Judy Garland's actual ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz.

If I tap my heels three times, will I get to the Bahamas instantly?

I did look at things other than clothing in the American History Museum. For instance, I say a really cool celebrity. He was so famous, he had to stay behind glass.

Dur hur bur dur hur bur dur!!

The other museums were definitely cool too. Here are the best pictures I could take of those.

Justin's next boat.

This is the prettiest flower in the botanical garden. The fact that it's purple is a coincidence.

The Declaration of Independence is in here. Nicholas Cage is no longer welcome.

This is hard to admit, but after a full week of walking around museums, Justin and I were both pretty tired. The first time we tried to make it to the National Cathedral, which was a two hour walk from the mall, we failed miserably. As much as I enjoy walking and cathedrals, my crankiness levels got too high to make it there. I turned back from our quest  and took the walk of shame back to the mall, defeated. I felt bad, but at least I didn't fell asleep in the Native American Museum like someone else I know...

Justin may or may not have napped in one of these chairs.

On our last day of museums, it had finally warmed up enough that I was down to just two layers. This was our last chance to make it to the National Cathedral. I was determined, but I was still a little sore from our week of museuming. And then, the answer rolled up to us on a battery and two wheels. The only way to get to the cathedral with minimal whining was to scoot.

I didn't want to do it at first. The memory of my initial, disastrous scooter adventure was still fresh in my memory. With images of myself careening into oncoming traffic, or a little old lady, or the reflecting pool flashing through my mind, I timidly approached the scooter. It did not attack. I stepped on, pushed off, and a miraculous thing happened. I relaxed. I let the scooter take me, and off I went, whizzing in and out of traffic, speeding by with my hair splayed photogenically behind me. I discovered the trick to scooting was to trust in the scooter. (And that there's a hand brake on the left handlebar.) Anyway, I had learned to become one with the scooter. I was a Scoot Master.

The Great Scoot Master

And becoming a Scoot Master was definitely worth it. Along the way to the cathedral, we found ourselves on embassy row. We passed embassies for all sorts of countries, each ranging from just a nice house (like Turkey) to giant complexes (like France or England.)

The British Embassy has a red phone box!

And when we finally made it to the Cathedral, we had a really fun time exploring. It was weird walking around a cathedral that's only 100 years old at the most. Some parts were built less than 30 years ago! It still felt old though.

Pointy. (The cathedral, not my head.)

Every time I'm in a church like this I want to sing Esmerelda's song from Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Woodrow Wilson's corpse is in there!

We got to climb into one of the towers and get some amazing views of Washington DC!

There is a gargoyle in the shape of Darth Vader here somewhere...

The Washington Monument is the monumenty shaped thing. 

We spent more time in Washington DC than we have in any other one place on this trip, and (even though it was out of our way) I'm glad we were able to do it, even if I didn't get a chance to put a "kick me" sign on Paul Ryan's office door.

tl;dr: We spent a long week in Washington DC sightseeing.