After almost dying of boredom from spending my first 3.5 days in the area unpacking, grocery shopping, decorating, and then sitting in my house, I had an AWESOME 1st weekend in the D.C. area. It began with a free ride to practice instead of the 1.5-hour trip to practice that I was originally anticipating, and then practice with Renegade from 11:00am - 2:00pm at the D.C. polo fields by the National Mall! Now, if a good 3 hours of ultimate isn't a good way to start the weekend, I don't know what is. One of my beloved Whiptail teammates, Pnut, who graduated 2 years earlier than me was in town for practice (we're playing on the same team), and so Pnut, our captain and friend Puppy, and I spent the entire rest of the day and night together wandering towards Dupont Circle and then stayed the night at Puppy's place. Luckily for me, I had brought an extra change of clothes in case I didn't want to ride all the way back to my house in Silver Spring in sweaty ultimate clothes. So prepared! We got DELICIOUS empanadas from Julia's Empanadas for a lunchtime snack and then spent a good couple hours
sitting on the steps of the Dupont Circle fountain and listening to free live musicians perform some beautiful but unrecognizable covers of some old classics like "With or Without You", "Summertime", and "Something".
The next day, I had originally planned to go back to my house. However, it was an absolutely exquisite day, and I was already in downtown D.C., so I called up a friend and asked him if he wanted to meet me in the city and do touristy things. We met at the Washington Monument and began our day chock full of sightseeing and walking from there!
What an enjoyable day! We saw the Lincoln Memorial, World War II Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, the Washington Memorial (though we didn't go up to the top), the White House, Chinatown, the National Sculpture Garden, the Smithsonian Gardens, and we took a look at a couple floors of the Hirshhorn Museum before heading our separate ways for the evening. We also took an incredibly satisfying lunch break at an Indian buffet. Sounds risky? Not at all! It was INCREDIBLE. Here are some photographs of my day: the arched walkway at the front of the EPA, B.B. King's handprints in cement (!!!), and my friend Nick looking slightly peeved as I took a picture of him perusing the guide to the sculpture garden.
What a fabulous weekend! I guess one of the perks of not being in college anymore is that when I'm done with work or when I don't have work...I don't have work! I'm so excited to continue to explore DC and the areas around it in the months, the year to come! A to-do list is most certainly in order!
How social and open you have become these days. Calling your friend out of the blue sounds easier than ever I have heard from you. As long as you don't lose your strength and beauty, getting along with people well is a mighty weapon you can have for your life--especially in D.C.
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