Sofi here! As mentioned in the last post, I've been on an East Coast Trip with school for the last nine days. The day I left, Joey brought me a 'Flat Joey' that I could take with me so I wouldn't be alone on the other side of the country. We left at about 11:30 pm on the 11th and travelled well into the next day.
The minute we touched down in DC, we started doing things. We visited several monuments before we went to the hotel. This is the Lincoln Memorial, one of my favorites.
This is me and a friend, Tanner, at the World War Two memorial. Around the outside edge of the memorial were pedestals with all the states' names on them. We tracked down Oregon right away.
We visited pretty much every government building in DC. This is a picture of my favorite staircase. It lives in the supreme court building. The whole entire thing is marble, and it's gorgeous. I had to walk up and down it a couple of times just because it was so amazing. In case you're wondering, the gold doors at the bottom lead into the elevator. I never thought I'd be showing off pictures of an elevator door, but then again, I never thought elevator doors could be so beautiful!
We visited the Capitol, which was equally amazing. Every state was asked to send in a statue of someone famous from their state. They could pick anyone they wanted, the only criteria was that the person had to be dead. I didn't recognize the person Oregon sent in, but Utah chose Brigham Young.
This is my favorite place on the planet. Seriously. It's the Library of Congress. It has to be the most beautiful building I've ever seen in my whole entire life. The walls are carved marble, the ceilings are frescoed, and the floors are mosaics. There are quotes about books everywhere. It was nice to see such a beautiful building made just for holding books.
One evening we went to a boardwalk in National Harbor. We had a great time goofing off and having fun. There was a Peep store right by the lake (Yes, an entire store devoted to the little sugary marshmallows), so we bought a bunch and played Chubby Bunny. Chubby Bunny is a game where you shove a peep in your mouth and say "Chubby Bunny". You try to get as many peeps in your mouth as possible without choking, asphyxiating, or puking. I made it to six. The winner was eight. Later on, we rode on the ferris wheel. I'd never been in a ferris wheel that big before, the kind where you sit in a little car, and it was a lot of fun! It was slightly terrifying though, because we kept imagining how easily our car could come loose and we could fall to our deaths. We finished the night off with frozen yogurt.
Naturally, we visited the White House. There were several people lobbying outside, protesting Obama, and War, and just about everything else. One woman has been camping continuously outside the White House since the 1980s. She's getting pretty old now, so not everything she's lobbying for makes clear sense. As far as we could tell, she's still protesting George Bush. She's also rather sick, so one of her friends was filling in for her while she rested. We took a picture with him.
We didn't have a ton of time, but we visited as many Smithsonians as possible. This picture has a special story. The weekend before I left, Grandma and Grandpa Hull came to visit. Grandpa told us about an East Coast Trip he made when he was my age, and was at the World's Fair in Chicago. On the trip, he saw the very first Mustang on display. Imagine my surprise then, when in the Museum of American History, we found an exhibit featuring the very same car, commemorating its 50th anniversary!
We drove up to Mount Vernon, where George Washington lived when he wasn't being president or fighting for independence. The farm was absolutely beautiful. Turns out George really didn't like being president. His true passion was farming. Even the molding in his gorgeous mansion is decorated with pictures of farming implements.
On our drive from DC to New York, we stopped in Philadelphia. We saw the Liberty Bell, the rooms where the first Senate and House met, and the room where the Declaration of Independence was signed. We also stopped for Philly Cheesesteaks. We had the choice of several types of cheese, but our tour guide recommended Cheez Whiz. I was skeptical at first, but from the first bite, I was in love. Something about the way the Cheez melted in between the layers of super thinly sliced beef, and the onions were perfectly cooked to where they were crunchy but not spicy, and the bun was soft and chewy made for the perfect combination. We washed it all down with a bottle of birch beer which is sorta like root beer but red.
We got into NYC at dinner time and ate dinner in the basement of the Empire State. Part of the restaurant was a sports bar, and it just so happened that the US world cup game was on. I, along with several other soccer fans, was delighted to join in on the cheering. After dinner, we took elevators up to the 86th floor, where we had a wonderful 360ยบ view of Manhattan.
We visited a couple museums in New York, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The exhibits were really cool. We saw a Greek exhibit full of naked statues missing their arms, an Asian exhibit with pottery that predates most of the bible, and a European painting exhibit with beautiful vivid colors, dynamic subjects, and again, lots of naked people (seriously, what is up with that?) This picture is taken from the rooftop garden which gave a beautiful daylight view of the skyline.
Every night in New York, we had something fun to do. We went to a Yankees game which frankly was very boring until we got into a cheering war with some Canadians (The Yankees were playing the Toronto Blue Jays) We also went to two broadway shows which were quite possibly my favorite part of the trip. We saw Jersey Boys and Kinky Boots. Jersey Boys is about the band The Four Seasons and their rise to fame. The songs were all actual songs from their various albums. Our group was singing them constantly for the rest of the trip. Kinky Boots is an outrageous musical about a shoe factory that is going out of business, so in a last ditch attempt to save the company, they start making boots for drag queens. It won six Tonys including best musical, and it lived up to expectations. Both musicals were very well done, and absolutely amazing.
We took a ferry out to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, both of which were very fun. I love boats of all kind, so the ferries almost outshone the islands themselves. At Ellis Island, I looked up several ancestors who had come through, and found their records.
This was our last view of the skyline right before hills on either side of the freeway obscured it and we drove off to the airport. On the trip, we did several other things that I didn't take pictures of, such as our five hours of shopping on fifth avenue, and our walk through Central Park. All in all, it was an amazing trip. I had so much fun making friends and seeing new things and laughing and singing and everything. It was the trip of a lifetime.
