Sep 6, 2008

America the Beautiful

Hello all! :)

It's been a while since I (Erika) update, but that's cause I was on VACATION, and super busy at school...
We (and by "we" I mean my family and I) went to Gettysburg, Washington DC, and Virginia Beach. It was spectacular.

First I'll tell ya'll about Gettysburg and DC. Gettysburg was kind of just a pit stop on the way to Washington DC, so we didn't see all the great sights that there are to see. Regardless, when we got to Gettysburg, we drove around for far too long a time looking for the visitor's center. When we finally found it, we went in and saw a movie about the battle and Civil War in general, and then went to a museum for a while.

Then the real fun and games began. We bought a car tour-cd-thing. It let us go at our own pace and get a feel for the HUGE battlefield. I had no idea how big this place was...
All in all - it was cool.

Then we were off to DC. We stayed in a "quirky" little place called the Hotel Harrington. It was right downtown, so that was really cool - we were only a couple blocks away from the White House. 
The problem was.... it was kind of a pit. 
It kind of reminded me of a hostel that we stay in when we go to Chicago for school trips. So, actually - I was quite used to it. My family, on the other hand was not. 

But, despite the less than satisfactory living conditions, we had a great time in DC. We did your typical tourist-y type stuff. We got tickets for the Tourmobile:

Oops, that's not it. ;)


There we go. This bad boy took us to see all the sights. They would drop us off, we'd get out, and then catch the next bus. It was nice, cause it cut down on the walking. And based on how much we walked anyways, if we didn't have the bus, I DEFinitely would have died. 

Some notable things that happened while in DC: 

1. My mom talked in her sleep. We all know how funny people talking in their sleep is. :) First she said, "Get out of here!!" and then she started screaming... but the funny thing was that she sounded like she was a ghost. And Timmy sat up and said "What are you doing??" Haha. It was hilarious. 

2. We saw this on the way to Arlington National Cemetery: 

I wish you all could see this thing better. It was hilariously creepy. A man's head on a fish.... yikes.

3. All the monuments and stuff, they were all great. I saw the WW2 Memorial for the first time, and it's really cool. I also saw the National Cathedral for the first time... and it was sweeet!

4. There was a hullabaloo at the White House, and we thought maybe we would see somebody famous (like the Jonas Brothers, for example), but unfortunately, no. All we saw were cops, police tape, and news crews. And no. I still don't know what was going on. All we know was that you couldn't get anywhere near the White House and people who had tours scheduled weren't allowed to go on them. 

Okie dokes. That's all for now. Sorry I've neglected for so long. 
And the next post will be all about VA Beach. yay!!

4 comments:

kate.yo said...

was andrew bloated on the battlefield?
also, i thought your mom was a vampire, not a ghost.

Anonymous said...

FINALLY! I've been waiting so long.

The WW2 memorial is AWESOME. One of my favorite things in DC.

I don't remember seeing the manfish face. But that is definitely weird.

I love to talk to people in their sleep. Especially when I tell my mom I had a seizure.

Anonymous said...

WHERE IS THE HOTDOG PICTURE????????????

Anonymous said...

"Two grotesque sculpted heads on the sides of the Inlet Bridge can be seen as you walk along the sidewalk that hugs the basin. The inside walls of the bridge also sport two other interesting sculptures: bronze, human-headed fish that spout water from their mouths. The bridge was refurbished in the 1980s at the same time the chief of the park, Jack Fish, was retiring. Sculptor Constantine Sephralis played a little joke: these fish heads are actually Fish's head."