Not in any of the 50 states, but still in the US?

How is that possible? DC!

I spent 5 days down in the DC metro area visiting friends and playing tourist. Julie was down from Alaska for her sister's wedding in Pittsburgh (congrats Maria and Bill!). We have a bunch of mutual friends in the DC area, so rather than her trekking from the 'burgh to Jersey to meet up, we decided to meet in DC.

I took the Megabus from NY to DC on Wednesday morning. My fare on the way down was $1 (no lies!) On-time, clean, and free wi-fi, I can definitely recommend them. I took the Metro up to Rockville, MD to meet up with Julie, as we were staying with her friend Meg for the night.

Meg's super cute hot dog dog Bailey

On Thursday, Julie and I were DC tourists. This was Julie's first time to the city, and even though I've been twice before, I had forgotten most of everything, so I was happy to play tourist again. We wandered the Mall and went to the Holocaust museum (very well-done, I would definitely recommend it). We headed to Fairfax, VA to stay with Laura, and met with Armand for a tasty dinner.

Julie got 2 falls this year, no fair

We Are! Hungry!

Julie left early Friday to continue her mid-Atlantic tour, and I took to the streets and museums again. I went to the top of the Washington Monument (uber-tourist!), visited the American History museum, grabbed lunch in Chinatown, did a quick tour of the National Portrait gallery before running to catch my train back to Fairfax. I randomly ran into a friend, Nicole, from Penn State in the Metro station. It was so funny- I was on a mission to get to the train, and all of a sudden I hear my name. We had a quick chat, and I was still able to catch the train.

The Monument from the Lincoln Memorial

From the top of the Washington Monument, look at the Capitol Building

On Friday night I went to see "Waiting for Godot" at a theatre in Maryland with Laura and some of her friends. Saturday, we went into DC for a tour of the National Building museum (very cool) and to watch the Penn State game with Armand, Steve (down from UMD), and Laura's friend Paul. After that, we decided to head to Georgetown for dinner, and the streets were PACKED for Halloween.

I stayed with Armand in Silver Spring, MD on Saturday night. I got a tour of Silver Spring (and saw the namesake silver spring) before heading back into DC to catch my bus back home. After nearly 2.5 years of saying "I've gotta get down to DC!", I had a blast. Thanks to Julie, Meg, Armand, and Laura (and Autumn, Gideon, and adorable little Rachel) for putting me up and acting as chauffeur for the trip.

Later DC, and the really neat architecture of the Metro stations.