Spring Break, Part 1

I returned from visiting my friends in Washington DC last night. It's been a great Spring Break so far. :-) I think I'll make this post in 2 parts, this part being the long picture-heavy post of my brief visit. So without further ado:

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March 15th (the Ides of March):

My friend, Jake (formerly JW-M on my blog), and his girlfriend picked me up at the airport. We stopped by their apartment where I dropped my stuff off and lounged around for an hour or so. Then his girlfriend dropped us off at a metro station (they live in Alexandria, VA outside Washington DC) which we took into DC.

We first went to the National Archives, where Jake's roommate, DJ-M (who I'll call Don here), works as an unpaid intern. We got in the line to see the Constitution and that was pretty much all we looked at (we also did see the nigh-illegible Magna Carta as well).

Then we went to visit Jake's campus, George Washington University (GWU), where he's doing his PhD in political science. There we also met up with Don who just got off work. Upon meeting, Don proclaimed, "A stranger arrives at the capitol on the ides of March, but Caesar's in the provinces today." I must say, their campus is far inferior to where the 3 of us went for undergrad. :-P

Lastly, we walked to a Chinese restaurant in downtown DC for dinner. Jake's girlfriend met us there. It's been a while since I've had good Chinese food (there's no really good Chinese food within a rather large radius of med school here, alas). Then we all went back to their apartment and played Warcraft 3 (WC3) for a couple hours before bed.
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March 16th:

Don took the day off work (and the following day as well) to hang out with me and Jake. :-) We planned to get up early and go to the Supreme Court for a tour or something, but they woke up too late. So we just decided to quickly walk through the Supreme Court instead.

Then we went to the Capitol Building. Apparently, they recently built a visitor's center.

After that, we went to the Library of Congress. I wouldn't mind studying there . . . if there were no tourists wandering through that is.

Then we walked along the National Mall, enjoying the nice weather.

We walked quite a ways to get to Chinatown (btw, the fakest Chinatown ever), where we ate Italian food at a place called Vapiano for lunch, lol. It was good food though, and the ambiance was nice.

Leaving the fakest Chinatown in the world, we walked through the Sculpture Garden near the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History (where we went next).

That concluded our day, so we took the metro back to Virginia. We order pizza for dinner and played more WC3, and discussed our excitement over Starcraft 2 coming out this summer. :-D
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March 17th (St. Patrick's Day):

This was one of the most epic days ever for me, lol (and certainly the most exciting St. Patrick's Day for me thus far). We took the metro to Rosslyn, VA (which I think must be the deepest station in the system), where we walked to the Theodore Roosevelt Island National Memorial Park, only to find it closed. So we walked along the Potomac River, enjoying the nice weather, until we reached a bridge that spanned the river.

We walked across the bridge and went to the Lincoln Memorial.

After that, we walked countless blocks through GWU campus, through downtown DC, to DuPont Circle, where we got delicious cupcakes from a place called "Hello Cupcake." I got a Bailey's Irish cream cupcake which was really good - though I'm not entirely sure that it's worth $3/cupcake.

Then we got on the train to Adams Morgan, where we got off and walked uphill to the National Cathedral. Our feet were hurting well before this, but we just kept trudging along.

We sat outside the National Cathedral for a while, resting our feet. At which point, I saw a little kid dressed up as Superman and that totally made my day. :-)

The National Cathedral was beautiful on the inside - pictures cannot capture the beauty that my eyes saw. Also, it had surprisingly amazing acoustics.
Also, I saw a rainbow on the floor of the National Cathedral. A sign perhaps?

We trudged back downhill to the Adams Morgan station, which we took to DuPont Circle again. We were going to try this Indian restaurant there, but decided it was a bit too pricey for us. So we walked the many blocks through downtown DC back near GWU campus, where we ate at another Indian restaurant, lol. It was most delicious and filling. All that had sustained me (as well as Jake and Don) all day until then was a bowl of cereal and the cupcake we bought at DuPont Circle.

Yes, I'm aware that DuPont circle is like the "gay district" of DC, but there was no way I'd be taking two straight guys to a gay bar/club with me (on St. Patrick's Day no less!) - also, I don't really like clubbing and our feet desperately needed rest.
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March 18th:

Jake's girlfriend and Don had to work. But Jake and I got up late, and just chilled in his apartment for a bit. We had a late lunch at a Chinese restaurant nearby where they served "northern Chinese dim sum," and it reminded Jake of Beijing (where he studied abroad all of last year) street food.

After that, we wandered around the Chinese store next to it before heading back to his apartment, where we played a game of WC3 before I left DC.