Another week in DC

I'm going to try to write at least once a week. I've been very busy between school and work (and playoff basketball), so I may not be writing more than that for at least the next month. On Friday we were finished with class pretty early in the day. We went to a place called Wise Miller's home of Wisey's Chicken Madness (a sandwich). It is apparently a big Georgetown hangout. The first time we went a few weeks ago, we went to the original Wise Miller's which is a real hole in the wall place. You can't even sit down. In fact, there are signs which explicitly state that you cannot eat inside the store. They want to get you in and then get you out the door. The first time I thought the sandwich was great. This weekend, we decided to try the more popularized version which is much newer and actually has seats. This one is sort of a health food place with salads's and smoothies. It wasn't nearly as good as the orginal.

Later that afternoon I went in search of used book stores. I hit the jackpot at the first one I tried. It's called Capital South Bookstore and it was great. It's an old house south of the Capitol building. Every nook and cranny is packed with books. The shelves are stacked three or four rows deep with books and some stacks are just free standing, all of which makes it very difficult to actually browse through the books. Everywhere throughout the store are little sarcastic notes, providing a commentary on everything in the bookstore. For example, one section is labelled "Politicians and their Political 'Science.'" An old water heater in the dimly lit basement sported the label "Totally Inoperable" as if the patrons care about using the water heater. The bathroom is the foreign language section. The owner of the bookstore reminds his customers to leave the door open after they use the bathroom so that others can get to the books. The best part is that the owner buys books as well as sells them. Not only are his books comparable to online bookstore prices, I can get most of my money back after I read the books. It's a pretty great place. I think I'll be going back soon.

The week before I tried "The Bone" at the recommendation of Aunt Celia. It was delicious as promised. I'll have to get a group of people and go back. On the wall they had a timer counting down the days, hours, minutes, and second to graduation. I was lucky enough to be there when the clock struck 22 hours. I was tempted to go back 22 hours later just to see if the clock would reset.

I spent my Memorial Day in Herndon, VA with my friend Micah. It was nice to stay in a real house and eat real food. My diet is designed completely around microwavable foods. Micah's brother-in-law served his mission in Italy, and one night while we were talking I watched him whip up an absolutely delicious chicken alfredo from scratch. I should have paid more attention to how he did it. It was a great weekend and I had a great time.

Mt Vernon

I know it's been a long time since my last post. Hopefully not everyone has given up on the blog. Friday I took a trip down to Mt. Vernon. It was great to see the home of George Washington, but not great to pay the $15 entrance fee. I've been so spoiled on all the free historic sites around the city, that it seemed a little overpriced. I enjoyed the home and the grounds, but I did not enjoy being herded around from one spot to the next as part of their tour. I much prefer being able to explore things on my own. I was able to do that when walking around the farm and grounds. It was one of those "must-do" experiences. I've put several pictures below from the trip.

In front of Mt. Vernon

Closer View and Friends

Plotting our next move and view of Potomac

George Washington's Tomb

Another view of the tomb. Should I really be smiling in this picture?

Dock on the Potomac, still at Mt. Vernon

Taking a break

Survive DC

Tonight I participated in an exciting race called Survive DC. I'm not sure who organized it but it was a brilliant idea. We all met at a place called Dupont Circle. I was in a group with David Trichler and his sister Michelle who was out here visiting. About 200-300 people (at least) gathered in this little circular park. There were a variety of costumes and crazy running outfits all meant to give some sort of strategic advantage. We were given a blue armband, and orange armband, and a map of the city marking 6 checkpoints. At the start we put on blue armbands. Others signed up to be "chasers" and they used the orange armband. Our goal was to make it to all 6 checkpoints without getting tagged by and orange banded chaser. At each checkpoint there was some sort of activity, some water, and a place to get your map stamped to prove you really made it to each checkpoint. If we were tagged by a chaser, we would have to give up our blue armband to them, and then put on our orange armband. We would become chasers and try to tag as many people as possible. We planned out our strategy very carefully at the beggining, deciding to go the least traveled routes. We were allowed to use the metro and our feet. No cars, buses, skateboards, bikes, etc. were allowed. At 8 pm sharp, the race began. It was awesome to see all of the people pour out of Dupont circle in every direction at the beginning.

Our first goal was the park in front of the White House. We proceeded very cautiously, but didn't see a chaser the whole time. When we made it to the White House, there were tons of people already there. We weren't very committed to finishing the whole race, so we decided to go on to the second point without getting a stamp (I would come to regret that decision). Our next stop was a park near the Capitol. We walked right up the center of the Mall, and didn't see a soul until we got close to the checkpoint. We ran into two people that were lost, and visibly frustrated. We tried to help them get their bearings and then they ran out ahead of us. This turned out to be lucky because a chaser took off after them. They distracted him while we hopped a fence and ran into a thicket. We scared all sorts of sleeping birds on our way through the bushes and trees. It was a perfect hiding spot. We waited there until the coast was clear, and then made a break for the checkpoint. I forgot to mention one more rule. Each of the checkpoints has a safe zone marked on the map. While there you are immune to any sort of chaser attack. We were able to get some water and relax. We decided that we probably were just going to go to the next point and stop. We told the people at the checkpoint that we weren't doing the stamp thing and just took off.

The journey to checkpoint three was a bit sketchy. It was obviously in the more dangerous section of town. David had lived near there when he first came to DC, so he tried to take a route through some of the safer roads. We got back into the safer areas as quickly as possible, and met little resistance on our way to checkpoint three. There we were met with root beer and warm plates of cookies. A girl in a very 50's and very matronly dress invited us to take a seat at a table with crayons and clean paper. She instructed us to draw what we'd like to be when we grow up. Since checkpoint four was so close, we decided that we had better at least try for it. At this point there were chasers everywhere. They actually had taken up the strategy of camping out right in front of the safe zone. We decided that we would just try to outrun them, so we walked up the street casually until they started to chase us, and then we took off full speed. We caught a light at a busy intersection just as it was changing, and left the chasers in the dust.

Checkpoint five was at Howard University. Up to this point, we had adopted a "blending in" strategy. We would just walk and not make eye contact until someone started to run after us, and then we would take off running. This allowed us to get better angles, and escape more easily. For this checkpoint, however, we were the only white kids in the whole neighborhood. Our blending in didn't work so well. As we approached the safe zone, we saw a few suspicious characters on the corner straight ahead. As we got closer, we saw it was a few chaser girls. We crossed the street casually, and timed it perfectly so that we hit the street as the crosswalk turned. We got a bit of a head start, and since there were two of them and three of us they got confused and didn't get any of us. This stop was a camp theme. We sang camp songs, ate some energy bar stuff, and took off. We found out that we were in 33rd place. We decided that there was no way we could give up.

By this time we were exhausted, but we had a nice peaceful walk to the fifth checkpoint. We were in a very nice, very quiet neighborhood, but we couldn't quite find our way through the winding roads. After a bit, we realized that we were a block over from where we thought we were. We had to cut back up a different road, and we ran smack into a bunch of chasers. We all ran in different directions, but we didn't really know where the safe zone was. David and Michelle got caught, and I ran up a driveway behind some bushes. I looked at the map and saw that the safe zone was only a block away. I walked back down towards where David was caught, and there were about 5 chasers. I casually walked by and they all just sort of stared at me. I was able to get to the corner before they realized who I was, and by then it was too late. I sprinted up the hill and made it to the safe zone. David and Michelle followed me, and even though they were technically chasers we walked towards the last checkpoint. When we were almost there they took a different road to get on the metro and go home. I wanted to see if I could finish the game. Being by myself it was pretty easy. I was in a more active part of town, so I just walked in groups of partying college students and tried to blend in. I walked right by several chasers this way. I waltzed in to the last checkpoint at about 11:32. I came in 12th place unofficially, since I had no stamps to prove that I had actually been to the checkpoints. If I had had the stamps to prove it, I would have got a medal. Apparently the top 15 got medals. I've made a Google Map of the course so you can see the whole journey. I'm absolutely loving it out here. It feels like the city is just one giant playground. There's so much to do and see. After my 11 mile journey, I've had enough for the day. I'm going to bed!