Here's my story of my DC Spring Break trip of 06!!!!

----Mostly it was one of the best and interesting trips in my life. SOOO much happened while I was there. We drove down Saturday night and didn’t do much that first night. We stayed at the luxurious Washington Court Hotel the whole week. It was pretty amazing for a hotel. It even had TV’s in the bathrooms. How crazy is that?

On Sunday we went to see the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception which is one of the largest Catholic churches in the world. I mean it was HUGE!! I was so big! I would estimate it to be over 30 stories tall!!! Later we went to the Smithsonian Museum of American History where we saw Seinfeld’s ‘Puffy Shirt’ and Ted Baxter’s coat from The Mary Tyler Moore Show!!!! We, also, saw one of the many columns of the World Trade Center that was burned on 9/11!!!! After that was all done and gone we went to the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art where there was a DADA exhibit. The most famous of which is the LHOOQ drawing by Marcel Duchamp. It features Mona Lisa with a mustache and beard penciled in. We ate dinner at the Dubliner which is an Irish pub in the central part of DC. It was OK, but had a small hometown feel to it.

On Monday we started our day at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum where we saw dinosaur bones the size of our bodies and where we saw “Wild Safari 3-D in the Imax Theater there. The bones were cool, but the movie was the worst I have ever seen. After lunch at the museum we got the chance to see the famous Holocaust Memorial Museum. This place literally brings tears to your eyes from all the videos and pictures of the time period. To free our minds from the horror, we took a small 45 minute Capitol River Cruise before dinner. That helped a lot. We, then, ate dinner at the Amma Indian Vegetarian Kitchen which is a very small Indian restaurant in DC. The food was fine, but I loved the Mango Sala they had. YUMMY!!!!! Do you read the paper on Tuesday April 11th about all the immigration rallies across America? Guess what? We got to see the DC immigration rally at the Mall!!!!! There were over 500,000 people present and it was crazy! It was so exciting to see that many people in one place at one time. Along with that, we rode the Metro to most of the places in DC that week we were there. Because so many people rode the Metro that day to go to the rally, the numbers helped it set the second highest riding day on the metro since its opening in the 70’s!!!!!!! How awesome is that???

Tuesday was Mount Vernon day. MJ, who is Francesca’s friend from California, was there for the week and went up with us that day. The cool thing was that his school was there on the same trip, but not with us. They did Mount Vernon the same way we did. We took a Spirit Cruise back and forth from there. Mount Vernon is such a beautiful estate with amazing, colorful gardens and one the grandest mansions in the United States. I, actually, stole a rare pebble from Mount Vernon. It’s pretty neat looking. I saw George Washington’s gravesite on top of that. Then came our retreat to Arlington National Cemetery where millions of American soldiers are buried today. The main highlight was that we got to see the Guard change. The routine was very precise and reverent. We, also, saw the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and JFK’s tomb. Finally we left the Cemetery and did the ‘Memorial Walk’ where we saw the Washington Monument, the World War Two Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Jefferson Memorial. These were some of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. We then ate at the Capitol City Brewing Company which is one of the best restaurants we ate at while in DC.

Wednesday was Zoo day. First we paid a visit to the Washington National Cathedral which really is talk about nothing while it is the sixth largest cathedral in the world. The National Zoo was better than that. We saw the famous Giant Panda’s and amazingly interactive chimps and orangutans. We then went to Union Station where we watched “Take the Lead” in one of their many gazillion theaters. This movie was explosive and very entertaining with Antonio Banderas as a ballroom instructor trying to teach urban city teens to ballroom dance. He did some interesting thing to make this happen.

My Brother Michael’s birthday was celebrated with a bang on Thursday. We went to the National Gallery of Art’s West Wing to see the Cezanne Exhibition. But, the better part of the day was spent at the National Air and Space Museum where I saw Space Ship One and the Lunar Module from the first Moon landing in the 60’s!!! We went to see “Fighter Pilot” where we learned about the duties of a pilot from a real pilot. We, then, went to see “The Stars Tonight” which was a lecture about the sky held in the Einstein Planetarium. This was fun because we could lie back in our seats while we watched stars move ahead in the dark above us. That was the fun of it all. Last, we went to see the White House!!! The president was there in residence because the flag was there at full staff!!!! I actually had a little scuffle with Secret Service because I wanted to see the White House from a different angle from most people. To end the night we rented “Cheaper by the Dozen 2” which was a very fun movie of two very different lifestyles of families.

Leaving Day was Friday. It was Good Friday by chance. Before we left we made a last minute trip to see the Old Post Office Museum. I made a personal postcard there which is still in my possession. There were many tales of what happened to the local post office of the World Trade Center on 9/11 and a stray dog that became the mascot for the United States Postal Service. After that we left and said our goodbyes to Washington DC.

That pretty much sums up my weeklong trip to DC. It was fun and very interesting!

If you want to ask me more questions about the DC trip----Email, IM, or MySpace me NOW!!!!!

Thank you all for the great support!!!

Christian L.