The End

Tim and I are back home in Long Beach. Our trip has come to a close. Thanks again for reading! This will be the last post in this blog. If you enjoyed this blog, feel free to check out my short story blog at: http://www.reverseapathy.com

So long!

Almost Home

So we had some fun in Vegas last night. Did a little gambling, walked the strip. I think Tim and I are both ready to be home though. We just crossed the California border and it feels good to be back. Only four more hours and then this trip will be coming to a close. I want to thank everyone who took us in, showered and fed us on this trip. You were all wonderful. Thank you Cindy and George, Kate, Laura, Tim's Grandma and Grandpa, Julia, Brooke and Johnny. Thank you to Ashley for showing us the New York nightlife. Thank you to Erin for meeting us for lunch and taking us to the zoo. Tim and I are incredibly grateful for all the hospitality we received.

This trip was amazing and I'm very glad Tim convinced me to go, not that it took much convincing. It looks like its back to our old lives but I think we've both taking something away from this trip. It wasn't life changing but definitely eye opening. At the very least it got me writing again. I'm feeling a bit more inspired so that's good. I want to also thank all of you for reading this blog. I'm glad you all take such an interest in our lives. Thank you to our parents for being overprotective. It's nice to know you care.

As a quick recap, here's the map of our route once again. We crossed the country and back in 18 days!

View Larger Map
We drove about 7500 miles total.

Las Vegas

We walked around the main strip in Vegas. Tim showed me all the Baller hotels and casinos. We came back and Tim and I played some Roulette. I put $20 on black, doubled my money and quit. That's the way to do it. We're staying at the Monte Carlo. Its a pretty swanky hotel. It looks like we're headed home tomorrow! It'll be nice to be back.

By the way, Vegas has imitations of all the landmarks we saw on our trip. We didn't even have to travel!

Utah

Utah was beautiful. It was still a lot of nothing, but it was much prettier nothing than Kansas. Endless plateaus and amazing red dirt. We were facing the sun the whole drive which was difficult but payed off. As soon as the sun set, we were treated to one of the most spectacular sunsets I had ever seen. The entire sky was a vibrant orange. We hit a view point rest stop with perfect timing and got out to take some pictures. It was just wonderful. As we kept driving west the sunset lingered because we were following its tail. Again, just spectacular.

Yes Men

George Lucas: So that was the screening of Indiana Jones 4. Any opinions? I want as much criticism as possible.

Employee: Ahem. So was it really realistic for them to be swinging from the trees with CG monkeys? And aliens? Really? And I'm not physicist but I'm pretty sure a refrigerator won't protect you from a nuclear bomb.

George Lucas: HOW DARE YOU?! I CREATED STAR WARS! YOU'RE FIRED!

Employee: I thought you wanted feedback.

George Lucas: I'M GEORGE LUCAS!

Employee (being escorted off premises by storm troopers): Episode One Sucked, by the way! Jar Jar Binks? Nuff Said!

The Rocky's

We waited a little while to leave today. We were going to get up early and go but with all the snow we figured we'd wait for the sun to melt some. Driving through the mountains is beautiful. There are just blankets of white covering the landscape and the trees are covered.

The dirty snow kept kicking up onto our windshield which isn't a problem unless your windshield wiper fluid runs out...It was becoming difficult to see and we needed some water on the window. Since we didn't have any water, gatorade was the next best thing. I rolled down my window and leaned out in front of the car and attempted pour gatorade on the window. I didn't account for the wind factor and pulled myself back in the car mostly covered in gatorade. The second time I tried I was able to get some on the windows. It lasted us long enough to get to an exit where we bought some more water for the wipers. The man in the liquor store was sad that we bought crate of water bottles and no alcohol.

CHOOSE YOUR DESTINY, SIR

A one night's stay in our luxurious hotel. OR, ten percent off any item in our gift shop. CHOOSE WISELY, SIR for you may live to regret it.

Brooke and Johnny

So as we were driving into Colorado we suddenly hit a heavy windstorm blowing sleet. Brooke welcomed us into her lovely home. That's the second time she's rescued me from the rain. Last time I was camping in Big Sur in the pouring rain and she lived in Monterey at the time. Her house was beautiful along with her neighborhood. We showered and changed our clothes, it had been a while since doing either. We went out for dinner at a delicious Mexican food restaurant where we once again were not allowed to buy dinner despite trying. My Aunt Jackie's line of children are all extremely generous. I tried Sopapia (spell check) which was basically a churro filled with air and it was really good.

Brooke had to get some milk so we stopped at Target which happened to be near where Brooke's sister, my cousin Loye was working. We stopped in and said hello. It was nice to see her. Apart from Jackie, I think I saw everyone from that family this trip. They're conveniently located.

Back at Brooke's house I gave her a presentation of all our pictures from the trip. Johnny came home from work and showed us the batting cage he had built in their basement. Very cool.

The next morning we woke up to a snowy landscape. Tim's car was covered in snow, too bad we never bought that ice scrape. Our departure was delayed while we waited for conditions to improve. I had a blast sliding down the driveway on the ice. Tim was largely un-phased by the snow but I am always amazed by it. It was beautiful.

Kansas

We spent the night camping in Kansas. It was so cold that night. We heard strange sounds and I'm pretty sure I smelled pot wafting from a shady van near our tent. Not the best night of sleep ever, but there was a pack of adorable wild cats, one of which was a kitten.

The next morning while eating at IHOP, Tim pulled out his iPhone and some wireless hotspots popped up, one of which was called “Uncle Piggly's Incest Farm.”

At this point the music form Deliverance starting playing in my head and we decided that we didn't need to spend anymore time in Kansas. We drove straight through the endless fields and on into Colorado. I made the obligatory joke, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." Actually I couldn't wait to make the joke so I made it halfway through Kansas.

The Arch

America's tallest monument is the Gateway Arch in Saint Louis. It is a metaphorical monument to the westwards expansion. I have to be honest, espeially compared to some of the other monuments we've seen on this trip, that's a pretty lame monument. Physically it looks really cool. We strolled up to the Arch expecting to stand under it and galk but to our surprise we found that there is an underground museum beneath it. We walked through it but again, the westward movement doesn't really excite me.

So the arch is also apparently a ride. It's hollow and there are little elevator cars inside that take you to the top. I was worried it would be cheezy but for $10 you can't really og wrong. Now this mechanism was built in the fifties or something so I was a little worried about its structural integrity. We entered into these little pods and began our ascent. At the top is a very small area that looks like the inside of an airplane. There are tiny windows that you have to lean out to look through.

Staring out the windows was very surreal. We were looking down 600 plus feet at the ground below us. My stomach churned but eventually adjusted. There was a great view of Saint Louis and the surrounding aread from up there.

Back on the ground we walked through another museum which was very unimpressive. Overall, Saint Louis is rather drab. The Arch was cool though.

The Windy City

My mom suggested that we take a boat tour in Chicago but Tim and I were wary of paying $30 for a tour, it seemed rather risky. But we had arrived in the city and didn't really know what to do say I suggested we just go for it. And it was well worth it.

Chicago has a river running through it that leads to lake Michigan. Lake Michigan is huge, its basically an ocean. Our tour guide on the boat tour was very funny and definitely a good performer. He exaggerated his speech and made it fun for everyone. The boat floats through the river as Kevin, the tour guide describes things about the architecture. This building is post-modern or this building is art deco. Chicago has a large variety of styles. One end of the river is near a chocolate factory and we could smell delicious cocoa wafting on the wind.

Kevin told us about how the Chicago flood happened. Apparently there is an abandoned train system under the river that some careless bridge builders busted through to. The abandoned tunnels have access to many building's basements so water flooded everywhere. There was also a great fire that killed much of the population. But Chicago persevered and rebuilt. Our guide announced the Sears Tower, America's tallest building and the world's 5^th tallest. He was very theatric, reminded me of my dad.

He ended the tour by whipping out a harmonica and playing us some blues. The tour was definitely worth it, just make sure you get on Kevin's boat. After that we had some delicious Chicago pizza and some gelato. We happened to hit the city during a football game that Tim was listening to on the radio. We drove right by the stadium where Tim's man-crush, Brett Favre, was playing.

So far...

Just to catch you up this is been how far we have traveled in a total of 2 weeks (We've driven over 5000 miles)

View Larger Map

Ann Arbor

We stayed the night in Ann Arbor, Michigan with Julia Lange, my friend Peter's sister. It turned out to be the prefect night for it, as and some friends were going out. We met up with everyone and went out to a bar. No one was really feeling the vibe so we decided to just go get some food which was good because I was starving. We sat down at this hole in the wall restaurant. Tim and I split an order of fries and some deliciously flavored hashbrowns.

After that, Tim and I were pretty tired from driving all day so we called it a night. Julia was really nice and let us spend the night. We were going to tour the campus today but ended up sleeping in instead. Julia's apartment is small but nice, plus it has a ton of parking available for it which is a plus out here.

Ann Arbor is basically a college town. We only saw a small portion of it at night but it seemed pretty. The only problem is the cold! Also it was the only bad weather we've had on our entire trip, rainy and overcast. Last night we encountered a passed out woman on the sidewalk with her boyfriend trying to get her up. One of Julia's friends called the cops to help. Exciting!

Niagara Falls

I've seen Niagara Falls in movies and on television but that doesn't really compare to the real thing. They're actually smaller than I'd imagined. I was bummed because there was an elevator down to below the falls but its only operational during the summer. I thin they would be that much more impressive from below. Regardless, they were still very neat. The river above just spills onto the cliffs below. A torrent of whitewash smashing onto the basin creates a booming sound that echoes through the canyon. A plume of mist rises from the largest part of the falls, visible on the approaching drive.

Tim and I walked the length of the falls. The Canadians across the border seemed to get a better view of the falls, more straight on. The largest falls were obscured by the rising mist so we couldn't really grasp their magnitude. I would want to come back in the summer and see them from below anyway.

We contemplated trying to cross the Canadian border without passports, we didn't know how strict it was. As we drove away from the falls we passed the border check area. We decided to just get out and ask someone before trying to drive it. We realized that we were walking somewhere we shouldn't have been when a few border patrol officers approached us cautiously. We asked them about passports and Tim was casually just holding his hands behind his back and the cops put their hands on their guns and told him to pull out his hands. We apologized. The cops were sarcastic when we asked them about passports and we took the hint and left. We decided after that to go around Canada, take the extra hour on our trip. 

Cornell

This morning we walked around Cornell University in Ithaca New York. It was a very beautiful campus. Fall seemed to linger there longer than the rest of the state. Red and yellow trees littered the campus. The first building we went in was the Law Building. I swear this building was like the castle of Hogwarts. There was a common area with a fireplace and paintings hung on the wall, they didn't move like I'd hoped. One of the various libraries had a staircase in it leading to an office. It was a very cool, very old building.

We went up the bell tower just in time for a show. There was a student playing the bells on an elaborate piano like structure. It was pretty loud at the top, but there was an incredible view of the surrounding area. There's a beautiful lake, Cornell is on top of a hill.

We crossed a bridge over one of the rivers that runs through the campus and there was a decently sized waterfall. Over the river we saw the female residence hall which is very near the river. The campus is very big with a lot of hills. It would definitely be a pretty place to go to school. The only problem is that the town is pretty small and fairly secluded. Its about 4 hours away from New York City. 

New York Day 2

We were pretty tired from being out late the night before, but we had more city to see. We met up with Ashley on her lunch break and went to a deli that had delicious looking lemon roasted chicken. I foolishly didn't order it and was not very happy with my sandwich. We asked Ashley what else we needed to see and she pointed us toward the south side of town.

We looked out over the river at the Statue of Liberty. That was as close as we'd get because we didn't want to pay to take a ferry. From there we walked to the World Trade Center construction site. It didn't look like much at this point, I'm sure it was much more impressive pre 9/11. Still it was good to see. They're working on a new tower and a memorial. As we walked through a mall, we saw statues made of canned food. One was a diorama of Mario that was pretty cool.

We walked down Wall St. That area was very impressive because the Buildings were taller and the streets were narrower. Finally we walked out onto the Brooklyn Bridge and after that we were pooped. We rode the train back to New Haven said our goodbyes to Laura and headed towards upstate New York.

New York Nightlife

We met up with Tim's friend Ashley Koppel. She went to the same middle school as us and I remember her but she didn't remember me. Made me feel like a stalker. Anyway, we went to a bar in the Lower East Side. We chatted and waited for her roommate Katie and her roommate friend Lindsey to show up. We ordered some food. I definitely branched out; I had calamari and a Martini. After eating we went to a second bar, all in preparation for the real fun. The third bar we went to was a Bulgarian bar called Mehanata that had Bulgarian techno/rap/disco music playing. It was awesome! They let us in for free because we were all so good looking. There were lasers and instead of bar stools there were hanging swings. They had an apple cider with vodka that I tried a sip of. Tasted just like apple juice.

The Lower East Side was apparently where the nightlife happens. There was a street with all the bars on it.We did a bit of walking between them but not much. It didn't seem like a very bad part of town. We all hung out and talked. Lindsey and Katie got into a discussion about welfare and such while I tried to think of something relevant to say on the subject. We finally went to a fourth bar, and we all had fun just talking getting to know each other.

New York City

We woke up early and left Laura's house for the train station. It was about a 2 hour ride into the city, not too bad. Tim and I played chess on his iPhone. We got off the train at Grand Central Station and it was amazing! So many trains and metros, I don't know how they coordinate it. The station is a very tall and beautiful building.

I don't think there's anything like stepping out into New York City for the first time and looking up at the towering buildings above you, seeing all the people walking by. It was amazing and unforgettable. I was in awe as we walked down the street. It was surreal. We rounded the corner and saw the Empire State Building in the distance. It was strangely dark in the city because so little light can penetrate.

We paid to go to the top of Empire State. This building, apart from being an office building, makes money as an attraction. We had to pass through a metal detector to enter the building and one person stopped Tim and told him he had something in his bag. We couldn't really understand him but eventually realized that he had a multi-tool in there. That's apparently a no no. They said we could pick it up on our way out but we forgot. After winding through the building, we went up the elevator 80 flights and then another elevator for 10 or so flights.

At the top there is an outdoor deck from which you can see the entirety of the city. Again, it was amazing. I overheard one of the guards talking about suicides being a problem and they had installed nets. We looked out over each side of the building to see all sides of New York. I could see the building that they used as the Daily Bugle in the Spiderman movies. The Statue of Liberty was off in the distance. It was also really helpful to get our bearings. When we first entered the city I felt like a rat in a maze. Looking North we could see Central Park and found our next destination, Times Square.

Times Square was really cool. Parts of the street are for walking in and they have seats and tables. Standing in the middle of it I was bombarded by sensory input. Billboards everywhere, flashing lights, etc. The advertising wasn't quite as effective as the injection they gave us at the Coke Factory that triggers the desire to buy a Coke when activated.

We made our way to Rockefeller plaza. I got giddy standing under the 30 Rockefeller sign. I starting singing the 30 Rock theme song. I really like that show and it was awesome to be where it's filmed. The skating rink in front of 30 Rock is a lot smaller than I had imagined. We went into the NBC store and I wanted to get some souvenirs but they were expensive and not that great. We contemplated doing a NBC tour but couldn't figure out where to go and assumed it would cost too much anyway.

Next I found the Nintendo World Store. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to check that out, even if Nintendo has been consistently letting me down of late. It was the 25^th anniversary of Nintendo so there were cool displays set up. They had an exclusive Mario shirt if you bought a Mario product and I couldn't resist. I'm so cool.

FAO Schwarts toy store is Ginormous. They had so many toys. It made me think of my Grandpa Dan, or Mooma as the younger generation called him. I don't know if he ever got to go there when he was alive but I hope he did. He would have loved it. I was tempted to buy a ridiculously large toy as a tribute. We saw the piano you can stand on to play from the movie Big. That was pretty cool. They also had a life size Chewebacca statue made out of legos.

The Apple store in New York is even more pretentious than usual. There was a clear cube with a floating Apple logo that you go into and underground to get to the store.

Central Park was massive. I love that there's a giant park right in the middle of the city. There are fields and lakes and some shops. We heard some awful band called Trone playing at an amphitheater. I ate a very delicious pumpkin muffin from a bakery in the middle of the park. If I lived in the city I would definitely spend time in the par...MUST DRINK COKE.

It's Official

Junkadoon is officialy in the Urban Dictionary! Check it out:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=junkadoon

Laura!

We met up with my cousin Laura and she took us out to this delicious pizza place. One of the many places claiming their family invented pizza. Regardless it was really delicious. Laura whipped out her card to pay for the bill before I could even offer to pay. Sneaky. I just wanna thank the entire Black family for being ridiculously generous.

Back at Laura's apartment we watched Blindside while we planned out our day in New York. It was really nice to see Laura.

Washington Bridge

We had to pass through New York in order to get to Connecticut and the traffic was retarded. Google maps was freaking out and telling us to go on the upper bridge then the lower bridge. We decided to stop listening. We eventually made it across and got to see an amazing view of New York City at sunset. Apart from having to pay a road toll every five feet, the countryside there was beautiful.

After we got passed the bridge I really had to pee but there was traffic and we were afraid to get off the freeway lest we become lost in New York. At one point I actually considered using a bottle. Finally I pulled off the freeway and accidentally into a park road that wasn't for cars. I found a tree and tried to be quick as a biker passed and yelled at us. Trust me it was an emergency situation.

Hershey Factory

After the incident in Jersey Tim and I drove deep into the Pennsylvania countryside before settling down at a campground. It was late and cold and we were tired, but it was better than staying in New Jersey. We decided to skip Philadelphia and instead go to the Hershey Factory. We drove through Amish country which was weird.

Eventually we arrived at Hershey, Pennsylvania, a town basically devoted to chocolate. They have a theme park and a factory and the light posts are Hershey’s Kisses. We went to the factory excited about doing a factory tour and getting free chocolate. We were disappointed to find out that the factory tour was actually a really cheezy ride with animatronic cows singing, “It's the milk chocolate!” I was excited for an actual tour of the factory to see how its all made. At least we got a tiny hershey bar for sitting through it.

Then we walked through a store full of overpriced merchandise and eventually settled on buying a Reese's Big Cup each. Om nom. As we left a man pulling up asked if it was worth it and after telling him no, I felt bad. I think I ruined his trip. But he'd find out for himself soon anyway.

Janky Jersey Motel

Here's a little narrative I wrote describing our experience with the “Great” state of New Jersey. Please enjoy:

Its getting late. Philadelphia stretches off in the night horizon. The weary travelers are exhausted and searching for a place to sleep for the night. They cross a bridge into New Jersey and immediately red flags go off in their minds, but exhaustion quickly overrides. A Motel 6 in the distance calls out to them. The travelers park their car and enter the building.

The woman behind the glass stands there as if she doesn't see them but they know she does. The woman looks skanky. Finally she approaches and assists the travelers in acquiring a room.

The travelers unload their bags into the room, one cautious, the other sleepy. Cautious takes a look around while Sleepy uses the restroom. After he steps back into the room Cautious shows him the cigarette burns in the sheets. Sleepy finally grasps the awful condition of the room. They quickly decide to leave.

Back at the office one of the Travelers approaches the window and the woman asks if she can help.

“Yeah, we're not going to stay.”

The woman seems confused.

“We're just not going to stay.”

“I'm not s'posed to after fifteen minutes,” said the Skank.

It had been less, the travelers having only had time to enter the room and be disgusted. Just then a typical New Jersey man enters behind the travelers and cuts in front of them. He begins speaking with a heavy New Jersey accent.

“Excuse me sweetheart, this is the wrong room.”

“Nu-uh I gave you the right one.”

“No you didn't because I just opened the door and there was someone in there, started yelling at me.”

The skank looks down at a piece of paper.

“What room?”

“320.”

“Nu-uh I said 220.”

“Well this card is for 320, not 220.”

“I gave you 220.”

The man starts to raise his voice.

“Why you putting this on me sweetheart? This is the third time I've been down here and I'm starting to get upset.”

The woman tries to mumble back to the man but he cuts her off.

“Hey, you know I love you but...I'm started to get kinda pissed off here.”

They resolve their issue and the travelers are only reassured about their decision to leave. The woman turns her attention back to them.

“I'm not supposed to give a refund after 15 min.”

“It hasn't even been 15 minutes, please,” said one.

“Come on,” said the other with assertion, “We're not staying.”

The woman mumbles something but reluctantly gives them the refund. The travelers head for the car and one whispers to the other.

“Let's get the f*** out of New Jersey.”

The other laughs and then they drive as far away as possible, weariness finally taking the backseat to new priorities.

Still Here

We just got to a hotel in New york and we have an early morning. I drove today so I didn't have time to blog. Tomorrow there's a lot of driving so I'll try to catch up.

Washington D.C. - Daytime

Our day was under way and we already felt like we didn't have enough time in the day. We made our way to the National Archives and saw the original documents; The Declaration of Independence, The Bill of Rights, and The Constitution. They were pretty impressively sized documents and its amazing that they still serve as the basis for our way of life today.

After the Archives we tried to go to the Treasury/Mint but they were already closed! We were a little bummed because Tim said the tour was really cool. We decided instead to do the Smithsonian Museum run. We started with the American History Museum. There we walked through artifact of technological developments. The light bulb, various engines. I always try to defend Nikola Tesla when I see Edison stuff. We saw the car used by the first two people to drive across the country. It seemed appropriate considering we were on a road trip.

Upstairs, Tim rounded a corner and laughed. “You're gonna love this.” I followed and saw one of the costumes used in the original Ninja Turtles movie! Awesome. I love me some Ninja Turtles. There was an entire section devoted to wars which was pretty cool. They had replicas of lots of weapons and such. At this point Tim and I were pretty exhausted. We hadn't had any food since brunch and had been walking all over town.

We made our way over to the Museum of Natural History. We scanned the exhibits and measured our level of fatigue to determine the only two exhibits we cared to see. We started with the dinosaur exhibit. I pulled out my phone and played the Jurassic Park theme song as we entered. T-rex was there and awesome as usual. I'm disappointed about the scale of the dinosaurs. They're actually not that big. I mean we have whales that big today. I always imagined dinosaurs to be colossal in size. Regardless, the skeletons were very cool. The other exhibit we saw was the Hope Diamond. It was a really big diamond and I imagined pulling a caper that involved laser beams and guard dogs. One last heist and then I retire in Mexico. Nothing could go wrong.

On the steps of the museum, we contemplated our next move. We needed food, but the last museum was going to close soon. We decided to make the schlep and trudged to the Air and Space Museum. There were some very cool models of space ships. We watched the landing on the moon. I still can't believe we've been to the Moon. I still can't believe we've been in space. Its amazing how far we've come technologically. Now let's hurry up and get to Mars and beyond.

Tim's mom actually happened to be in D.C. that same day. He went out to say hi to her while I finished walking through the exhibit.

At this point we were on the verge of collapse. We found a restaurant and filled our bellies. With the last hours of the day we did the walk to Lincoln one more time. We had missed the Korean and Vietnam war memorial. And with one more Metro ride, we were on our way to the next city.

Well look who it is

We woke up really early so we get get to D.C. as soon as possible and see as much as we could. But the showers that morning were so nice and warm that we did not get out of the campground on time. Getting to the metro station was also a bit difficult. One wrong turn on the freeway left us a half hour behind due to traffic. We looked a bit stupid trying to figure out how the Metro works but we successfully got into the district. We attempted to get into the Capitol Building and ended up circling the entire building before finding out that the entrance is underneath. We didn't have time to take the tour of the inside because we had plans to meet up with an old friend of mine.

One more metro trip and we were downtown. We rode the tallest escalator I've ever seen! (I really like escalators.) Back on the street Erin Conroy was there to greet us. I met Erin back in college at Cal State Long Beach. The three of us went to brunch together and we used that time to catch up. Erin had been in the Peace Corps for a year and only recently returned. After brunch she took Tim and I through the local zoo that she used to volunteer at. She rode the metro with us back towards the Capitol Hill area but parted ways to go to work. It was a pleasure to get to see her again.

Washington D.C. At Night

We arrived in the District of Columbia after dark. Stupid daylight savings. Turns out it wasn't such a bad thing. Driving around the city was a bit of a hassle. I attempted to direct Tim while trying to download apps that would tell us where to park. We eventually found a lot and didn't even care how much it cost.

Walking down the streets of D.C. At night was actually very nice. I never once felt unsafe despite being warned that it was a dangerous place. I really wanted to know exactly what D.C. was. We eventually had to Wikipedia it. Its just a sovereign area that isn't a state, where government can do its thing. I did get a D in American History after all.

Our first stop was the Capitol Building. I became giddy just staring up the marvelous monument. I never though I cared about this kinda stuff, but staring up at it just wowed me. And its even more impressive that its a functional artwork. This is where the country gets run basically. Seeing the monuments at night is arguably better than the day. There are less crowds and the night lighting gives them a very surreal feel. Standing on the steps of the Capitol Building I could see the Washington Monument off in the distance. There is a large expanse of grassway extending from the Capitol Building all the way to the Lincoln Monument. We started the walk. On the way we passed any joggers. It seemed like a nice little jog.

As we neared the Washington Monument I became more and more awed. It doesn't look like much on TV, but its giant. We approached the ring of fifty flags surrounding it and craned our necks to stare at the top. We placed out hands on the massive white stones, cold to the touch. Circling the tower we could then see the Lincoln Monument way off in the distance. Just like on the penny.

The reflecting pool starts off with a war memorial, dedicated to every state that helped fight and every branch of military. We walked the length of the reflecting pool stopping to look back at the Washington Monument reflected before us. At the top of the marble steps sat Lincoln in his chair. I always thought that the Lincoln Monument stood in front of a building, but I was wrong. That whole building is one giant shrine to our forefather. It rivals ancient grecian architecture. “IN THIS TEMPLE AS IN THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE FOR WHOM HE SAVED THE UNION THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN IS ENSHRINED FOREVER.” The epitaph above Lincoln's head impressed me. You don't see stuff like that anymore. We don't have heroes of this caliber anymore.

We were pretty hungry from all the walking so we made a quick stop at Subway. Then we stood in front of the White House which was actually not as impressive as I'd hoped. Nothing cool was going on there. We then walked another huge distance, crossed the Potomac to see the Jefferson Monument. It was as impressive as Lincoln's. Tim is very fascinated with the founding fathers. “They were geniuses.” And they were, they founded this country on some pretty good ideals. I really like Jefferson's quote as well, "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”

I don't feel like I have the words to do these monuments justice. Maybe I'm just out of practice as a writer. I'd like to just suggest to you all that if given the opportunity you se them for yourself. There's way more to do in D.C. than one or two days can give. And this was just the night before our full day there. Suffice to say we we're fairly exhausted that night.