Adventures with Meg

I guess the real adventure started on Friday when Cody and I returned from his Washington Seminar briefing at CAP (Center for American Progress) and decided that we wouldn't leave our apartment for the rest of the night since it was stinkin' hot and crazy humid and we would be out all day on Saturday visiting places.  Several times that evening as I sat on the couch and thought, "I'm sort of...bored," and then voiced that opinion, Cody would remind me that we would be out all day on Saturday getting hot and humid and shouldn't we enjoy the AC like we planned on doing?

We enjoyed the AC. We (okay, probably just I) didn't enjoy as much being stuck up in our apartment on Friday night.

However, we made up for it by like 100 times on Saturday.  Our day started around 9am when Meg Barber, one of Cody's best friends from BYU, showed up at the Barlow Center with her backpack to be stored in our apartment while we wandered around DC all day.

Stop One: The White House.  We first walked by the back of it, but Meg wanted a picture of the more famous front, so to the front we walked.  Cody actually hadn't walked to the front either, so it was a new experience for him, as well.  We couldn't get as close as one usually can because the road was blocked off for-who-knows-why (the only thing I could see was that the sprinklers were on), so we trudged a little bit further, walked across the grass and got a really far off picture of the front of the White House.

Meg and the White House from a long ways away

Stop Two: The Capitol Building. We didn't take a tour, but we did walk all the way up the Mall to get to the Capitol.  We were pretty tired and hot by the time we got to the building; however, we were able to get some pictures taken.

Cody, me, and Meg with the Capitol in the back

Meg and I standing outside the LOC

Stop Three: Library of Congress.  This wasn't on Meg's original list of things to see in DC but since it was right behind the Capitol and right next to the Supreme Court Building (both of which were on her list), we stopped and explored.  I was able to share some of the knowledge I had gleaned during my tour a month ago.  Cody and Meg ended up liking the LOC a lot more than they thought they would. Score for me for suggesting it.

Me and Meg with the LOC in the background

Stop Four: Supreme Court.  They are doing construction on the facade so it has a large photo of the Supreme Court building on a big piece of cloth. It was also closed, so no-go on going inside.

Supreme Court buildling

Stop Five: We the Pizza.  This was Cody and my second visit to this delightful restaurant, and Meg's first visit.  We each got the lunch special of two slices of pizza and a home-made soda.  Meg loved her soda; she even went so far as to say it was her favorite part about the restaurant and that for forever all sodas will be falling short of the We the Pizza standard.

Cody and me eating at We the Pizza

Stop Six: American History Museum.  We wandered around more this time than last time when Cody and I crashed on a bench, though I did use some of the time that they were looking at the Philadelphia exhibit (which I'd already seen) to read Jane Eyre.  After going through and looking at everything, Cody and I came to the same conclusion that we are rather disappointed with the American History museum in that it doesn't really have a ton of stuff there, like some of the other places we've or I've gone to visit.

Stop Seven: Barlow Center.  We came back, took off our shoes, sat down, drank water, and rested.  It was a great idea.

Stop Eight: Bobby's Burger Palace.  We were really looking forward to getting milkshakes here again, but I guess they'd just run out of milkshake ingredients.  While the burgers were delicious, we missed out on not getting a milkshake.

Stop Nine: Lincoln Memorial.  This was my first time on this trip actually going up and looking around in the memorial.  There were sprinklers going on in the front at the base of the stairs that anyone could enjoy; Meg took part in that novelty.

Meg playing in the sprinklers

Stop Ten: MLK Jr. Memorial & FDR Memorial & looking across the tidal basin at the Jefferson Memorial:  Since all of these memorials are on the circumference of the tidal basin, we were able to walk through the MLK and FDR memorials, but the Jefferson memorial was too far away for us to get to and get back on time for Meg to catch her bus.  We took some pictures, enjoyed the serenity of one of my favorite places in DC, and then walked back.

Cody, me, and Meg by the tidal basin at the end of our long, fun day

It was a really fun, action-packed, touristy day.  We loved spending time with Meg, even and especially because of her excitement, stories, and wassal-ing.

Meg "wassal-ing" like Bilbo in The Hobbit