Washington, DC: Monuments

After Farmington, I took Steely Van back to New Haven and caught the Amtrak to DC. 

5 1/2 hours later, I was there!

I got into Union Station, got a cab, and headed to my apartment, another AirBnB find.

Alejandra, my host in DC, has a gorgeous (and cheap!) apartment in Columbia Heights, just a ten minute walk from the metro.

My gorgeous neighborhood.

The Woodley Park/Zoo Metro

(Speaking of the metro...

So many people were like "get the tourist card!"

Don't get the tourist card.

Just get a regular card and refill it. 

I took the metro at least twice a day, for 6 days, and spent about $25 total.

Just get the regular card from the little machine right outside the metro gates. If you've ever been to London, just do that. It's exactly the same.)

I spent a lot of time in DC doing touristy stuff, mostly because things were open later and the archives were open at very specific (and weirdly limited) times. So here are the monuments I saw!

Nothing Masonic or weirdly phallic here...

Capitol Building and Smithsonian Castle from the National Mall.

As the sun might suggest, it was hot as hell. They built DC on a swamp. Terrible plan.

The recently-ish competed WWII Memorial.

While walking beside the Reflecting Pool (which is DISGUSTING btw) I saw some parents telling their little girl she should feet the geese. 

No. 

You should never feed the geese.

My mom told me to feed a swan when I was a kid, and it bit me and then chased me.

Never.

Ever.

Feed. 

The geese.

10 seconds after this the kid was swarmed by honking geese. 

Evil. 

Birds = the devil.

Nope.

FORREST!!!

So. Many. School children.

So the steps are marble,and they were a little damp. I was clinging to the railing. 

A kid ran up them and straight up busted his face. I'm not that kind of doctor, so I couldn't really help, but it was horrible.

Vietnam Memorial Statue.

I cried like a little girl.

After the Vietnam Memorial, I walked around the north side of the Mall, and found this cool little memorial to the signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Then I found the original lock house for the canal system.

And some really cool old buildings.

And then the White House!

And then I found a statue of my least favorite president (yes, even worse than Bush 2.0), Andrew Jackson.

Sorry bro. People just don't like you when you commit genocides.

Across from the White House I saw the biggest squirrel I've ever seen. So big that a woman told her child "don't touch rats."

Actually she may not have ever seen a squirrel.

Creepy babies on statues.

Creepy.

The Library of Congress.

Capitol Building from the Library of Congress.

So I didn't have time to get a reader card and go on the floor, but I did walk around the foyer and go around the top of the reading room.

It's an absolutely gorgeous building, but, besides the nice older gentleman at the visitor desk, this place had the rudest employees I've ever seen. 

I get that they deal with a lot of tourists, most of whom are idiots, but seriously. Just awful. And DC is the rudest city I've EVER been to anyway (including Paris) so that's saying something.

After I left the rudest place on earth (I'm serious. I straight up called a woman working at the Natural History Museum the C-word - I don't *think* she heard me - and she was an angel compared to these people.) I walked by the Supreme Court (yay most of the time!) and around the Capitol Building.

Next up?

Washington DC: Museums!