The Wonders of Washington D.C.

Washington D.C. is so much fun! It is such a distinguished city with lots of history. I feel smarter every time I am there. During a period where I had an extreme obsession with John F. Kennedy, we went on a family trip there. I wanted to see the Zapruder film that shows the assassination of JFK so we sent a request to our legislator to ask for permission to visit the National Archives library. We arrived early (the whole fruit loop troop - Mom, Dad, Kiki, Grandma, Me) and went through the metal detectors, signed the necessary forms and were shuttled to the screening room. After 30 minutes of prep work, we went into the room and watched the 33 second video! 33 seconds! That's it? The 35 year old video was very grainy and hard to see. I made them replay this 3 times - I felt for all this effort, that was least they could do. I am not sure that I know who shot JFK but I know as much as people who were there!

Another time I visited D.C. to spend the weekend with my friend John. He was in town for a med school interview so the dates were set so I drove down from NY to hang out. Imagine our surprise when we went to first museum and found out that D.C. was in shut down because of the lack of an approved budget! Hardly anything was open - the Smithsonian museums were closed, the tours of the Capitol were kaput and you could forget about going in any of the monuments. What to do? What was open? We ended up watching a movie in Georgetown, visiting the National Botanical Gardens (this was open, go figure) to see a Poinsettia exhibit and we walked around A LOT looking at closed buildings! Why does stuff like this happen to me? Have you heard of such a thing?

Washington D.C. has been a great host to me over the years. I was just there for a work presentation and it was so much fun to check out the new Newseum. I have had crazy adventures in D.C. with my family, my friend Helen, with John, as part of my job with EF in college and it never disappoints. Who knows what the next adventure there will bring!