EPIC TRIP DAY 1 & 2

day 1:

traveling sucks, but it is a little better when you are able to travel with someone you adore and always have a good time with... Jojo is an amazing travel buddy and she even let me read her vanity fair when i got bored with SKY Mall (i love that shit! actually that makes me want to do a post on amazing things that I want from sky mall on my way home). I read an awesome article about Betsy Drake and Cary Grant doing shit loads of LSD in the 50's, pre-Timothy Leary... It even said Esther Williams hallucinated having a dick. awesome...

My mom met us at the airport and we went to the hotel to drop off stuff (i'm a notorious OVER packer) and then we went to dupont circle for dinner.

we crashed pretty hard last night despite the fact that we were 3 hours ahead of DC time.

day 2:

woke up super early, 7:30 (which would technically be 4:30 in Tucson!!!) so we could catch our super-touristy-double-decker-bus at Union Station. Ok, so I love being super nerdy and touristy, so sue me! I love monuments, I luv museums, i lurrrv taking lotsa pictures... ooooh ohh, but I hate recorded tours. they suck!

anyways, our bus is actually pretty cool because it has over 30 stops where you can get on and off as many times as you want at various monuments and sightseeing places, and it is good for two days, so we will use it again tomorrow.

First we went to Arlington Cemetery. I love this place and not just because it is where all the Kennedy boys are, but it is truly a beautiful cemetery and property, and the over all sense of calm is indescribable. I could spend days there. We were really lucky and got to see the changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier; it was bizarre and so insanely ritualistic but very very kewl. Also I guess Glenn Miller is buried there but i couldn't find anything saying where it was.

also, it is so unbelievably hot here. It is like 96 with %200 humidity and everyone is sweating like crazy.

ps. if you go there make sure you check out the Women in the Military Memorial. Out of the thousands of people there today, there were only a few other people who were in the women's memorial building, but it was really cool and interesting. They had some amazing postcards of vintage service women posters (i will try and post them).

Next we went to the Lincoln Memorial ( my momma's favorite). It is beautiful, and huge...

While on the mall we also went to the Korean war memorial and the Vietnam memorial (amazing!).

We only had about and hour before we had to go back to the hotel to get jo's bags before she left for her train to New Jersey, and we decided to make a rushed visit to the Museum of Native American History. It was a way short visit, but it seems like a great place and the building was beautiful.

So Jo had to go and then mom and I headed to the Smithsonian Sculpture Garden! FRIIIIIIGGGGIIN' AMAZING!!!! I am obsessed and want to spend time there when I come back after NYC. There was so much great stuff and the landscaping was dreamy and gorgeous.

I am going to spend the last 5 days of my trip with Ariel and Jen in DC, but my mom really wanted to see Ariel and meet Jen before she left so I called her up and they had the night off so we made plans to see a movie. The movie sold out so we went to Chop't and Fro-ZEN-yo (DC's BTO... delicious). It was great times and it made me even more excited for the second leg of my DC adventures! AND tomorrow we are all going to a flea market/farmers market that is supposed to be AMAZING! I can not wait!

also planned for tomorrow:
The American Women's Art museum
THE ZOO and PANDAS!!!!!
National portrait gallery
movie??
shopping?

I LOVE IT HERE & I love traveling with my mom!

LUV, MANDERS

ps. my mom is so cute and watches dvds from her portable dvd player to go to sleep. She brought a season of Columbo (one of her all time favorite shows) to watch during the trip and right now she is watching an episode where Johnny Cash is the murderer. My mom is the coolest...

NOW... PHOTO DUMP!

my mom is horrified of insane escalators like this, so she opted to walk down the one that was out of order.


jojo and momma by the fountain at dupont circle.

tour bus

my mom, the nerd, was super stoked to see the NPR building and took this picture

The Women's memorial at Arlington



John and Jackie, and the ETERNAL FLAME (there are also to small grave markers for the their two miscarried children)

Robert Kennedy

Ted Kennedy

changing of the guards

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Jojo and momma.
this view ALWAYS makes me think of Forest Gump. "FORESSSTTTT!" "JEENNNNNNNYYYY!"

My mom pointed out that his hands are positioned in an A (in this image) and L (in next image) in sign language for his initials.



Korean War Memorial

YAY!

WE ARE UBER TOURISTS!

ima sucker for Litchenstien, so sue me...


OLDENBURG!

Magdalena Abakanowicz. I had never heard of her but I loved this piece.

Calder
Sol Lewitt
Joan Miro. I said to my mom, "you know that is a vag, right?" and she said "I didn't even see that!" I guess us art students are just kinda conditioned to see genitalia in EVERYTHING...
Louise Bourgeois, R.I.P (they still haven't changed her plaque to include her date of death)

this lady really wanted a pic of that squirrel

turns out i did too

i like mine better. ACTION SHOTS!