empty fountain at the library of congress

today was my last day in dc and i spent my time with my cousin and the people hosting him. we started off with breakfast and then saw some sites before they took me to the airport for my flight.

the first place we went to was capitol hill. surprisingly, it wasn't hard to find parking and there weren't many people about for a sunday. sure the government is off on sunday but weekends are when tourism is its most frantic in any town. it turns out that all the crowds were over at the cherry blossom festival in tidal basin. that's a great travel tip: when a big event is going on in town, visit the sites the event is not at because they will be empty. we walked up the front steps of the library of congress and took some photos. the fountain in front is empty of water and an empty fountain is always an odd thing, especially with the kind of classic sculptures this fountain contains. but because they are in the classic style, the sculptures can be admired on their own without any water.

united states capitol building

next we walked over to the u.s. capitol. there were some cherry blossoms as we approached which made for some nice pictures. there was also an odd thing i saw a couple time on the grounds: a fire hydrant with an antennae. i'm not really sure what's that for. to monitor the hydrant or to phone home if a dog pees on it? in front of the capitol on the lawn was a small group of protesters there who were against circumcision. i don't know how effective their protesting was that day because of the small audience but our group knocked around a few jokes and then got into a little bit of a serious discussion about it.

smoking is bad for you

then we headed over to union station for a little coffee break. (except for me 'cos i don't drink coffee.) outside of the station is a liberty bell replica. there was also a tour group going by in a bus and their guide was so loud that i learned a piece of useless trivia about the station's artwork. after our little rest, we headed back to the car and passed by the supreme court on the way. it was pretty much dead over there too except for another group or two who were taking their picture in front of the building. shortly before getting to the car was a lady walking her dog. she had stopped for a moment and the dog had a stick in his mouth. it was positioned so that it looked like he was smoking a cigar. it was so hilarious but by the time i had my camera ready the dog and moved towards us to get our attention and be petted so i didn't get the best shot of him. we pet the dog a little bit and it kept staring at us as we walked away. too cute.

john f. kennedy's grave

the hosts wanted to stop by tidal basin to see the cherry blossoms but it was a complete madhouse so we moved on to another destination: arlington national cemetery. if there's anything else iconic in my childhood mind about washington dc, it's the rows and rows of headstones at arlington and jfk's grave with the eternal flame. the cemetery had a good size crowd despite the cherry blossom festival. we walked straight to jfk's grave and back. there are plenty of other interesting graves to see but this a just a brief tour of last minute sites before i fly back home. besides the eternal flame, there's more to jfk's grave that i didn't know about, such as quotes from speeches he has given. his grave is on a hill that overlooks the cemetery and gives a nice view of a view icons of dc such as the washington monument.

there's another icon very close to the cemetery so that was our last stop before my flight: the marine corps war memorial AKA the iwo jima statue where the soldiers are raising the flag. the statue is a lot bigger than i thought it was.

iwo jima statue

that's it. that was my trip. that's all i saw but it was a lot given the short amount of time i had. what made it easy was that so many things are in walking distance of each other. i had completely prepared an itinerary of walking around and taking the metro to see things but didn't use it at all. i did not visit any of the restaurants i wanted to sample vegan food at. a dc trip can be very cheap because most of the things to see are free. what can be pricey is food and accommodation. i read that spring/summer is the most crowded and summer is miserable due to the heat. what can take your time is waiting in line to get into the more popular places or worse yet for the tourist, not being able to go into some places at all due to heightened security measures and the need to make a reservation months in advance as well as being part of a large party. there are a lot more things i could have seen, especially i could have gone inside several places that i only saw the outside of. i didn't venture into any of the museums except the national archives and even for that one i didn't check out the entire place, just one specific thing. just having a carry-on bag worked out really well for me. the little toiletry vials and bag were convenient too for inspection. i didn't use much in the vials save conditioner and if it were a longer trip i would have packed a bit differently. what's really odd for this trip is that i didn't buy any souvenirs. take only photographs, leave only footsteps. i brought my tripod just in case to try my hand at hdr or night photos but was too tired at night to bother. the only time i used it was at the kenjinkai event because i didn't bring it for nothing. it was actually handy when i was holding my cousin's camera to take video footage of his performance. i put his camera on my tripod and let it record while i handheld my camera for photographs.

no movies for me

for the trip back, the entertainment system for my first flight wasn't working. i couldn't view any movies/tv as the linux system it runs on kept crashing. the radio station feature worked and there was a build your own playlist sort of feature. (the entertainment system is kind of like on demand and i had my first experience with on demand tv at my host's house.) there are some albums in the system and i browsed through it briefly and chose to listen to some white stripes/raconteurs. on the connecting flight, i inspected the albums more thoroughly and was able to put together a playlist much like i might make one at home that included, of all artists, aterciopelados. this was great because the batteries on my ipod were dead. i couldn't view the movies anyway because i couldn't find a free one. the tv channels i did want to watch were having satellite issues and were not available.