Happy Columbus Day!

We had a pretty big weekend this weekend, partially thanks to today being Columbus Day. On Saturday after farmer's market we went to the Taste of Georgetown. The trip there was kind of a failure. We tried taking a bus from Dupont Circle but it never came. Then when we finally gave up, it pulled up when we were about 3 blocks away. So we walked to another stop and picked up a different bus. It turned out to be a good choice of bus because the driver was awesome. He talked to us about ND and gave us a hard time because we wouldn't sing the fight song in a bus full of people who didn't want to hear it. When we finally got to Georgetown, the Taste proved to be a little more expensive than we had planned. Fortunately we noticed a Pizzeria Uno's down the street. As I said in my update from Uno's, we got to sit at the "best table in Georgetown". The food was good, the atmosphere was good, and the table was awesome. The trip to the bathroom was a little bit of a maze, through like four floors and a twisty,turny hallway. After Uno's we went down to the National Mall. We started at Union Station. We checked out an art exhibit made out of Red Bull cans. It was awesome,I'll post pictures later. After that we wondered around the Capitol area before heading to the actual mall. On the mall there were "green" houses built by universities competing for a prize of some kind. They were pretty neat, and I might go back later to check out the insides of the houses. After the houses, we came back to the apartment to watch the Iowa v. Michigan game. For those of you who didn't watch, shame on you. Iowa won and led most of the game, but it was close right up to the end. I'd say it was a pretty good game, but there's definitely still room for improvement. Still, a win's a win.
Sunday we went to Arlington. It was actually the first time that I've been there and it wasn't either raining or at least dreary in some way. We went to the Kennedy graves. It was the first time I'd been there since Teddy passed, so I got to see his grave site. We watched the changing of the guard at the "Tomb of the Unknowns," which is always a powerful experience. After checking out a couple of smaller memorials, we went to the Arlington House which was Robert E. Lee's house before the Civil War. The Union confiscated it and ultimately turned the property into a military cemetery, which is how Arlington Cemetery came to be. It's now a memorial to Lee. The house and surrounding grounds are currently under renovation, but we were able to walk through a few rooms. After that we walked to the 9/11 block of graves which includes a pentagon memorial, before heading back to the Metro. We stopped to get Five Guys, which is quickly becoming my favorite fast food place, again on the way back from Arlington. After we got back to the apartment we watched the Colts and Titans on Sunday Night Football. After that we watched "Heavyweights," which is always funny.
This morning when I woke up I decided that I was taking it easy for the day. I did laundry and went to the grocery store. I booked my shuttle to the airport for 3 AM Sunday morning. Ultimately we discovered that a Star Wars marathon was on, which pretty much ate up the rest of the day. We decided that we wanted to go out to eat and that we wanted wings. That pretty much left us with Hooters as our only option. In hind sight, we probably should have just stayed in. The food really was not very good. We came home and now we're watching MNF. Just four more days until I'm home.

Later,
Jes