Friday-Day 1

I haven't had the best internet access, and when I have had access, it's only been through Ben's iPad. So, I have been keeping a log of our adventures on my computer in a word document, ready to post when I get the chance. Today, I have the first half of our trip to post. The rest will come later :)

So, here's Friday's adventures!

                We got up early to be at the White house by 7:15 for our tour. The White House tour was awesome, and I especially loved it because I could experience the beautiful art, architecture, interior design, and furnishings. It was a beauty. I loved it!No cameras were allowed though, so I only have a picture of the outside that I took later in the day.

                Following the White House, we went to our hotel to take a little break, then made our way to the Capitol for our tour there. One of the Congressmen from Arkansas had arranged a tour for us. Our guide’s name was Rebecca, and intern with the senator. She took us everywhere (well, everywhere we could go...)! There are underground tunnels that connect the building we met her at to the Capitol and other buildings in the area (I think). I loved the Capitol for the same reasons: the architecture and design is absolutely beautiful. If you think about the fact that they did all this by hand without the many machines and stuff we have now, it should put you in awe. 

These are some pictures from inside the capitol. The rest will be found on facebook or my photography blog. 

 Ben took this picture. Just giving him the credit. He rocks!

                You aren’t allowed to have food or drink in the Capitol. My granola bar got confiscated, but my mom’s plethora of fruit snacks and other snacks didn’t… makes me think the security guard was hungry and my granola bar looked more appetizing. Haha.

                After our tour, we were going to leave and go get Wilson (who had decided that sleeping sounded more fun than touring the Capitol) and lunch, when Rebecca called us and said the senator wanted to take a picture with us at 11:45. It was 11:00. We decided to wait for him, in the boiling sun, and he ended up being super late. We didn’t start walking to our lunch restaurant until 12:20, and we were late. We had to powerwalk, and by the time we got there, we all felt like we had gone for a pretty intense jog. It was so hot and humid.

                The place we went to for lunch was called Fogo de Chao. It was absolutely delicious! It was pretty much a super amazing Tucanos (for all you Utahns). We ate too much, then went back into the heat to go to the Natural History Museum.

                The Natural History Museum was so cool. I loved it. We went through this bones exhibit that talked about evolution and the makeup of different animals. Then we went through a mummy exhibit, insects (with live creepy things!), and then a forensic exhibit. This was really cool. It first talked about/showed how you identify bodies, cause of death, etc CSI style. Then it went into these mysteries from colonial times. Recently, they have excavated tombs and graves, so they are trying to figure out as much about these people as they can. They have learned a lot. I learned a lot. That was one of my favorite things we did. I loved reading about these mysteries they are solving and how we can learn about the life of the colonists through this. I also learned that the first James Fort has been found. In school, I always learned that they didn’t know what happened to it and stuff. Nope. Actually, they discovered it about 1994 and have been putting pieces together since then.

We also went through this great animal photography exhibit, a Titanoboa (largest snake in the world) exhibit, and natural gemstones and minerals exhibit. That whole museum was so awesome! I want to go back and do the rest as well.

                After that, we went home for an hour rest (and showered), then went to see Shear Madness! Shear Madness is a improv-mystery-comedy play. It was really funny, but actually pretty raunchy considering we were seeing it in a family theater. We think most of the jokes went above Krista’s head. My parents didn’t think it was bad enough to leave during intermission. Plus, by intermission, the worst was over. After intermission, the audience got to help solve the mystery! Yep, it was awesome.

                We went back to the hotel, and finally went to try to find dinner. It was about 10:00. We found a delicious Italian place that was still open. Almost as soon as we were seated, someone pointed out the fierce winds that started outside. We were sitting in this glass surrounded outer part of the restaurant. The rain suddenly dumped down, and we just watched in horror at this terrible storm. I was just praying that it would calm enough for us to get the half mile or so back to our hotel (we walked to dinner). It was perfect. God certainly blessed us. As soon as we were ready to go, the rain was pretty light. So we got home as fast as we could. I took off my flip-flops and ran most of the way. It was a great adventure!