Day 1 of the adventure

So my shoulders are sore from lugging my bags from the airport to the dorm. *sigh* I didn't realize it would be such a workout.

Today was pretty spiffy, especially for my first full day here. I got up at 9:40 and read for a bit before jumping out of bed to grab brunch. Surfed the web for a bit and flipped thru my AAA guide some more until Jeanna got up.

Around noon we headed off to the US Botanic Gardens and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. I didn't realize we were so close to the Mall - about 3 blocks I think!

It was a gorgeous day, though hot as usual, and the walk to the Botanic Gardens was nice with a good view of the Capitol building (I forgot my camera, but Jeanna tooks some pics). When we got to the entrance I realized that I had my pocket knife in my bag and we had to go thru the metal detectors - I was kinda worried, but the security guard outside said that as long as the blades are shorter than 3 inches it would be ok; Jeanna wondered why it would even matter since we couldn't really do much dangerous in the gardens, but who knows about that.

The gardens were nice, lots of variety, and I got to see some plants I saw wild in Trinidad which was cool. The catwalk in the 'Jungle' room was pretty cool IMO. It wasn't a totally new experience or anything, but nice enough that I may go back if I need a 'nature fix'. We went through all the exhibits in about 45 mins or so.

Next stop was the Hirshhorn. It's a cool building - totally cylindrical with a big fountain in the center of the circle of the building. Two full stories of modern art and a few pieces in the basement gallery too. I'm not a big modern art person I guess - not many of the pieces really seemed worthy of being in a museum (looked simple to make and like it didn't take the artist much thought), but some of the sculpture was pretty cool and there was art from Warhol and Matisse which was neat to see.

The sculpture garden was nice - I like the art out in the open and interacting in subtle ways with the environment. Plus I always enjoy the bigger pieces because they seem more impressive. :)

On the way back to the dorm, Jeanna and I spotted a festival, and since that's a regular occurance and usually pretty interesting we headed that way. We had no idea what type of festival/gathering this was until we were a few steps in and then it became apparent that we were walking through a Gay Pride festival of some nature!! I have friends who are gay and I am comfortable in all types of situations, but I have to admit that it was kind of odd to be in such an environment. I think Jeanna was pretty uncomfortable, especially since we realized most people must've thought that we were a couple, so we pretty much just walked right through without really stopping. I wonder what I would've done had I been by myself - the music was pretty good and the food smelled great, plus there were lots of dogs (and I'm going into furry four legged critter withdrawal already, so I think I would've probably spent a bit more time there. The large blow up bottle of 'personal lubricant' was a bit off putting I do have to say. Definitely a true 'big city' event.

After walking through the festivities, I grabbed an ice cream bar at a streetside vendor - I only got about 1 block before the stupid thing melted and fell off the stick and onto the pavement. :( Hot weather is so frustrating at times.

I spent an hour in my room cooling off and surfing the net for more stuff before taking off to the BBQ Emily (my friend from elementary school) invited me to at her new place. I had a good time, met some cool people, and got to eat some good stuff. I left at 7:30pm so I could get back to the dorm around 8ish and avoid late night Metro stuff.

The Metro seemed pretty safe to me, even at 7:30 on a Sunday night which was good since it was the first time I rode by myself. I do think I will be sure to be back by 8:30pm (before dark) to be safe.

Now I'm back in my room for the night and have consumed my nightly pudding cup. :) Tomorrow is my first day at APHIS Animal Care, so I should be getting ready for bed already...will write more tomorrow!