DC Trip – June 16

We all slept late and thought we’d hit up the Lincoln memorial in the morning since we had plans to go to lunch with my cousin. I had run out of t-shirts (seriously a fashion freak out for me) and when CorpseKitten called from H&M, I told her to grab me a t-shirt. She came back with a Black Sabbath t-shirt. Wow, I’ve never actually owned one before. I’m sure as soon as my mother hears about this, I’ll be grounded, and I haven’t lived at home in 15 years. Ha ha ha.

There are no busses or trains that go near the memorial, so we asked the concierge the fastest way to the memorial. CorpseKitten’s feet were showing the wear from last night’s hiking adventures, so we needed to find the route with the least walking. And I was a big pained from my previous evening, which didn’t help thing either. The concierge said we should take a cab. We went out front and grabbed one for the three of us. We got there in under 10 minutes.

The Lincoln memorial is pretty slick if you haven’t seen it. I had been messing up all my historical facts (intentionally… usually) this far, so I kept it up. Apparently there was a guy near me that was offended that I called the inscription on the inside of Lincoln’s Memorial the Magna Carte. I thought it was hilarious though.





My cousin called and said she was on her way. We picked a location to stand and she said she’d pick us up. Somehow, everything worked out really well because when she drove up to us, the traffic light near us had been red and everyone was stopping. We stepped out into traffic and hopped right in her car. Perfect timing.

We went to the Peking Gourmet Inn, which is one of the places in DC where famous celebrities including the first family eat. We got a whole peking duck (their specialty), garlic sprouts with shrimp, green beans, with fried dumplings. They brought the duck to our table and the chef started slicing really thin slices of duck off onto plates. The duck was really great. I’ve had duck a lot of ways, but not peking duck. And now I’m sure I’m ruined for peking duck any other place. The garlic sprouts were also something I’ve never had before. Really crunchy and mild garlic taste.

We (meaning me) forgot CorpseKitten had a tour of the NPR headquarters, so we had to race to get over to her tour. She was only 15 minutes late, but she caught up with the rest of the pack. Babo and I went back to the hotel to lounge around in front of the TV. I cashed out and when CorpseKitten got back from her tour and wanted to see the National Portrait Galllery, I decided just to keep sleeping. I was still feeling a little sensitive from the previous night’s festivities.

CorpseKitten and Babo saw the National Portrait Gallery and brought back some fun photos, which I don’t have yet, but it looked pretty impressive. After my four hour nap, I still wasn’t feeling great, but I needed to be up and moving, so we went to some of the conference vendor-sponsored parties. With groups of librarians, it’s a fine line between awkward, and weird, and hilarious, and tonight was no different. I didn’t drink anything, which made it slightly less tolerable than usual, but we did score some free food. I also kept the drinks flowing for all our new friends!

We crashed a couple of those parties and mocked people dancing, and ended up heading back to our hotel bar. Only to find out that it closed at midnight during the week. (Every day on our vacation was the weekend for us, why not everyone else?) So we headed off to Clyde’s for a night cap. I bought a couple drinks for people (and by *I*, I mean I said I would and someone else got the tab – wurd). So I came home in good shape for sleeping, and for Popeyes the next morning. Yeah, that’s right. I said Popeyes.

Top 5 things about day 4
1. Peking duck was awesome
2. First four-hour nap I’ve taken in 10 years
3. I’m hilarious at historical monument sites, really!
4. I’m a great drink-gatherer when not drinking
5. Lincoln Monument is pretty cool, as is the Vietnam War Memorial and the Korean War Memorial

Bottom 5 things
1. Really was not feeling good the entire day. Ha ha ha
2. Stayed out way too late for not having a single drink
3. Now, I’m a stereotypical long-haired guy wearing a Black Sabbath t-shirt
4. Awkward librarian dancing
5. Hotel bars closing at midnight…. Booooooo!