Day of Firsts

Although I have visited most of the sites in Washington DC before, I had never flown or used the metro system. Flying was actually pretty cool, a little bumpy on the landing and my ears popped a lot but I made it through. As for the metro, it was crazy figuring out how to travel around and connecting from one train to another, but people were nice enough to help and we figured it out easily enough. After finally getting our metro passes, we went on a hunt for food and the Smithsonian only to be distracted by the White House, stopping to take pictures, before moving on. Now if you know much about the DC area, the Smithsonian and the White House aren't exactly right next to each other but exploring was all the more fun. We passed the IRS building, and the Reagan building and finally made it to the Museum of National History, which was pretty awesome. We went through the whole museum, seeing the dino bones and fossils, and all different types of mammals, and we explored the whole ocean section. One of the best parts of the museum were all the gems, and rocks. We saw the Hope Diamond and jewels Napoleon gave to his wife, and several other beautiful pieces of jewelry. After the museum we walked over to the Washington Monument before calling it a day. Dinner at the Chinese place across the street and sleep are the perfect way to end this day.
Kaitlin Vonderschmitt