Lincoln Memorial

I took a quest to the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.  Now, when I say quest, I mean quest.  However, in this situation, you don’t need a magic sword, shield, and flute.  You need to be equipped with an MP3 player, sunglasses, and water.  I cannot stress it enough how important carrying water is around here during the summer.  If you don’t carry water and you are outside walking around for more than an hour, the thirst will hit you.  You’re body will send a signal to your brain saying “Hey! If we don’t get any liquid here soon, we are going to dehydrate and collapse.”  I’ve seen two people passed out on the street with paramedics since I’ve been here. 

Another important thing about carrying your own water is that you won’t have to buy said water on the street.  This is because if you buy on the street, you are going to be paying 3 bucks for a dollar bottle of water from some random person carrying water around in a cooler.  Highway robbery, don’t you think?  So, as a tip for you, invest in a water jug, preferably stainless steel because I don’t trust reusable plastic.  Also, don’t expect that water to stay cold longer than 10 minutes.  The second you walk out of the Metro and the sun begins beating on your container, no matter how much ice you put into that thing, it’s going to be gone and you’re water is going to pretty much be room temperature.  However, room temperature water is still water and you’ll be happy you have it.

It gets hot here.  I mean hot.  We’ve had more 90 degree days here than I’ve probably experienced in my whole life in Pittsburgh.  Not to mention that Pittsburgh usually has a lot of clouds so the sun is usually covered, which protects you somewhat.  That does not happen much in DC.  The sky, at least as long as I have been here, is usually free of clouds unless it’s forecast to rain.  So there’s no escape from Mr. Sun and all its wonderful rays beating the life out of you.  Anyway, let’s continue on with my epic adventure.

In order to get a better grip on the city, I try to walk places.  That’s how I learn directions to places.  So I got off the Metro at the Metro Center and walked to the Lincoln Memorial.  On the way to the Lincoln Memorial, I stopped the World War II Memorial.  It’s very nice.  There is a giant fountain in the middle and each column has the name of a state on it.  When you go, you can see quotes from many different people on the walls and weary travelers soaking their feet in the pool.

If you want to see how far that is, you can look it up on Google Maps.  Needless to say, I was a bit pooped from that.  However, once I got there, there were a lot of good photo ops around.  That includes the goal of that first leg of the trip, Mr. Lincoln.  I must also point out that the geese that hang out next to the reflecting pool are not scared of anyone.   After making it to the memorial, I hung out on the stairs for while listening to some music from my mp3 player and gazing over my view.  Once I felt recuperated enough, I began the trek over to the cemetery.

The cemetery isn’t that far away from the memorial; you just go behind it and cross the bridge that crosses the Potomac over to Arlington.  What needs to be mentioned about the cemetery is that it is a giant hill.  So if you want to get to see the Kennedys' graves along with the Tomb of the Unknowns, be prepared to hike.  When I got to the top and saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, I decided to call it a day.  Luckily, there is a Metro station at entrance of the cemetery so I was able to take the Blue Line back to Metro Center and transfer over to the Red Line so I could get back to the apartment and give my nice feet a rest.

Museum Expedition

So I went on an expedition to see as many Smithsonian museums as possible in one day. I made it to the Museum of Natural History, Museum of American History, and the Air and Space Museum. Every time I think of the Air and Space Museum, I think of this Simpsons quote:

Marge: Well, I studied art, and this guy's got a real gift.
Warden: You kidding? Look (shows another painting) he painted a unicorn in outer space. I'm asking you: What's it breathing?
Homer: Air?
Warden: Ain't no air in space.
Homer: There's an air-in-space museum.

Haha, kills me every time. Moving on…

The first stop was the Museum of Natural History. It’s giant with tons of animals in it. I’ve always wondered if the animals in the museum were real and just stuffed or just completely fake. Either way, how do they get them in those cool action shots? Anyway, if I wanted to see animals, I’d prefer to see them live so I didn’t stay long in this Museum. Here are some pictures. The last one is the Hope Diamond. I thought it was bigger than that. Every time I hear about the Hope Diamond, I imagine one of those giant cartoonish perfectly cut diamonds sitting in the middle of a field of lasers. Nope, it’s just that tiny one right there. Bit of a disappointment really.

The next stop was the Air and Space Museum. I loved it there. It was chocked full of space shuttles, air planes, and information about outer space. It was crazy to see how far airplanes have come from the Wright brothers to stealth jets. A lot was also covered about astronauts and the space program. It’s just a shame we don’t have much to talk about as far as space exploration goes these days. Sure, there is the International Space Station but they aren’t doing anything fun up there. I want news of a warp drive, teleporter, or alien contact. Until then, space news is dead to me. Here are some pictures!

The last stop was the American History Museum. I think this was my favorite stop mostly because I’m a crazy pop culture fan. I mean, I walked around a corner and BOOM. They had a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume! With the first issue of the comic book, are you serious?! That’s just too awesome for words. But it didn’t stop there. They also had a Dumbo from the Dumbo ride in Disney, tons of war exhibits, tons of cool presidential exhibits, Fonzie’s jacket, and Dorothy’s ruby slippers. I could go on and on but I won’t. I’m sort of sorry this was the last museum I went too because it had the coolest stuff out of all three of them. One thing that was weird to me was a giant statue of George Washington looking like Zeus sitting on his throne on Mount Olympus. That just didn’t make sense to me. But overall, the American History Museum has been my favorite museum.

First Weekend

I am living in the New Residential and Academic Facility.  In case anyone wants to know what it looks like, I’ve taken a few pictures of the living room and the view from our balcony and windows.  I didn’t take any pictures of the bedrooms because, as I said, we just moved in.  I doubt anyone would want to be interested in seeing a room that looked like a couple suitcases exploded in it.  

With my first weekend, I saw fit to try and get as many touristy things out of the way as possible.  So, I spent my time visiting all the Smithsonian Museums and took a trip to a few monuments.  Needless to say, this took a lot of walking.  I think I got through a lot of my tourist list.  I still have to get to the zoo, the aquarium, the Lincoln Memorial, and Arlington Cemetery.  I’m sure there’s a few places I’m missing but I’ll remember them sooner or later.

This was Memorial Day weekend.  There was a Memorial Day concert on Capitol Hill that my roommates and I went to.  They had performers like Lionel Richie and Brad Paisley performing.  It’s beginning to be a pattern that many of DC’s activities consist of sitting on stairs or grass.  I may need to invest in a portable chair or a giant towel.  Especially after experiencing the Memorial Day parade and not realizing exactly how hot stone stairs can get after getting pounded by the sun's radiation for hours.  Speaking of the Memorial Day parade, I have some pictures from that as well.  It was a pretty good parade.  We didn’t stay for the whole thing.  Mostly because it didn’t seem like there was going to be an end to it and we were all hungry.

Other than that, I spent a good amount of time just walking around the neighborhood trying to find out where things are.  Took a trip to Union Station to see what was in there.  There are a lot of nice stores and a giant food court.  Also took a trip down H Street and found a good amount of shops and places to eat over that way as well.  Nonetheless, I am sure I have only seen the tip of the iceberg as far as things to discovery.  My quest continues.

Introduction

Allow me to reintroduce myself, my name is HOV! Wait… that’s not right. HOV is one of Jay-Z’s nick names. I’m sorry. I occasionally think/wish I was Jay-Z ever since he married Beyonce. Kind of a weird coincidence that it started around that time isn’t it? I have no idea what the connection with that may be *cough* single ladies video *cough*. Usually, it’s other people that want to be me. Mostly ghosts. I tell them “Hey! Do I look like Whoopi Goldberg to you? Do I have no eyebrows, dreadlocks, and a weird attraction to Ted Danson? Do I sit in bars on the Starship Enterprise giving sage advice?” I have completely lost my train of thought, haven’t I? Let’s start over...

Hello, my name is Nathaniel. My friends call me Nate. So you can call me Nathaniel. Ha! You see what I did there? I’m just joking, you can call me Nate. I’m sure you guys are cool. Nathaniel is too formal and has too many syllables. Adds an extra 3 seconds to conversations every time you use it. Not efficient at all.

Moving along, let’s list a few of my stats: I was born and raised in Pittsburgh. I love traveling whenever I have the time and funds to do so. I’m extremely spontaneous and impulsive. I’m an MBA student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and did my undergraduate work at Penn State University. This summer, I will be working at the U.S. Small Business Administration. Welcome to my blog. I’m sure we’ll have tons of fun. I mean awesome amounts of fun. I’m talking so much fun that the weight of the fun causes it to collapse on itself creating a FUN BLACK HOLE. Do you realize how much fun that would take? Do you also realize that may be a bit of an oxymoron? Yea, wrap your head around those things.

So yea, here I am at DC for the summer. My first impression of the city is that this place is great. It is a nice change from living in Pittsburgh. I am staying in the brand new Residence and Academic Facility that just opened this summer. There is a nice new car smell everywhere you go in this place. Sorry there aren’t any pictures in this post but I promise, the next post will have some. I plan on bringing my camcorder/camera with me as many places as is legally allowed. I have a feeling that you’ll never know when something big will happen around here.

Now, some of you may be wondering why I chose the name “Distinguished Gentleman” as my blog title. I mean, clearly, it does define me extremely well, but that wasn’t the reason. I just wanted to title it in connection with the name of a movie that was shot in DC. Originally, I was going to title my blog “Mars Attacks 2: Independence Day” or “A Few Good Men say Bye Bye Birdie to True Lies” But I decided to go with Distinguished Gentleman because it killed two birds with one stone.

I think I’ve talked enough for this post. Once again, welcome to my blog, ya’ll come back now, ya hear?