Easter!

So I went to Washington, D.C. for Easter weekend to visit Katie's sister [Tracy] (and her brother [Peder] was there too - he flew down from Michigan after he drove there from Oregon, which is CRAZY). Anyway, Mike Yin lent us his car (which I didn't crash!) and we drove there. It was about 500 miles round trip, and 5 hours each way - although we stopped to pee and eat. Not at the same time.

We got there on Saturday around 12:30 PM and we went to the new Air & Space museum, which was really big and full of planes. We saw lots of planes, including a space shuttle and the one that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. Which is kind of creepy.

Then we went home and watched The Incredibles and made pizza (everything from scratch, although I didn't make - I sat and watched, although me and Peder got the gas faus fireplace working). The Incredibles ended up being a copied DVD that was a bit wonky because it was missing a scene and stopped a little bit before the actual end. Smart Pixar pirate logistics team.

Sunday we woke up super early to go to this outdoor church service at 6 AM. It was a bit cold (or windy) but it was nice. I don't really go to church, so I'm always worried because I don't know what to do or the tunes to any of the songs, but it turned out OK. I didn't receive communion because I don't know what my feelings about this whole Jesus thing are - despite the fact that it was EASTER, I know - and I don't want to falsely take the body and blood of Jesus if I don't know what kind of relationship we have. Yet. Anyway, it was nice; church is always nice, because these people are all full of love and acceptance - these people being Lutherans, I guess. And there were ducks behind the preacher because there was a river or lake there. The Potomac? And the ducks were so elegant.

Then we walked around the mall and saw all the monuments - I hadn't seen the new WWII memorial, which I did see. It was large and very well designed, but it was kind of odd because most of it is quotes or these pillars with states names on them, and the only part representing dead soldiers or something was this little (in comparison to the memorial, not to a person) wall of stars. I think each star represented some huge number of soldiers who died in battle, but it was consumable and digestable, which I didn't want. I wanted something I couldn't digest easily, like a wall of stars. I guess I wanted something like the Vietnam memorial, which makes me sad every time I walk past it, because it's just an endless wall of names.

Anyway, we walked a lot, stopping in at the old Air & Space museum and the new Museum of the American Indian (just for a little bit) before going to this favorite restaurant of Tracy's, where I had delicious seafood & chicken jambalaya. They had an oyster bar, but I wasn't brave enough to try the oysters.

Then we went home and played twenty questions and password and watched Arrested Development and Desparate Housewives and went to sleep. Then me and Katie drove back to Pittsburgh in torrential rain followed by nice sun followed by the constant state of mediocre and surprising weather that surrounds Pittsburgh.

Happy Easter! Fried platter time!

Mike Yin said "Smithsonian" and then I remembered we also visited Iwo Jima (the memorial, not the place) and the Netherlands Carillon, which is a tall tower (kind of ugly) with bells at the top. There are stairs to the top, but there was also a door at the bottom that was locked. So, I just rode one of the stone lions that was in front of it. Here's Tigger riding one.