Spring Break!

Well, first off let me apologize for not writing anything in so long. I could either claim that my life as a grad student has been so hectic that I haven’t had a chance to write anything, or that my life as a grad student as of late has been so mundane and boring that there really isn’t much to write about. While neither of these are very good excuses, the odd fact is that to some extent they are both true.

This past week, however, all of that changed. That is because last week was……SPRING BREAK!!! Now for all of you who know me, no I did not decide to go down to Tijuana or even Miami. I know that’s kind of a shocker since I’m normally such a wild guy who can’t resist massive numbers of drunken beachgoers. Actually, I hadn’t been planning to go anywhere for the break until Friday the 21^st. I thought that I might have to stay around to do some research, but it turns out that I didn’t. I now had a week with just about nothing to do (other than homework, but who would do that?). This blog entry is a chronicle of my adventures. I must warn you that it is a long posting. Those of you without much patience or with small, frantically energetic children may wish to take it in small doses. I will try to break it up into sections.

PART I--Sunday through Tuesday: Where to go/planning

When I found out that I would have a long break, I began pondering where I should go. I decided on somewhere close (after briefly considering a surprise visit to see Laura and Michael). I wanted to have enough time to do some things wherever I went, so that ruled out a number of destinations. I also didn’t want to spend a ton of money to go there. In the end it came down to New York City or Washington, DC, both of which are accessible by the Chinatown bus. For those of you who may not know what the Chinatown buses are, they are a few different commercial bus companies that run between several of the major cities along the northern east coast. They are called the Chinatown buses because, in most cases, they run from the Chinatown neighborhood of one city to the Chinatown of another city. They are dirt cheap ($15 each way Boston to NY) and not all that bad, if you know when to go.

In the end I decided to go to DC. This was partly because I went there on a mission and had not been back since 2005, and it was also partly because I got a really awesome deal on Priceline for a hotel room for Thursday and Friday nights. You may ask why I didn’t ask some of my old mission contacts if I could stay with them. Well the simple answer is that it would not have worked out very well. Most of the people that I taught on my mission fell into two categories. The first was people who lived a long ways from DC. I couldn’t really stay with them because I had no car. The second group was the people from the city. Most of these people, however, lived in the housing projects. Aside from probably not being the safest place for me to stay, I didn’t want to inconvenience any of them. The hotel seemed like the best option.

My original plan was to take the 2 AM bus out of Boston Thursday morning. After sleeping on the bus, I would arrive in NYC around 6 AM. That would give me enough time to get over to the other company and catch the bus going to DC at 7 AM. This would put me in DC around 11:30 AM. I would then go check into the hotel and be off exploring. I would then spend all day Friday and Saturday morning there before coming back to Boston Saturday night.

As I continued to think about this plan, however, I wasn’t sure if I would have as much time as I wanted to explore. I started weighing my options. I didn’t really want to spend the money for another night in DC if I would probably arrive in the afternoon on Wednesday. Then it came to me. Why not leave here earlier on Wednesday and get to DC earlier on Thursday? I started to check the bus schedules and formed my plan. How early did I arrive? You will just have to read on to find out.

PART II--Wednesday: The Journey Begins

I spent Wednesday morning packing up my stuff, printing my tickets, and getting a larger memory card for my camera (2 Gigs). Then, it was time to leave. I packed up and headed down to the bus station, arriving just in time to catch the 3:00 bus to NYC. As you can see from the pictures below, the bus isn’t all that bad, and since it wasn’t crowded, I got a whole row to myself.

[Love the seat fabric!]

[Goodbye Boston!]

I arrived in New York at about 7:30 PM. The ride wasn’t bad because we didn’t hit much traffic. I wandered around Chinatown in New York a little and got dinner and a few pictures:

I had more than these, but most of them turned out blurry. I need to get a tripod for night shots. I still had a little time before the next bus left, so I walked down to the Brooklyn Bridge. I tried to take a bunch of pictures, but I found out that it is very hard to take clear shots on a bridge that is vibrating with every car that passes over. Here are a few of the better ones.

In case you are wondering why all of them have the lovely green riveted beam in the foreground, that was what I had to rest the camera on to take the pictures.

Anyway, I caught the 11 PM bus from New York and slept most of the way to DC. We arrived at about 2:30 AM (I can already hear my Dad sighing in disapproval). No, I was not completely insane. I did not go wandering through the ghetto at 3:00 AM. I went down to the Mall (where all of the monuments and memorials are). For those of you who have never explored the Monuments at night, it is an awesome experience. I have to say that this was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. For the next three hours I wandered all over the mall and visited every one of the major Monuments and Memorials. During that entire time, I only saw 7 other people and 4 of them were security guards. As with the pictures from New York, it quickly became apparent that a tripod would have been very handy. Since there weren’t any camera shops open at 3 AM, I did the best I could. Here are a few of my pictures.

Yes, this one is a bit messed up. That’s what happens.

I put together a site with all of my DC photos (at least all that are recognizable). That way I won’t use up all my space on here. The photo album can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/jevans6 In case you are wondering, yes it was a lot of walking. It turned out to be about 5 miles worth. Here is the route:

Part III—Thursday: Hotels, Museums, and Stuff

After taking the pictures, it was about 5:30 AM. I stopped by a Safeway and got a quick snack. Then I hopped on the Metro (subway), and went off to Georgetown:

The Metro Station

I got there about 6:30. I decided that it would look a little odd if I stopped in the hotel to ask if I could check in early at 7:00 AM. Instead I found a Starbucks, got some hot chocolate, and read a little bit. Then I wandered around the Georgetown waterfront. I showed up at the hotel at about 8:00 AM. They did not have any rooms available, but they did take my large bag, so I only had to carry around a much smaller bag with the camera, umbrella, and map. By this point I was really getting hungry, so I decided to search for some real food.

I have to admit that I don’t exactly remember which route I took to get back downtown, or even if I walked or rode the Metro (getting about 3 hours of “sleep” on a bus will do that to you). I did make my way down by the Whitehouse and had breakfast at a café next to the National Press Building. It was nice.

After breakfast I went back down to the mall. I thought about wandering around a little, but it was raining:

I decided to go to one of the Smithsonian Museums. The issue was that it was only about 9:30 at this point and most of the museums opened at 10:00. The only Smithsonian building that was open was the Castle:

I had never been inside before. It’s pretty cool. Mostly it’s just an information center now, but the architecture is neat and there were a few exhibits that caught my eye:

At 10:00 I went over to the Natural History Museum. I probably would have also gone to the American History Museum, but it is being renovated until this summer. While at the Natural History Museum, I saw all the animal exhibits, dinosaur exhibits, an exhibit about ancient western civilizations and a special exhibit they had showcasing “the world’s best nature photography.” I took some pictures of the pictures. You can find those on the online album too. About halfway through the gem and mineral exhibit I started to feel a little tired. At this point it was about 12:30 or 1:00, so I decided to go back to the hotel and see if I could check into my room. I was able to and managed to take a quick, 4 hour nap.

Feeling somewhat refreshed, I went downtown, got some food and wandered around some of my old stomping grounds a little. It was fun. I then returned to the hotel and, after checking my email, went to bed.

Part IV--Friday: A day of surprises

As the title mentions, today was a day of surprises. The first one came as I woke up. I didn’t. At least not until almost 9:30 AM. I had set my cell phone alarm for 7:00, but I guess I turned it off without waking up. Oh well. I got up and ate a quick breakfast. Then I walked down to the Mall again. Those of you who are familiar with DC might recognize where this statue is, but most people never see it.

Yes, it is Einstein. He is sitting near the State Department (as anyone would guess). The first thing I decided to do was to get some Cherry Blossom pictures. The Cherry Blossom Festival is a spring celebration that DC has each year. DC has a large number of cherry trees that all bloom at about the same time. Most are concentrated near the Jefferson Memorial, so that is where I headed. I got some decent pictures.

And no trip down to DC would be complete without seeing a few black suburbans full of Secret Service Agents (I didn’t take close-ups because I didn’t want to make them mad):

The unmodified versions are on the photo album. I wonder who they were protecting (or if they were just heading to lunch).

Next I went down to the Capitol Building. I don’t know why, but I’ve always really liked the Capitol. Maybe it was because it was in my area when I served here. Here are some pictures.

Yes I know I look a little scruffy. I shaved before I left and didn’t bring a razor with me.

Do you get this one? No? Well…

It’s a Lame Duck Congress!!! Haha! Ok, so maybe it wasn’t that funny, but I couldn’t resist the picture. Anyway, after visiting the Capitol, I went to Union Station and looked around. I was going to get lunch around there, but nothing sounded good. Instead I went down to Eastern Market. This was an old brick market that had various little shops. When I arrived, however, I found my next surprise. The old building had had a fire about a year ago. While they are restoring it, the shops have moved across the street to a temporary building. I had lunch at the Market Lunch, a diner type place in Eastern Market (I had the crabcake sandwich). I got lucky and showed up on their 30^th anniversary, so my drink was free.

This picture is just in case anyone was wondering whether DC was a southern city or not.

After lunch I walked around the Capitol Hill area, reminiscing a little. I wandered down to the Navy Yard as well, only to find out that what had once been quite classic ghetto around there was now Marine Barracks. All through that area, the housing projects and low income housing was gone in favor of condos, shops and a Marriott Courtyard. Where have all the ghettos gone? Surprise number 3.

After Capitol Hill and the Navy Yard, I went back up to the Natural History Museum to finish the gem and mineral exhibit. I’ve always liked rocks. I also got to see the Hope Diamond, and I took a picture:

Can you see it? Ok, so maybe there were a few too many people. I didn’t bother trying to get too close. I had already seen it on my mission. My next stop was the National Portrait Gallery. I looked around and some interesting portraits they had. I began to wonder why every woman painted during the Renaissance was losing her clothes. It got a little old after a while. I did like the Presidential Portraits. I don’t have space to show them all here, but here are a couple:

Nixon

George Bush, Sr. apparently playing horseshoes

Then there was this crowd of people gathered around the entrance to the bathrooms just outside the Presidential Portraits. I wonder what they could be trying to see? (this was actually one of the reasons I came too)

Recognize him? It’s the one and only Stephen Colbert, host of The Colbert Report. It’s a show on Comedy Central where he plays a political pundit. As one of the stunts on the show he tried donating the portrait to the Smithsonian “since it was obviously a national treasure.” The director of the portrait gallery agreed to the gag, and it is on display, but only until April 1^st. So, yeah. I saw it.

I thought about going to see the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, but then I saw the line:

That’s right; it stretched around the corner and down the block. I could wait until my next visit to see the documents again.

I then moved on to the International Spy Museum. It’s a cool museum, but since it isn’t run by the Smithsonian, it actually costs money to see. I had been to the main exhibit twice as a missionary, and I really did not have a desire to spend $15 to see that again. What they did have was a new activity called Operation Spy. For those of you who read my earlier blog about the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea adventure, this was designed by the same company. Students a couple of years ago in the class that I’m taking designed some of the parts of the experience. I decided to go through and see if I could get any ideas. It was fun, but they didn’t let me take any pictures. I think I did get a little better understanding of the experience though.

By the time I finished at the Spy Museum, the sun was beginning to set. I realized at this point that I hadn’t taken any pictures of the White House. So off I trudged to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Here is one of the better pictures:

After that I went up to my hotel, and got some dinner. As I was wandering around Georgetown a little, I got a phone call and my final surprise. It was JS Armstrong. He was a member who was very close to all the missionaries in DC. He was the Mission Leader of the Washington DC District (before it was changed into a Stake). I had sent him an email before I left, saying that if he had time, I would like to say hello. He had been busy with taxes all week, but wanted to know if I would like to go visit some people from the mission the next day with him. I readily accepted. After that I went back to the hotel and went to bed.

Part V--Saturday: Visits and the return journey

Saturday I woke up around 8:00 (with my alarm this time). After eating the continental breakfast at the hotel (which I had slept through on Friday) and checking out of my room, I waited for Brother Armstrong. He picked me up about 10:00, and we went to visit Sister Friarson. Those of you who may not have met Sister Friarson are missing out on one of the funniest ladies I have ever met. She is in her 80’s (I think), but she stays up late to watch cartoons. Her favorite is Pokemon. She also has a gun even though it’s technically illegal in DC. She has a deal worked out with the police that if someone breaks into her house and she shoots them that they will just take away the gun. She would always be giving us advice about how to defend yourself with a cane or things like that. She also made some of the best soul food I’ve ever had.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take any pictures of my visit with Sister Friarson or JS Armstrong, so you will just have to imagine them.

After visiting with her for a while, Brother Armstrong drove me around to a few of the different areas of the city to see how things have changed. It was then time for me to catch the bus back home, so he dropped me off down in Chinatown. I got onto another lovely bus around 1:00:

A little scruffier, but really happy.

This bus dropped me off in New York around 5:30:

And from there I caught a bus back home that left at about 6:00. I ended up getting home a little after 11:00 after taking the subway from the bus station.

So that’s it. That was what I did for Spring Break. This turned out even longer than I expected. Feel free to look at and download any of the pictures on the online album. Once again it is at http://picasaweb.google.com/jevans6

And it might take me a couple of days to upload all of the pictures, so try to be patient. Thanks.

Now I’m going to bed.