DC in the Fall

I just came back from spending a few nice, relaxing, fun days in DC visiting my big brother, Andrew. Since the last time I saw him was during Christmas when I went to Japan, I was kind of excited to see him. Plus, it was nice to get out of Pittsburgh for a while.

I arrived Thursday night and left early this morning. Friday was spent perusing through some of the Smithsonian's--the American Indian Museum, the Museum of American History, and the Air and Space Museum. The American Indian Museum is the newest one, and it was definitely the smallest. It had some interesting exhibits about different tribes from the Americas (North and South)--things about their mythology and history, about modern, urban communities, as well as art and music by famous American Indians. Though small, it was very interesting.

Next up we had lunch in the sculpture garden. It was such a beautiful day--sunny, blue skies, and not too cold (warmer than Pittsburgh anyway). It was good times.

The American History Museum was packed with people, and it has a large collection of eclectic things, such as the 1st ladies' dresses, pop culture items, African-American art from the civil rights movement, Stradivarius violins, trains, an exhibit on America during war time, boats and pirates. I went a little picture crazy in there due to all the random stuff.

Last, but not least, was the Air and Space Museum. We were kind of dying from all of the walking and standing and reading we had been doing, so we spent a bit less time in that museum. This was slightly upsetting because I love reading about all the different planes and space ships and such (yes, I am an engineer, so I wanted to get my nerd on!). However, we did see some pretty cool stuff, like the history of telescopes, how they discovered the universe was expanding, planes from WWI and WWII, planes on aircraft carriers, space missiles and shuttles, and lunar landing stuff. Twas awesome.

We then made our way back to Andrew's neighborhood and ate a Pho Place. What is pho? I wasn't sure myself at the time. But it is apparently Vietnamese noodle soup. It was delicious, though I have no idea what kind of meat I had in there (hopefully nothing too weird).

Saturday was a much more chill day. We had brunch at some pretty hipster place. There were some interesting choices for brunch such as shrimp n' grits, or what Andrew had chicken and waffles!!!! FRIED CHICKEN ON A BELGIUM WAFFLE. With berries and syrup. Wtf. is. that. shit. I don't even know! It was crazy.

We then headed to the Library of Congress. The largest library in the world, holding a copy of all books published in English, it is definitely one of the most beautiful buildings as well. The interior is amazing, especially the rotunda where people sit to do research. I wish I had a library like it; I would be using it all the time!

Afterward, we did some some walking around, relaxing and chilling. We met up with some of Andrew's friends from back in the day when he was a young undergrad, and had some awesome food and some good drinks. It was a good time. It made me sad to come back to Pittsburgh with a mountain of homework awaiting me. I can't wait until I have a job that pays me, and no homework to do on Sunday afternoons.