Playing Tourists

Happy New Year! Thanks to the office entirely emptying out for the holiday, I got a rare treat--I did not have to do a single six-minute increment of work on Sunday! It was fantastic. In order to properly take advantage of the occasion, the husband and I decided to venture out and experience DC as it is meant to be experienced--as tourists.

We started our adventures by walking down to the scene of all the action lately--the Hay Adams hotel. We were two of the many, many curious Americans hoping to catch a glimpse the Obama family as they (along with so many other Americans) await the vacancy of their future home. We felt completely ridiculous standing there and gawking, waiting for the chance to wave at our future first family, but there was something really neat about the palpable excitement in the air, and we couldn't bring ourselves to walk away.

And our time spent standing out in the cold looking and feeling like idiots was rewarded--we got our second DC celebrity sighting! The Obama women exited the hotel, through the Secret Service tent, in a big black SUV with tinted windows, and surrounded by police cars and other vehicles. As they were driving away, Mrs. Obama looked out the window and waved at us! Some might see it as inappropriate or undistinguished, but I thought the fact that Michelle Obama waved at us through the dark windows had some nice symbolic value--she did not see the American public waiting outside her temporary home as a source of inconvenience or annoyance to be avoided, but instead as people whom she could help cheer and serve. Change is coming! =)

After the wave, we continued our walk down to the White House, where we saw the giant stage and massive rows of bleachers being constructed for the inauguration. We stopped to buy a couple of Obama T-shirts from a street vendor (hey, we were tourists!) and have a delicious lunch at Cosi. Then we headed further down to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, where we saw reconstructed dinosaur skeletons, fossils, the Hope Diamond, a really cool video about the ocean and its creatures, and a lot of other really cool, really old stuff. After all that walking our feet couldn't take it anymore, so we metro'ed most of the way back to our apartment.

It was really nice to be able to take advantage of some of the amazing and unique (and free!) resources of the city in which we live. I still miss "home," but DC is a great place to visit!