What another great weekend! After printing out directions I hopped in the car after work on Friday and made my way towards Washington, D.C. It was another great drive and I made it there pretty much in record time. When I arrived me and Nick hung out and I watched some TV while he got his work done, then after midnight we walked down to 'M' Street and went into a jazz club for a few beers. The tunes were great, but we spent most of the time either talking about or trying to avoid the most drunk guy I have ever seen in my life (and I mean EVER!). He said he was "rich" and just left a ton of cash on the table before he proceded to fall on it and a nearby girl. I must admit I thought of keeping it, but Nick prefered the "good things happen to good people" argument rather than my "good people must teach bad people a lesson" argument, so we gave the cash back to him on our way out.
On Saturday we slept in until after noon. We went downstairs where they have a place that sells Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, so I had my first one and I must say, the hype is real! They are awesome! We got in my box-on-wheels and headed downtown. We stopped first at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, which was a pretty awesome sight, seeing tens of thousands of names up close. We decided to trek on foot to The Whitehouse. We stopped for some street-meat and soon enough we were there. It was definitely very cool. Nowadays there is absolutely no way you can get close to the place there is so much security. Look closely at the pictures and you can see the box we found on the front gate that said, "Welcome to the White House - Push Button". There was no way we were going to push that button! Speaking of boxes, there were tons of them lining the inside of the gate, all making this very loud humming noise. Nick told me the story of a guy a few years ago who jumped the fence and got gunned down so I thought against it. We walked behind and then around down to the Washington Monument. All the tours were full so we didn't get to go to the top. It wasn't a very inviting place because recently they've erected a huge concrete barrier wall all around it. We kept walking until we got to the Lincoln Memorial. It was very cool and I got to re-live many a scene from Forrest Gump in the process! We got back in the vehicle and drove over to the Jefferson Memorial, and the coolest thing happened - just as Nick was about to snap my picture we heard this tremendously loud noise - an Air Force helicopter. You have to picture this monument, it's made of pillars in a circle topped with a dome, so when you are inside you can see outside as well in pretty much every direction. Just as he was taking the picture the chopper came down low and buzzed us as he went all the way around the monument! It was sooooo cool!
Aftewards, we headed back to the university and passed by The Pentagon on the way. We grabbed some supper at Hoya's, where we had brutal service but decent food. Nick had to work from 6 to 9PM so I walked across the bridge to the Metro station and rode it to the MCI Center for the hockey game. I had the chance to buy cheap tickets but I thought that in case one of Nick's friends wanted to go with me I would wait until gameday to pick them up. That turned out to be a mistake as the cheapest tickets available were $55USD! It turned out okay, though, because I got to sit next to this guy named Craig who is a U.S. Marine. He was at the game with his crew and a whole bunch of dudes from Holland in town for some cross-training at Quantico. He told me a bunch of stories about Iraq (he was there from the start until August and probably going back soon). Guess what, all you hippies out there? Morale is definitely not low - everybody is raring to go over there! He didn't know much about hockey so I got to teach a little bit so that was good, because the game definitely was not. It was a complete blow-out that saw the Canucks destroying the Capitals 6-1. Interesting note: they had a trivia question during one of the breaks that asked how many people were aware that a "Canuck" is another word for a "Canadian". The answer: 32%! Idiots! Even Craig was embarrased! After the game I got the opportunity to say two things to him: 1) I asked him to please not judge the sport of hockey on what he had seen that night and 2) I thanked him and his mates for all their work in protecting the free world, and told him that not everybody from Canada is a communist! He was very appreciative, because as he said, it's hard to remember that when he's watching the news!
After the game Nick caught a cab and met up with me downtown. We walked down the street to a place called the Capital City Brewing Company. When we got inside we became aware that each and every day between 3 and 6PM and after 10PM (it was 9:50PM!) it is happy hour and draft is 1/2 price and so were appetizers! Score! We had great brew and food for 2 hours for less than $15! We called some of Nick's lady-friends and caught a cab back to a place close to the university called "Au Pied du Cochon" (the site of many spy stories and Russian defections!). It was a little pub where we continued having some good brews. I can also now say that I had drinks with the niece of the U.S. Attorney-General! We walked home, and along the way managed to steal a Wesley Clark poster!
In the morning I slept in while Nick did some work and then we hopped in the vehicle and went back to 'M' Street to have brunch at J. Paul's. It was some pretty good eats and we were both stuffed. I dropped Nick off, and said our goodbyes, and then hit the road back to West Chester. I just want to highlight Nick's generosity throughout the weekend: from him offering me a place to sleep, to taking care of a majority of the food and drink, Nick is a top-notch host and a fabulous human being! Props to you, buddy!
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When I got back to the hotel I settled in to watch my first-ever Super Bowl with American commercials. It was probably the best game I've ever watched, but as luck would have it, the commercials were brutal! Not a single one was memorable. The one thing that was memorable?
(from The Drudge Report)
I can't say I'm surprised, because nowadays I hear swearing on public TV at 7PM, but there you go!
Even though the job situation is still up in the air (i.e. I have no idea whether I'll be in Regina, Vancouver, or Philadelphia next week), I'm all set to return back to Regina on Friday night around midnight ... see you then?