maryland.

it is officially here, spring break 2011!

Instead of choosing from one of my ideas in my other post, Sydney & I decided we would take a little jaunt across the country to Washington DC. I've been here a thousand times because of all the family I have in the area, but Sydney had never been to the capital. We decided that we'd rather do something productive and useful with our time off instead of gaining weight from cheap beer and getting pre-mature skin cancer from too much sun exposure, so we booked Saturday-Saturday tickets to DC.

here are some things we've learned:

1. this city is AWESOME

2. the metro always takes longer than expected

3.  it's freezing.

4. it is possible to spend an entire day in one smithsonian

5. sydney & I should have our own talk show

5. maryland SUCKS

as most, or some, or at least one of you know, East Falls Church is in Virginia and not Maryland. but it all makes sense once you hear this WONDERFUL story of our adventure to DC.

March 11

11:00 pm: We leave for the airport. Our flight leaves at 12:40, so we decide to get there at least a little early. Sydney & I chuckle at the sign that says "The nation's friendliest airport", but little did we know that this fact was about to be proven even more wrong by the lovely Sky Harbor staff. We get up to security and this girl decide to load her 300 bags onto the table but not wait to push them through the x-ray machine. I line my stuff up behind hers, and the guy on the other side of the metal detector is urging me to walk through, so I leave the table. Then an extremely pleasant TSA worker comes up to me and asks "do you want to keep your stuff?" I answer a confused "yes?" and she tells me that I better stay at the table and push everything through or it's not going anywhere. I stand next to the table, pushing everyone's stuff through until my bag finally comes into view. Sydney, who had already passed through the metal detector, was looking for me, so I said "apparently I work here now." TSA was not pleased. I had to go through that new stupid little xray machine, and then since I left my license in my pocket had to get a pat down. really, sky harbor?

March 12

12:30 am: begin the longest. day. ever. After being denied the seats that we chose when booking our flight that were next to each other, sydney and I ask some girl to switch seats with me since the flight attendant at the booking counter refused to help us. We settle into our seats, and the man next to sydney in the aisle seat falls asleep almost immediately. The next 4 hours go by excruciating slow as we try to "sleep", which is impossible to do in the tiny little seats they give you.

6:50 am: FINALLY we get off the plane. we dash to the nearest dunkin donuts and get some breakfast and lots of coffee. we try to find a bus to take us to the AMTRAK station. we finally find the right bus, and head to the station.

8:50 am: we arrive at the AMTRAK station and find out that the first train to Union Station doesn't leave until 9:40. after we die a little on the inside, we buy our tickets and sit down across from these two people that are dressed exceptionally fancy for sitting in a train station. we actually saw those people on the metro yesterday on our way downtown. they were dressed very fancy again, and something about them made them very intriguing. sydney & I decided the most reasonable explanation for this is that they are vampires. ANYWAYS

9:40 am: we get on the AMTRAK train. it's extremely roomy compared the the airplane, and we can finally stretch our legs. the train ride is supposed to be like an hour, but it seemed shorter. now that I look at the text messages I sent at the time we got on the train and the metro, it probably did take about an hour on the train. maybe since my legs finally had circulation the time went by a little quicker.

10:30 am: the AMTRAK train drops us off at Union Station, finally in DC. we figure out the tickets and subway lines we have to take, and find our way to the first train. we get off at our first stop, and change lines to our final destination.

11:00 am: we get on the final train and find out that the track is closed a few stop down, at East Church Falls, as seen in the picture above. we're supposed to get off the train, onto a shuttle, and then back on the train at the next station. Sydney and I really want to die now.

11:30 am: We arrive at East Church Falls. we stand outside and FREEZE, but thankfully my cousin comes to pick us up so we don't have to take the shuttle and more of the train.
12:00 pm: We get to my aunt's house in Vienna, Virginia. Yes, THIRTEEN hours after we left my house the night before, we get to our final destination. We hadn't slept in over 26 hours. basically we don't remember anything that happened that day because we were the walking dead.

so overall, we really hate maryland and east falls church. sydney and I decided that after we survived that horrendous day together our friendship can now definitely handle anything, and we aren't going to kill each other. thankfully, after that fabulous day the trip has been super exciting! we got suite tickets to a wizards game, and have seen a ton of smithsonians and monuments. yay for the nation's capital!

cheers,

lauren