The Last Day in Washington DC, aka the day that was cold.

This morning we managed to drag our bottoms out of the house by...ten-ish? Which is a vast improvement from the day before, when we arrived to DC at noon. It was freezing. Like, 30 degrees freezing. I was not prepared for the weather. It was cold, and to make things worse it was cold and windy. Better than the day before, though, because it had been cold, wet and windy, which is really just a nasty combination. I'll admit, I'm the wimpiest of the weather wimps. None is wimpier than I, Marissa Wu who is cold even in the summer except when temperatures exceed 80 degrees.
We got to Georgetown around 11and managed to get a walk-in information session, which was really nice because when I had tried to book one online, it had been full.
Georgetown University is really beautiful, with plenty of cherry blossoms and good cannons. The architecture is kind of Gothic I'd say, and Georgetown as a whole is quite quaint with a certain charm I really can't describe.

I think I'm going to apply here. It's only a few miles from DC, which is convenient. As an added bonus, Georgetown Cupcake is only a few blocks away. Can I say yum? We went before the information session and got red velvet, salted caramel, cherry cheesecake and peanut butter fudge. The salted caramel was some divine creation sent from the world beyond and the peanut butter fudge? Don't even get me started. (I swear though, Georgetown University is a good school, and I'm not just applying there because of Georgetown Cupcake, contrary to what mom thinks!)

Top right: salted caramel, cherry cheesecake, peanut butter fudge and red velvet.

I didn't try the cherry cheesecake, because personally I am not a fan, but my mom and Syd thought that it was good. It's an actual cheesecake baked into a cupcake liner topped with more cream cheese frosting. The red velvet cupcake was good, all cupcakes were soft (but not overly wet) with the right amount of frosting in proportion to cake. 

After Georgetown, we went back to the National Mall. When I first heard of the National Mall, I was really excited because I thought it meant shopping. Padre informed me that it was a very loooooooong grassy expanse that had the Smithsonian Institutions on either sides, ending with the Washington Monument, opposite the Capitol Building. It's nice, even if you can't go shopping. 

There was a reprise in the schedule and I returned to the Natural History Museum (but my bros had never been) and we went to the gems exhibit first. Small Man loves the "fancy rocks" so I told him to look at the Hope Diamond. He said "It's small. It's probably worth a lot of money but shouldn't be. The rock in the next room (his personal favorite) should be worth more." Right you are, Small Man. The kid valued a 50 pound block of quartz to be more valuable than an Indian blue diamond. I couldn't agree more. 

We also viewed a skeletons/mammals exhibit. If you like biology...go there. That's really all I have to say. I saw a turtle skeleton that was a tall as my dad almost. And my dad is like six feet tall, keep that in mind.

We also made it into the National Archives with a 35 minute wait. Sorry there are no photos, but we weren't allowed to take any! One of the security guards threatened to throw a lady out if she took any more pictures. BUT you should go to this museum! I saw the Magna Carta which is desperately underrated- everyone goes upstairs to look at the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and Constitution. The Magna Carta, if you need to brush up on history, was signed by King John creating a limited monarchy. It was the inspiration for the Constitution! The other three documents are barely legible because they are so faded, so I guess the major draw to them is "I saw them! I saw them!" Not that you could actually read anything but...

The National Archives exterior- awesome classical allusions (build in the Federal/Neoclassical Style).

 Our last stop was the Jefferson Memorial. If you have been following along with all of my posts so far, you may have noticed that I never mentioned the White House. I'm going to make a confession: we never visited it and we are not going to. It's half past two in the morning right now and we are in Philadelphia. Can you believe we visited DC and didn't go to the White House? (Just another reason to come back!) The Jefferson Memorial was incredibly breathtaking. It's directly on the Potomac river, and as the sun is setting it hits the water at that brilliant angle. The memorial itself is amazing- I don't understand why Washington just gets a pointy pencil.

So, in light of time, "that's all, folks!"
It's also my birthday...not sure how I feel about that.