Washington

We have been planning to visit Washington DC for at least a year. Luckily, Abe had a genetics conference that finally got us there. This was my first time to our nation’s capital. I joined Abe later in the week and luckily he was able to break away from his work for some sightseeing.

There is so much to see in DC! It was a very busy trip and we saw many of the standards.

Thanks to Abby and Matt for helping us to a drier (and dorkier way) to explore the mall. I didn’t ever imagine it to be that muddy. :)

Abe (and Abe)

There were very few monuments for women. I thought this one was really meaningful. It showed some of the leaders (can you call them mothers? like you would “the founding fathers”) of women’s suffrage. The back of the sculpture is unfinished which symbolizes that it is a continuing movement which I thought was really interesting. I guess the feminist in me really appreciated that. Abe says it is just waiting for Hillary to insert herself.

More Abraham. I am glad my Abraham doesn’t look so sad.

Each state gets to choose two monuments for their state. This is Brigham Young for the state of Utah. I need to do some Iowa history research because I didn’t recognize either of them. One was Kirkwood…I’m guessing the college is named after him. Brownie points to whoever knows the other Utah and other Iowa monuments.

Abe’s childhood friend is a speech writer for Hillary Clinton. We were lucky that he was able to arrange a tour of the white house for us on short notice. It is weird to think the president and his family lives here. I really wanted to go upstairs and see where they live but the secret service wouldn't let me even think about it while there. I keep wondering, “What does the president’s bathroom look like?” I’ve always felt bad about not being able to go behind roped off areas. If there was no rope, I wouldn’t think anything of it. I guess it makes me feel like there is something secretive or interesting there. It's probably just an old closet.

Anyway, more to come. I know you can’t wait to hear more. Funny I don’t really know who YOU is or if there even is a YOU. But regardless, YOU’ll be sure to see more.