Gettysburg & DC

If Europe seems light years ahead of the U.S. in terms of interesting history and architecture, then the East Coast is to the Midwest what Europe is to the U.S. We spent the last few days visiting Gettysburg, PA and Washington DC. Amazing. Amazing.

Gettysburg

I was only half-excited to see the famous Gettysburg Battlefield, now I can't wait to go back and see what I missed. Now a National Military Park run by the National Park Service, we skipped the pricey museum, movie, and cyclorama, and headed for the field with the bookstore's audio tour in hand. This was a good way to do it since Nathan had already started demonstrating his encyclopedic knowledge of the event - it would have been a shame to pay to hear someone else tell me the same thing. It also allowed us to get out there and imagine what it must have been like to watch the Confederates peter out at the High Water Mark and try to hold both your left and right flanks on Little Round Top as the 20th Maine. (Yes, I learned something!) The battleground is FULL of great stone monuments to mark almost every round fired. There's so much to see and do, you could easily spend a weekend or more there, even if you deplore learning about people killing each other like I do, I truly found Gettysburg fascinating.

Monuments galore at Gettysburg

Gouverneur (his real first name!) Warren who scrambled up Little Round Top to discern where exactly the Confederates were in the treeline below.

Washington DC

DC just proved to me that you shouldn't knock a city 'til you've tried it. I used to have the impression that DC was a dirty, dangerous, terrorist-ridden, political dumping ground destined to spontaneously ignite in the flames of its own disgrace. The truth? I think I could live there.

I liked everything I saw of DC - the metro: why doesn't every city have one? the museums: second to none! the restaurants: lots of amazing things I can't get at home! famous sites: check! access to influential people: check check! It's just a neat place to be.

Luckily Nathan's brother, Justin, just moved there and was able to show us around on the inside track. I met a colleague from IBM at a restaurant called Central that had excellent (albeit expensive) burgers and desserts. Thanks, Bobbi! Saturday night, we also did a circuit tour of all of the monuments lit up beautifully.


Sunday we did a marathon of all things tourist. Starting out at the Museum of the American Indian, we sat next to the pipes our friend Travis from Pipestone National Monument crafted. They are some of the first things each visitor sees in the museum and Travis has a key role in the museum video also!

Museum of the American Indian

Travis' Pipes

We got side-tracked on our way to the Capital by the excellent Botanical Gardens:


The capital...


We doubled back to the Museum of the American Indian for lunch. They serve all manner of out-of-the-ordinary native dishes. I myself enjoyed the Crawfish Fritters, Three Sisters (corn, squash, and black beans), and Yucca Fries in green chili sauce (slightly more dense than potatoes and sweeter). Justin stole the last of the Rabbit Pot Pie which I have just now forgiven him for.


Most of the afternoon was spent at the Air & Space Museum, then we trucked it up and down the mall to visit the Washington, Lincoln, Vietnam, WWII, Korean, Jefferson, and FDR memorials/monuments.


We ended the night with a trip to Georgetown and an Ethiopian Restaurant called Zed's. It might just be the fact that I'm about to move to a small Kansas town whose Sonic is 1/6 of the restaurant options, but I just loved the variety of everything you can get in DC. You want it? They've got it! I will be back.