This past
week, my family and I journeyed to our nation’s capital, Washington DC. It was a week that was certainly full of ups
and downs, but we had a great experience, which I would like to share with you.
We left Salt
Lake International Airport late Sunday afternoon on a direct flight to
Washington Dulles Airport. However, the
flight is where our troubles started. We
were thrilled to find that we were assigned to sit on the back row of the plane
(I hope you note the sarcasm there). As
the flight attendants did the safety demonstration (because there were no
screens or entertainment on the flight), I took a short nap because my little
air blower thing didn’t work and it was super hot and uncomfortable. (Strike one, Delta) I expected to be in the air when I woke up,
but we hadn’t moved at all. We ended up
taking off a half hour late because our plane was a thousand pounds
overweight. Eventually, we did get
started, and it wasn’t until halfway through the flight that the captain thought
we might like to know that they took some bags off the plane to get it off the
ground. There was a marked tension among
the passengers as we went along, and we anxiously joked with one another. The tension wasn’t eased by the incompetent
flight attendants, who took forever to take drinks and food to the passengers,
or the fact that the plane totally ran out of food and drinks. Some of us on that plane went over 8 hours on
just a glass of water, and we landed in the middle of the night, when most food
places are closed. (Strike two,
Delta) When we landed, we had the
pleasure of discovering that all of our luggage, despite the fact that they
were marked as priority baggage (some perk we have because my dad flies often
enough), had been taken off of the plane.
You should know that I generally travel light. I just had one bag. So, I was literally left with just the
clothes on my back. Strike three. But wait, there’s more! Instead of sending our bags straight to our
hotel by 11 am the next morning, some moron thought that it would be helpful to
send our bags to New York instead of Washington DC. Well, the people in New York didn’t know what
to do with them, so they marked the bags as “lost” and sent them to
Atlanta. At least the Atlanta people were
smart enough to get the bags to Washington DC.
All in all, we left Sunday, and I didn’t have any clean clothes or
toiletries, etc. until Tuesday night.
Epic fail, Delta.
But despite our rough start, we started our vacation by visiting the
White House Monday morning. It was kind
of weird seeing the eclectic collection of people that seemed to be holding a
continuous stream of vigils in front of the White House, for everything from
nuclear peace to women’s rights in Guinea or Ghana or both, to who knows
what. I suppose that they’re all
varyingly good ideas in theory, but do they honestly think that President Obama
looks out his window, has compassion on the demonstrators and then changes the
world just for them? We then staggered
(it was a long walk, ok?) over to the Smithsonian, where we toured the Nat’l
Air and Space Museum. There, we wandered
around like the typical tourist, following a public tour guide. But the tour was really well presented and
informative, and it was really fun. Our
next stops were the Nat’l Art Gallery, which was interesting and in a beautiful
building, the Natural History Museum, which closed 20 minutes after we went in,
though we didn’t feel like we really missed anything, and the Museum of
American History. This museum had a lot
of really cool displays from nearly every facet of American culture and
history, including the Sunstone from the original Nauvoo LDS temple, artifacts
from the original Wizard of Oz, and a train that ran on a steel bridge. One of the most moving displays was the flag
that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the Star-Spangled Banner during the
War of 1812.
We returned to the American
History museum Tuesday morning to see a few exhibits that we didn’t get to on
Monday, and Erin and I also paid to ride a roller coaster simulator, which the
museum has to celebrate Americans’ love for speed. It was a dumb idea. I’ve been on decent simulators before, but
this one definitely didn’t cut it. It
was really old and only really rocked back and forth. I should have known better, but it was a
waste of time. After lunch, we went over
to the Library of Congress and took a tour there. Our guide mostly highlighted and explained
the art of that ornate building, and it was really fascinating. After, we briefly stopped for a picture at
the Supreme Court, and then went back to the hotel to celebrate having our
luggage.
Wednesday started early because
we had tickets reserved for a tour of the US Capitol early that morning. Again, we had a really good tour guide, and
we marveled at the cool things there. We
also got to see Congress in session, which actually kind of made us mad. Both the House and the Senate were in
session, but no one was in attendance!
Now, I know that I don’t understand the parliamentary process that
Congress uses, and I know that they meet in committees and subcommittees, but
still… It really didn’t seem like
anything was happening with any urgency.
Both sides of the political aisle would agree that the country’s not
exactly in its glory days… The rest of
the morning was spent visiting a few monuments around the city: The WWII
memorial, the Vietnam memorial, the Lincoln memorial and the Washington
monument. Each was powerful in the
history it commemorates. After that, we
got a rental car and drove a few hours to our next destination, Williamsburg,
Virginia, to settle in at our second hotel.
Thursday was the day that I had planned…it was our visit to Busch
Gardens Williamsburg, which has been voted the “most beautiful amusement park
in the world” for the past 16 years.
Really, you have to see it to truly appreciate it. The landscaping is incredible. There are colorful flowers everywhere, and
everything is so green. It’s also home
to some incredible roller coasters that are well-known for various
reasons.
- The Loch Ness Monster is where we started, and although it’s old, it still runs well and is a sight to behold. Its distinguishing feature is its two loops, which interlock with one another.
- One of their older coasters, Alpengeist, is a typical Bolliger & Mabillard inverted coaster. However, with its age, it really beats your head up. None of us really felt good after riding that one; I think we’ll avoid it if we ever go back.
- A classic coaster that I’ve already told you about is Apollo’s Chariot. I have to say that while the video I posted is thrilling, it pales in comparison to the actual ride experience. There’s a reason that coaster enthusiasts love Apollo’s Chariot. It is tall. It is fast. And it is smooth!
- Another enthusiast favorite is Griffon, which is a dive coaster. Griffon is unique in that each row of the train holds 10 people. And it drops you 205 feet straight down. Oh, and before it drops you, the train stops and is held over the edge for over 5 seconds (the people on the first row freak out at this point). It’s a gloriously terrifying experience.
- Lastly, their newest coaster is Verbolten, which is a play on words with the German word verboten, which means ‘forbidden.’ For this coaster, you seemingly embark on a nice, calm scenic road tour, but you get pulled forcefully (launched, in other words) into the forbidden Black Forest. As you twist and drop through the darkness, the forest seems to be hunting you. And suddenly your train comes to a stop. I won’t spoil what this coaster’s special surprise is, but there’s nothing like it in America, and it got great screams out of everybody that wasn’t expecting it.
On Friday, we dedicated the day to seeing the
historic sights of Virginia, specifically Jamestown and Yorktown. Again, our tour guides were well informed and
interesting, and we saw some pretty cool things, like a musket demonstration
and an artillery demonstration. I also
wanted to note that the people of Virginia that we interacted with were all
really nice. I admit that I don’t have
much exposure to “Southern Hospitality,” but it was really pleasant being in
Virginia. That night, we wanted to see a
little of colonial Williamsburg, so we decided to take a ghost tour of it. It turned out not being too scary, but it was
really entertaining. It was like sitting
around a campfire with a really nice, loud, outgoing guy who was full of
stories. We had a lot of fun…until we
couldn’t find our rental car… That was
not so fun…
Saturday was the day to leave for home, and we were leaving out of the
Washington Reagan International Airport, and it turned out that we had a little
extra time, so we went and saw Arlington National Cemetery. Feeling a somber, intense gratitude for those who have served our country is an experience that can’t be easily described. We saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb
of the Unknown, which was incredible, and it made the whole trip to Arlington
worth it.
Overall, our trip was amazing.
There were definitely trials, but at least we have some good stories,
right? Most everything turned out
great—even the food (who knew that apple nachos would be the best thing that I
ate? They were delicious!). All in all, we had a great time.
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