Lexington Market

Yesterday I got to go to Lexington Market with my friend Heather and her dad. They live in the building next door to me, so we just walked over to the market around noon time. The market is only a few blocks from my apartment. I actually decided that it's a little too close to my apartment for comfort. The walk over there consisted of one safe block, then two? blocks of deserted, closed down shops, and then two? more blocks of shops that were completely ghetto, dirty, the three of us were clearly the only white people around, and I was afraid to even inhale because I didn't know what the air was like. We walked through this maze of people as quickly as possible. I think this was the only part of the day that genuinely scared me.

Once we got to the actual Market, things were a lot better. The market is indoors. It's kind of like Pikes Place Market in Seattle sort of. We first went into the food court, and went upstairs where they just had chairs and an open top where you could look down to the lower level. There was a band playing, and we watched them from above. It was so much fun! Again, we were still the only white people there. Occasionally I would see another white person walk through, but not very often. The music was a jazzy/blues type of music. It was so fun because everyone was dancing and the whole spirit in the market was totally carefree! People would throw wads of money onto the stage for the band too, probably just dollar bills. There was even a little girl, no older than 3 who was getting the moves on. I didn't dance. I can't dance like a black woman. It was fun to be there though.

When the band was done, we got some lunch. I noticed that most of the people that work at the market are Asian. I was totally confused...

Then we went shopping around the market. They have mostly all fresh stuff. Fresh fruits and veggies, and fresh cuts of meat. There were so many weird things there, and I decided that I totally had to buy something weird from the market! So I did. I was originally going to buy some weird pig product, like pig ears or tail or something, but I didn't. I went to a fish stand instead. That's not as weird, but it's still not typical for me, so I figured it would suffice. I found an array of cheap fish, but then I didn't know which one I wanted. I asked the Asian at the counter which one I should buy. She laughed and said I would have to ask Joe. Joe was a big black man who knew his fish. I talked to Joe and Joe asked me how I was going to cook it and what kind of fish I wanted. Long story short, I ended up with a Tilapia. They asked if I wanted it filleted, I said no, I wanted it as is. They asked me if I wanted the head cut off, but I said no, I wanted it just how it was. They wrapped it up and gave me a bag with the fish in it. Four and a half bucks for a fish. I was proud. I also got a bunch of fresh fruit at another stand. A lot more practical than the fish. I have no clue how to cook the fish. I'll have to youtube that tonight or something. I sooo wish that I had pics of the market, but there was no way in heck that I was going to take my camera with me. I didn't even take my purse, I just put some cash in my pocket before I left. But here are the pics of my purchases that I took once I arrived home:





We got an ice cream slushy shake thing from one last stand before we left, and began our walk home. We walked on the other side of the street on the way home. Much better than on the way there.

The rest of the day I spent preparing my talk that I gave in church today. I got to talk about the restoration basically. It was my first full-length talk ever. I've managed to get by the last two years without giving a talk, but I wasn't able to slide this summer without giving one. I seriously freaked out about it, mainly because of the time issue. It all ended up being okay though, mostly because I filled up the time with a bunch of cheesy stories that somewhat related to the point I was trying to get across.

I don't know how much time I will have to write in the next week and a half. I'm hoping that everything will go well and perfect, as it is planned to. I totally foresee things getting totally crazy though. I have my big presentation to plan, and NYC all at the same time. It may be the best time of the whole summer though, and then it won't be long before I will get to come home :)

True Baltimorian

My dear Mother has probably been worried about my sleeping habits. It happens, even when you move across the country. If she hasn't been worried, then she didn't read my last blog post, or she just looked at the pics. Well mom, it's Saturday morning, and I just slept in and I should be all caught up. I feel great. I now remember what it's like to not feel tired. The last couple weeks have been excellent though since school is starting up soon. This blog post is now here to tell you everything that I have done in lieu of sleeping. Hopefully. At least whatever I can remember.

Various instances before the boys came out to visit kept me awake. You know, the night before I had to do laundry since I wouldn't have time to do it that weekend. Wednesday night is when I tried to do it. As I've mentioned before...weeknights doing laundry at my place is impossible. I was up late. Then the boys came. (See previous blog post).

While they were here, I had a presentation to prepare for at work that happened on Monday morning. As much as I tried to get done at work the week before, it really surprised me how much more preparation had to be done at home. I was up late Sunday, and up early Monday morning to practice. The presentation went well. I presented a journal article on the effects of the infection of toxoplasma gondii at different stages in a pregnant mouse on its offspring. I was really nervous because I presented it to a lab full of a bunch of people who are smarter than me. MD/PhD, Post Docs...and I'm an undergraduate. I was slightly intimidated. But I did well. My PI even had me forward the article I presented to the division I work for because he thought they could reference it in their research. So, I thought that was a compliment of sorts, meaning I at least found a good article to present and what not.

Monday night was FHE. One of my callings (yes, I have two, it happens in the BYSA ward) is on the FHE/Munch and Mingle Committee. I was put in charge of this FHE, and we had planned a way cool activity. We were going to have an activity on one of the ward member's rooftops that lives downtown a few blocks from me that has really great views of the entire city of Baltimore. However, there was a massive thunderstorm on Monday. We had to change the plans and move the activity to the church. Lame. It still worked though. I could have walked over to the other guy's place where the first activity was where we were going to have the rooftop activity, but I have to take the MTA (public bus) to get the the church. The activity started at 7:30. The bus schedule was such that if I took one bus, I would get there really early, and if I took the next bus, I would be about 5 or 10 min late. I decided to be really early (like 20 or 25 min early) since I was in charge. Normally late could fly though. I was going with Heather who lives in the building next door to me. We went to the bus stop to catch the early bus. As I was walking over, I saw it go up the street. I was at the stop 5 min early. The MTA is KNOWN for being late. What the heck!? They had arrived EARLY!?! Not cool. For me or for anyone else. No one gets to MTA stops on time because they are never there on time in the first place. Ugh. So...we got to wait. 20? min was scheduled for the next bus. Well. We waited 40. The next bus arrived super late. The bus got to the stop around 7:25. It takes half an hour to get to the church that time of day. Super (not!) I tried to get a hold of Emily, because she is my committee leader. No response from Emily. Well. A few stops up the road...Emily gets on the bus! We made the joke that at that point we were TRUE Baltimorians because we could get on the MTA and see our friends on the bus. Not anyone can just do that. And then, we were like the loud white girls the whole time that definitely didn't fit in. It was such a great experience. We arrived to the church 15 min late. Luckily the people that were in charge of activities were ready to go, and all I had to do was conduct and get started. It was a good evening.

On Tuesday I had invited the missionaries in my ward over for dinner. Well, I work all during the day, so I didn't have time to cook on Tuesday after work and before the time they arrived at my place. Therefore, I had to cook food on Monday night. After FHE (and I got home around 9:30 or 10 I think). Megan and I talked a bunch, and set the table and we had lots of fun planning! By the time I actually stated cooking though, and things had to cook for a while...I was up until 1:30. And this was after virtually no sleep the night before. Or any of the nights before that. Our apartment smelled lovely at 1:30 in the morning though.

My friend John from work came home from work with me on Tuesday for the dinner. The dinner was me, my roommate Megan, John, and the Elders. It turned out really well. I'm so glad that I was able to have them come over for dinner.

After cleaning up the dinner that night, I ended up talking on the phone to various people for an hour or so, and then to my oldest brother for about an hour an a half. Which means I went to bed late. Again. Then. I woke up early to do some things for work that had to be done so that I could present my data at the Stanley meeting that day. No sleep. My data presentation went well. Although that specific data was determined to be insignificant at this point, which sucks.

On Thursday I rode the bus to institute. Heather and I took the early bus this time. And it was a couple minutes late, which I will still give it credit for being on schedule. We had to ride the bus home after institute, too. Emily rode it with us also. We waited at our stop. It was a well lit intersection, in a semi-sketchy neighborhood. If there were less than three of us, I would have been scared, especially because we had to wait for 20 min. People driving by stared at us, probably wondering what three white girls were doing at a bus stop in a sketchy neighborhood at 9:30 at night. The bus came, on time. Emily got off earlier than me and Heather. When it came to mine and Heather's stop, we got off on a completely dark sidewalk. Once my night vision quickly adjusted, I could see three benches. One had mostly trash on it, and a man just staring at us. The other had one woman, looking straight down, and another man, looking at us. The last bench had a man sprawled out across it sleeping, likely homeless, with the words "Baltimore, The Greatest City In America" (it's on every bench) above him. The bus behind us moved. I turned around to walk towards my place. I saw my first dead street rat! Emily later told me it was only a mouse. It was really really small. I don't count it as a Bmore street rat by any means, but I think it was just a baby. Not a mouse. I was in flip-flops. And it was less than an inch from my toes. SICK.

I have about three weeks left in Baltimore! Two weeks left at work, and then one week left to play. I do have quite a bit planned.

As far as work goes, I have my final presentation (which is a really big deal, it's what the whole summer has lead up to) on Aug 10. I will present it to the Stanley Division. My last day at work is Aug 15.

Today I am going to Lexington Market (Dad wouldn't even go there it's so sketchy!) with Heather and her dad. Next weekend I'm going to NYC with Emily. Aug 12 I'm going to an Orioles game, and then the week after that, starting Aug 16, I think I might do some solo touring of Bmore before I leave. I'll ask around to see if anyone wants to do stuff with me, but everyone is busy during the week typically, so we'll see what I can figure out. I want to get everything on my bucket list done though! The (tentative) plan is to come home on Aug 22.

A Visit From the Boys

Without fail, everyday for the last week I have had less than 6 hours of sleep. Sometimes a lot less. Mother would be terribly disappointed. I feel like I have legit reasons for each and every single night, but it really does take a toll on your body after a while. But. I need to blog! Not just for the sake of blogging and followers and such, but it's almost like a journal in a way. So, please forgive me if I spell things wrong (more than normal), or don't make a bit of sense (as compared to the normal slight bit of sense).

Now I'm excited though because now I can tell you everything that I have done instead of getting sleep! Trust me. It's good. Or required. Or else I would have slept during that time. But...I doubt I'll get through it all, so I'll just start w/ one post... "A Visit From the Boys".

On Thursday of last week (dang...almost a week ago!) Dad and Darren came out to Baltimore! Have I ever told you how grateful I am for flight benefits!? I think without them this summer I would have gone psychotic and terribly ill from homesickness. Instead, my family got to visit me. I'm so glad for it! I don't have much longer left in Bmore (only 3.5 weeks!!!), but it was still TONS of fun to have them come out to see me.

On Thursday, we started out by showing Darren my apartment building. It was a new experience for him I think to see a downtown apartment building in a big city. It would have been (and was a couple months ago) for me anyway. Then, we went to a cute little restaurant up my street called Marie Louise Bistro. You see, I have a "Baltimore Bucket List", and this bistro was on my list because one of the students last year told me this place was their absolute favorite. Dad and Darren were willing to go there with me. It turned out to be really good I thought. Expensive for what you got, but definitely good. It was very cute, too.


Me and Dad at Marie Louise Bistro

Then, we went down to the Inner Harbor. It was around sunset at this point. It was still SUPER hot though. We got a rental car for the weekend, so it took and eternity and a half to find a parking spot, but after we finally got one, we got out and walked pretty much the whole Inner Harbor. It was a very lively evening, so it was pretty fun! We went inside the Power Plant, where they have the Barnes and Noble, and we went in some of the shops they have there also. Dad really liked looking at the ships in the Harbor as well. The Harbor is really beautiful at night. I had never been out there at night, so it was really cool to experience that.


With Dad by some of the fancy hotels near the Harbor

On Friday, we had plans to go to Washington DC. The weather also had plans to be the hottest day of the year yet. It was forecast to be 103 degrees. That doesn't sound completely outrageous for Utah bodies, but remember...it's the EAST coast. It's humid. Therefore, the heat index turned out that day to be about 130. It was ultra pleasant (*sarcasm*). I don't mind heat, but I was burning, and Dad was dripping sweat all day like I had never seen before. Our GPS even died that day because it got over heated. We had to use old fashioned maps to get around.

Anyway. DC was still great though! We went down to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum to start out the day (and begin the afternoon). The boys wanted to go there. I went and would randomly find things that I would like every 10 min or so that would entertain me in a weird way. I'm not big into airplanes though. The boys were in heaven though. So that made me happy :)











After that, we drove to the classic part of DC, where we parked our car just outside of the Mall a few blocks. We went to an old favorite restaurant, Qudoba. A nice Mexican Grill. So delicious. We ate there three years ago when we went to DC, and we had to eat there again.

Then we went to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. I thought this was going to be the lamest thing ever. I was expecting a 3-D version of an 8th grade history text book basically. That's something Dad and Darren would like, and I would hate. Well, this museum was nothing like that. They had EVERYTHING! I LOVED it!! The science section was by far my favorite, and I really liked the part where they had dresses from the first ladies also. I think my pictures show that pretty well though. Haha!


The first PCR machine!!! I was stoked!!


In front of Stanley Cohen's Laboratory (he invented the plasmid)






The title to this Museum plaque says "What is a Research Laboratory?" hmmmm....I wonder...




Ruby Slippers from the Wizard of Oz!


Sept. 11 remnants.


Some dresses from the first ladies. My favorite was the hot pink one from Mamie Eisenhower.


Michelle Obama's inaugural gown


Some more favorites from Mamie Eisenhower

In the middle of our visit to this museum, we had tickets to visit Ford's Theater, where Lincoln was shot. We had to walk about 15 min there. Which isn't bad. But it was SO hot, and SO humid. I almost died!! Jk.

Ford's Theater was so cool! I didn't know that it was still a functional theater! There wasn't much to see there, but it was fun to be in a theater, and to think that someone, such as Lincoln himself, was there and that his assassination happened there.



After, Darren wanted to go see the Lincoln Memorial. Dad and I had already seen it, and we didn't want to bother with parking, so we drove around (which was just as awesome to see, I think) while Darren went saw the memorial. Following that, we went the the Jefferson Memorial. It was sunset again, and finally cooling down (you know...maybe to 100 degrees), so it was great to just sit on the steps and look at the view! I love the world that we live in! It's so gorgeous! And I love our country!



Then it was time to go home. We dealt with the loss of our GPS on the way home...and therefore found a Wendy's by way of freeway signs on the way home because we were awfully hungry and it was super late. I liked it when the boys were here because I could be out late in the city and not worry about bad things happening. They were even so cute and wanted to walk me to my door, when I assured them that where they dropped me off was totally fine.

The next morning, we woke up early and went to Fort McHenry. Fort McHenry is in Baltimore, and is where the Star-Spangled Banner is written! I'll admit that I had really low expectations, but it was on my Bmore Bucket List, so I had to go. Well, it exceeded my expectations by far! It was such a cool place! There was a manuscript there of the Star-Spangled Banner written by Fancis Scott Key, a really good movie they played, and they fort itself was way cool. I highly recommend to anyone in Baltimore who hasn't, to go there.


At Fort McHenry (Mom: THIS is the pic you wanted...I think, if not, one of the next two)





We spent a looong time at the fort, so it was then time for lunch. Another thing on my bucket list was to eat in Little Italy. There's a small little neighborhood in Baltimore called "Little Italy" and there's just homes and restaurants there. We went there, and found a good little restaurant. I thought the food was good. The service kind of sucked, and Dad totally got jipped on food, but I think overall it was good.


"Balt'Amore" Cute :)



After we went to Johns Hopkins Hospital and I showed the boys the lab that I work at. They met Jun, and I gave them a tour of the lab.

Darren found out that there was a railroad museum in Bmore. And he really wanted to go. I didn't. And I had things to do at home. So...the boys dropped me off at my place for a couple hours, and I went home while they enjoyed train stuff. I just ended up going grocery shopping and reading a science journal article for a bit. Nothing too exciting. I should have taken a nap though looking back on it.

Next we crossed something else off my list. We went to the Edgar Allen Poe house. I was very disappointed. It was in a semi sketchy neighborhood. I almost didn't want to get out of the car. In fact, dad didn't (not because it was sketchy though). There was an old sign on it saying that their hours were decreased due to lack of funding and staff. I read the sign, took a pic, and left. Mrs. Cross would have been terribly disappointed as well. She was my AP Literature teacher in high school.



I think this is the point where no one could decide what to do anymore. So...I wanted to show Dad and Darren around the city a bit more. I thought that what Darren had seen thus far was pretty bias in the way of tourist locations, so I wanted him to see what Bmore was really like to say the least. We went to North Ave. :) Stereotypically the sketchiest place in all of Bmore. Here's the WORST part. Dad needed to gas up. So he gassed up the car ON NORTH AVE. Yeah. No one does that.

Then we drove up the my church building so they could see that...nothing too exciting. It was just fun for me to kind of show them where I spend my time while I live in Bmore.

Then we were hungry for dinner. We decided to go the the good ol' Golden Corral. Any followers will now realize that every single time Dad has been to Bmore, we have been to Golden Corral. And it's quite a ways out of town. It's in one of the suburbs of Bmore. We still went though. It almost wouldn't be a trip with dad if we didn't go ;)

There's a Wal-Mart next to the Golden Corral. I don't remember why we went there. Maybe Darren wanted trail mix? I don't know. But I got another color of nail polish. I packed light when I moved out, so I brought one color of nail polish. My toes have been that color all summer. I wanted change. I've been staring at my toes ever since I repainted them that night. I'm happy we went to Wal-Mart.

I think that at this point they just took me back to my place. It had to have been super late. Transportation takes forever, so even if it doesn't sound like we did a lot in one day, driving takes up half of the time. I can't wait until I'm home and I can go anywhere in what no retrospectively seems like the blink of an eye.

I had to say my goodbyes to them that night because their flight the next morning was really really early. They took me to my place, found a parking spot actually, and walked me all the way into my apartment. I hugged the goodbye and they left.

It was SUCH a great weekend with them here! I'm sooo happy that they could come out and I could spend some time with them!

A Visit From Mom

I taught Jun (the Japanese guy at work) a new word this week. Slacker. He heard me say it while I was talking and asked what it meant. Well, right now, I am a slacker. I haven't blogged in ages! Lame. Now I probably have no followers. Oh well. Whatevs. We'll catch up on the old stuff later. All that matters right now is what went down this last week. This last weekend was fabulous! I got a visit from my mom! She got a flight in on Friday afternoon, and she just left this afternoon. It was just a quick weekend visit, but it was sure a very fun one!

On Friday, I left work early and went home so that I could catch the lightrail to the airport to pick up my mom. The lightrail was, of course, running late, so I was worried that I wouldn't make it on time to pick her up. I got to the airport right on time though. On the way there, a guy asked me where I was going, and it of course weirded me out, but he assured me that he wasn't trying to follow me or anything. Whatever. Gotta love public transportation. The ride to the airport was probably about 35 or 40 min long. When I got there, I just had to wait a bit until my mom called me a let me know where she was. I went to the luggage pickup where she was, and I saw her, and it was seriously just like the stereotypical thing you see in the movies in airports where people haven't seen each other in a long time, and they embrace, and it's totally wonderful! Yeah, that's how it was. It was great.

We rode the lightrail back home, and then I took mom back to my apartment. She liked my apartment for sure. That night, we went out to dinner to Kyro Pizza. It's a cute little pizza shot in Mt. Vernon that has a bunch of unique pizzas. Megan and I went there a week or two ago. Mom tried the Ballpark pizza. Which has hotdogs on it. Yeah, she liked it. Perfect pizza for her. Following our pizza adventure, we took the Charm City Circulator Purple Route and took the entire circle around so that she could see the city a bit more. She wanted to save her walking legs for the next day, so we used the Circulator bus as a sight seeing bus really. Both for people and for the city :) At this point, it was getting dark, so we called it a night and went back to my apartment.



On Saturday morning, we woke up fairly early (for me anyway) and got ready. We walked up Charles Street and caught the Hopkins Shuttle to the Hospital so that mom could see the lab where I work at. She said that this was her favorite part of the whole weekend. I'm not sure why, but I guess it was pretty interesting for her to see what I do. She got to meet some of the guys in the lab (the serious ones that come to work on Saturdays) and my PI as well.



We took the Hopkins Shuttle back and then walked to my favorite Indian restaurant for lunch. We had the lunch buffet so that mom could try everything and find out what she liked. I don't know if mom really loves Indian food, but I love it, so that's why she got to try it! We sat by a window seat on Charles street, and mom loved to look at all of the architecture out the window as well.



Then we took the bus down to the Inner Harbor. There we went around to all of the little shops that they had, and even stopped to get some ice cream.



We went to the Power Plant, and while we were at the Barnes and Noble there, mom saw one of her friends from SLC airport! Small world.





After that, we walked down the harbor a bit more and found a really fancy seafood restaurant. We had to eat some crabcakes!! We went in, and we didn't even know if we would like them or not. We ordered one order of crabcakes between the two of us. It came with fries and coleslaw as well (both of which I don't like...) but it was the experience that counted. The windows to the restaurant were right on the Harbor, and it was soo gorgeous! I like crab meat a lot, but I didn't really like the actual crab cake because I thought it was a little too mushy for my liking.



Mom really liked the Circulator tour from the night before, so we decided to take the Orange Route "tour" after the crab cakes. Again, more interesting people, and more fun things to see. I had never been on the orange route before, so there were some new places for me to see there as well.

After this, it was starting almost 6pm. Mom said that we could go to the Artscape Festival since the sun would start to be going down. It was crazy trying to get there, but we eventually did. The festival was crazy! There were soo many people! Artscape is an art festival in Baltimore that covers about 10 blocks (two streets completely closed off) that reminds me a lot of a farmers market kind of, just with more art than vegetables (it's not like the Park City art festival). I think half of the excitement of being there was just being around all of the crazy people! It seems like everyone was drunk, and half of the people had a beer in their hand. It was seriously so crazy. I can't believe I took my mother there. We did see some really cool things there though. Everything was so expensive. There were lots of earrings that I would have bought, but an average pair cost about $30. We stayed until the sunset, and at this point we were both so tired that we knew it was time to get home! We had to wait for the bus for a while before it came, but we got home eventually.







The next morning, mom went to church with me! We rode the bus to church since the girl who normally takes me on Sundays is out of town. Mom said that it was fun to go to a ward where the Relief Society lesson was with Young Single Adults (the lesson was on marriage today too...), and she was amazed at how few people there were in my ward, too (I had to remind her this was Baltimore, not Utah). We did get a ride home though, so we didn't have to take the bus home.

We enjoyed a fancy Sunday dinner of frozen pasta before my mom had to leave to catch her flight. I walked her to the lightrail station and then left her once the train came (it was almost 20 min off schedule...) to go to the airport. It was such a sad moment to say goodbye! It was such a wonderful weekend to spend with her though. I'm so glad that she came out to see me! I love my mother so much!

4th of July!

I know this is a bit over due. I'm sorry...I have a legitimate excuse though! I've been super busy this last week, AND my stupid headaches that I've had problems with in the past came back for a while. No worries though, I've got them taken care of. I'm fine now (I think), so I have time now to write and update my blog! Brace yourself to read for five minutes, while I brace myself to write for the next hour or two.

I had my fourth of July planned out for a while with my friend Sam. The same Sam that went to Hershey with me for my birthday. We didn't have details planned, we just knew that we were going to go to Washington DC. The day before (yeah, we're productive like that) we made plans of what to do. Rather, we made plans of how to get there. It was going to be such a crazy day in DC. We invited a bunch of people from the ward, too. Jessie and Page decided to come as well. (For family members...Jessie went to the beach w/ me, and she's the one who takes me to church. Page is the guy who fixed my computer.) Since most of us had to be back early the next day for work, we decided that we didn't want to stay in DC for the fireworks. I was a little disappointed in this decision, but I really didn't care either way because we decided to watch them at the Harbor in Baltimore, so it was okay.

I rode the MTA (aka the public bus) to the church, where I met up with Page and Sam at 11am. We picked up Jessie on our way out of town and drove down to a place right outside of DC where we caught the metro.



From there, we rode the metro to the mall in DC. I didn't think it was too crowded...but then I found out why once we got closer. We got there right as the parade was going on! We wanted to cross the street, but we couldn't because the parade was happening. So..we got to watch the parade. Mom would have died. It was hot. And super humid. I mean, I was okay, but I wasn't totally and completely comfortable either. Anyway, the parade was pretty cool! There were a lot of bands playing. It was for sure the biggest parade that I have ever seen! It was like the parades on TV! We didn't watch more than about 15 or 20 min of it though, and then we figured out how to cross the street. We were all hungry and we needed to use the restroom...



On the lawn of the mall in between the Washington Monument and the Capitol building, they had a festival sponsored by the Peace Corps. It was a lot like a county fair kind of. They had sections for every country they were a part of, and they had food from each part also. I got my lunch from the South African section. It was terribly expensive ($9 for a styrofoam take-out box of stuff they pulled off a shelf), but I guess that's what they can do in DC for the fourth...regardless it was good. It was some sort of lemon chicken stuff. I'm pretty sure I like any sort of ethnic food more than I like American food.



There was a marry-go-round on the lawn there as well. Jessie and I wanted to ride it! So...we did. It was a holiday, so we decided to have fun and do it. Sam and Page watched us. They didn't have nearly as much fun. And it only cost a couple of bucks. Granted, I probably wouldn't have done it if I were at a Logan fair or something, but now I can say that I rode a marry-go-round while looking at all of the national monuments. Okay, that's dorky, but I can still say that I've done it.





We then walked down to the Washington Monument, and then down to the WWII Memorial. This was all on our quest to get to the Einstein statue that's back near the Lincoln Memorial. Well...easier said than done. There were so many people, and the security people were fencing off so many areas that it was pointless to try to get anywhere. We gave up on the Einstein idea. We stayed at the WWII Memorial for a while, and then headed back towards the Capital.







My friend Ryan from USU was in DC. I had been texting him during the day, and he and I decided to meet up. I met him at the Smithsonian Castle, and we chatted for a bit. I went off with him and his parents for a while, and we walked back down towards...you guessed it...the WWII Memorial. (That's a lot of walking). But it was soooo much fun to see someone from home! I don't know why. Maybe it's like I could be myself again. Not like I've been anyone that I'm not while I'm here (I definitely have not done that!), it's just that when it's someone you know for longer than a month, it's a lot better to talk to them, and somehow more relaxing.



I met back up with my friends, and it was about 5pm at this point. It was starting to get super duper crowded in DC. We decided to get out of DC, and head out to dinner somewhere. We walked to the metro station. Darren and Dad will be interested to hear that on our walk back to the metro we passed the Harrington Hotel :) I grinned. Jessie stayed behind in DC with some of her friends from Idaho, so it was just me and Sam and Page. We left on the metro, and then went to a Mimi's Cafe in some Baltimore suburb for dinner.

At the point, it was time to head to the fireworks already. We went to Tide Point to watch the fireworks, which is a place off the harbor in Baltimore. We sat on the dock and saved seats for our friends Emily, Elizabeth, and Elizabeth's friend Larissa that was here visiting with her. I sat right on the edge of the dock with Emily, Elizabeth, and Larissa. I think that every single person who owned a boat in the harbor had their boat out in the water (literally.) and they had it parked, with an American flag out, most of them drinking or something, and playing some music. The sun set, and it was just such a pretty atmosphere. Such a fun place to be! At 9:30 the fireworks started. It was sooo awesome to watch the fireworks over the water, and with the city to the side! Definitely a once in a lifetime experience. I'm glad we didn't go to Inner Harbor to watch the fireworks. I heard the next day that there was a stabbing AND a shooting there during the firework show. Hmmm... Baltimore. "The Greatest City In America"? I mean, that's what all the benches say...











The traffic getting out was nuts. It took us forever to get home. But that's okay. Whatever. It was still such a great day! Happy Birthday America!!