July 20, 2014

Sightseeing in Washington DC


Sightseeing in Washington DC
Todd Swank's Diary Entry for July 20, 2014


On Sunday, I had to fly to Washington DC for work.  Since my meetings didn't start until the evening, I had about 6 hours to check out the sites in our nation's capital.  So I put on my new, blue tennis shoes and decided to walk around the town.


I walked to the White House, but couldn't get past the front gate so I wandered over to the Washington Monument.  I tried to take a bunch of selfies, but my arms aren't long enough to make them look good.  That's why my head looks almost as big as the monument.  It's not in real life.


I headed over to the Smithsonian Institute's Museum of Natural History and walked inside because I was hot and it was free.  I was actually pretty excited to see what they had once I started walking around, though.  They have a lot of one of a kind artifacts that were pretty fun to see.


They had a bunch of skulls and bones of our ancestors.  I kept looking around trying to figure out which link of the chain of human evolution I may have fit, but nothing seemed like a good match.  Some day they'll find out where I came from.


I was fascinated with all the different meteorites they had on display.  These things were huge and very heavy.  It would probably hurt quite a bit if one of these flew down from the sky and hit you in the head.


They had the Hope Diamond on display which was billed as one of the world's most famous gems.  Weighing in at over 45 carats,  this diamond is renowned for its flawless clarity, rare deep blue color, and eventful history.  For some reason, they wouldn't let me try it on though.  So what's the point?


After leaving the museum, I hoofed it a little more than a mile to see the US Capitol building.  It was worth it to spend a couple of minutes taking this photo and then walking another mile in a different direction to the convention center where my meetings were.  I figure I put on about 5 miles on my new, blue tennis shoes which was nice.  Although I was disappointed nobody in DC commented to me about how fast I looked while I was cruising around their town.

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