Walking to Arlington.

On Saturday I was very excited, why you may ask, well because my Dad visited for the weekend! So in the morning I ran out and did my grocery shopping so I would have as much time as possible to spend with my Dad. (I've been missing all of my family, so a visit from my Dad was AWESOME). He arrived around 1pm and we stopped at the Marriott so he could check in and leave his backpack there. We then went to Potbelly for lunch, sandwichs are always good, Dad ended up buying a large pickle to go with his sandwich. We ate and chatted about what has been going on. Then we headed to the Metro, because I wanted to take him to the White House! We got to the White House and took some photos in front of it. Then we headed for the National Mall to see the memorials. We planned to meet up with Burke there, he had been having a lunch with a friend. By this point it was getting to be pretty hot, but I am incredibly stubborn, so we continued on. The Metro dropped us off in the middle of the National Mall and we headed toward the Washington Monument, sadly due to the earthquake last year people still aren't allowed inside the monument. So we headed toward the WWII Monument which is the next closest. By this point it was getting a lot hotter, but we had water so we continued on. We stopped to take some photos at the WWII Monument and then decided to go toward the Vietnam Memorial. We decided against getting too close to it, considering it is a black rock wall. Next stop was the Lincoln Memorial which we climbed to the top and took some photos (this time there was not scaffolding in front of Lincoln's head). By then I was really hot and tired, so I nominated that we head back to the RAF and just spend time indoors until we head out for dinner.

Burke pulled out his cell phone and told us that the nearest Metro station was Arlington. I found that hard to believe but he said it was only .73 miles away, whereas the next closest one was .83 so Arlington it was. We started walking in that direction and man was it hot, the walk there did not have a lot of shade (we had to wander to the side of the road and such to find any). I needed to stop a few times because I was getting too hot and needed to get a breeze or something before I could continue on. But we did make it to the Metro stop in one piece. It's just funny because we all walked from Washington DC to Arlington (I know they are relatively close together but when the temperature is 102 and the humidity is at 75% it seems like an eternity). Everyone else was fine and I was fine was we were done walking although apparently I was worrying my Dad because apparently my face was extremely red (due to heat, not sunburn). But we all made it to the RAF, Burke took my Dad to his room because I really needed a shower after that walking excapade. So I showered then went to Burke's room where we watched the end of Wimbleton. Then we decided to go to a restuarant in Chinatown for dinner, Asian Spice. It was nice because it was an Asian fusion place, so we all got different foods. Burke had sushi (of course because he loves it), I had a Chinese dish called Refugee Noodles, and my Dad got a Thai dish that looked to be some sort of soup that had curry in it. I tasted my Dad's dish (he claimed it was not anywhere near spicy) and it made the tip of my tongue numb for a minute so I took one piece of Burke's California Roll (with the avocado which cooled my tongue down). Dinner was really nice and we all talked about all different kinds of things, and then we went and got Rita's for dessert which was extremely refreshing because it was still rather hot outside. We then walked to the other Metro stop in Chinatown so that my Dad could see the street performers, there were only a couple out (one gentleman playing an acoustic guitar and another further down the street playing an electric guitar). It was a really fun day (even with the heat) and I was so excited to have my Dad here.

:)