Mr. Louie goes to Washington (Part I)

I went to Washington, D.C. last Wednesday. It was my first time down there. Megabus.com added it to their route from Toronto. I was happy about that. I got a return ticket for $20.50. Not too shabby I have to say.

The bus ride down was quite long. Of course we had to stop at the border in Buffalo, New York and go through customs. That involved everyone getting off the bus and taking all their belongings inside and talking with the officials there. As well, we stopped at three places (Buffalo Bus Depot, Harrisburg, P.A. and Baltimore, Maryland) to drop off people and pick them up before finally arriving in D.C.

My friend Won picked me up from the parking lot in Washington where the bus stopped. We walked around downtown then went for a bite to eat at a Thai restaurant in Chinatown. After that we drove to his home out in Maryland. It was a lot further out than I expected. The ride was probably between 45 minutes to an hour. To get to work in the city he drives to the subway parking lot which takes about 1/2 hour and take the train another 20 minutes to his final destination.

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In my first day in D.C. I was joined by Won and his family. His wife Mimi and their two kids Hannah, 3, and Bryce who is just an infant. We drove to the Suitland Metro parking and took the subway into town.

It was overcast and drizzly unfortunately. I knew the weather would be like that from checking the forecast ahead of time in Toronto, so I wasn't totally surprised.

We started our day at the U.S. Capitol building. It's equivalent to the Parliament building in Ottawa, Ontario. The legislators and senators who run the country work out of here. To go inside you need to arrange tickets for a tour which we were unable to get. So we just took a look around the outside. It's quite a unique structure. It's round white dome sets it apart from any other building around.

Next we toured the U.S. Supreme Court building nearby. It's the highest court in the United States. We were able to take a self-guided tour inside.

Following that we had lunch at a salad bar called Sweetgreen. I had a Bondi Beach salad which consisted of mesclun and baby arugula with roasted chicken, avocado, corn, hearts of palm, wasabi peas; topped with a miso sesame ginger vinaigrette. It was really tasty.

After lunch we went back to the Supreme Court building area. Across the street was the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress. The LOC actually consists of three buildings; the aforementioned Thomas Jefferson Building, the James Madison Memorial Building and the John Adams Building. We joined a guided tour of the Thomas Jefferson Building. It was a pretty interesting looking building. Anyone can get a library card there no matter where you come from.

Lastly we went to the National Gallery of Art. It's one of the many Smithsonian museums along The National Mall (between the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building) that are free to the general public. We only had one hour there before it closed so, needless to say, it wasn't a very leisurely look around.

Dinner was at an Ethiopian Restaurant. I forget which neighbourhood in D.C. it was in. It was my first time having that kind of food. I thought it was alright. They don't use forks or knives. Instead you pick your food up with pieces of soft bread they provide for you. You just tear off bite size pieces to grab your food with. That was interesting.