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'I make it a rule always to park on beef jerky' [Day 8 of the DC trip]

Amanda and I woke up early today so that we could see the White House before we left. I had seen it from Constitution Avenue, but hadn't gotten up to the gates. So around 8am, we set off down the street a bit and got a look. We couldn't see many snipers and guards and SS men, so we decided that either they were hiding or they were betting that no anarchists and terrorists would be up and about at 8am on a Saturday.

On the gate, there was a button that said "Welcome to the White House". It didn't say what it did when you pressed it, so we speculated that it might electrocute you or it might be the president's doorbell. We decided not to take any chances, so we still don't know.

We got back to the hotel, packed up the rest of our stuff, and Cari, Matt, Amanda and I went to breakfast at a restaurant across from the Treasury building. A friend of Cari's from MIT met us there. I had scrambled eggs, hash browns, and a fried bagel chip. It was an interesting combination, but very tasty.

Breakfast took longer than expected, so we didn't hit the road until about 10:30. Cari drove the first part, until we got to Pennsylvania. We put on oldies music and sang along.

Listening to the Beach Boys, Cari and I wished that you could take vacations in time as well as space, so that we could go on a trip to 1950s or 60s California. Cari wanted to go on a date with the captain of the football team and drink milkshakes. You know that if you could go on vacations in time, there would always be one kid who had to spend his family vacation as a serf in medieval England.

We stopped in Breezewood, Pennsylvania to switch drivers and go to the bathroom. Cari triumphantly announced from inside her stall that she was finished with her shift. According to Amanda, she made this proclamation just as two 90-year-old ladies walked into the restroom and "shift" did not sound exactly like "shift."

Matt was assigned the Pennsylvania Turnpike part of the drive by virtue of being from that state and therefore to blame for all of the bad roads and tolls and everything else that is wrong with it. We played some more Mad Libs, sang along some more, and switched drivers once Pennsylvania was behind us.

I took over for the Ohio shift, which I had chosen for myself. I picked Ohio because I had been afraid of the multi-lane, high-speed driving in DC and Ohio has a low speed limit that you have to obey if you have Michigan license plates.

We had had a late lunch and snacked all through the drive and didn't want to eat at a Roy Rogers in Pennsylvania, so we finally stopped for lunch at an Ohio Panera at 5pm. Once we were back on the road, Cari pointed out that we had decided to study for our 503 midterm after we stopped for lunch, so we had better knuckle down before the sun went down. We went through sample questions and defined terms, then called it quits and put on the music again.

Once we got to Michigan it was Amanda's turn to drive, but I didn't mind continuing so we just stayed on the road. We finally got around to going through some of Matt's CDs and discovered the soundtrack from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, so we spent the last leg of the journey (including all that extra time when I missed an exit and had to turn around) loudly singing along with it.

I dropped myself off at home and everyone helped carry my stuff inside in exchange for the use of my bathroom. Srahmom, srahdad, Alfie, Señorita C and Grandma were all here when I got home, so the house was pretty packed. I was mostly exhausted from the long day and went to bed around 10:30.

srah - Saturday, 28 February 2004 - 11:42 PM
Tags: alternative spring break, alternative spring break 2004, school of information, washington d.c.

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