Oh what a weekend!

I feel like I just had a marathon of a weekend! The Mautzes left me for the weekend to go watch one of their grandchild's cello concert, so I went and spent the weekend with my friend Chelsey. You might recognize her from my pictures in Senegal--she was my roommate for those 6 weeks in Africa, and I have to say, I think we had more fun than any other of the roommates. I just love her and was happy to be able to hang out with her for the weekend!

Friday night we went out for Thai food. So. Good.

On Saturday morning, we went to the Falls Church (name of the city she lives in) Civil War Days, where Chelsey was volunteering. I went and checked it out, just to see if it was going as Gilmore Girls-esque as it sounded. It was. They had actors there acting out scenes from some play about the Civil war era, 

 men dressed up in period outfits explaining about old guns,

 women dressed up in period outfits talking about clothes and dolls, 

 an old farmhouse where they displayed medical & dental instruments along with all these cool other stuff from the Civil War,

 and a "historymobile." Kind of hokey, but what do you expect?

 Chelsey was helping man the children's tent, where they had activities like learning about cotton, making toys, playing games, making paper quilts, making flags, and we were working at the butter-making station. Mmmm...

They conveniently had the Civil War Days set up right next to a farmer's market, so I went over and checked that out too. I'm still regretting not getting a pastry from these French people selling some very delicious-looking French goodies. Oh well, only 6 more weeks until the real stuff!

There were a lot of people selling soap, but some were more creative with the names than others. 

After that, I decided to give Eastern Market another try, since it was the weekend. I'm so glad I went back!! It's not quite as big as Portland Saturday's Market, but it was still cool. 

 I got the most delicious raspberry, peach, mango smoothie that I drank in about ten minutes. 

and I got some really cute earrings, so it was a success for me!

After that, I went on over to the air and space museum (the one that's on the Mall, not the one that we went to the other day--that one is next to the airport)

 Where I saw the Spirit of St Louis

 and the Wright brothers' flyer. So cool!

I may or may not have gotten lost on the way to find this new (new to me, that is) metro stop (and it was really hot outside!), but I finally made it, and then met up with Chelsey at the National Portrait Gallery. It was really cool. Fun to see halls and halls of pictures of people, most of whom I had either never heard of or never seen a picture of. 

 These two were familiar, however: Joseph Smith and Brigham Young!

 Edgar Allen Poe:

 We liked the heads with wings in this picture. Creepy much?

 Selena! ... just to give you an idea of the mix of portraits they had there. I also enjoyed the hall of portraits of all the US presidents, but I may have been too exhausted to take any more pictures. 

By this point I was about to collapse, so we figured we ought to get some dinner before I did. We took the metro and then walked a little while to get to this restaurant, but it was well worth it. Senegambian, anyone? Chelsey promised me an authentic Senegalese meal, and she was not joking! It was so funny, because we walked into the restaurant, and it was somehow about 10 degrees hotter inside than it was outside (true Senegalese style), and the decor was 100% African. The only thing I said was that it was a little bit too bright inside to feel like we were truly in Africa. I think we'd been sitting down for about 4 minutes when the owner lady went over and turned off the main lights, asking us if it weren't better like that. She definitely hadn't heard me before, so we were hysterical that she had completed the setting perfectly without even knowing it! 

That lady was so great--she brought us some fried plantains while we waited for our food! Oh how I love those things!!

In the bottle there is bissap, a juice native to Senegal which is delicious. I think it was even better at this restaurant than it was in Senegal. Pretty sure. 

 So excited to eat my mafe! However, I was a bit shocked to learn that it was made from lamb. I don't really understand how I went so long thinking it was chicken. Either way, it tasted just like I remembered and it was awesome!

 Merci, Aunty Libe :)

Sunday morning, I woke up early and headed over to Arlington National Cemetery. I wasn't too sure that my feet could handle it, so I took one of the shuttle tours up to see everything. I was surprised at how huge the cemetery is!! I wasn't expecting that. But there definitely is a distinctive feeling there. 

 JFK's grave

 When we got here, I was happy to see that we arrived just in time to see the changing of the guard. With all these people watching, you'd think it would be noisy, but everyone was completely silent. 

 I also wasn't expecting the changing of the guard to be so awesome, but it really was!! Definitely something not to miss!

 The tomb of the unknown soldier:

 A nice view of the city:

 On the little tour shuttle:

For the whole rest of the day, I had these lyrics stuck in my head:

O beautiful for heroes proved
in liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved,
and mercy more than life!

I'm so grateful to live in this great country, and I'm especially grateful for all the hundreds of thousands of people that it took to create this country and make it what it is today.

So as you can see, I had a very full and exciting weekend. Only a few more days left in DC! I'm going to miss it! I'll have to start planning my next visit to the Mautzes'. It's been great to have been able to spend time in this city with so much history, although, to be honest, I might be a little museum-ed out by the time I get home!