Squirrels for Sanity

Challenge #5: The Best Vacation Ever

There are so many amazing vacations that I have had the privilege to go on but the trip that stands out as the best vacation ever is definitely my adventure in Washington D.C. with the bestie:

I am an avid "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report" watcher and the idea for this trek began when these two masterminds announced their Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. I immediately wanted to go so I did what anyone would and made a facebook status about my desire to see if there were any takers. Of course Roo volunteered in the clutch and made my dreams a reality. We instantly set about contacting our sweet friend Jessie who lived in D.C. She was beyond awesome sauce and volunteered to put us up for free! Now all we had to do was save up enough for the flight there and back.

The beauty of our nation's capital and this rally is the amount of free stuff available to do. (Left: we arrive and take the metro to meet Jessie)

We began with a quick bite to eat and dropping our luggage off at Jessie's place before heading out to stroll in the lovely weather at the ZOO!! (Below: Jessie and I joking around w/ Rexy)
After enjoying the sights and sounds and some smells at the zoo we stopped into a 7-eleven, which was my first time in one so this was exciting and headed to the college side of town for some window browsing. Dupont was next where we ate delicious food and then browsed a bookstore/restaurant/bar. It was the coolest place and an added little touch was the restroom required a token for entrance that you got for free downstairs. I obviously waited for someone to open the door so I could save my token for a great souvenir. One last stop at an adorable cupcakery and we were ready for beddy-bye.

We woke bright and early at 6am the next morning to ensure ample time to tour the monuments and museums. We headed toward the Washington Monument (far right) and saw the Lincoln Memorial, White House and Jefferson Memorial along with the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and, my favorite, Albert Einstein!

(Notice how large his statue is on the left) Next we couldn't pass up an opportunity to play in the gorgeous leaves on our way toward the museums. We played around with the self-timer on my camera and had quite the romp.

Continuing onward we went to all the museums lining the mall and were fortunate enough to come across a small festival and listen to a book reading and interesting gourd music while eating our delectable and giant eggrolls and hotdogs from the street vendor. The eggroll I purchased was roughly the size of two clenched fists. One notable moment was when we went to the modern art museum and chose to watch an installation titled "Floating McDonald's" that was supposed to be about corporate greed and what not. Instead it was 30 minutes of watching water flood a McDonald's with no dialogue. Mae and I are not "art" people, we discovered. After walking until we were numb, a much needed Forever 21 break arrived and we both bought super adorable coats. These were necessity because of how chilly it was. Donning our new threads we aimed for the Capitol Building and Justice Building to enjoy the sunset before meeting up with some friends.

Luckily for us Will and Jade were in D.C. for the rally as well and we all met up with Zach at a great little pizzeria owned by Spike from Top Chef. The pizza was phenomenal and the beer was superb. Stuffed on slices we decided to head to a local bar and relax for the remainder of the evening.

Rally Day was upon us and I was so stoked. The Rally was everything

I had dreamed it would be and more. It started with Adam and Jamie

of Mythbusters getting the crowd hyped by doing giant waves and

timing our speed and having everyone jump at once to see if we registered on the richter scale. It was followed by hours of amazing guests, hilarious skits and an inspiring overall message. Jon Stewart ended with a touching speech and one quote of his that I loved was,

"If we amplify everything, we hear nothing."

Chaotic was the term that best described the rally and it took us a while to wait for most people to clear out so we could find Will and Jade. We headed to Union Station to grab a late lunch/early dinner. Maeg and I were tuckered out and decided to hop on the metro and spend the last night hanging out with Jessie and getting some zzz's. We had a little bit of a wait, due to my incorrect

route choice and decided to have a mini photo sesh. We were both exhausted and our over abundant use of accents and giggles alerted anyone within a 25 foot radius of this fact.

This 3 day vacation was jam packed with great friends, silly moments, new experiences and tons of sight-seeing. We slept possibly 15 to 18 hours total in the 3 nights that we were there and walked until our calf muscles developed calf muscles of their own. At the end I was incredibly tired and had experienced the vacation of a lifetime. This was indeed the best vacation ever because it was spontaneous, I went with my best friend, it was super cheap and it created countless memories and inside jokes to last a lifetime.