'Tis the Season... To Attend Mysterious Political Rallies

I'm not even going to apologize this time for the tardiness of this blog post. By this time, if you're still checking for updates, you know I'm lazy and scattered and blog randomly. So on that note...

A few weeks ago I decided to go visit my dear friend and former roommate Christy, who is in grad school in Washington D.C. I've never been to D.C. so I thought it would be a grand opportunity to have a personal guide around our nation's great capital. I had recently discovered that you can take a bus round trip for $35.00, so I was all about that road trip! I took my time to buy my ticket (I mean how many people are randomly headed to D.C. for the weekend??) so last Tuesday when I got around to searching online for bus trips, I was a bit baffled when I saw that they were all SOLD OUT. I had no idea what this was all about. I was later informed that John Stewart and Stephen Colbert were having a "Rally for Sanity or Fear" ... which apparently means "Everyone from the ages of 19-25, come to D.C. for the weekend".

I finally found a ticket on a ghetto-fabulous website for Washington Deluxe Buses. I quickly bought the ticket and wiped the sweat from my brow... only to have the sweat reform as I read some reviews of the bus company. Why I didn't think of this before I put in my credit card information, I'm not sure-- but most of the reviews consisted of phrases such as "three hours longer" and "disgusting" and "credit card fraud". Awesome. At this point, there was nothing I could do.. so I clung to the two positive reviews (out of like 50) and remained positive! Luckily, the Washington Deluxe people must have consulted their negative reviews and made some changes, because my trip was absolutely delightful! I'm gonna have to write a Yelp review to help redeem the company. But let's be real- I'm too lazy to update my blog, I doubt that review is gonna happen!

On the way there, we stopped midway at the Delaware Welcome Center. My memories of welcome centers on family road trips include brochures about state parks, vending machines behind bars, and large trucks. Now don't get me wrong.. I love the South... but I have never felt more welcomed to a state than I did entering that tiny (mostly forgotten) state. I walked into this beautiful marble building that had a full food court including a Starbucks and a full organic market... what?! No Doritos behind bars or shady puddles of water in an outdoor bathroom (Mississippi- take notes). It was incredible. I didn't want to leave. My D.C. trip was already worth it. Low standards? Perhaps. But I'm telling you-- go to the Delaware Welcome Center and you won't regret it.

I got to D.C. and Christy was the perfect hostess. We went to the rally (along with over 200,000 other people who didn't know what they were going to!) and saw secret guest stars: John Legend, Cat Stevens, Ozzy Ozbourne, Kid Rock, Sheryl Crow... and some others I don't remember. It was pretty cool! They did some funny stuff and John Stewart gave a little speech at the end-- it was definitely the best political rally I've ever been to. I also got a sunburn... in 40 degree weather in October. That was great too. Christy and I both walked around like raccoons for the rest of the weekend, but we just called it our Halloween costumes, so I think we pulled it off.

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This is the only historical-ish D.C.-ey picture I took. I'm a bad citizen, I know. Cupcakes were more imporant.

If you've seen the TLC show DC Cupcakes (I haven't) this is the cupcake shop they follow. I didn't expect to be impressed... I mean I've had a lot of good cupcakes in my day. But the salted caramel cupcake I had here was hands down the best cupcake of all time. No question. That alone made the ten hour round trip in the bus totally worth it!

THANKS CHRISTY!!!

All in all, my trip to D.C. was fabulous! I didn't even mention the Holocaust Museum which I could have spent all day in. It was incredible-- definitely go there and give yourself a good chunk of time to spend, because it's fascinating. I love NYC... but a weekend getaway to ole D.C. was a lovely little vaca! Hooray for living in a place where I can drive through four states and still have half the day left :)