I made it back to my apartment about thirty minutes ago after a completely fun, utterly exciting, ultimately exhausting trip to DC. Luckily, I was able to fly stand-by on an earlier flight, or else I would still be almost an hour away from landing -- and this difference will be huge when I have to drag myself out of bed tomorrow.
Today was an excellent cap to my trip. Terry and I managed to check out of the hotel by 9:30ish, and we left our bags there and went down to the National Mall to check out the monuments. We walked around the Washington Monument first, and then proceeded to the relatively new World War II Memorial. It broke my heart -- as you know, I have an overdeveloped sense of empathy, and the combo of studying and writing my honors thesis on the war in Europe throughout college plus having two grandfathers who served in the Pacific tugged at my heartstrings. I'll post pics later, but suffice it to say that in a strange twist of fate, Iowa and California were commemorated side by side, so I have a nice photo of me standing between my two homes.
After I wiped away the tears, we briefly explored the Korean War Memorial, then went to the Lincoln Memorial. I had seen Lincoln's monument before, but it was worth seeing again, if only to reread the Gettysburg Address and his second inauguration speech and remember how close our country came to tearing itself apart. Then, we walked down the Vietnam Wall before heading back up the Mall and catching the subway back to our hotel.
The final verdict is that I really like D.C. a lot -- it's probably not a surprise, since I adore history and Washington has one of the highest concentrations of American history/culture. But, the city itself is very pretty, very green, and very warm (a welcome change from the frigid San Francisco summers, even if I am sunburned).
Terry and I went to the airport after that, I hung out in the airport for awhile, talked to my parents and Aunt Becky, and then boarded my flight. I don't know that it has really sunk in yet that I won yesterday (although I wore the necklace today) -- or perhaps it has sunk in, but I'm so nervous/hopeful/crazy about selling the book that the excitement of the Golden Heart is taking an unfortunate back seat.
No, who am I kidding -- I'm still pretty excited :) But my excitement will be improved upon if I get some sleep, so it's time for bed!
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