One a Day: day 224 to day 229

"now you're in new york! concrete jungle where dreams are made of! there's nothing you can't do! now you're in new york!"

that's right friends, blake and i got to spend our first anniversary on the east coast! we flew into DC on march 17, spent a few days there and then headed over to new york city for some more fun. such a fun and much needed vacation. i've decided to list the top 10 highlights, rather than drone on and on about how fabulous our trip was (don't want anyone to get too jealous):

1. the capitol. yes, we were lucky enough to get a private tour of the capitol. we even got to take the underground route to get there; pretty much only the cool senators and congress people get to use that route. many thanks to doris matsui for that one. the architecture was amazing and it was so helpful having our own personal tour guide to tell us about everything, including the little things they don't mention in the brochure.

2. the library of congress. so incredibly beautiful!!!!! i seriously felt like i was back in italy. the tour guide was amazing and knew anything and everything about the LoC. i especially liked all the symbolism decorated throughout the building.

3. house floor (inside the capitol). this was AWESOME. you know what happens in congress, and sometimes you see it live on CSPAN, but to see people debating in real life over proposed bills was so cool. definitely recommend that one for anyone planning to go to DC.

4. washington monument. such a fabulous view of the city. back in the day, they'd let you take the stairs up the monument, but now that's only for maintenance men. it's a shame, because it has all these really cool stones built in the walls. you only get a quick glance on your way down from the elevator. boo.

5. american history museum. definitely my favourite of the smithsonian museums. they had everything from dorothy's original ruby slippers to the lunch counter where the famous sit-in occurred by 4 black men in the 1960s. they had sooooo many exhibits and so many "artifacts" from our history. i felt like we barely scratched the surface. another highlight was one of the original (HUGE) american flags. very cool.

6. newseum. oh, if there were only enough time to see everything! newseum is a fantastic museum that has every scrap of news since the beginning of time. haha, well not quite, but close. they have some of the very first newspapers and magazines from america’s early days. they have original newspapers documenting everything from landing on the moon to when lincoln was shot, and so on. they have photos and videos and everything related to news in the world. they also have a neat exhibit outside their building in which a display holds a daily newspaper for each state in america. highly recommend this museum.

7. lincoln's memorial. the night we went to lincoln’s memorial was really cool because there was a full moon out and when you were standing near lincoln’s memorial looking out towards the city, you could see the capitol, washington monument, and the full moon all lined up together. it was really beautiful. lincoln’s memorial is huge and truly amazing. the only bummer was that there were sooooo many people there. i think partly because of the full moon since there were a ton of photographers with their telescopic lenses snapping photo after photo.

8. ellis island. i’d visited the statue of liberty before, but never made it over to ellis island, so I’m really happy we got the chance to go over this time. it is so fascinating to learn about what the european immigrants had to go through to get to america. truly inspiring. it was cool reading about the funny tests american doctors would make them take to make sure they were “fit” to be in this country. also, a lot of american women took an interest in the european immigrants, helping them look more “american” and chic. haha!

9. madison square garden. definitely a highlight of the trip! blake and I got tickets to see the new york knicks play the boston celtics. such a fun game! only it was a bit sad to see the knicks lose a home game. the celtics fan behind us wasn’t sad at all- she literally SCREAMED (as if she was being murdered) the WHOLE game cheering for the celtics. at least we got a lot of laughs out of it.

10. 9/11 memorial. definitely my favourite thing in all of new york. i knew it would be sad, but I didn’t expect to get so emotional and start crying seeing all the displays. they did a really good job of honouring those who died, the heroic efforts of hundreds of men and women, and how the world has coped with such a horrific act.

i hope this post has inspired you to go visit the east coast. please enjoy the pictures.

(FINALLY arrived in DC after a long, uncomfortable red eye flight)

(coming up from the underground tunnel and there's the capitol!)

(if you put your foot on this star, you get good luck... or so we were told)

(a view inside the capitol; didn't take many pictures cos the lighting wasn't ideal)

(this is a million dollars. really.)

(blake is worth $1,887,300)

(great view of the capitol)

(inside the amazing library of congress, main floor)

(LoC)

(they had all these laurels throughout the building with such cool messages!)

(hey! it's us!)

(scorpios are the best)

(classic)

(an actual piece of the berlin wall; at newseum)

(one of the many smithsonian museums)

(WWII memorial)

(everybody's favourite president)

(this is my great, great, great, great, great, (insert a million "greats"), great grandfather)

(it's a dinosaur head. rawwwr.)

(oh, just hanging out with the wright brother's amazing contraption)

(some famous author signing books at the national air & space museum. blake knows him. cool.)

(it's the stinkin' white house!)

(my friend barack lives there)

(i sure love that blake)

(this was so funny. back in the day, abolitionists made these books to teach the ABC's. so funny.)

(bahhh! dorothy's slippers!)

(blake's twin)

(at the WWII memorial)

(vietnam war memorial)

(vietnam war memorial 2)

(such a cool monument!)

(taking the ferry to the statue of liberty and ellis island)

(there it is!)

(best night ever! got to hang with jayna and dave in NYC! i love this girl!!! not to mention, the restaurant we ate at had the best wedge salad i've ever eaten. yum.)