Day 4 - Alexandria-DC
Previously featured:
Part 1: Flight to Newark, Day 1 - Newark-Princeton
Part 2: Day 2 - Princeton-Philadelphia
Part 3: Day 3 - Gettysburg-Lancaster-Ephrata-Alexandria
I faced a decision about whether to go to Vermont and the Northeast or detour to Virginia and the South. I decided in the end on the former, since there was nothing in the south but Cajun fried chicken, red necks and mullets.
The weather continued to be bad, but at least it came in a drizzle rather than in torrents. Then again, it might've been better if it'd come in showers ala Singapore, since that would empty the clouds and it'd be clear for the rest of the day. We'd forgotten to pack an umbrella (damn) because we didn't think it'd be that bad. Luckily, I spent most of this day indoors, so it was alright.
We started off the day by visiting Krispy Kreme. I'd heard so much about Krispy Kreme in the past months, but had seen none so far. So it was elating to spot, listed as a breakfast suggestion at the motel reception, an entry for 'Krispy Kreme'. I'd been led to believe that Krispy Kreme doughnuts really were 'Krispy', ala fried chicken. This was not so, especially not for the assorted varities. Yet, no doughnut I've ever had can compare to an Original Glazed Krispy Kreme Doughnut fresh off the belt. Warm, lighter than is possible for a doughnut made by man to be, fluffy and crisp, with a layer of glaze surrounding it.
I wanted to get a T-shirt, but the largest they had was XL, which one lady at the counter didn't think was big enough, and they didn't let me open the shirts up to try. As my sister remarked, it's not smart for a place that sells doughnuts to only have XL.
Then I was dropped off at the metro station and rode in to Washington DC proper, to visit the Smithsonian Air and Space museum to put an end to 11 long years of humiliation. The metro accepted credit cards, even for small amounts, so I found it easier to charge $1.95 to my card on the way back to Alexandria than to fiddle for coins in my wallet. The metro also has peak/off-peak pricing. 5 months ago I would have lauded this, and advocated that SMRT offer off-peak fares too, but now I know the truth behind off-peak fares!
My brother-in-law kindly lent me his digital SLR. However, due to his constant tinkerings in Manual mode, he'd set the exposure compensation to -2/3 in the semi-automatic modes, so some my pictures came out looking very underexposed.
Messerschmitt Me 262
For some reason, there was a stall in the Air and Space museum selling dog tags and it was very popular with the museum visitors.
Bell X-15
Exiting Air and Space, an egg roll was what passed for my lunch, as I am wont to do when wandering through cities alone, gaining sustenance from the sights and sounds instead. My sister, a fussy eater, thought egg rolls vile, but I found that alright - basically a spring roll with thicker skin, brushed with egg.
After that I proceeded a few blocks down to the Creationists' nightmare - The National Museum of Natural History. For some reason, there were exhibits on human culture in the museum (and quite blah ones at that - they should just stick to Natural History. Though they did have a bull mummy and a nice collection of papyri). For example, there was a Sikh gallery, so at first I was wondering how they'd managed to find a fossilised Sikh. When I realised that the exhibit was on Sikh culture, I was stumped, since it was after all a Natural History museum. Of course, some smart alecs, using techniques also favoured by apologists, will inevitably retort that humans are part of nature, so human history is natural history. To which I give an unprintable reply (because it is too long and out of point here. Besides which I haven't written it out yet).
Elephant in lobby
348 million year old tree trunk
Everyone made a beeline for the dinosaur gallery, which was crowded, leaving the rest of the museum relatively emptier. There was a nice collection of gems from the National Gem Collection.
Quetzalcoatlus northropi - the largest flying animal ever known
I also saw a stuffed tree kangaroo. I didn't know there were tree kangaroos.
Unfortunately, the large amounts of glass, especially in the mammals gallery, made taking pictures difficult, so most times I didn't even try.
A child looks rapturously at the Hope Diamond
I wish I'd gone to this museum for my Evolution fieldtrip. It sure beat the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research!
On the train back to Alexandria from DC, I saw some graffiti on a dilapidated railroad bridge across the Potomac, and felt admiration for the ingenuity of some of these graffiti artists, since some of this graffiti was sprayed on parts of the bridge's side between its pylons; most of the graffiti on the bridge's side was clustered around its pylons, since there would be somewhere for them to stand while spraying. In other words, since the graffiti was located between the pylons, there didn't seem to be anywhere for them to stand while spraying, and they certainly could not achieve the same effect by leaning over the side of the bridge, since that would distort the pattern of spray and thus the end result. Perhaps they shinnied out, risking a plunge into the river below.
Ad seen in the train: "4 out of 5 dentists recommend gum in your mouth instead of our trains". It was accompanied by a picture of a shoed foot trying to lift itself off the ground, but stuck to it by a piece of gum (I could Close Read the ad, but then I got a B for my "Writing" module). Sure beats a ban. But then having a Grand Prix encourages speeding, so.
Notice seen at the Huntington metro station. It might come from having a litigious society. And you thought Singapore was bad! (There was a similar sign in the New York subway, but I didn't remember to snap it, unfortunately)
The sign above reads:
"Warning
Escalator Safety Tips
Face forward!
Irregular steps!
Sudden stops!
Hold handrails
Always hold children by the hand
Stay clear of sides
Step over the combplate at exit
No running
No sitting on handrails
No sitting on steps
No bare feet
No loose laces
No carts or strollers
Elevator available"
Another sign nearby read: "Escalator alert: Persons with medical conditions or disabilities are encouraged to use the elevator... Please be aware of uneven step height on a stopped escalator". But then since stairs are more dangerous than either escalators or elevators (IIRC), how come staircases don't get so safety notices plastered near them?
After I took the picture above, someone asked me my opinion on the camera since she was intending to get a digital camera. I replied that digital SLRs were either for professionals or pretentious people. I hope I saved her some money.
As I was walking back to the motel, not wearing my pullover, this boy on a bicycle and wearing a camouflage hooded jacket asked me: "Aren't you cold?". By the time I reached the room, my feet were throbbing so badly I almost wished I wasn't C9L2, and it was all I could do to pull off my shoes and socks and collapse onto the bed and feel sorry for myself (I tried soaking my feet in hot water, but it didn't really help).
For dinner, we went to a crab place near our motel called Ernie's (There're 3 crab restaurants called Ernie's in the area. I think we went to the second) run by a Korean family (which explained why kimchi was on the menu). Their crab cake was mostly crab, rather than mayo, cheese or breadcrumbs, and my sister said it was the best she'd ever tasted. Not having had too many crabcakes, I have little basis for comparison and can't comment. Meanwhile the scallops were huge, and the oysters were at least 3 times the size of those used in or luah. Everything was very fresh.
The star of the meal was, however, the Chesapeake bay crab. We ordered half a dozen medium crabs, even though the menu listed prices for a dozen medium, large, x-large and xx-large crabs. Even though we had the medium crabs, they were already quite big, so I wonder what the XXL ones looked like. The kitchen also threw in "a couple of extra ones", so we got 9 crabs in the end, all dumped onto our brown mahjong paper-covered table and set upon eagerly by us with our mallets (sure beats the Chinese second class lever implement)
The crabs were so fresh, they were served steamed and there was no seafood smell (not even on the fingers), and they could be eaten effectively plain (they were steamed with some spice rub, but not much of the flavour penetrated into all of the meat). The gills (what I assume the spongy parts on the top of the crab directly under the shell that looked like fish gills were) were so fresh that they were bouncy and had a feeling, when pressed, akin to the bursting of orange sacs. And the meat was sweetish.
We wanted to to see Washington DC by night, but apparently it's hard to penetrate the web of roads surrounding the city to enter the city proper.
Sister's food diary: "Day 4 : Washington DC. Pilgrimage to Krispy Kreme - half dozen donuts and too-small XL T-shirts. Lunch at Cactus Cantina - warm fresh tortillas with salsa, shrimp burritos, chicken enchilada, beef taco. Dinner at Ernie's Crab Shack - jumbo shrimp cocktail, seafood platter with huge scallops and oysters, half dozen steamed Baltimore crabs."
I saw very very few mullets, and no fullets at all during my trip. I was quite upset. Maybe I need to visit the South next time.
Going to the US, I felt better about my hair since people there generally have lousier/messier hair than people in Singapore (at least among the long-haired population, among which there are surprisingly few males, given the absence of the institution of Slavery). Hell, I even saw at least 2 people with hair somewhat similar to mine.
I was speculating about why this is so and came up with several possible factors accounting for this: Caucasians are genetically predisposed to have curlier hair, the more variable and colder climate damages hair and makes it harder to manage, the tousled look might be in and they are less willing to spend hours on their hair and use Expensive Hair Products/Treatments (these are certainly not unavailable - I saw quite a few black women with rebonded hair). Or maybe SACSALs just spend too much time/effort/money on their hair.
