|| From Lincoln Memorial to Library of Congress

I'm writing this in blur. Too many places were going on yesterday and I felt sick, not sick sick, but lost appetite and felt so thirsty at end of day, and it was a long day.

I had not been to the DC museum district for a long long time, so brought my mom there on Sep 5th, the Labor Day weekend. We parked the car at Dunn Loring Merrifield metro station by Gallows, took the orange train and dropped ourselves at the Smithsonian station, the heart of the national treasure sites. Coming up from the metro underground, I immediately saw the amazing Washington memorial. It was so upright and sharp and clean looking, as if imprinted to the beautiful skyline by computer aids. But it was not. We decided we wanted to see it and the Lincoln memorial behind it. It was miles, but I had already anticipated it, so it wasn't excruiating pain, however, the heat finally took me unnoticed.


It is 8 years since the last time I came this far to the west end of the national mall. The land is gorgeous, obviously, couldn't tell if anything has changed after all. Spacious, green, peaceful, cultural, everything you'd wish a nation's capital should have, it's right here. I also like the long and panaramic view with the unstopped building blocks of European stlyle houses, full of details, almost too extravegent and miniscure. Some of them have red roof tops, and they were elegently situated.

The Lincoln memorial is artfully built. Big pieces of marble and the thrine was sacred and informadible. There is not much to be seen, but simplicity is more than a thousand words here. We then started to walk back, first stop is the National History museum. It amuses me to see many familiar faces (or shall I call skins) of the animals we saw in our two trips to the west. I like them and I thought I never liked to see animals in the cage. Had a quick lunch bite at the cafe of the National History muesum there. I had chicken tender and fries and bottled pomograde white tea, mom had a veggie pizza. We ate the whole things as we were hungry and needed the energy and water to walk to the Library.

(See that little plane on the top? It departed from Reagan, you wonder why they hadn't shut down the airport if they were really worry about national security?)

We accidentally saw people lining up to get into the National Archievs building. I had not been there one, so decided to get in. Security was tight, seems like they opened up the ground floor and had some sort of a gallery with old pictures. The real treasure lies in the middle of the rotunda. The declaration of independence and Bill of Rights were displayed there. Lighting was very week to protect the paper and the ink. I saw several of the states on the east coast had representatives signing the treaty at the very end. There was this film National Treasure which had scenes of stealing the declaration of independence for hidden messages at the back. This place was exactly the same as what was filmed. I'm glad that I came here. The next step was the familar National Art Gallery, however by then the heat really got into me, I felt nausea, short of breaths and nizzy, but kept on walking.

Glad that I set my eye on the Library of Congress. I thought of it being a modest little building of dark wood frames and sheepish looking nerds sitting all around. It turned out to be a luxurious and aristocratic mansion, everything was done to the extreme with many many details. They were not your community library. There was only one place where visitors can look down to see where it really is for the book part. Again, the National Treasure movie had it very original, like how it is said there.


This very end of day was spent in a Korean restaurant.
http://yechonrestaurant.com/
Address: 4121 Hummer Road, Annandale, VA 22003 Phone: 703 914-4646

These are supposed to be really good, but I had to order a soup for the fatigue and discomfort that was grown on me. The hot tea (free) was very relieving, having a small of the freshly grown, picked and brewed smell. I almost drank two glasses. The waitresses were also wearing colorful cultural costumes, it was refreshing and I like the place.

BBQ - Daiji Bul Gogi
Korean traditional dinner - Hae Mul Dolsot Bibim Bap (rice with sea food on hot stone bowl)
Noodles - Hwe Naeng Myun (cold noodles)
Side dishes - Hae Mul Pa Jun (pancake)

These are supposed to be good, so I need to try them out.

The place under renovation is called "Annangol Restaurant", famous for its BBQ.
Address: 4215 Annandale Center Dr, Annandale, VA 22003, USA
Phone: (703) 914-4600

Another place for soup is called "Lighthouse Tofu Korean Restaurant"
Address: 4121 Chatelain Road, Suite 100, Annandale, VA Phone: 703 333-3436