17th Jan: Westside Story

More free bananas for breakfast today! I stayed away from the free juice, as its core ingredients were high-fructose corn syrup and water. The problem, high-fructose corn syrup is sweeter than sugar, and can be attributed to obesity and diabetes type two in Americans. It is so cheap to make, and the government subsidizes its production, so it is made and can be bought more cheaply than healthy food. It seems to be in EVERYTHING now that I am aware if it. I feel wrong when I eat it.

We went to the Arlington National Cemetery. This is where the Kennedy's are buried and where the tomb of the unknown soldier can be found, along with the changing of the guard ceremony of the tomb of the unknown soldier. This was a fortunate chance that we should be looking at the tomb and the guards decided to change. To be a guard you have to be at the height of physical fitness, a certain height and weight, and known 7 pages of facts about the cemetery off by heart. Just outside the cemetery is the Marine Corps Memorial. It was a rainy day, and suitably dramatic to be walking around a cemetery for hours. We were quite drenched by the end of the experience.

Had to pop home for a shower before starting the afternoon's activity. We ate some lunch (served by truly scary lunch ladies) at the George Washington University Cafeteria, and set off for Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. It has an elephant in the lobby! The exhibits were so glorious, there was a male giant squid and a female giant squid! I was ecstatic! Many giant sloth remains and smaller stuffed sloths for mum. A GREAT rock and mineral exhibit, which had me frothing at the mouth. They even had some chunks of the Burgess Shale (i.e Trilobite party!). It was a quality museum. Sadly some parents didn't think so. When we were having a coffee in the cafe, a single dad had to have a beer at 4:00 to reward himself for spending all that hard time in the museum with his daughter. Good one dad! We enjoyed on into the dark.

Caught the metro home, and were shocked to find no liquor stores open! What would we drink while watching trashy T.V? mmmm! And while wandering the streets we saw so many teens with booze heading off to fraternity and sorority houses to live it up on this long weekend. BOO!