Washington DC: Epsilon Delta Mu Style

This Saturday was spent wandering around DC with some friends from my sorority. While DC isn't in Richmond, I consider it my duty to point out to all non-Richmonders how close we live to the nation's capital. Friends from New York take note: I do not live in the deep south. Seriously.

When Emma and I were both working in Chicago last summer we became incredibly addicted to Potbelly Sandwich Works and would go there at least once a week -- each of us choosing the same sub every time. Potbelly's is Chicago's own amazing sub shop, and it has been one of the greater sadnesses of life in Richmond that I cannot get a roast beef sub that is so good it's mood-improving, all for about $4.00. Needless to say, after meeting Emma and Aileen at Metro Center, our first stop was Potbelly's.

After choosing to eat outside on the windiest day of the summer - we did get plenty of exercise chasing our meals' waxed paper around the block - the three of us decided to walk around the mall and the surrounding area. The first thing on our sightseeing tour was the White House. After seeing many movies where the White House is lit with dramatic skies or zoomed in on in an almost threatening way, I have to admit that it looked a bit plain in person. Or at least, plainer than I had envisioned. Sure the house was huge and beautiful, but it truly does seem like a house. Not really a government building where the head of state works. While the house itself was slightly underwhelming, the masses of protesters were not.

Next on our stop was the mall. We started at the World War II memorial, saw the Lincoln Memorial (I am preferential to this one, having grown up in the Land of Lincoln), and then walked through the whole mall, where they were setting up the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and holding the World Children's Festival. The Folklife Festival looked awesome -- I may have to go back to DC to tour it again once it's open. The picture of the truck that I've included is actually part of an exhibit. The Children's Festival, on the other hand, looked pretty lame. Other than the fact that they were building an amazing representation of the United States in Lego's, the festival looked like it had attracted about 20 kids to one small tent with two performers. By far the best thing that happened to us on the mall was the college kid offering free hugs, who advertised with a large poster.

After spending some time getting cultured (and sunburned) on the mall, we moved the party to the house of one of our sisters who just finished her freshman year at Kenyon. She lives in DC close to Silver Spring in a beautiful house. The evening that followed was filled with an amazing dinner of pasta, salad and pie; punch so good that made our EDM punch seem even grosser than it always has; and imaginary rides on the Thorne's baby-blue Vespa.