Day 7: "Now I actually feel like we are on vacation!"

We leave TN Thursday morning at 7am and the "continental breakfast" offered was sugary store bought muffins and bad coffee, I know that we really shouldn't complain about a free breakfast, but come on! South, really you need some better food, and more imagination!
We get to my uncle Brian's house after 2 and were greeted with cheese, green peppers, crackers, cucumbers and good dark beer; now thats what I'm talking about! Then after all that was said and done we continued to drink beers while he made us a nice pasta, broccoli cheese, frittata and it was amazing... Ahh to have good food again, it felt great!
The next day we (My uncle Brian, Blake and I) went in to DC, well for me it was the 2nd time, I was a pro...Blake not so much it was his first, hehe
Washington DC is great, I like it there so much! We started on the "Mall" which to many, and maybe only in SoCAl means a huge place with overpriced stores where people are dressed way too fancy to buy a pretzel at Aunt Annie's. Goodness. Anyways, the mall is where all our nationals monuments are housed, aka the Lincoln Memorial or the Washington Monument, (which is quite a phallic representation for our country, hmmm a psychiatrist could have a field day with whomever decided to erect that big boy...oh by the way those puns were totally intended :P ). So we started there and went directly to the Capital building because you need to get tickets on a first come first serve basis before being directed through the building by at least 8 different people, intense! We went through at least 2 different security screenings and was led on this nice cookie cutter tour of the building. Don't get me wrong, it was incredible! the aucoustics alone were incredible! There were statues of freedom fighters, past presidents, Nancy Pelousi's office, etc. Then we sat in the HOR chamber, "The Gallery" which was interesting and I learned a slight Latin lesson (ask Blake cause I don't remember what the phrase was that I read).
After that we went to the Library of Congress, and after finding the main building we actually saw the rough draft of the Declaration of Independence, but also the Bill of Rights, pretty cool! Then off to another room that housed all that was left of Thomas Jefferson's library which he sold to Congress after the first time the White House was set on fire and I think they bought it for like 24 g's (although I don't think they referred to money as g's yet).
Afterwards we saw all the monuments, the WWII, Vietnam, Koren War, Lincoln, and the very famous Washington Monument. At this point I was exhausted, in fact I think we all were but we made it across the mighty Potomac River and peek into the Arlington Cemetery before crawling into the Metro station to go back to Brian's house. We made another awesome home cooked meal, while drinking beers and wine...which retrospectively maybe wasn't the greatest idea, because soon after I was falling asleep and talking to Blake from the dreams I was having, haha. I was physically, and emotionally exhausted after all this was the last stop before the final treck to New York.