Ah, Honest Abe. Alas, we dedicate a weekend to you. While I can hardly make myself wake up for 9AM classes, I woke up at 8AM on Sunday morning to get ready for a day dedicated to the 16th President of the United States. Today was the day we would visit Ford's Theatre, The House Where Lincoln Died, and the Lincoln Center for Education and Leadership.
Out the door by 9AM, we took the Red Line over to Metro Center and walked down 10th Street to head to the box office to retrieve our tickets to get into Ford's Theatre. Despite the long lines we always see outside the theatre, it doesn't take very long to get tickets at all. In fact, we got the tickets and were let in within 15 minutes. Granted, those 15 minutes in the humid Washington DC weather felt like 5 hours in an oven, but it wasn't too bad of a wait. The AC definitely was turned up on high in Ford's Theatre.
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| Yay, free ticket! Take THAT, Ticketmaster. I'm not paying $3.50 for some dumb processing fee! |
Inside Ford's Theatre were exhibits set up to depict different points in Abe's life and his contributions to the Civil War. While it's a historical fiction book, I regret not finishing Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (despite the fact that it was assigned in TWO of my American history classes lol) because I feel like I'd have a little more background knowledge about the different generals in the war. We only got about 30 minutes to spend in that part of the theatre, which was definitely not enough time at all to see everything. I'll probably have to go back again haha.
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| I may be 22, but that doesn't mean I have to act my age. |
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| Thumbs up for Honest Abe! |
We were then led to actual theatre where John Wilkes Booth and his posse carried out their assassination of the beloved Abraham Lincoln during the showing of "Our American Cousin." I was really excited for the presentation because I thought actors were going to act out scenes to tell the story. Sadly, that was not the case. We got a tour guide to tell us the story instead. The tour guide spoke for god knows how long (and when I say this, I mean to say that I fell asleep. How typical.) about the details of what led up to the assassination and the act itself. Usually I would be pretty interested in this, but having only ~5 hours of sleep the night before (thank you, Hunger Games book...), I took this time to nap.
I woke up with a start at the sound of applause, signaling the end of the presentation and followed Upshire Girl and Gigi to take pictures by the balcony area where Lincoln sat to watch the play.
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| We sat on the bottom level to get a better view of the "performance." So sad there was none :( |
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| Lincoln got shot in there o_o |
Apparently, Ford's Theatre still holds performances and presidents come to them occasionally. We found George W. Bush's chair!
There were also chairs that Obama and the missus sat in to watch some show at Ford's Theatre as well. I don't remember which ones those were, but I do know they were in the front row lol.
After checking out the theatre, we were led to the brand new Lincoln Center for Education and Leadership to learn more about his death. The exhibit was very interactive, recreating the night Abe fought for his life against his fatal wound.
Once we exited this exhibit, we were greeted by a flight of stairs + a gorgeous towering display of the hundreds of books written about Abraham Lincoln.
The Center was pretty interesting. Each floor was dedicated to Abe and issues he stood for. There was a floor dedicated to leaders that represented the various qualities that Abe would consider a good leader like courage and imagination/creativity. There was even a section that allowed you to write your thoughts about what those words meant to you. Of course, I contributed with my words of wisdom to the courage section ;)
I really enjoyed the section dedicated to Abe in popular culture. We got to see Abe in popular comic books:
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| Oh yeeeeah :) |
...as well as the greatest Abe Lincoln story of all time:
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| Screenshots of Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. In case you're wondering, no I have not seen it yet, but soon! |
We spent a little more time on the 4 floors, then headed to the gift shop to check out all the souvenirs. There was a pretty cool penny necklace--too bad it was like... $60 :( It's okay. I ended up getting a $4 water bottle. I didn't take a picture of it but I can assure you it is awesome and green.
By this time, we were starving, and by we, I mean Upshire Girl and me--the self-proclaimed foodies--and by that, we mean fatties. Feeling adventurous, we headed next door to a shady looking restaurant called Lincoln's Waffle Shop. It didn't look like it belonged in DC with its slightly opaque windows covered with what I assumed to be oil/fat/something greasy from all the food they were making inside. Staring skeptically at the colorful lotto advertisements plastered across all the windows and glass door, we decided to give a change. Inside, people hustled and bustled about, and the food smelled divine. We were quickly seated, and after some indecisiveness (aren't all girls this way when it comes to a massive list of food?), I decided to go for the chicken and waffles.
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| This picture does not do this meal any justice. If only we had Smell/Taste-o-vision TVs... |
After taking one bite of my meal, I could see why this place was so crowded--so scrumptious. We quickly wolfed down our meal, then sat for a bit to try to get over the food coma that crept up on us. Next stop on our schedule was the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. Because the other two Smithsonian museums were so magnificent, I was incredibly excited to see this one. On the way there, we came across the giant AIDS quilt project and the Smithsonian castle (!!), which was really just glorified, over-sized information booth. The giant quilt at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival was definitely touching and very cool to look at but I skimmed by most of it because the hot sun beating down on my back made me slightly cranky.
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| Story of my life in DC... |
A five-minute walk from the castle later, we arrived at our destination. Thank goodness because we were broiling under the scorching sun. If you had to imagine how it felt to be in an oven, come to DC during the summer and you'd get a decent idea.
So this is where I'm going to be very honest with you. The Air and Space Museum bored me out of my mind. At first, I assumed I didn't give air and space a fair chance because when I visited the Hiller Aviation Museum, which bored me but I was really young. Yeeeeah, no. I gave air and space a fair chance, all right. It's boring as hell. There are some interesting exhibits, but you can't make me stay here for over 5 hours like at the American History museum. Not to be stereotypical, but this museum is really a shrine for fathers and sons that love this stuff. It seems my relationship with air and space is equivalent to my relationship with WWII history...
By 5PM, we were pooped. I was almost too tired to take a look at the 3 floors in the gift shop (Almost--I did end up looking at each floor). Once we gathered everyone, we headed home and rested for the rest of the night. While it may seem that we don't do so much in DC sometimes, we always end the day super tired. I blame the ridiculous heat and the excessive amounts of walking.
And I leave you with a DC tip of the day!
**Don't be alarmed by the long line outside Ford's Theatre--they're just waiting to get into the theatre, not waiting to get tickets. To get tickets for the self-guided tour (free), you can either go inside to the box office or claim some online on Ticketmaster (which charges you a $3.50 service/processing fee).**
-Agent 024
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