There's Big Ben, There's Parliament

On Sunday, despite my hibernation reflex to stay in on such a dreary rainy day, my friend and I went to visit some of the monuments/memorials. Even though I could walk to the museums, the monuments and memorials are pretty spread out and honestly require a car or a tour to see them all. Side note, one thing I miss about Philadelphia is how walkable it is compared to DC. These blocks are huge for no reason and if there was a dislike button, this characteristic would be very much disliked.

Lucky for us, my friend had a car and we figured we were golden to hit like 3-4 memorials in the time we had in the afternoon. We drove to the Jefferson memorial first, without a problem. We parked as close as we could, which was actually still pretty far given that it was cold and rainy. The building is made of beautiful marble and is definitely a sight to see, yet, I could not help but wish that there was more to learn, or more explanation. Maybe I have been getting too used to visiting museums. In actuality, there is more information on Jefferson's life down by the bathrooms of the memorial (not in the stalls, just the bathroom area), than there is in the entire structure. We did try to go on the "park ranger tour" (as our arrival at the memorial was promptly when it began), but the park ranger was more interested in talking to the only other people there, a 3 person family, and whispered his stories while ignoring our presence. All in all, I felt like through a visit to UVA you could learn more about Jefferson.

Our next stop was the Lincoln Memorial. Visiting this memorial by car is definitely easier said than done. We followed the signs and could see it right in front of us, but we could not turn into the parking lot. We were instead forced to turn the complete opposite direction and planned to just make a UTurn. Unlucky for us, this Uturn could not happen until miles down the road, in a whole different area of town. Seriously DC, make a UTURN or LEFT TURN exist and be allowed... SOMEWHERE. This was outrageous and insanely frustrating. When we finally did turn around and got back to the memorial in around 10 minutes (a feat which would have been impossible without google maps on our phones), the only way to turn into the memorial was an illegal right turn for buses and cabs only. Even though the car in front of us turned in, we believed that there must be another, more legal, way. But boy were we wrong. Sure I have broken the rules before, but because I do think that I am also the one most likely to get caught the one time I try it, I thought there HAD to be another way. A decision I now regret. We turned around again and again and were always at a different angle to the memorial. It took us so many attempts and we found so many ways to see the memorial from the outside that it felt like that scene in European Vacation on the Roundabout in England...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAgX6qlJEMc

After probably 4 tries, there was STILL no way in, no way to park close, and no way to get there without walking. Maybe the memorial designers wanted us to walk between the different sites, but, let's be serious, this is AMERICA. In this country we are generally lazy, need short lengths to walk, and if we cannot walk we require trolleys or buses to take us there. I was not a fan of such an experience.

Running so short on time, we never did get to see the memorial, and thus only went to 1 place all afternoon. Just to get back at Lincoln, and this insane waste of time tour his memorial took me on, I now want to do something crazy with all my pennies like this art exhibit made of around 100 million pennies...any ideas?!