Part three: Must do everything starting this weekend!

This weekend Erin and I realized that I only had two weekends left before I leave. So we planned out the next two weeks so that we're doing something every night. I'm going to be so tired by the time I get home! Saturday we got off to a slow start because we had both stayed out late the night before. We met up at the National Archives at 11am and stood in line for about 45 minutes in order to get inside the building. We both thought that the only things inside that you could really see were the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Deceleration of Independence, but there are a lot more exhibits. We both agreed that our favorite exhibit was the one that had pictures taken in the '70's. These pictures reflected how different societies in the states viewed nature at that time. The pieces of paper were pretty cool, but they were so faded that I would be surprised if they are kept on display for much longer. They also had a copy of the Magna Carter which I thought was a little odd, but still interesting. After Erin and I went souvenir shopping for her family and then returned to my place to drop things off before heading out to buy groceries for Nanaimo bars and salad. I was forced to make Nanaimo bars because my fellow interns at work threatened to beat me up if I didn't! On our way to the grocery store we stopped at We the Pizza and each got a cream soda to drink on our walk. It started drizzling on our way over and after we got the groceries it was still raining. We were lucky that it didn't rain harder because we had both left our umbrellas at my house. We spent the evening making Nanaimo bars, eating salad and pasta, listening to music and chatting. It was nice to have a kind of relaxing day after the chaos that has been this summer.

The next day, today/Sunday August 4th, Erin and I met up again, but this time at 10:30 outside of Ford's Theater. We got entry tickets for 11 am and waited around until we were let inside. First they let us into a small museum related mostly to Lincoln's life and presidency. There was a bit about the assassination, but it was hidden in a corner almost out of embarrassment. I was way to crowed down there and we had to wait almost 45 minutes before they even let us into the theater. Erin and I just thought it would be the theater, so we were both surprised by the museum. When we got into the theater we were told to sit down in the audience and a ranger told us about the assassination plot and what happened at the theater. Our ranger was very awkward. You could tell that this wasn't his favorite part of the job. He kept making weird hand motions and had really long pauses in his speech. I didn't learn that much from what he said, but it was an experience to sit in the theater where a president was shot! We were done with the theater about 12:30 and we decided to try a new place for lunch called Pi pizzeria. It was pretty good. We shared a Lincoln Park pizza which had mozzarella, basil, tomato and zucchini on it with an olive oil sauce. Following lunch we went to the National Museum for Women in the Arts. It wasn't that big and we were done it by four. The first two floors mostly had portraits female artists had done before the 19th Century. That might have been my favorite part. The next two floors had more modern art, which was still interesting, but I found most of it either confusing or quite depressing. It was still an interesting museum because it only contained art done by females which was something I'd never experienced before. After that we parted ways and I came home and had an two hour nap and for some reason I'm still tired! I think it's because I'm thinking of all the other things I still want to do before I head home!