Champagne Glasses of Fire

I'd heard that there might be some street performers down at the pier in Alexandria, but nothing could have prepared me for this guy. Absolutely amazing. This guy deserves a medal, a trophy or maybe two dollars. Don't miss the second half of the video when I get to play the bass cup!

Library of Awesomeness

The long awaited moment is here. I know you've all been sitting on the edge of your seat for this one. Well. At least for the last three sentences or so. I'm very proud to announce the prestigious Most-Awesome-Building-In-DC-In-Jake's-Opinion Award. Yep. This is the place. This is the time. Drum roll please. Cue Zarathustra track. Grand prize winner gets a lame post! Yeah!

And the winner is...Library of Congress!

Yes...I may be uh...a little biased here. But really, look at the photo. Can anything out there compete? The architecture is astonishing. I can't think of a better place to spend the money than on the nation's home for books.

Ms. Bowen Goes to Washington

The much anticipated weekend finally arrived...and passed much too quickly.

Thursday night Kim flew in from Salt Lake. From the moment she landed, we were running around DC. In retrospect, our planning was much too optimistic - we didn't see nearly as much as we planned - but we did get to all of the monuments, the Capitol building, the botanical gardens, several snazzy restaurants, a few art galleries and a handful of museums.

This photo was taken at the Newseum, which opened a little over a year ago. Hands down, this is the best museum I've been to while in DC. The six floors detail the history of news/journalism. There you'll find everything from segments of the Berlin Wall to the antenna from the top of the World Trade Center to the Unibomber's shed.

On the third floor they have an exhibit where you can do a newscast in front of a green screen. It's free to get on stage, but five bucks to get a copy of the video and photo. I already paid the fee, so you can access it at no cost for then next two weeks. You'll need to go to www.newseum.org/batvr and enter the code kceuqmblhguriu to see the 30 second clip. The quality is better if you download it to your computer. I think we're naturals, no?

Fire in Consulate Apartments

No Mom. I'm not hurt.

I arrived home from my Palmyra trip to discover that there had been a minor fire in my apartment building. On the floor above mine in the elevator lobby, one of the lights had sparked. The fire was quickly put out by the sprinkler system. All of the water however, flooded the third and second floors. This phot shows the cleanup crew punching a hole in our bathroom ceiling to release the water.

While it was somewhat exciting, the cleanup process got old pretty fast. For a few days we had obnoxious fans up and down the halls and in our rooms going 24-7 to prevent mold. Thankfully, it's all cleaned up now.

Stone Box Found Under Rock on Hill Cumorah

All I have to say is that it's not nearly as easy as Joseph makes it look in the video.

Sacred Grove

When one of the other interns invited me to travel to Palmyra to see the Hill Cumorah Pageant a few weeks ago, I jumped at the opportunity. It meant that I would spend 16 hours in a car over a 36 hour period of time, but I'm very glad I went. While we were there, we stopped by several of the historical sites, one of which was the Sacred Grove.

Simply put, the Church is true. One can't help but walk through this grove without sensing the lingering whispers of deity.

Got Protestors?

Yep. They're at the Hill Cumorah Pageant too.

Existence of Hill Cumorah Kiosk Confirmed

For many months the Hill Cumorah Kiosk has been somewhat of a mystery in the Church Office Building Audiovisual IP Section. I couldn't help but take a peek at the kiosks at the visitor center when I was up there a couple of weeks ago for the pageant. This photo is of the Book of Mormon Diorama (this probably won't mean anything to anybody except Cody Tak so I hope he reads this). Marvin Payne (Lehi) strikes again. The short outtakes of the Joseph video are also there.

Worst Comb Over Ever

Yes folks. It's real. I was there. I can't decide what I like most - the braid wrapping across the forehead or the ponytail in the back. Thoughts?

Campus Progress National Convention

This whole summer my office supervisor has been nagging me about getting out and going to a lecture. Odd. Most workplaces want you to work. Mine wants me to get out and see the city.

I haven't received many notices about lectures in the first place and second, they're usually on the other side of DC. This one however, I couldn't pass up. Speakers included a guy from the Daily Show, Nancy Pelosi and none other than President Clinton.

It was quite an adventure tyring to get there on time, but I made it and I'm glad I went. The Daily Show guy was quite entertaining, and the other two were inspiring. Bill and Nancy both focused on healthcare, education and energy.

I've now seen Bill and Barack. Where's Bush hiding these days? Anybody know if he's scheduled to speak in DC before the end of August?

Independence Day on the Mall

This was the best photo I could come up with to try to describe the sheer insanity of how many people were packed on to the Mall for the fireworks. It really doesn't do the event justice. The crowd stretched from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol steps. How many people is that? 500,000? 1,000,000? Perhaps. I wouldn't be surprised. You couldn't walk five feet without having to step over somebody. Crazy stuff. The concert was great. The fireworks were fantastic. Can there be a better way to celebrate the nation's birthday?

Goldilocks and the Three Beards

I post this photo for two reasons.

First, welcome to the DC 4th of July parade - pretty dull in my opinion, but I never really was one for parades.

Second, say goodbye to the beard. This photo was taken only a few hours before it disappeared. I believe this is about 1 1/2 months of growth. Truth is, it was more work than it was worth. Turns out you can't just let it grow; not all facial hair grows at the same rate. You have to trim and cut and comb and on and on, meh...bummer. And don't get me started on getting milk crusties in your beard from eating cereal. Yuck.

Georgetown Cupcake II: Good to the Last Drop

This past Thursday a couple of my roommate's friends flew in from Salt Lake. Between monument visits we dropped by Georgetown Cupcake. I had a few extra dollars in my budget so I caved.

Lava fudge...

[Jake sinks deeper into the couch as his eyes roll back. A contented smile crosses his lips.]

Three bucks? Yeah. It's that good.

Part of my roommate Dan's cupcake hit the ground inadvertently. The photo below shows him contemplating whether or not to eat the frosting off the Georgetown sidewalk...


Yep. He ate it.

Between Heaven and Earth

Armed with only my trusty Google map, I trooped from the metro to the DC Temple this past week. Turns out that the route from the metro to the temple only took 30 minutes or so. The trees, quiet brooks, and even prancing deer made the trip quite enjoyable and relaxing - perfect preparation for an endowment session.

The temple is gorgeous, inside and out. If it hadn't started raining right as I reached the grounds, I would have wandered around for a while before going in. Once inside I constantly had to resist the urge to take photos of the interior. The session was wonderful. It was a much needed rest from the world.

Just behind me in the photo is a visitor center. Inside is a large auditorium where every month a large fireside is held for new converts. We attended this meeting at the beginning of June. Senator Hatch and his wife spoke along with a few new coverts. A quarter of the meeting was dedicated to allowing all of the new coverts in the mission (about 30 or so in the last three months) introduce themselves and briefly describe their conversion. Wow. I wish we would have done something like this in my mission.

National Gallery of Art

Last weekend I visited the National Gallery of Art. Below is one of my favorite pieces. I was amazed at the large collection of works they had on display there. You'll find everything from gold coins to relatively recent paintings by Edward Hopper. I was very impressed by the architecture and overall peaceful aura of the building. The only downside to the gallery is that while all of the Smithsonian Museums are open until 7:30pm during the summer, this building still closes at 5:00pm every day.

Georgetown Cupcake

Word has it that if you go to Georgetown, you have to go to Georgetown Cupcake. As you can tell from the photo below, this isn't your typical grocery store bakery cupcake. Each succulent ball of chocolate goodness is about $3.00. Now, it's good, but not necessarily three dollars good. But I'll let you decide. They've got a pretty spiffy website. Check it out.

www.georgetowncupcake.com

Sculpture Garden Pool

This week we got a spot on the edge of the pool at the jazz concert...and well...I couldn't resist. This was just a few minutes before we got caught in a crazy hurricane storm. I wish I could have gotten a photo of our little group soaked from head to foot, standing in the puddles of Pennsylvania Avenue, but alas the camera probably would have been fried by the rain if I'd taken in out of the bag. Oh well...

Jazz on the Mall

Every Friday night from 5 to 8:30pm jazz bands play at the Sculpture Gardens just north of the National Gallery of Art. By seven the place is loaded to capacity with hundreds of dunk white collar DCians, getting a head start on the weekend. Most visitors still sport neck ties and skirts. The drink of choice is Sangria, which is bought in pitchers and looks a lot like raspberry lemonade. Last week's group played Brazilian jazz. This week was blues. Good stuff. In the middle of the garden is a large pool. If you're lucky enough to get a spot on the rim you can stick your feet in the cool refreshing water with everyone else. Not exactly hygienic, but quite relaxing.

Guess Who

Only 68 degrees?... Maybe I should go check into the emergency room. I found this camera while wandering around the Air and Space Museum on the mall last week. Fascinating place, probably my favorite museum so far, but it's well, only the second one I've visited. Nevertheless, they've got everything you want to see. Don't miss John Glenn's spacesuit, nuclear missiles, Apollo spaceships, paper airplane contests, IMAX theaters and even Buddhist monks eating McDonald's.

Go Green!

Last week I took a stroll through Eastern Market. Every weekend street vendors gather to sell everything from golf balls to gourmet pickles. It's six glorious blocks of flea market paradise. They've got everything you need and everything you don't. As you might expect, I didn't buy anything, but I did do a lot of people watching; the shoppers are just as varied as the shops. Knowing that you walked all the way from one end to the other without succumbing to impulse buying is quite a satisfying feeling. I recommend you try it. At the end of the line of tents is a cafe with an outdoor patio where you can put up your feet and listen to a local jazz band.

Cheers to all those pickle lovers out there!

Clue - DC Style

Why is there a shopping cart in my elevator lobby? Should I put up some police tape?

Five-Sided Pictures

So...apparently you're not supposed to take photos of the Pentagon outside of the designated areas. Yes. This is a designated area, well...the designated area. Just behind this fence (behind the camera) is a memorial set up for the people that died on 9/11 when the airplane struck the Pentagon. Only here can you can take pictures. I tried to take a couple photos in the parking lot just outside of the memorial and got royally reprimanded by a security officer. The portion of the building in this photo is where the plane crashed. You can distinguish the new portions by the slightly lighter-colored stone.

I was surprised at how close the metro stop is to the building. It seems to run right under the structure. For this reason it took us ten to fifteen minutes once reaching ground level to figure out that we were in fact looking at the Pentagon. When standing in front of it, the building is big enough that you can't see that it has five sides. I noticed that one can see the five-sided shape better at Arlington Cemetary than on the ground, but it is too far away for the camera to get a good picture.

Wings Anybody?

The Hawk and Dove is a bar. It looks like a bar. It sounds like a bar. It smells like a bar. But, on Mondays between 4pm and 8pm, this bar serves 12 barbecue wings for a dollar when you buy a drink. This includes beer, soda or juice. This does not include water. I asked. The waitress declined. So essentially I went in thinking I was going to get wings for a dollar and somehow got charged $5.25 for orange juice and 12 mini drumsticks. How does that happen?

I think that was actually my first encounter attempting to eat wings. "Attempting" is the most important word in that phrase. Their isn't much meat on there to begin with and about 25% of it you can't get off the bone without filling your nasal cavity with barbecue sauce. Lovely.

So...let's just say I paid $1 for the wings and $4.25 for the experience of going to a bar in DC with 25 other Hinckley interns. I'm happy with that.

Washington DC Singles Ward

Perhaps my expectations were too high...but my first week in the ward left much to be desired.  It seemed like every utterance in sacrament meeting or the classes was a legal discourse.  I wanted to feel the spirit and be uplifted, not convinced of one's personal point of view.  For this and other reasons, I left with a bad taste in my mouth.

However, in the last two weeks things have gotten much better.  Maybe I've adjusted to the humidity or perhaps that first Sunday was just attorney week and nobody told me.  Regardless, testimony meeting was particularly uplifting today.  Several of the members in the ward are recent converts to the gospel and a few shared very powerful testimonies.  

Following up on these positive experiences I thought I might even try my luck with ward choir...  Well, you can't win them all right?  As knowledgeable and talented as people generally are in DC, many of them are still tone deaf.  I guess the church really is the same no matter where you go...

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Quite Possibly the Dumbest Movie I've Ever Seen

...and if not, it's a close second to The Stupids.

No wonder it was the only movie left in the DVD section of the public library. But hey, it was free, so why complain?  After a long day of trying to get a visa to enter Taiwan for one of our project managers in Equatorial Guinea, this movie was exactly what I needed.  My brain was in dire need of some mindless dribble and my pants were in desperate need of some sewing.  It wasn't quite the video representation of the books I remember reading back in junior high, but then again, can we ever really trust our fluxuous memory of adolescence?...  

At least I'm glad my roommate fell asleep before the skydiving whale scene so I could laugh without feeling ashamed.  I guess there really is a time and a place for everything. 

No Place Like Home

This past Saturday I visited the US History Smithsonian Museum.  This was the first of many such museums on my summer to-do list.  While wandering around on the third floor, I stumbled upon Dorothy's ruby red shoes.  Amusing no?

The absence of almost all responsibility during the evenings has left me some time to reflect.  Yes, Washington DC has a lot to see and do.  But, in the end, there really is no place like home.  I'm not sure what's so appealing about Dorothy's Kansas...but Salt Lake is surely a delightful little city.

Arlington President Obama Speech - Part I

Is there possibly a better way of spending Memorial Day than listening to the president of the United States present his address in the Arlington Memorial Amphitheater?  Hmm...I think not.  We had to get up a little early, but the experience was incredible.  Several dignitaries attended the event, perhaps the most notable being Bob Dole.  The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and President Obama spoke at the event.  These fantastic speeches were complemented by outstanding performances from the US National Band.  

After the event we wandered around Arlington National Cemetary.  We were able to locate a few notable gravesites including JFK and his wife.  I was amazed at how large the area is.  The gravestones stretch out as far as you can see.  There is a very special spirit there.  Absolutely astounding.

Arlington President Obama Speech - Part II

Part II of President Obama's Speech

Bus Ride to Arlington Amphitheather

The gravestones stretch on forever.  This is only one side of the bus...

US Capitol Building

It looks like this whole video thing is actually going to work.  Enjoy this little trip around the US Capitol Building steps.

Tour of the Consulate Apartments (Part II)

I think I've mastered the stupid wireless network here at the apartments, enough so that I can now post these videos...I guess...we'll see if this actually works.  Enjoy this complementary tour of the Consulate Apartments.

www.dclibrary.org

I'm saved!  I've located the public library system.  I've been going nuts without my books/books on CD.  I tried to immediately get a library card from them, but they said they need proof of permanent residence.  Urgh...  They'll let me by with a letter from my office, but I won't be able to get that until Tuesday.  Sad.

Life in DC is Expensive

This pair of shorts costs $150.00?!!!  Are you joshing me?  Can you imagine what they would cost if someone hadn't cut off the rest of the legs?  Holy cow.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Is that little red spot above our shower head something we should report to building security?...

Running in DC

Have you gone running around the monuments in DC?  Everyone else has.  If you're there between five and seven, you're likely to get caught in a stampede of overzealous congressmen getting in their after work workout.  But could you really pick a better place to run?  Everywhere you look there's something to distract you from the pain.  Definitely put this one on your to-do list.

Suits

I'm constantly amazed at how much there is to see in DC.  Every time you turn a corner, you see something new.  It's no wonder that even the guys in suits take pictures.

Space Mountain Comes to DC

Sorry about the videos.  I still haven't made an attempt to battle with Blogspot again.  So...here's the next best thing.  When I first saw the metro system in DC it appeared oddly familiar.  It took me a while to pinpoint the memory to Space Mountain at Disneyland.  Take a look and decide for yourself.  I should add that the humidity, smell and sound all match the California equivalent.  The only thing its missing is seat belts.

I'm usually not an accident prone person.  Therefore, I think the metro is out to get me.  Three lessons when riding the metro.

1. When riding the escalator down to the platform: walk to the right, stand to the left.  If you don't follow this, you're likely to be run down my some rabid DCian trying to catch a train.
2. Make sure your laces are tied before getting on the escalator.  It's quite possible that they could get stuck in the plates when they go under the floor at the bottom.
3. The metro doesn't have push button doors like Trax.  When it says, "Doors opening" the doors will open.  When it says, "Doors closing" the doors really are going to close...even if you're halfway through.  This means that you might just get your arm caught in the door.

So speaking from experience, if you don't do these three things, you should make it to your destination.  I can't promise that you will get a seat, or that you won't be a puddle of gooey sweat when you get off, but at least you'll get there in one piece.

Welcome to the Consulate Apartments

Contrary to the predictions of many frightened passengers on my flight into DC, we did survive the turbulence and land at about 9:30 pm at Reagan National Airport. I took several photos while traveling to DC, but I'll post those later.  I still haven't quite recovered from all the writing I had to do for finals this semester so I'll let the video do the talking for now.

...

30 minutes later.  So...blogspot is stupid.  The video is taking an absurd amount of time to upload here, so I've moved it over to Facebook for now.  I'll put it here when I can get a reliable connection.  Let me know if you can't access it.

...

20 minutes later.  So...Facebook is stupid.  It uploaded the whole thing and then died.  Stay tuned.  For now, pretend I posted an enthralling walk through video of my apartment.

For all those of you that have been waiting on the edge of your seat...I present...my front room.  Enjoy.