On the last day of our vacation we were standing down in the subway tunnel waiting for our train to take us back to the hotel. Standing next to us was a young unmarried couple. I say they were unmarried because neither had wedding rings on and I don’t know many women who would go a day without wearing their wedding ring, or men for that matter. Anyways, I noticed something very quickly about this couple. The man was standing leaning against the wall, quiet, arms crossed and looking at the ceiling. The women was hanging all over the guy, arms wrapped around him, her face two inches from him, trying to hug and kiss him constantly. It is what we would call the classic smothering that makes guys break up with girls faster than anything.
It was blatantly obvious this guy was throwing clear signals that said, “I am uncomfortable, embarrassed and am second guessing this relationship.” Our train arrived and Taylor and I wanted to get away from them but when we sat down they sat down in front of us. We looked at each other and Taylor said, “You want me to do that to you?” To which I said, “NO!” Girl’s I know that guy’s complain a lot about how women won’t just tell you what they want or what is wrong we have to use our psychic abilities to figure it out but the truth is guys do it to a point as well. In this case this dude was being very obvious. Sitting down the girl continued to smother the man, talk VERY loudly on the train and not get a clue. Well, finally she did. After 20 minutes of him not talking or reciprocating affection she says, “What’s wrong with you? You’re not being affectionate to me. You’re treating me like I’m an annoying little sister or something. Should we just be a couple that sits at dinner and never talks?!” She then got up and moved to another seat which I am sure embarrassed the guy all the more that this scene just happened in front of 20 other people on our train.
There was a big part of me as a pastor that wanted to say, “YOU ARE SMOTHERING HIM. Get a clue!” I probably would have said it with more love of course. When their stop arrived they both got off the train neither talking or walking side by side. What started out as one sided love and affection quickly turned to anger and disgust on both sides
What’s the point? I could make fun of this couple as silly, young, immature and many other things but in watching this girl I couldn’t help but think about how we treat God the same way as this girl treated this guy. We can be so up and down emotionally in our spiritual lives that we end up being self-focused, self-centered, and completely clueless when God is trying to talk to us. This girl was more worried about her needs rather than looking at his needs and seeing that he was uncomfortable. In the same way don’t we many times go to God more worried about what we want rather than asking God what He wants from us? We are many times very selfish even in our prayer times. We thank God for the day then we spend the next few minutes saying to God, “give me, give me, give me!” Rarely do we say, “God, not my will but yours. God I want what you want. God teach me to be holy, to trust, and to give you glory regardless of life’s circumstances.” Not only that but how much time do we just stop talking and listen; meditating in silence and letting God speak to us so we can hear him in our Spirit’s? This girl wouldn’t stop talking, refused to see the hints and only thought of herself. Because of that this incident ended in frustration and who knows, maybe they broke up.
This incident was a very simple reminder to myself to always ask, “Am I listening to God and following his will or am I smothering Him with my own selfish wants and needs? If we do that we will always be frustrated. Not my will, not my wants, not my needs, but His will be done.
Today we started the day by getting up early and heading to the White House. Going on a tour of the White House is something that many can’t say they’ve done. It was fun getting cleared by the Secret Service. A dude with a clipboard and ear piece had my name on his list. That was cool. The house itself is pretty remarkable. Very grand and ornate. Tons of history. The guards were helpful with our questions. The President was there while we were touring the house which was pretty cool. We didn’t get to see him but we did see his helicopter and today the President signed the new credit card bill into law out in the Rose Garden which we were right next too. Taylor and I looked at each other a few times and said, “Can you believe we are in the actual White House?” Pretty crazy.
The other big thing we got to do was get a private tour of the Capitol building by one of our Missouri Congressman’s interns. It was nice being able to skip the long public lines and take the underground access to the building. We got to walk through some of the underground tunnels that connect the House and Senate offices to the Capitol. We sat in the gallery area of the House side and got a brief history of the room. It is actually much smaller than it looks on TV. I was really surprised actually because on TV it looks HUGE but it really isn’t all that big.
For some reason if the Senate is not in session no one is allowed in their area. I figured it would be the other way around. So because they weren’t in session we didn’t get to see that but we were taken to the crypt which was originally built for George Washington’s grave but in his will he desired to be buried at Mt. Vernon. In the very center of the crypt is a star on the floor which is the very center of Washington D.C. In the original plans of the city all roads were designed around that spot. Pretty cool I thought. We also saw the original House and Senate chambers as well as the original Supreme Court Chambers were cases like Dred Scott vs. Sanford and The Amistad were decided.
We capped off our trip by seeing Night at the Museum 2: Battle at the Smithsonian at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum were parts of the film were made. We watched the movie on a true 5 story tall IMAX screen. It was really cool to be watching a premier of a movie at the place it was filmed. Then when we walked out of the theater we saw all the things we just saw in the movie. Kind of freaky and cool at the same time.
To wrap it up I have to say that my dream vacation of going to D.C. was absolutely amazing. It was worth every penny and all the soreness from walking. I had an amazing time and definitely had a ton of fun with my friend Taylor in the process. We definitely want to return as there are some things we still want to do like museum’s we missed, Monticello, Gettysburg etc… All of that will just have to wait. The city is amazing and the history is just so stinking rich here. If you ever get the opportunity to take a trip out this way do not miss it. By far our favorite part of the whole trip hands down was going to Mt. Vernon. Everything else was awesome but Mt. Vernon was just so cool that you have to see it first hand to really appreciate it.
I’m excited in that I think my wife now has a new appreciation for our past but I don’t think I’ll be able to get her to watch the History Channel anytime soon. Tomorrow we head home on a 14 hour drive. We really want to do it all at once because we miss our kids terribly but we are really tired and will probably end up stopping at a hotel somewhere. Peace Out!
Just a quick note that this post is my 200th! Yay! Okay, let’s move on…
A second day has come and gone and let me just say, I….am….sore. We have walked so much to so many places in two days that we are pretty much paying for it. So, would I do it again? Oh yeah. This has been a really great vacation. I have loved every minute of it and there are still two days to go. Yay! Let’s get to the afterthoughts…
I want to start with something that I have noticed about the culture in D.C. First, there are certain things I have learned are essential for one to carry onto the metro with you. You must have either an iPhone or Blackberry, headphones and sunglasses. Over 50% of the people easily have these items in their possession. Taylor made the comment that if we both owned iPhones nobody would know we are tourist. Seriously, it seems like EVERYONE has iPhones here. People need these items to make themselves look distracted so that you don’t talk to them. Nobody likes to talk on the metro no matter how long the ride might be. They just listen to music, read the paper, check email, play games or wear sunglasses so no one can see their eyes. If you do talk to them they will talk back but don’t expect the natives to strike up a conversation with you.
Another thing I have noticed about the culture here is just how much of a melting pot of ethnicities it is. You can’t go two blocks without seeing a White, Black, Hispanic, Arab or Asian. They are everywhere. Whites are actually the minority in the D.C. area. It has been that way since the beginning. Everywhere I have ever lived has been easily 90% White and 10% Black, Hispanic and other. Here, White is minority and other ethnicities dominate. Does this bother me? Nope. To be honest, I love it. I made the comment to Taylor today that it is so refreshing seeing so many ethnicities work, talk and walk together without any racial hatred. People respect each others cultures here. At least in the daytime.
Because D.C. is such a melting pot I have also noticed that a lot of people speak two languages or at least have a basic understanding of another language. Living in a city with such incredible diversity probably forces you to learn at least the basics of another language. There have been at least 3-5 instances where we have seen multiple Americans bust out both English and Spanish or English and Chinese. Sometimes using both languages to complete a sentence.
Another observation I have about this area is that food is EXPENSIVE. Street vendors, restaurants, whatever, it is all very expensive. Yesterday we went to a street vendor and ordered one hot dog, one soft pretzel, a water and Pepsi. It was $12.00. We’ve had to really check prices otherwise we will pay even when we try to eat lite.
Today we visited the Air and Space Museum, Natural History Museum, White House, Peterson house and we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe which was EXPENSIVE. The Air and Space Museum was everything I hoped it would be. This was one of the stops I was really looking forward to and we spent about two hours going to the areas I wanted to see. The one thing that mattered to me here was the Wright Bros. Flyer. I have a model of this plane in my office. I have always been fascinated by this family and the history of flight and so to see the actual plane up close was really cool. I think even Taylor was impressed with it and the fact she was able to see it first hand. I was also excited to see the Spirit of St. Louis which is another model I have in my office. The Lindbergh’s story is fascinating; and until you see the actual plane or car or boat or clothes or whatever that you have read about in books or learned about on TV first hand it just isn’t fully real to you. Once you can see it up close then all of a sudden history becomes real. It’s a pretty cool feeling; at least for history geeks like me.
The Natural History museum was pretty cool. I like seeing dinosaur bones and we saw some dinosaur species that I had never seen before that were pretty wicked but two things really bothered me about this museum. One is how they shove evolution down your throat like it’s a scientifically proven fact. Take my Christianity out of the equation all together on this for a second. Let’s just use common sense shall we? How in the world could we ever teach a THEORY as fact? Doesn’t that go against the rules of science all together? Doesn’t something have to be verifiable through multiple test before it can be proclaimed as truth and/or fact? It almost angers me how they throw out all these millions of years ages on fossils and bones like they can truly prove it and how they have these displays about us evolving from monkeys. Where’s the proof? Where’s the missing link? Maybe that exhibition is supposed to open next summer? All I know is it seems pretty ridiculous to be shoving an unproven theory down our kids throat and calling it fact just because you can’t bring yourself to admit that maybe, just maybe there is a God who said BANG and it was. Another thing that not really bothered me but got me thinking was how do they know they have the right head on the right body? What I mean is how do they know they are right when they put these dinosaur skeletons together? How do they know that they didn’t create a whole new species of dinosaur that never existed by mixing bones that didn’t belong? Just something to think about. Oh, really quick I saw the Hope Diamond which is BIG and worth a lot of money. And they had an exhibit about human bones with multiple corpses from the 1600’s which was pretty cool to see because they had the background story on the people.
A little ways from the Natural History Museum is the White House. We are still scheduled to go on our tour of this place Friday so we didn’t linger. We took some pics and noticed a lot of foreign dignitaries entering the house. Lots of police and black cars with the American flag on one side and the flag of the dignitaries country on the other. We didn’t know what was going on but it was cool to watch. Of course the natives see it everyday and didn’t pay any attention. They just kept walking.
Finally we went to the Peterson house. This is the house that sits right across the street from Ford Theater where Abraham Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth. You can walk through a very small section of the house and see the living room where Lincoln’s son and wife paced and comforted each other and you can go into the very room where Lincoln died. It was very sobering to actually be standing in the EXACT place one of the greatest presidents to ever live died. The house has essentially been unchanged from that moment in 1865. When you walk through you feel like time has frozen on the inside while time continues to move on the outside of the house. Again, a pretty cool feeling. We tried to get into Ford Theater but the wait was long. Why? Once again hundreds of middle school kids surrounded us. We couldn’t escape them today either. I again got pretty hot when I heard a kid in the Air and Space Museum say, “This stuff is boring can’t we go to a ball game instead?” Man I wanted to punch him or shake him or something.
I went way too long on this. Thanks for following my afterthougts. I hope reading this will make you want to take a trip here. It is absolutely worth it. Tomorrow morning we are heading out to Mt. Vernon to see President George Washington’s plantation and grave site. Then Friday we are going on our tour of the White House at 9:00am then doing whatever we want until 3:00pm when we will then go on our private tour of the Capitol. After that we are going to see Night at the Museum 2 at the Air and Space Museum IMAX which is going to be so cool watching a movie based on the Smithsonian at the Smithsonian. Peace Out!
Day 1 of my dream trip to D.C. is done and I have decided to give some observations. First let me list all the places we were able to visit. Arlington Cemetery, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, Holocaust Museum, American History Museum, Vietnam Memorial, WWII Memorial, National Archives and Union Station. I know a lot, right? All I can say is our feet are sore but we had a lot of fun. On with the afterthoughts.
D.C. is a really cool city. The buildings are just so vast and expansive. I really felt like we were in the modern roman empire. Which can be good and bad. Bad because all empires eventually crumble and fall. but still the architecture of the city is really cool. I was really surprised with just how easy it is to get around and find stuff. The map we had was easy to follow and Taylor pretty much played navigator for us all day. I was also surprised by just how easy it was to walk to most places. It is definitely tiring after you’ve walked around for 8 hours but it was easier to walk then to hop on and off buses or trains.
Speaking of trains we rode the metro train for the first time and I love it. Man it is so easy to navigate that thing. I have always had a little fear with riding a subway system thinking that it would be tough figuring out how to get where you need to go but the trains here are laid out in a real ingenious way. We bought two passes that give us unlimited rides for the whole week which is very convenient.
Arlington Cemetery is really sobering. Everywhere you look you are surrounded by people who gave there lives that gives me the freedom to type this blog. We saw Kennedy’s grave sight as well as the tomb of the unknown soldier. Of course a visit to the unknown soldier wouldn’t have been complete without seeing the changing of the guard which we got there just in time to see. It was really cool. Not that it was anything supernatural but just the attention to detail, precision and devotion they give to what they do was extremely impressive.
Vietnam Memorial was also pretty cool to see. Really unbelievable how many people died in that war.
National Archives was something I’ve always wanted to see but especially since I saw National Treasure. It was soooo cool to see first hand the original documents that make America what it is. Of course I asked the security guard, “How often do you get asked something about National Treasure?” To which he replied, “Every single day.” We laughed. I actually felt a little sorry for him. It’s hard to explain just how cool it is to be in the presence of those documents. You have to see them up close to really appreciate them. Our freedoms are on those papers. Without them men who signed them we would not be here today. Humbles you and makes me give glory to God for working in those men who were willing to put their life on the line for us.
I also loved the American History Museum. TONS to see. We saw everything from Abraham Lincoln’s top hat to Dorothy’s slippers from the Wizard of Oz. It was just really cool to see clothes that George Washington himself wore and also the gun that Abraham Lincoln used for target practice. There’s something about being so close to history that makes you feel just how real it all really was. I know that doesn’t make sense but it does in my mind.
This leads me to the one thing I could have gone without today. That would be the 20,000 middle school kids all over the city. Everywhere we went there they were. When we were outside it wasn’t that big of a deal but when we were in the museums it was really ridiculous. I know I am grumbling but I just don’t understand the point of taking middle school kids to a museum if they’re not going to appreciate what they are looking at. Most kids just talked really loud or played with their cell phones. It was pretty annoying and a couple of times I wanted to grab them and say, “Do you have any idea what you are looking at and without these men and women doing what they did you wouldn’t have what you have today!?” Hopefully someday these kids will appreciate the opportunity they had to see America’s history up close.
I could say a lot more but I think that’s enough for today. Oh, except that because Taylor and I are big movie freaks we absolutely couldn’t pass up the chance to go see a movie at Union Station. We saw Angels and Demons. I liked it better than The DaVinci Code. Union Station is just a very cool place. Love the architecture.
Tomorrow we will be visiting the Jefferson Memorial, Air and Space Museum, Natural History Museum and wherever else our feet want to take us. Peace out!
I have had a phone interview and will be doing a face to face interview with their board and search committee next week. Once I have accepted a position at a church I will let everyone know where that is.
