Washington.

I recently got the chance to check out Washington DC. I wasn't able to stay long, but I got to see some of the hits, if for no other reason than to say I did.

Driving in, it's a really interesting sight: on one side of the freeway, there are highrise condos, and on the other side, just a ways down, there's a factory, smokestacks and all, still in use. But the condos are so nice. And there's so many of them. I don't think I've ever seen so many nice buildings in one place. It's a recurring theme in that town.

The other big take-away from the trip is the sheer gravity of that town: this is where our country of 300 million people is managed. Depending on how strongly you believe in our federal system, I realize that statement is up for some debate, but still. Even just the fact that an attempt is being made is nothing to scoff at.

I walked the town with my younger sister. We stopped first at the Capitol. The security presence was very... conspicuous. The guy in the picture above was not the only guard with an assault rifle at the capitol. The capitol, by the way, when you get up close to it, seems a bit more like a palace than you'd think. It's weird. I mean, I would never want the place to be a dump, or ugly in anyway, but there's something about the fountains and gardens and windows and balconies that make it seem like much less of a place of business and more like a place of leisure. Anyway.

Places like that, like the capitol and a couple other buildings, if the public is allowed in at all, they use a separate entrance from the one the important people use. I was not there during the morning rush hour or anything, but I was a little thrown off by how inactive a lot of these buildings seemed to be. I just... I guess I thought I'd see people coming in and out at some point. I never did. Not sure what was up with that. I mean, not even a clerk with some documents or even an assistant with some coffee orders. Nothing.

The Library of congress was also done-up big time. The Jefferson branch is mostly like a museum now. Museum-slash-palace, again. There were no books. At first glance, I mean. If you go all the way back, there's a room with a large reading area complete with very nice desks and lined on three walls with very stately old books, as you might see in a movie about a senator (snore), but this room was sealed to the general public. Like so, so much of the town, it seemed.

There were, however, two beautiful books in front of the entrance to that room. On the left, there was a Gutenberg Bible. Huge and wonderful and old. I learned that in order to preserve their copies of this book, they switch them out every few months so that they don't get too much exposure to light. On the other side across from the Gutenberg, there was a completely hand-written Mainz bible. This was even more incredible, because the characters in the bible were so flawless, they looked exactly like those in the Gutenberg. Every letter was completely uniform; no errors in stress, slant, weight, height... nothing. Being a scribe back in the day must have been like being a brain surgeon today. So precise and (I would hope) well-respected.

We encountered the "Old Post Office." I didn't find much out about this structure, except for the fact that it looks a lot like a church or university or something. Now post offices are these squat little buildings. Huts, compared to Ye Olde Poste Office.

It was interesting to see the department of the treasury; it was one of those moments I mentioned where you realize that this town is the center of all policy, good and bad.

Of course we visited the whitehouse, and we saw dudes with assault rifles on the roof. So that's a real thing.