Well, I totally failed at NaBloPoMo yesterday. In my meager defense, I’m in Washington DC for the weekend! I was at a ballroom competition all of yesterday (and I mean all of yesterday, I got back to my friend’s apartment where I was staying at 2AM) I showered my competition makeup and hair off and pretty much collapsed.
But today! Today, my boyfriend and I had the whole day to spend in DC. We got gelato first thing in the morning, because we’re adults and we can do things like that!
I ate my gelato too fast to get a photo of it. This photo is via goinggreendc.
We went to Pitango Gelato, which was mindblowing. Mind. Blowing. Why is gelato not a thing in Boston? I know we have the North End and there are some good gelato places there and stuff, but it seems like every other corner houses a RedBerryFreezeLineMango yogurt shop. No. Down with yogurt, I am a gelato convert!
I got a scoop of hazelnut gelato and a scoop of quince sorbet. The hazelnut was rich but light, nutty but not like I was eating Nutella from the spoon. The quince sorbet was like biting into an ice-cold slice of orange on a sweltering day and feeling all the juice vesicles burst and flood your mouth at once, except the juice tastes like quince. Just absolutely refreshing and delightful.
After my friends and I had brunch at Logan Tavern (make-your-own Bloody Mary menu, recommended!) it was almost two, and my boyfriend and I really wanted to check out the Air and Space Museum, so we walked down the Mall.
Taking obligatory touristy cell phone pictures along the way.
If the Washington Monument could make a sound, that sound would be “BWOOOOOOONG.”
The Air and Space Museum was pretty fun! It covers the history of flight since the beginning to the modern day and by the time we got there, we only had two and a half hours until closing time, so we took a sort of speedy, whimsically wandering approach. (To the spacecraft! And then the Wright exhibit! On to WWI! Boeing 747! Back to spacecraft!)
Seeing the Wright brothers’ flyer was interesting, though. It’s fascinating how quickly aircraft started to look “modern” compared to the original wood-and-fabric design. Seriously, forty years after the first flight and they already pretty much look like modern commercial planes. I guess we went from first flight to spaceflight in about sixty-five years, so perhaps that’s not so ludicrous, really.
My favorite part was the exhibit about the history of human imagination of flight, though. The Smithsonian built a real-life model of a fantastical flying machine envisioned by Étienne-Gaspard Robert in 1820 called La Minerve.
The design:
The model:
That barrel is for “the storage of food, water, and wine,” by the way. It’s good to fly DreamAir France.
My flight out is obscenely early in the morning and I’m getting off the plane and going straight to work, so I’ll sign off here. Good night, DC!