Warning: Flagrant Photography Ahead

So you'd like to hear about our DC trip? Well, forewarning, this is going to be a lot of pictures.

While we were in DC we didn't actually stay in DC. Our stated purpose (at least mine) was to go research at the National Archives / Archives II (not the one Nicholas Cage broke into) which is located in College Park, Maryland. You know what else is in College Park, Maryland?

A little place known as the University of Maryland

It was a really cool campus. I went running one night from the hotel and ended up going farther than I intended because I enjoyed where I was so much.

And here we are at the archives. The third member of our merry band of researchers, Erica, is serving as photographer.

This is seriously the coolest place I have ever worked (not that I've worked many places, but seriously). Once you get past security (which is intense) you get to go into this huge room with all these desks and a huge wall that is covered in windows. There was a storm one day and it was quite the view. Plus, you know, all of the documents I got to play with (I mean look at).

I also spent many hours here.

Yeah, that's right, the Library of Congress. And if the Archives is the coolest place I've worked, the European Reading Room in the main building of the LoC is definitely the prettiest. It's also a very welcoming environment, but much smaller and intimate because everything is centered around one area of study. And a lot of the titles in all of the finding aids aren't even in English, which is just so cool.

This is the tunnel from the Madison building to the Jefferson building. We're like rats in a maze.

And of course we couldn't be in DC without taking a running tour of the Smithsonian(s). Someday I'm going to write a walking tour of where all the best bathrooms are.

Erica, our token public historian, in front of the original Smithsonian building.

Yes, you're seeing that right. It's a Monet in the bottom of the Museum of Art. Some day I want to go back and see if they'll allow me to sneak my knitting in so I can sit and knit among really pretty paintings and sculpture.

My homage to Julie and Julia, which is one of the few sappy movies I actually like. Blame Meryl Streep, that woman is a genius.

And lastly, photographed for my mom, Bryan Boitano's skates from the 1988 olympics. At this angle you can't see the flags on the outside of the boot, but it's still really cool.