Tuesday's Earthquake

For those of you that don't know the East Coast had an Earthquake on Tuesday and scarred the wits out of many, many people.

Look at the damage the Earthquake caused!

Chelsea and I had gone to lunch at the caffeteria because we are getting free meals from the football team during preseason camp. I had just finished eating and was getting up to put my dishes away and Chelsea asks if I can feel that. I placed my hand on the table, "yep", I can feel that. The table was shaking like it would if heavy equipment was being moved around outside. Thinking nothing of this shaking I continue to walk away to get rid of my dishes. Half way across the room, the BUILDING shakes! I stop dead in my tracks look around then turn to look at Chelsea. I had NO idea what to do. I literally stared at her for a good 15 seconds and then look around at everyone else to see what they were doing. Two guys that were next to us didn't know either so we stared back and forth at each other. We didn't figure out that we needed to go outside until the staff at the Caff started going outside.

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Well after you go outside the Caff you are standing on a PARKING GARAGE. Ya, Chelsea and I decided that wasn't a good idea so we made it down to the street and stood there with the majority of the people that were in the dorms. While I was standing there I looked around and realized that this was no safer because there are buildings surrounding us. If a bigger shake happened and pieces of the building started falling off we would be screwed. I told Chelsea that the safest place was actually the football field because there was nothing around it.

We stayed on the street for a while because thats what the majority of people were doing and we are new to the whole Earthquake thing. Eventually the herd of people moved to the field and we found the football team. The football team had been inside having their daily meetings so they had  evacuated to the field. It was great to see them because they are kind of like our family now and if I had to be going through a natural disaster in DC I would rather be around people I know.

Campus

We sat at the football field for something like two and a half hours. All the fire alarms were going off in the buildings and we weren't allowed inside any where until all the buildings had been inspected to make sure they were still safe. So we sat in the hot DC sun. Eventually the department of public safety (DPS) or some administrators, or just someone higher up at GU had to get water and snacks for people. And also some weird star shaped sunglasses (ya I don't know but a lot of the football players had them on).

Fixing a building on campus

Sitting on the field was actually pretty nice besides the dehydrating part. A couple of the guys that we have been becoming close with sat around with us and talked (they are hearing so we don't have to really sign). That part wasn't so bad. Chelsea though was wasting her 7 hour break time by sitting at the football field instead of preparing for her sister's arrival the next day. I was okay with sitting there because my shift to work had already started by this time.

Campus

OOHHH, and during an announcement from the DPS, he announced that if anyone is hurt to please seek out one of the athletic trainers!!!!  I was having one of the guys interpret for me because I couldn't hear him and they had people signing. I really thought he made that part up until the guys came over and raised our hands in the air. I couldn't believe it the DPS guy totally called us out to help the injured. Well no one was truly injured except the guys thought it was hilarious and decided they were all hurt and needed care.

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I was glad I had my phone and iPod with me so I was connected to the world. It really surprised me how far the Earthquake went. My cousin was in Grand Rapids, MI and said he felt it. That's crazy! There was some damage on our campus to one of the older dorms. Some of the windows broke and there's a crack in the wall. The Washington Monument was damage though along with the Cathedral on the Mall that's in Night at the Museum Two.

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I can tell ya that Earthquakes are very scary and I would be really happy if that didn't happen again. Well we are not preparing for our second natural disaster of the week: HURRICANE IRENE

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The final addition

 After the American History Museum Chelsea needed a break from being inside, she was really cold from the AC so we walked to the WWII memorial and to the Lincoln Memorial

Another view of the Monument. The grass sucks down here because it's so hot. 

The White House from far away. Lots of people of his front lawn

The Lincoln Memorial from the WWII one

One of my favorite inscriptions here

VERY TRUE

"Here we mark the price of freedom"

I LOVE this picture

As we started out our day around 10 we noticed that there wasn't that many people out and about around the Mall and Memorials. Ya that changed around 1:30/2 

Usually this is an amazing picture of the reflecting pool. What do you think of the pool of mud? Chelsea was really bummed that the reflecting pool was under-construction and didn't get the whole experience of the Lincoln Memorial. Luckily I have seen it before or I would have been really upset. 

Not sure what these paintings are about, but I thought they were neat

Sorry I couldn't fit it all into the frame its really long

I'm not sure what the title is of this but I think its the Woman in Armed Forces Memorial or statue 

Thank you for your service

Its a silly pic but I like it because well........I'm silly 

Let me just begin by saying that I was REALLY REALLY REALLY looking forward to this, I love fish they are awesome and so fun to watch. 9 bucks to get no big deal, its' got to be awesome its the National Aquarium!!! 

NOPE, It sucked. It was literally a hall way that made a circle with small aquariums on each side. 

This is a whole aquarium! This is one whole section. Granted the picture turned out nice 

And so did this one. I think its because they are so small the color pop in the light

I love this one

It took me along time to get this picture because once I started to try and get a picture he climbed the wall so I could only see his belly. 

An eel......an electric eel

Pretty pink

Can you see me?

A lion fish. ROARRRRR

After my disappointment with this we decided it was time to make the journey back to Union Station.....and let me tell ya it was a long journey. Luckily it was a good neighborhood. By the time we arrived back at Union Station we figured we had been out and walking for almost 7 hours and probably walked over 7 miles. My feet hurt and I was hungry because my lunch sucked. We decided to go back to the dorm and make some pasta, have a bottle of wine, and watch a Night At the Museum Two since we had just been there. 

Well that plan didn't turn out because apparently you need to have a medical condition and a Doctor's note to be able to cook in the dorm. Not knowing what else to do we headed to the hotel to use the internet and ended up ordering a pizza. 

We will be making the journey back to the mall sometime to see the Art Museums, the Vietnam Wall, and the Air and Space Museum 

Just so you all know. There will not be an update until after football preseason ends because well my life is football for 2 straight weeks and there isn't much to talk about. So see ya next weekend!

Museums Part 2

After the Natural History Museum we went to the American History one. I was looking for a section that a couple from Maryland told me about that had things that were placed at the Vietnam Memorial Wall on exhibit. So that was our goal of this portion of our day.

I took this picture just for my brother because I remember when I was younger that he was always watching these movies and had some of the collectibles. 

One of my favorite exhibits here was the Dresses of the 1st Wives

I have so many more pictures from this exhibit!!! I really enjoy vintage things. Ask my family. So if you have a favorite 1st wife let me know because I probably have a picture of her inaugural dress. 

Dorthy's Ruby Shoes

The original cat woman costume

From all in the family? I don't know I never watched the show but I know lots of people did. 

The say that this is Washington's Real uniform but I don't believe still it does look pretty sweet.

A random jeep hanging from the ceiling 

This is a wall showing some of the media from WWII I believe

I thought this was interesting 

Berlin Wall

Twin Towers

Julia Child's Cookware

Her kitchen

One of the greatest exhibits was the flag that inspired the Star Spangled Banner song. It was amazing to see the flag but its hard to believe that it is actually the original its so thin. We couldn't take pictures of the flag because they are trying hard to preserve the flag and they said the flash could cause damage over time. It gave me chills to walk through and see the flag that inspired one of America's most famous songs. 

We ended up going through almost every exhibit and I didn't find the portion I was looking for. That was disappointing but I did get to see some amazing pieces of American History.

After we finished with this museum we decided we needed to eat some lunch because our snacks did not fill us up. We opted for the salad bar because compared to all the other food we thought it would be more reasonable priced. The salad bar was AMAZING! If you liked it on your salad they probably had it. Well the deal with the salad bar is that they way the bowl once you finish your salad. Here you think, Okay it's salad its really light 5 bucks TOPS. Ya, well they give you this huge heavy bowl to put your salad in that jacks up the price to like 6 bucks right off the bat......my salad 12 bucks! and it made me sick. There was something that had spice on it, I couldn't figure out what had the spice on it, but salad and spice don't mix for me so I couldn't even finish it. Here's a tip if you decide to eat in the museum you are going to spend ALOT eat from a vendor cart its a better choice. 10 bucks for a sandwich inside or 3 for a burger, brat, or hotdog. Yep DC is expensive