Museums Part 1

Chelsea went for a run around campus either Wednesday or Thursday (10th or 11th). She turned the corner on one of the hills and stopped in her tracks this is the view that greeted her. She ran back to the dorm and grabbed her camera to get some pictures. Later I had her take me to the spot to see the Capitol building from right behind our dorm on the hill. Not a bad picture is it?

 Friday was our first full day off (the 12th) because Saturday we started football and our supervisor wanted us to be well rest for the remainder of camp. We took off Friday morning around 9:30/10, took the bus to Union Station and walked towards the capitol building.

The first good view of the building

Rounding the corner to the front of the Capitol. Its strange to see business people walking and talking on their phones down here as the tourists snap pictures. 

I thought this was pretty. Not sure what it is but it's a pretty picture

This is the rest of the building and its in the front of the Capital to the side of it. No idea what it is

From the Capitol looking out to the Washington Monument 

I think this is a statue of Grant

No idea what this is but I've seen it in movies

Next we walked down the Mall to the Natural History Museum 

This is the Grand Entrance Hall

Anyone that knows me well, knows my love of pearls :)

T-Rex

Awesome turtle

I love Moose

It's just silly

Not only do I love Bison but I'm a Bison for 15 weeks. Go Gallaudet!

Chelsea pressing a penny for her mom

The natural history museum is pretty cool. I enjoyed it last time I went there for my senior class trip. There is just SOOOO MUCH stuff that if you actually took the time to read EVERYTHING you would be there for a week straight. I really enjoyed this deep sea movie they had showing in one of the halls. I love deep sea animals they are so sweet. The dumbo octopus is one of my favorites! We didn't spend a lot of time in this hall and we didn't go through all of the exhibits but we did go through the insects, fossils, gems, and mammals. We figured since we are here for 15 weeks we can always go back and look through this one again since it is FREE!! Thank you tax dollars!

Wednesday Adventures

Wednesday the athletic training staff had planned to take a staff day and go on a boat cruise down the Potomac River in the afternoon. We worked in the AT room for a while then we order some subs from a local sandwich shop and went to the National Arboretum to eat. It was okay the goldfish pond that we sat in front of to eat was awesome. Some of the goldfish were huge. Chelsea and I both agreed that most of the flowers and trees that we saw in the entrances were nothing special compared to home. Maybe we will have to go back so we can see some of the other areas; maybe those will impress us more. I kept thinking of the gardens in Midland Michigan, the DOW gardens. The DOW gardens are beautiful so hopefully the national garden can top this.

The plan was that after lunch we would go to Georgetown to take our cruise, but once again Mapquest/Google Maps had other plans. They took us in a round about way to get there. We were suppose to be there around 1:30 so Chelsea and I could get back to campus to help the Secondary school with their concussion testing. Well since we had been running late all day and now google maps had put us further behind we had a dilemma about if we should take the cruise or not. We called the ATC at the school to try and figure out a plan. She told us that if we were there by 330-4 that we should be fine. So we made the journey to Georgetown, found where the cruises happen, and found out that our boat would be another 30 minutes. At this point in time we said forget the cruise, the tickets are good until the end of September. Jon decided we should go to Georgetown Cupcakes .............which is a branch of .............DC CUPCAKES of TLC.

This place is so popular that they have a doorman so that only a certain number of people can come in. And while you are waiting in line outside they give you a menu to look over. There are only certain cupcakes you can get on certain days of the week. How crazy is that??? Well after much contemplation I picked the Cookies and Cream cupcake then come to find out the special of the day was a blueberry cheesecake cupcake. I do love cheesecake........YUM. I asked our dear dorm man his favorite and he picked cookies and cream so of course I had to go with that one. We finally got into the cramped store and ordered our cupcakes and then walked back to the cars.

The Athletic Training Crew at Georgetown Cupcakes

Georgetown in a very nice area. It is very clean and the buildings are beautiful. In the DC area they have these parking meters where you call and set up this account, then once the account is set up you can just call them and give them your meter number and they add the time on to it. ITS CRAZY! it literally blew my mind that they have a phone operated parking meter.

We got back to campus and enjoyed our amazing cupcakes! They were really good. LOTS of FROSTING. The cupcake its self was nice and moist but the frosting was the business part of this for sure.

Me and My DC Cupcake

After work Chelsea and I decided to take the Metro for the first time to Target which is in another part of town. This would be my first time on a train. Luckily Chelsea had been on the Metro system in NYC so she had a good idea on how it all worked because I had NO IDEA AT ALL. It was a pretty cool experience but not one that I would want to do alone for a while. The Metro is actually very nice and very clean considering its public transportation.

Our first Metro Ride in DC

We got off the Metro at our last stop find Target we saw this sign and since we didn't really know which directions to go we OF COURSE followed this sign

A sign from God

 Once we got off the Metro and got back on our bus to campus I realized that that experience wasn't too bad but I AM NOT A CITY GIRL. I could not and would not want to have to do that every day. That would be terrible

First Day of Work at Gallaudet

Tuesday was our first official day of work at Gallaudet University and truthfully we didn't actually do a whole lot of work. We cleaned and moved stuff around the athletic training room (AT room). There is a brand new AT room and it is amazing!!! We are privilage to be a part of GU and being able to work in such an great facility. At this time though the room is still under construction and not usable. So Tuesday was moving and cleaning and waiting for more stuff to arrive so we could put it away.

WELCOME TO THE NEW GALLAUDET ATHLETIC TRAINING ROOM
(under construction)


This is Chelsea hanging out of the taping tables during some down time. YEP our taping tables have backrests




This is a picture of the counters and the wet area

This a better view of the wet area where there will be a large tub, a small tub, 2 ice machines, a counter top fridge AND...............................

A PERSONALIZED SALT WATER COLD TUB WITH THE GALLAUDET BISON ON IT!!!!
This tub is pretty much a hot tub but usually with cold water BUT it can switch to hot over night. The salt water helps to minimize the dirtiness of the tub since it will be used by athletes who are always sweaty from practice.

These two pictures are of the rehab area. The first one you can see Doc's Office in it and the other shows our 6 treatment tables.

After work Chelsea and I went back to the coffee shop for a bit that had dinner at Union Station. By dinner I mean that Chelsea got some Subway and I tried the other Chinese Food places Orange chicken. It was okay but not as good as Dragon Express in Mt.P

The following pictures are of Union Station:

This is where we meet the bus (FREE) that takes us from campus to Union Station

Once we got back to campus we went for a walk to look at the buildings. There are some really nice buildings on campus. ( I don't know what any of these buildings are they are just sweet looking)

This is a statue of Mr. Gallaudet the founding father of the university