There and back again

I don't know if a trip to the nation's capital qualifies as a hobbit-worthy adventure, especially since we weren't carrying the fate of the world on our shoulders while being chased by something evil (unless you count the 400,000,000,000,000,000 middle school/junior high kids who were seeping through ever nook and cranny of the Smithsonian), but it was an adventure nonetheless.

A few of my thoughts as I try to recover from a week of walking, standing, eating, laughing, and sleeping:

• Why did no one tell us that it was National Field Trip Week at the Smithsonian? If I never see another teenager again, I won't complain.


• I am definitely not a fan of the humidity. Yech. I don't like walking around in soupy air that's almost thick enough to drink. However, I'm a bit disappointed that my hair was too short to fully experience the ramifications of humidity on frizzy, wavy hair. I'll admit, I was a little curious to see what that would look like on me.


• Easterners are a lot more dignified than Westerners.


• They also seem to be in a huge hurry all the time. It took us a couple of days to get used to people trying to surge past us on the escalators. I thought the whole point of those was to save you the trouble of walking down the stairs?


• The metro provides excellent people-watching entertainment.


• Using our "Muggle cards" to get through the metro gate things was quite fun.


• The prettiest view from the plane was when we were flying over the Rocky Mountains.


• These historic monuments and documents are a lot more glamorous on TV. But much more powerful in person. Even better, I've already had 2 "I've been there!" moments that I couldn't boast of a week ago.


• I'm not sure the large amount of walking we did made up for the large amount of food we consumed.


• The church really is true no matter where you go. It was amazing the peaceful going-home feeling we all felt as we drove into the DC temple parking lot.


• The DC temple is absolutely stunning from the outside, although I would have to say that the inside of the Provo wins in my book.


• It's awesome going on a vacation when the baby of the family is 15. We all had our ornery hours (except perhaps my mom), but there were very few selfish moments.


• And I thought traffic in Salt Lake was bad.


• It's a good thing there were so many gorgeous trees surrounding us in DC, because otherwise I might have fallen off the face of the earth without my mountains to hold me in.


• Chinatown was lame. And so was all the construction.


• From a distance, the mysterious man in the Jefferson Memorial looks like a scary monster.


• DC birds are much less annoying than seagulls.

The return home was even less hobbit-esque than our adventure was, but it was something we all looked forward to. I would have looked forward to it less if I knew what was waiting for me though:

• Apparently Mother Nature didn't get the message I sent her, politely requesting that the weather be fixed by the time I got back.


• I returned home to an empty apartment. A bit depressing, and really weird, after spending every second of the last week with my family.


• The next day I discovered that my car wouldn't start. It was nice to see you, too, stupid car.


• I got a new calling at church. You know, sometimes I really don't mind being forgotten about . . .


• My first attempt to jumpstart my car didn't go so well. Pretty much a waste of effort, actually.


• I didn't get to stay up late last night because I actually had responsibilities to see to the next day. Harsh reality check.


• I had to get up early today so I could jumpstart my car before Danielle left for work. This time, my car managed to live through the experience. I hope it's still strong enough to face many more days.


• I got to work to see 140 emails cluttering my 2 work email addresses, many of which contained links to many articles. Catching up on my reading is going to be awesome.


• Why am I still so tired? The two-hour time difference totally works in my favor here.

So now I am on to my next adventure: recovering from vacation. It was exciting and educational seeing a different part of the world and being 3,000 miles away from home. I bring with me lots of pictures and wonderful memories, but I think I've had enough of public bathrooms and planning my life around a train schedule. As excited as we were to take this vacation, it didn't quite match the excitement we felt when we stepped off the plane in Salt Lake City.

I guess that qualifies as a hobbit-esque ending.