Washington, DC: Metro Edition

I know that I've been obnoxiously slow getting pictures and stories up here. I'm kind of beyond apology by this point, so I won't even bother. But before I finish up with our last day of photos, I want to be sure to acknowledge one of my favorite aspects of the entire trip, which was the Metro. I wish Raleigh had a Metro system. I wish Orlando had one - if they had I might have never left. It does not take long to get used to the quick, inexpensive, convenient and (historically) safe subway system of Washington, DC. After one trip, we pretty much knew how to use it, although I had to constantly refer to my (now very worn) Metro map to verify my lines and stops. Between the two of us, for four days in the city, we spent $40 on the Metro and still have a few dollars left over. It may seem like a lot, but we really rode the Metro a lot, and all over the city. It was wonderful to essentially not have to worry about what the cost might be. Whenever we went anywhere, we pulled out the map and looked to see if there was a Metro station between us and our destination that might make the trip shorter, even if only a single block.

After all is said and done, I think that the Metro was probably my favorite single thing about DC. I loved every part of it, from the above-mentioned convenience and economy, to the design. I don't know when my fascination with architecture and building design was started; I do believe it to be a relatively recent development, but I might have always had it. Regardless of when my love buildings and structures manifested, it was in full swing in the DC Metro. The stations are amazing. I'm sure that they are absolutely nothing to those who are used to them, but to me they nearly blew my mind. I could not believe that such amazing structures were public use and I was using them! Since they are primarily made of poured concrete, they had a kind of permanent quality, as though they had always been there. Beyond the concrete, there were few embellishments - maps, signposts and some dim lighting were about it.

Absolutely amazing.

I would have taken some more pictures, but I didn't want to look like a tourist. At least, I didn't want to look like too much of one. Besides, there are implicit rules about privacy and eye contact on the Metro, and taking photos felt like a little bit of a violation. I took these photos in a relatively quiet station late in the day.






At the other end of the transit spectrum, I want to mention how much fun it was to travel with our TomTom. It isn't a perfect piece of technology by any means, but I can't even imagine a trip through a city like DC without something like this. Isn't it funny how a brand-new piece of technology can so insinuate itself into our lives that we can't even imagine how to manage without it. There were times when we were walking around the city and I wished I had access to the internet. The old-fashioned paper maps just weren't cutting it for me and we wanted to find a restaurant - not a particular restaurant, but a good one. And we were hungry and tired and didn't want to just trust to walking and stumble across someplace. Which is what we ended up doing on our first night out and it was kind of a disappointment. We learned our lesson and that night in the hotel, we made sure to find places to eat lunch and dinner for the rest of the trip.

If the Mark of the Beast comes with a GPS and Wi-Fi internet connection, the apocalypse can't come soon enough!