Sunday at Ethan's: we have a lie-in, which feels pretty good, then take the opportunity to do an American activity, namely, going to a range and shooting guns. We wanted to do this with Ethan because he's responsible and actually knows how to work guns, so we won't shoot ourselves (that doesn't mean that we won't get shot by other people, though). So we pick up Pat (another American Oz met in halls last year), who also has never shot a pistol, who lives in Virginia. It's kind of cool driving around there because you can go into three states in about as many minutes. We got a little lost trying to find the range, but we got there in the end. To give you a little background on this place, their website advertised Monday's: Ladies' Night, Wednesdays: Couples' Night and Fridays: Parent and child night.
We got two 9mm pistols, a Glock and a Sig, and three boxes of ammo between the four of us. Then, armed with our earmuffs and... arms, we assumed position in our lanes. Ethan had, of course, shown us how to load and fire the gun, and how to eject the magazine afterwards (because you should always set the gun down with the magazine out before you step away). I went last because I was frightened, but I think Oz and Pat were too, just hiding it better or being manlier! I wasn't good at loading the bullets at first because the spring was kind of strong and my fingers kept slipping on the bullets, but after a couple of goes getting Ethan and Oz to do it for me, I managed to work it myself. Shooting was surprisingly fun after the initial fear, though I was rubbish at aiming.
Then, I got SHOT IN THE FOOT. Not really. The guy to our right was firing increasingly large and scary guns, and as I was getting ready to fire, he fired and something flew off from somewhere and hit me in the foot (flipflops clearly being sensible footwear), scratching me and drawing blood in two places. Luckily I lived to tell the tale, and get lunch afterwards. Pat stabbed Ethan's cup with a cocktail stick so his soda was squirting out, so Ethan naturally got revenge by attempting to drive off without Pat. I think all the people in the parking lot thought we were crazy. After lunch we went to wander around Old Town in Alexandria, VA, which by our standards was really not that old. Then we all headed back to Ethan's place for Halo and a Taco Bell dinner where Oz ate entirely too much.
On Monday Oz and I went into DC, which we both really liked. It was possible to do everything in one day, as it's all really close and easy to get to. We started off at the Capitol then walked along the Mall to the Smithsonian air and space museum, where we saw moon suits and spacecraft and the original Wright Brothers plane, etc. We also went to the Natural History Museum, which I greatly preferred over the one in NYC, though we didn't spend too long looking around there. I'm developing a fascination for natural history museums, though Oz doesn't share my enthusiasm quite so much. So what did we do instead? We went to the Holocaust Memorial Museum. We wanted to go to the museum of American history, but it was shut until September for some reason. The Holocaust museum was entirely depressing (as I expected), but afterwards we wandered around the Washington Monument, Reflecting Pool and Vietnam Memorial then up to the Lincoln Memorial. All very lovely, and we saw the White House afterwards too, where there were some amusing children. One was very disappointed when told she couldn't go in. The other asked her dad if George Bush drove a Mini Cooper.
Dad: I don't think so, he has a limo with lots of security
Child: Why?
Dad: In case someone tries to shoot him
Child (incredulous): But who would want to shoot him, Daddy?
Dad (very serious tones): Crazy people, honey. Crazy people.
We got back kind of late, but Ethan kindly drove us to the supermarket so we could get some food for dinner. We thought we were leaving on Tuesday, but when I checked our tickets it turned out we weren't leaving til Wednesday, so we had a whole extra day to play with. So, we went to Arlington cemetary and had a picnic lunch nearby (obviously you can't picnic in the actual cemetary). It was cool to see but it was sooooo hot - didn't help that we didn't get there til about 1 because when we called a taxi to take us to the subway station they didn't make a record of it so we had to call them again - but we saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns, and Kennedy's grave. It was too hot to wander around any more so we came back and had a look around Rockville, getting smoothies to refresh us. Then we went back to Ethan's, packed our bags and had some dinner. More Halo was played until around midnight, when we went to bed so we could get up fresh the next morning to get on a train to... Cincinnati.
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