I took a little road trip to some important American landmarks this week, and here are more than a few words on my thoughts and experiences while making my way through a few of our great states.
I woke up late last Thursday morning, little did I know that a few short hours later I would be heading to Washington D.C. on a spontaneous road trip with my sister. But that’s exactly what happened. I mulled over the thought of if I should go or not in my head over and over because I was trying to save money, and I kind of hate driving. But, in the end, I figured if I didn’t go I’d probably just lay around bored all weekend, so I stuffed some clothes in a bag and grabbed my pillow and we headed out. We were lucky enough to have a good friend who has been living up in D.C. all summer working camps offer us a free place to stay in the dorms where his camp was taking place. Our would be ten-hour drive turned into twelve with all the Atlanta traffic and Virginia road work, but at around 4 a.m. Friday we found ourselves rolling into the Gibbons Hall dorms for the Catholic University of America. Our friend told us this was the largest Catholic University in America, and that the reason it was so hot was because they’d replaced the ceiling fans with chandeliers in the main lobby a few months earlier to impress the Pope when he came to visit, but I think we were too tired to care. We held all of our many bags in our hands as we climbed up the stairs and he showed us to our room. (He was thoughtful enough to assign us to one with our own bathroom! Thankfully.) My sister and I took off our makeup and crawled into our separate beds. It only took a few moments for the oldness of the building and the oddness of the fact that we were actually in D.C. to set in, we felt a little creeped out. We decided to move our beds together, after that we fell asleep very quickly.
The next day we had a plan, we’d already seen all the monuments when we’d visited in December, so this time we’d go to the Holocaust Museum and the Smithsonian. It took us a little while to figure out which train we were supposed to take on the metro, but once we figured it out we were on our way. Our first stop was the Holocaust Museum, which was obviously very sobering. I’ve always had a deep interest in WWII, so I knew a lot about the things I saw and was reading, but to really see so many artifacts in person and hear the little-known stories was very emotional. It also made me think a lot about standing up for the wrongs we see going on in the world. Seeing everything that happened it makes you wonder how on earth could people just sit by and let this happen? How could so many people just blindly follow, trust, and watch as atrocities were committed to people who used to live right next to them. It makes you wonder if you’d have the strength to stand up when something wasn’t right, or if you’d even notice. Here's a powerful quote on one of the walls in the museum:
By the time we made it to the Smithsonian all three of us were so tired we couldn’t even be interested in it, but we did keep seeing things that reminded us of "Night at the Museum," which made us feel a little guilty that we were more into the movie than the history. We decided to go back to our dorms and take some proper naps, not before touring the Basilica which was across from our dorms. It really was very beautiful on the inside and out. We appreciated it more than the night before, I think. 
The next day was Saturday, and the whole entire reason we had even come to D.C. There was to be a prayer meeting on the lawn of the national mall. We arrived a little late, and it was truly amazing to see so many people gathered to pray together for our country and government. They read aloud a letter from President Obama thanking us for our prayers and wishing us the best, which I thought was pretty cool. What wasn’t cool was the weather, I was literally melting. I can be dramatic, and sometimes I will jokingly complain dramatically, but I was honestly so done with the heat that I wanted to cry. Later, we found out that they had to end the event early because the heat was so bad and too many people were passing out, so I wasn’t being a complete baby about it.
My sister and I decided to leave early because we were hot. But mainly because we had a three-hour drive ahead of us. Our next stop was Virginia Beach. It took us an hour and a half just to get out of D.C. and it started to rain, but we finally made it at eleven that night. After settling down in our fluffy beds, we watched Botched until we fell asleep. (We saw some very weird twins on that show who prided themselves in being ‘the world’s most identical twins’ after a few surgeries, of course. They were devastated to learn that just because they were identical twins it didn’t mean they were 100 percent the same. i.e. One had a longer neck to chest ratio. They were truly stunned.)
The next morning we headed straight to Virginia Beach. We walked the boardwalk for a while and went out on the pier, we ate lunch at the pier restaurant, and the couple behind us made fun of us for taking so many pictures. The sun was making way too much of a shadow for any good photos, though. (You know exactly what I’m talking about.) The main beach was crowded so we decided to drive a little ways to a more secluded public beach. We laid out for a while because the weather was perfect and we had an altogether nice time. When evening came we decided to go back to the boardwalk. We stayed for a while walking around before we decided to sit in one of the lifeguard stands that no one was using. We were only up there for a few minutes before some kids decided they wanted to come up there too, so we all sat and talked for a while. They told us about the crab they’d caught that day and the frozen yogurt they were gonna eat that night. After a little while when the sun had finally set, and their parents called them back, they ran off, but asked if we’d be back the next day. Sadly, we had to tell them we were only there for the day.
After the kids left we sat for a while, we watched all the people on the beach. We decided to go listen to the band that was playing a little ways down, and we watched for awhile as a few older couples danced together to Beatles and Prince covers. It made me smile, thinking of what songs I would listen to covers of and dance to when I’m their age. Mainly I hoped that if I got the chance to dance I’d take it like the couples on the dance floor, not the many who lined the floor but were too bashful to get out and move along to the music, even though they tapped their feet and sang along loudly. Finally, we headed back to our hotel. We had a long day ahead of us.
The next day was the one my sister had been looking forward to. We were visiting the Jamestown Settlement and Williamsburg. We oohed and ahead as we drove into the park, thinking about how this was what the first pilgrims saw. We learned some interesting facts in the museum before we ventured out in the heat and looked at the settlement, Indian village and ships. They really were pretty amazing to see. Just looking around the land and looking out over the water and imagining those men coming over in those cramped ships and seeing the amazing Virginia landscape. Just looking at the green forest and sandy shores makes you believe wonderful things could happen there, there’s no wonder the pilgrims were so eager to start anew here. Of course, things weren’t that easy at first, but they eventually made things work, clearly.
After our trip, through, Jamestown it was time to head home. We had a nice, short little trip, and we’d stuffed ourselves full of our country’s history. With all that’s going on around the world, and the discord that can be so clearly felt, it was kind of nice to go back to the beginning and hear and see what our country started out as. Of course, even then there were bad things happening, and wars going on, and all the pilgrims surely weren’t saints, but there was something about them. They were hungry for change, and they were hungry for a new life, and they were willing to give up everything for that.
It’s my prayer that as time moves so fast and the world changes so much that we would not spend so much time dwelling on our past and our country’s past that we don’t actually take any steps forward. But instead we would be a generation that stands tall, fights for our freedoms and our rights, and truly makes a difference and truly make a change. Like our ancestors so many years ago.
