Going Out With a Bang!

The end is in sight!  This time next week I will be home, sweet home.  I've had a pretty good week, and I think I did as much as I could this last weekend in DC!

Yesterday, I got up early (for me, on a Saturday) and walked down to Union Station to get some coffee and a delicious baked good for breakfast.  Then I headed over to Constitution Avenue by the mall for the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade.  It was a good time, though it felt kind of weird to be at a parade without my parents, especially my dad.  He is all about the parades.  There were some fairly famous people in it including Debbie Gibson, Javier Colon (winner of The Voice), Haley Reinhart (from American Idol), Gymkata (America's Got Talent), Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes-Norton, Kristi Yamiguchi, and Marie Osmond.  There were also some neat balloons of Miss Piggy, Kermit, cherry blossoms, Japanese lanterns, Scooby Doo, and the tomato and cucumber from Veggie Tales.  Of course, there were lots of marching bands, police, military, and clowns, as well.  It was pretty long (10am-12:30pm).  I was a little disappointed in some ways though.  They had all these famous singers in the parade, yet they weren't singing.  They were only riding in cars or on floats.  The gymnastics teams like Gymkata didn't stop to do any routines really either.  They just did a few flips as they walked by.  There were also some pretty big gaps in the parade.  Sheboygan's 4th of July parade has me spoiled!

Cherry blossom balloons

Cool old-fashioned dresses

Scooby Doo

Kristi Yamiguchi

After that, I headed over towards downtown and ate lunch at Potbelly's.  I then met up with one of my roommates and her sister to go to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.  We bought discounted tickets through Groupon a long time ago, but didn't find a time to go until now.  It was a lot of fun to come up with fun pictures to take with each figure.  The first section was the presidents, then there was a Hollywood section, musicians, some athletes, and news anchors.  Obviously, since its in DC, the presidents were the emphasis, and those are cool, but I think the Hollywood stars and musicians are a bit more fun.  It didn't seem that big to us.  We finished and all looked at each other and went, "that's it?" but it was definitely worth $10.  I might have been a bit more disappointed if I had paid for the full price $20 ticket.

Lincoln and I in his box at Ford's Theatre

Bill, Hillary, and I

Just making some phone calls from the Oval Office

The Obamas

George Clooney and I on our first date

Thriller!

Being interviewed by Oprah

Then, Angelica and her sister had talked about going to the Washington Nationals game since there were some discounted tickets, so we headed that way.  We got free t-shirts for filling out surveys, and the game was lots of fun!  I hadn't been to any professional sports games before I came here, and now I've been to three: basketball, soccer, and baseball.  The Nationals beat the Cincinnati Reds 4-1.

Washington Nationals vs. Cincinnati Reds

At Nationals Park

Today I started packing up some stuff in my room, went for a walk/run on the Mall, rehearsed my final presentations, and relaxed.  Only a few days of work and classes left!  I'm listening to the new Jason Mraz album as I write this (which is wonderful of course), and I just bought tickets to see him in August, which is also exciting!  I'm feeling happy and excited.