The Big 3, Chinatown, and Who's who in the US

So I had another fun adventure in DC. It started with my first (on my own) metro transfer. This may not seem like a big deal but given the fact that I didn't really know where I was going I was proud of myself. When I got out of the subway I could not figure out which way was north and was lost in what direction to walk until a metro worker saw me staring aimlessly at my map. It was at this point that I realized how much I use the mountains to orient me- thank you Salt Lake. So my first stop was the Archives Building where I stood in line for an hour to see the Big 3 (Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights). It was very worth it and made me realize how inspired the "rebel" patriots were- if you think about it, it is amazing that over 200 years later we are still using the theories of government and freedoms a group of "rebel" patriots came up with. In this aspect they were definitely inspired men. After touring a bit more the Archives building I headed up the street to Chinatown for lunch. Now Chinatown kind of has a shady reputation so I was careful and a little nervous to walk into a basement restaurant on my own so I followed another tourist couple in- just to be safe and had a good (pretty cheap) lunch. After lunch I headed to the National Portrait Gallery or as I like to call it the "Who's who in US History." It was a review of my US History class and was fun to see so many familiar names in portraits. I saw all my favorite authors, actresses, all of the US Presidents- including the famous portrait of George Washington, and even Joseph Smith & Brigham Young. It was funny on the label for Brigham Young it said "notorious for his many wives"- no comment about how polygamy isn't practiced anymore. No wonder why so many people think Mormons still practice polygamy. The day ended with another transfer on the metro to get home, but this was during rush hour. Whoa! Busy! I had to stand the whole way to my stop. After all of the walking and standing of the day I was exhausted when I got home, but Brad ended the day perfectly by making dinner. So nice.