It's Free in DC

I had a lovely day today. I slept in, (til 8:30ish), had a nice Einstein bagel for breakfast, took my time getting ready, youtubed some ballet, left the house at 12:30 and then my day really began.

Step one: Walk to Virginia Square (about 5 blocks away)
Step two: Metro out to Foggy Bottom (about 4 stops west)
Step three: Meet the lovely, Sara Kellenberg, outside the metro
Step four: Walk up to Georgetown, tour a little/try decide on where to eat lunch
Step five: Take a bus for about 20 minutes up a ginormous hill, past a huge cathedral, and to our chosen lunch spot.
Step six: Eat way too much delicious Mediterranean food at a "Mediterranean Chipotle" style restaurant (Basically a build-your-own salad/pita bowl thing.) It was quite tasty
Step seven: Walk a few blocks to the metro
Step eight: Metro up to the zoo stop
Step nine: Walk a half mile to the zoo
Step ten: Be amazed that it costs literally nothing to enter the zoo. Like it's completely free. My mind is still blown
Step eleven: Visit the animals. No giraffes, which I do find inexcusable, but there were giant pandas, so that was pretty okay.
Step twelve: Get overpriced frozen lemonade, but I was willing to pay that because, hello, entrance was free...and it was hot outside.
Step thirteen: Walk the half mile back to the metro, realize the lemonade had to be the grossest thing you've ever tasted as it was super sugary and processed and nasty. But then it was still hot outside, and the lemonade was still cold so continue to eat it anyways
Step fourteen: Metro to metro center and change from the red line to the orange line
Step fifteen: Catch the orange line back to Virginia Square
Step sixteen: Walk the last few blocks home.

I got home, put my feet up, then Aunt Janet and I went to El Pollo Rico for dinner, and I tormented my dad with pictures of his favorite restaurant. Then we ran to target to grab some things I'll need for the week--most notably my "Swag" clothes for hip hop. Dear me. Then home again to Google Hangout with my sweet sister and mother for a few hours.

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I'm not really the type to get homesick, but today I am extremely grateful for my family and would love to be able to laugh at them to their faces rather then via text. I've been realizing again how blessed I am to have parents that can make me laugh out loud from 400 miles away and will talk with me for hours just catching up on the past week. I'm also grateful for a sister who sends me pictures of completed puzzles along with texts of "I miss you", and even for my goober brother who sends me pictures of funny comics he finds on the webernet. You know you've been raised well when you can come and live without your family in the nation's capital for a month, and when you pass McKinley Street, even without your daddy there, your first thought is still in a twangy, bluegrassy tune, "McKinley hollered, McKinley squalled, Doc said McKinley I can't find the ball, you're bound to dieeeee, you're bound to die."