I wanna go to the mall!

When you drive 6 hours to visit friends and family and they ask what you want to do while you are in town, most of the time you'd be laughed at if you said "I want to go to the mall." However when you're visiting Washington, DC, The Mall takes on a completely different meaning. I firmly believe that every American should have the opportunity to visit the National Mall, preferably while they are still young and idealistic, and before time has been allowed to turn them cold and bitter. I have been to DC on several occasions. Of course my brother currently lives there, and that is the reason for my more recent trips. Sadly, I have been unable to make it to the mall for over 15, almost 20 years. Mainly because my trips north are during holidays and it is busy enough without trying to get down to The Mall. In addition to visiting my brother and his family, my friend Heidi also lives in the area. (Yet another of those odd koincidences that seem to be the rule rather than the exception of my life.) Heidi and I had been planning for a while to do something but for various reasons we'd been unable to catch up with each other. This trip would be long enough I was quite sure I would have time. (Isn't spring break a great idea?!) Once I had arrived in DC I called Heidi and we started making our plan. The World War 2 Memorial was built and completed in the past 10 years so it didn't even exist the last time I was in DC. That was top on my list of places to go. I did have an evening obligation with my family so it would only be about a half day. Thursday morning I was up bright and early. Not intentionally, of course, but since my brother and nephews are all early risers, I suddenly became one, too. I grabbed my camera, and Sally 4th the GPS, and hit the road. It was an amazingly quick ride to Heidi's place. Too quick, in fact, as she wasn't even close to ready. The weather was brisk but beautiful so I goofed around in the parking lot for a while and then we loaded up and rode over to catch the Metro. (Tune in later this week for my review of the DC Metro.) We arrived just outside of The Mall but with the Washington Monument towering over everything, it is very difficult to get disoriented or lost.If Washington is in front of you and the Capitol behind you then you are facing the right direction. Let's face it, given recent events I think lots of people want the chance to show their butts to the Capitol building. I resisted the urge to yell "Kiss This!"The WWII Memorial is on the other side of Washington, between Washington and Lincoln. You'll have to wait a bit for my review of the WW II Memorial. I have a TON of pictures and may have to put them up on a picture server instead of clogging up my blog with them. Alternatively I may just cut down on how many pictures I post, leaving you some incentive to go there yourself. You really should go. My words, descriptions, and pictures will fail miserably to describe it. After our time at the memorial it was time for some food. Heidi had been talking about getting a giant pretzel since we stepped off the Metro. Once we finally found a vendor with pretzels, Heidi was suddenly distracted by the Giant Egg Roll.According to what Heidi told me, you can't come to the Mall and not get something from the food vendors. After a quick review of the "menu" I decided that a Giant Egg Roll and a Coke sounded pretty good.Looking back on these pictures, and my post from yesterday I believe THIS was my first run in with an "Asian Roller" and also the beginning of my week long troubles with Asian food. Maybe I should have gone with the pretzel instead?