District of Columbia

Friday, 5th March, 2010 I woke up at 2:20 am in order to ready myself for a drive to the Amtrak station in Pittsburgh where I boarded a train headed for Washington, D.C. The train was supposed to depart at 5:20 am but was late in arriving so we pulled out at 6:05. I tried to sleep on the way there but I was just in and out for most of the trip. I made a playlist of The Script and The Swell Season to give the ride a soundtrack. Casey texted me around lunch time asking me if I wanted to go to a Sondre Lerche concert that night at the Rock & Roll Hotel in D.C. and I told her to go ahead and get tickets.

When the train finally arrived at Union Station I walked along the platform and up the stairs into the station. Once inside I started to grab my phone out of my pocket but Casey came forward out of the crowd and hugged me. Patrick was nowhere in sight so I called and texted him, turned out he couldn't get transport Friday so we'd be seeing him Saturday. We then went downstairs and she got a piece of pizza. I had eaten on the train so we reminisced about Dublin and commented on how surreal it was to be meeting up and hanging out in the States as we had met in Ireland.

We soon headed outside to walk around D.C. I snapped a few shots but not many as I had been there before. The weather was absolutely gorgeous so it was nice to be out and about. We spent a couple of hours in the National Museum of American History. I had been there before but I didn't remember everything and some of the exhibits were new. Long story short we saw Dorothy's ruby red slippers, Abe Lincoln's hat, and Julia Child's kitchen among other things. When the museum closed at 5:30 we set out on a search for a restaurant to eat dinner at. We found a place that was like a cross between Q-doba's and Panera.

Soon it was time to head to the concert so we went to the metro station in order to get to Union Station so we could catch a cab. We were quite glad we had as the roads were under construction and the area that the Rock & Roll Hotel was in was quite sketchy. The venue itself was completely fine which I was thankful for. I got to meet Casey's friend Evan and one of his friends from work. We stood toward the front for the concert. JBM opened and he was awesome. I've been on a singer/songwriter kick lately so this concert was perfect. Sondre was absolutely amazing. I had heard of him before but I didn't realize who he was exactly. He did the music for the Dan In Real Life soundtrack which is where I had recognized his name from. I had a great time but by the end of it I was quite tired. Evan gave us a ride home and by the time I crashed on Casey's couch I had been up for about 24 hours on three hours of sleep.