Summer Break - DC & PA Edition

So I've been back east for the past 10 days (and I'm still here) visiting Camie and Ruth. In that time I've done the following:

• Visited the Newseum. I hadn't been to the Newseum since it had moved to it's current location in DC on Pennsylvania Ave (it's old location was in Rosslyn, VA). The new facility is awesome, but it now costs $20 to get it. I swear it was free when it was located in Rosslyn (all you DC and former DC residents correct me if I'm wrong). Anyway, here are a few pics:

The Newseum
The writing on the building is the 1st Amendment.

Taken from the ground floor.

Taken from the 5th or 6th floor - I can't remember.

Taken from the roof.

Berlin Wall and Watch Tower.

9-11 Exhibit: Newspapers reporting the day
and the radio tower from the top of North Tower

• Visited the American Indian Museum. This museum was being built while I lived in DC so I had never been there. The building itself was gorgeous and there were some really cool artifacts in the museum (some dating to 3000 BC), but the museum was way too big for the amount of artifacts. Almost every artifact is located on the 4th floor. The 3rd floor is dedicated to the modern day American Indian (so you can learn all about gambling - I kid you not). The 2nd floor is all food court and the 1st floor is all museum store. Here are a few pics:

The museum's exterior.

The museum's interior.

Artifacts from North and South American Indians.

Gold artifacts from North and South American Indians.

• Visited the National Gallery. I've been to the National Gallery dozens of times. I used to stop in weekly to view the work of JMW Turner (who is my absolute favorite painter). I hadn't been to the Gallery in years and was really excited to return and view Turner's work once again in person. When I got there I was sorely disappointed - the entire British Gallery was closed for renovation!! I was very upset. I did, however, discover a painting I'd never seen before. It fascinated me. Here it is:

Moonlit Landscape with Bridge by Aert van der Neer

• Visited the Amish Experience. This is an 1805 Amish house and farm located in Lancaster County. It has been turned into a tourist trap and is available for tours. Here are a few pics:

The Amish Barn.

Ruth under the clothes line.

Check out the sunflowers.

• Visited Lebanon County Fair. Oh, how I love carnival food - fries, hot dogs, soft pretzels, funnel cake. Delicious!! More pics:

Me & Evan at the fair.

• Spent 8 hours watching The X-Files: Revelations with Ruth. X-Files creator, Chris Carter, just released a 2-disc collection of 8 X-Files episodes. To get ready for the movie, Ruth and I watched all 8 episodes. It was a pretty good collection and I was very, very excited that it contained my favorite X-File episode of all time - Bad Blood. Here's one of my favorite scenes (it's only 20 seconds).
  
  
  
  
• Seen tons of movies: The Dark Knight, Mamma Mia, Space Chimps, and X-Files. My thoughts:
• The Dark Knight: Seriously loved it. I thought the hype surrounding Heath Ledger's performance was simply because of his death. Whoa, was I wrong!! He was fantastic. The only thing I didn't like was Christian Bale's gravely voice when he was Batman. I know that's how he spoke in Batman Begins, but I still didn't like it.
• Mamma Mia: It was exactly like I thought it would be. It wasn't the best thing I've ever seen, but it was fun.
• Space Chimps: I'm calling it the surprise movie of the year. It was hilarious and full of jokes only adults would get (and only educated adults - many times only Ruth and I were laughing).
• X-Files: Basically a glorified X-Files episode with more cursing. Still, I loved it. It was fun to see two characters I love together again. I also enjoyed seeing how Mulder and Scully's relationship had changed in the past 6 years (even if it wasn't exactly clear what their relationship status was).
  

That's just a taste of all the fun I've been having here. I'll post more when I return back to SLC next week.