This morning I woke up to our hotel telephone ringing. I heard Margot pick it up assure Dr. C that our room would indeed be downstairs for brunch in 20 minutes. Ah! We threw on some clothes and made our way to the lobby, eager for the delicious brunch that was waiting for us. After a crowded metro ride, we arrived at the Eastern Market stop where the large group filed out and headed towards Matchbox Café. My table ordered an array of delicious foods including a Mexican omelet, homemade cinnamon rolls, and cream cheese stuffed French toast, all of which were heartily shared and passed around.
After brunch, Dr. C escorted our crowd into the Eastern Market open air shops. We passed a man and woman playing violin and tambourine accompanied by speakers with loud background beats. Our ears were then filled with some smooth jazz played by a street saxophonist. Then we walked to the many white tents filled with crafted jewelry, knick knacks, and beautiful paintings and other artwork. The artwork was beautiful and many paintings featured the capitol or other DC landmarks, which I thought added to the uniqueness of the pieces. I was amazed at all the talent this little area contained! After we spent some time bargaining and looking through the items we met back at the subway for our next stop, the Newseum.
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The Newseum is a fairly new museum dedicated to News and the media. It was six levels, each floor containing lots of different artifacts, topics, and breaking news stories throughout history. We first watched a “4D” movie, complete with glasses, that highlighted some breaking news reporters. One that caught my attention the most was the focus of Nelly Bly, the first undercover reporter. Bly spent ten days in an insane asylum for women, pretending to be mentally unstable in order to write an article telling the world about the horrible conditions the insane are forced to endure. Bly’s article and experience shocked America, and one million more dollars were provided to help improve the asylums.
We also visited the heartbreaking 9/11 exhibit, which included tons of front page articles on the wall, from tons of newspapers in America and across the globes, and a large piece of the antenna from one of the fallen buildings. Another exhibit that stuck with me was the top news stories from every decade in the 1900s. I was amazed at how the news has transformed over the years and how the museum had incredibly recent news included in its display. The Newseum also had an incredible view of the capital from the balcony! All in all we had a wonderful time and a great kick off to the weekend.
