Ben Harper Concert & Philadelphia Trip

Yes, Mom, I took this picture while driving over a bridge ;) Had to capture the Philadelphia skyline! The drive up there wasn't too bad. It took about 2 hr 45 min. The only bad part were the toll roads...I think it cost $10 to get there and $5 to get home. When I was driving past the University of Pennsylvania, I saw this river there that was lined with boat houses and there were 3 or 4 rowing teams in the river....it was the coolest thing! Looked so fun! And, I saw the Museum steps that Rocky runs up in the movie! I really wanted to run up them, but we didn't have time to do it...next time I guess. ;)

Independence Hall. This is where the Philadelphia Convention was held and the constitution was drafted. It is now right in the middle of downtown Philadelphia.
Andrew and I walked through parts of town. This is a little street that has been preserved. We ate at this amazing (and quite pricey--good thing he paid) restaurant called Bistro 7. I had the best gnocchi ever!! (not that i'd ever had any before--cause I hadn't--but it was fantastic!) And for dessert we had maple ice cream with a cinnamon and hazelnut sauce...delicious!!
The Liberty Bell!

69th Street Philly! We drove past all of the University of Pennsylvania campus. I told Andrew that I would have to come up again and go to a UPenn girls basketball game with him (since I seriously almost went there to play for undergrad) and say hi to Coach McGeever. They had this little eatery we passed called "Cereality" - it's a cereal bar! They have their own house granola type cereal as well as all the brand names. And then there are tons of berries and stuff you can put in it...kind of a clever idea...especially at a university.
The Tower Theater! This was the neatest venue for the concert! Ben Harper is an incredible live performer, but is even better at a smaller, more intimate venue! The theater was totally old fashioned inside and decorated like a theater with colums on the sides and fancy decor on the walls. Click here to see info about the cool shows that have made there way here since it was built in 1927: Tower TheaterThis is Andrew. He's a friend from BYU - who just started law school at the University of Pennsylvania. He was going to go to GW but got into the Ivy League at the last minute. He and his roomates were nice enough to let me stay on their couch so I didn't have to pay for a hotel.

Cheesecake Factory & The Office

Girls night out at the Cheesecake Factory! This is Callie and Christine above and then Kim and I below. We are all in the same section so we pretty much have all the same classes together! After Cheesecake, we went to Kim's and watched 3 episodes of "The Office." I seriously love that show!

Ryan Shupe Concert

Ryan Shupe & the Rubberband (a band from provo) came to DC and did a show at this bar/cafe in Clarendon. It was weird and totally obvious that everyone there was mormon. I felt bad and contemplated buying a soda or something from the bar tender who was probably really upset that no one was drinking...wonder if they knew what they were getting themselves in to. Mainly, we were proud of ourselves for going out on a school night!!

The Pier at Old Town Alexandria

Callie and I met some friends for dinner in Old Town last Friday night. I loved it and am sad that it has taken me so long to get down there and walk around. Too bad it was raining so our exploration was definitely cut short. BUT! We ate at this really good and reasonably priced seafood restaurant called The Fish Market down on King St.! I had a delicious crab cake sandwich...it was fantastic! I'll definitely have to bring Mom here when she comes to visit :) The Mount Vernon Trail runs right through here too!Notice how styling Callie is with her matching red purse and umbrella...I'm sure Traci will appreciate that...not quite the otterpop extreme...(traci selects her otterpops to match her outfit at the time...hahaha)...but still...nice work!

Mount Vernon Trail

So, I finally went down to the river and ran along the Mount Vernon Trail this weekend!! I have been wanting to do it ever since I came. Whenever I drive along the GW parkway, I am so jealous of all the runners and bikers using the path. The trail is paved and runs from roosevelt island all the way down to Mount Vernon (about 20 miles). It meandors along the Potmac river past Reagan National Airport and Old Town Alexandria. There are lots of trees and a great view of the river, the Washington Monument, the Capitol, Wilson Bridge, Fort Hunt, etc. And if you go on the weekends, there are tons of sailboats and windsurfers in the river. I parked my car just south of the Marina and ran down past Alexandria to the bridge and back. When I have a little more time, I want to drive down just past Alexandria and run to Mount Vernon...I think that is the prettier part of the trail...more trees and less city.

I parked my car at this marina. It's just south of Reagan National Airport
You can see the Washington Monument and the Capitol on the horizon line and the guy windsurfing in the Potomac.

Thoughts on

Yesterday was a pretty interesting day.

• In torts, Prof. Banzhaf called 4 people up to the front of the room. He asked one of them to punch him in the stomach as hard as she could. But first, he made her turn around saying he wanted to show the rest of us something...THEN he starts unbuttoning his shirt!!...To reveal a superman logo shirt underneath!! It was maybe the funniest thing I've ever seen! The idea is that she agrees to punch him, but it ends up hurting her more than him (same thing if he had put a tack or something where she was supposed to punch)...is he subject to liability when she is the one who was intending to inflict harmful bodily contact on him?
• In Criminal Law, Prof. Butler asked a black women who performs poetry of about 30 yrs to come in and read us this intense poem about two girls who killed the men who raped them and were charged with homicide. He had given us the poem to read as part of our homework for that day but it was so different to hear her read it with all the emotion! Intense and a little disturbing...
• I also had an interesting dicussion with a friend about gay marriage...
• I found out that after I left that law school people bbq, the "dealer" stopped by and literally everybody started smoking joints....wow. Glad I left.

Law School BBQ

• Yay for law school! This is Kim on the far left, she is my new non-drinking buddy. I don't know the girl next to her, then there's me and Callie. The bald buy in the background is wearing flip flop sandals that actually have a bottle opener underneath them....very handy I'm sure...

• Earlier today, I went to lunch with 5 other students from GW. We were sitting at the table and I asked one of the girls where she was from. She said Wyoming, so I told her that was from SLC so we were neighbors. She immediately says: "I don't like Utah." I respond: "really? have you been there? Why?" She says: "I hate religion." Seriously,...who says that?!! And how do you hate religion? I understand not being religious, but hating religion? And therefore hating the state of Utah? I've never heard such nonsense. It really bothered me for a long time...not because it totally rude the way she said it to me...but because I just don't understand how this girl could say or think something like that.

• Something funny happened in class the other day that I thought you'd all appreciate...so...while discussing liability for the tort of battery, my torts professor mentions that there could be times or environments in which more physical touching or contact is permitted....then he starts going into the topic of "mosh pits" - except he calls them "moesh pits"....over and over again he says this word..."moesh pit"...it was hilarious!...and this is way random...but i hope you are laughing like i am :)
  


• My Contracts professor is so nice! He's seriously such a great guy and an excellent teacher. You get the sense that he really cares about his students and prepares well for every class, constantly reviewing concepts so that we can be sure to understand them. But, he's also really funny because he starts class right on time...every day. He literally waits for the second hand to strike the hour and then starts talking....even if we are all there and are quiet ready for class, he will wait in silence for 45 seconds or so till the second hand strikes the hour...we all usually chuckle when he starts talking cause it's so funny!
  


• My Civil Procedure teacher is also really nice. This is his first year teaching. He moved to D.C. recently because his wife got elected to the Senate! Crazy yeah? She's the new senator from Minnesota. So, he got a job teaching at GW for the 6 years or so that they'll be living here.

Sushi Aoi

Tonight, I went out to dinner with 4 other girls from the law school. It was really fun! We went to this place on New York Avenue called Sushi Aoi. I was super adventurous and actually ordered a piece of white tuna!! Usually I'm pretty conservative with my sushi, but decided what the heck, I should at least try it. (they had a happy hour special --a dollar for a piece of raw fish on a bed of rice) So, I got a piece of white tuna that was seriously delicious! When it came out, I wasn't sure if I could eat it...but i loved it! I also got a california roll and some edamame--basic favorites of mine. But it was really fun to get to know these girls a little bit better! We all sit together in Criminal Law and one of them is in every single class of mine--she is really fun and I'm excited to get to know her better!

DC - The National Mall

This is the Mount Vernon trail that runs along the Potomac and is just a few blocks from our house. I'm not sure how far north it goes (at least to Georgetown) but it goes all the way down to Mount Vernon...everytime I drive along the GW Parkway (which parallels it) I wish I had my bike here! We went to the Nationals v. Mets game with the other GW 1Ls...it was fun!

The memorials are strangely romantic at night ;)

I love the capitol!! We went to a "movie on the mall" - they showed Casablanca on a huge screen and there were thousand of people sprawled out on blankets everywhere watching!

In my torts class the other day, our teacher made us stay after class and he played the entire "I have a dream" speech that Martin Luther King Jr. gave on the mall in the 60's....It was so inspiring!! Apparently Dr. King was deemed the greatest oral advocate of the century because of that speech - beating out Kennedy's "ask not what your country can do for you..." speech and roosevelt's "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself"). It's so neat to think that that speech occured right where I am standing!

It's really fun to do the monuments one at a time. - makes it much more enjoyable! And if you go at night, when parking isn't a problem, then it's not such an ordeal and you can generally park right by the one you want to see.

I don't know if you guys have seen the George Mason memorial...its is sort of hidden just off the mall from the Jefferson.

White's Ferry

Dad's neverlost gps device apparently found the shortest route for us....we just had to cross this ferry first!!

Washington Harbor

This is a really fun place to go in Georgetown. It's right on the waterfront. There are restaurants, fountains, and boats lining the dock in the harbor! These are two friends of mine from Provo. One is from Maryland and the other just moved here with her husband.

Chinatown!!

We ate chinese food in Chinatown! It's cool part of DC! We were glad to have Kyle with us though to be our bodyguard---not the best part of town to be in at night by yourself!

My new apartment!!!