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date = 2025-08-06
description = "Arrival in DC"
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Today my mother, stepmother, and I spent *lots* of time in trains. We first took the Amtrak down to Washington DC, a multi-hour trip in and of itself, before traversing the city on the Metro. The stations are so funny looking. They look like they're built with concrete bathtubs!

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We then arrived at the hotel - and *what* a hotel the [Waldorf Astoria](https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/dcawawa-waldorf-astoria-washington-dc/) is! It is built of huge blocks of stone and has a clock tower out the top. There's a central courtyard almost like a Gaylord and the rooms are full of gold and crystals. It feels larger than life. Some people drive up to it in Maserati or Bentley and most other occupants are in business attire. Our room has two chandeliers! It feels quite pompous. We're staying at the Waldorf because Mother has a voucher for a free night in any hotel and wanted to splurge for my last night under her care.

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After dropping our bags off at the hotel, we took the train down to the [O Museum](https://www.omuseum.org/visit), an eclectic collection of signed guitars, original Muppets, and secret, themed rooms. It was, honestly, a bit overwhelming - the themed areas had conflicting soundtracks, detracting from the charm. We got bubble tea afterwards. Mine was mango.

Upon our return to the hotel room, I spent some time with Anki. I ended up studying 1000 flashcards over the course of 2 hours and 24 minutes, more than any other singular day since I started studying vocabulary a month ago! I guess that makes up for the measly 44 cards studied yesterday... I was tired, okay!?

For dinner, we went to [Ambar](https://ambarrestaurant.com/), a restaurant serving all-you-can-eat Balkan tapas. It was pretty good - their pesto was excellent and their tomato soup was on point. It is, however, a shame that all-you-can-eat restaurants charge the same rates whether or not you eat the more expensive items (like meat). Anyway, I digress - the food was great!

After dinner, we wandered past the White House to the National Mall. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

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As always, I love yall and hope yall have a fantastic rest of your day.

~ Andromeda <3
