Articles

Yes, we know this article
has nothing to do with adventure, but sometimes there is more to life
than adventure games as our youngest reviewer – Matthew Desmond –
is about to tell us his newest journey with Upward Bound.

As I sit in Row 18, Seat
F on an Airbus A320 at Reagan International Airport, I get some time
to reflect on the trip to Washington, D.C. The flight down was fairly
smooth, a little prop job to Boston and a jet to DC Not too bad at
all. I had to admit that at first I was a little nervous about flying.
Okay, rephrase, when they did the safety lecture, I was about to laugh
my ass off. It’s not that the safety lecture was funny; it was dead
serious. I just wanted to laugh at the demonstration how to use a
seat belt.

So anyway, our flight
left at 6 a.m. and we were in Boston by 7:30. We had an hour and a
half stop at Logan Airport. We boarded the next planet at 8:45 and
took off for DC at 9, arriving around 10:30. We headed to the hotel
and around 11:30 or 12, we checked in and went to the Hard Rock Café.
Real expensive, but, it was really good. Tuesday afternoon is kind
of blank. I seem to recall that we hung out for a while in DC with
the rest of my friends from Upward Bound. I can’t really remember
what we did; it’s all a blur. I also seem to recall going to the ESPN
Zone restaurant right across from the hotel, having a nice meal and
watching 3 baseball games at the same time is an experience.

When we got back to the
hotel, we decided that we wanted to walk to the White House. It was
pretty late, about 9 p.m. or so and we had all been up since quarter
to 4 at least. Well, we walked to Pennsylvania Avenue only to find
that 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was blocked off. Apparently Marine One
was practicing takeoffs and landings. So, the cops (I’m assuming uniformed
Secret Service officers anyway) told us that we could come back later
on, in about an hour or so and then it would be okay to walk to the
White House gates.

Since it was five or six
blocks to the hotel, we decided that we would walk over to the Vietnam
War memorial. So we did that, it was a very moving experience. Just
walking over to the wall and seeing all of the names lit up at night
was kind of spooky. We did get a chance to see the White House, though.
Really freaking’ cool. Never thought I would get a chance to see it
up close and personal. I got a great picture of the White House. I
hope it comes out.

Wednesday morning, we
were up at 7:30 for a trip to the National Cathedral and Capitol Hill.
We left the hotel, at around 9 a.m., took the metro (subway) to the
closest stop near the Cathedral and took cabs the rest of the way.
If I may say so, DC cabbies kick ass. They are very kind, professional
and know all of the shortcuts. Did I mention that they drive fast?
For those of that don’t know, or haven’t been there, the Washington
National Cathedral is very large, very beautiful, very cold and you
have to be very quiet as you take your tour. A little bit of trivia
here: the Cathedral is the sixth largest in the world and the second
largest in the United States and took 83 years to build.

After touring the Cathedral,
we went to get our cabs and headed back to the metro station. From
there we went right to Capitol Hill and got a great tour of the Capitol
Building from Congressman John Baldacci’s aide. Heck, we even got
a chance to meet him. He’s a very pleasant person and he’s also running
for governor of Maine. He has my vote.

Afterwards, we went to
meet Senator Susan Collins. Her staff even brought in a camera crew.
I’m a local celebrity back home. We ended making the six o’clock news.
There were a total of 16 of us that went to this meeting and there
were only 3 or 4 of us that actually made it on the air. I thought
that was pretty cool.

After getting out of nice
and cool air conditioned office building that Collins was in, we stepped
out into the hotter than Hell DC streets. From there, we walked over
to Union Station and got some lunch. Afterwards, we went back to our
hotel and got ready to go to the Kennedy Center. A few hours later,
we emerged from our hotel rooms looking rather presentable. We took
cabs from our hotel, went to the Kennedy Center, bought some rather
expensive refreshments ($2.50 for a 12 ounce bottle of water and $2
for a box of raisenettes) and settled in to watch Shear Madness. It’s
a very hilarious play, if you get the chance to go to DC or Boston,
check it out; it’s a hilarious play.

Thursday we got the chance
to check out some of the Smithsonian’s. I went to the National Air
and Space Museum, awesome place. Saw the Apollo 11 command module,
and the Gemini and Mercury capsules along with a plethora of other
aircraft from various areas of history. I tried to see as much as
I could of the Air and Space Museum in the allotted time that I had;
however it was really impossible. I just want to say that if you do
go to the Smithsonian’s, bring money. I bought a Big Mac meal at National
Air and Space Museum restaurant and it came to $6.81. Yeah, the normal
meal that you can get at Mickey D’s for $3.49 was double!

So, after we checked out
the Smithsonian’s, we got a chance to go to the Holocaust Museum.
Very good place, however, I really don’t want to talk about it. You
don’t really realize the horror of Hitler’s “Final Solution”
until you go to this museum. It’s a pretty powerful place, I would
definitely encourage people to check it out. But let me warn you,
it’s not a place for those who are feint of heart or young children.

Then, after seeing the
horrible experiences that people suffered through during the Holocaust,
we got a chance to check out the Pentagon City Mall. Let me tell you,
that is the biggest mall I have ever been in my entire life. Ever
have to go to the bathroom really, really bad and you can’t find one?
This mall is so huge that it took me an hour to actually find a bathroom.
Then, afterwards we were given a choice for dinner, go to Union Station
and get something at one of the fast food counters or room service.
Room service sounded pretty damn good to us, considering that none
of us had ever had it before. Had a nice dish of spaghetti and split
some buffalo wings with my roommate.

We went to bed early and
then on Friday morning (one more day left in DC), we got a chance
to go to the zoo. It was pretty good. I didn’t like people teasing
the animals, though. I can tell you one thing, if people could put
rainbows in zoos, they’d do it. Then we did get a chance to go to
Arlington National Cemetery and see the Changing of the Guard ceremony
at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Afterwards we were given the rest
of the day to go do what we wanted to do. Nobody really ended up doing
anything. We were way too tired and ready to go home. I ended up splitting
a pizza with a friend and then I walked with her to see some of the
local shops.

Later that evening, we
went to Adams Morgan, had a great meal at a restaurant called “I
Matti” then we went back to the hotel to get some shut eye. In
the end, I have to say it was a decent trip. I had a lot of fun and
had a lot of new experiences. Truly a beautiful city.