Sunday morning, five of us headed to St Patrick's Cathedral for mass. There aren't even words to describe how stunning the cathedral was. We were seated behind a guy that slept through most of the service, but when he was awake, he was definitely the loudest singer there. All through mass, tourists could be seen walking around the outside of the cathedral's interior and in the gift shop at the back of the church. At least there's no ringing noise each time the cash register goes off!
After mass, we hurried back to the hotel to finish packing and headed down to Penn Station. We were quite the caravan on the sidewalk with all of our suitcases, backpacks, and carry-ons. This was a lot of our first time riding on the Amtrak, so we were a little nervous. I think the two-hour nap that I got in really helped the ride go by fast :)
Our first full day in Washington DC was spent getting to know the Metro and the various areas around town. We walked from the Mall to the National Archives and the Smithsonian Art Museum. Walking around here in DC is a lot more complicated since streets run diagonal and there are so many roundabouts. We're definitely going to keep our maps handy! We ended our tour at the Lincoln Memorial where we all searched to find the spelling error the fastest.
Tonight, our group made our way to the Kennedy Center for the "Let Freedom Ring" Concert. This is an annual concert put on by Georgetown University on MLK day. The LFR choir performed "Freedom Riders" before Clarence B. Jones took the stage. He spoke of the days working with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and memories of the actual freedom riders.
After Dr. Jones spoke, Bobby McFerrin took the stage! Bobby McFerrin is the guy that wrote "Don't worry, Be Happy." His performance was hilarious-- and he wasn't speaking English through most of it. If you've never seen one of his performances, look him up on YouTube. The guy is amazing!
One of the highlights of tonight's concert was that President and Mrs. Obama were in attendance. There were police dogs and secret service police everywhere, and the place was packed. We all got quite a few pictures, so I'll hopefully be posting a few pictures from our last couple of days soon!
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