Newseum

I have never been in the Newseum before, mostly because I didn't want to pay to go in. My good friend, who was in yearbook in high school, had been there before for a field trip and she agreed to go with me. The newseum isn't cheap. Right now admission is $22.95 which you can use the ticket to get in any two consecutive days. The building is captivating basically being all glass with a display outside that gets changed every day with new front pages of well known newspapers.

Inside, the building is huge. It has six floors and a basement that has a cafeteria. My friend and I did the tour all wrong since you are supposed to take the express elevator to the top and make your way to the basement. Now we know. So I will order my pictures in that way so I don't look like an idiot.

The top floor has the front pages of newspapers as well as a balcony where you can get a good view of the city. You then progress to the Vietnam War Exhibit.

The fifth floor had a lot of relics of newspapers dating centuries before. I mean, the newseum has a lot of historical value with all these old documents. It then leads to a large room with a wide screen TV that shows the different news of that day. What dominated the news during my stay? The death of Nancy Reagan. It then leads to an exhibit on the Civil Rights movement then to the 9/11 memorial exhibit.

The other levels had multiple exhibits, most of them are presentations that you can listen to and learn information with touch screens and headphones. They also have a studio that is functional and a memorial to reporters lost while working. It also exhibits the five freedoms we are entitled to.

The basement had the Berlin wall exhibit that has a huge piece of the Berlin Wall. They also have an FBI exhibit that features items and information about recent cases that you most likely have heard of. I asked and apparently most of these things were donated to them by people involved in the case. I mean, this exhibit was packed of just things from the cases.

The Newseum is huge and if you actually make the effort to read and listen to every little show and presentation that they have, you could be there all day. No wonder you would need a two day pass because I think you need two days to absorb all the information. Anyway, the whole Newseum is kind of depressing as well since the most significant news are usually the most negative ones so exhibits are very emotional. If you can handle the sadness, I say go because this place is pretty amazing.

Black History Month Instameet #MakeYourMap

When I heard to of my friends were heading to D.C. to take some pictures, I last minute decided to join. It was one of the few weekends we all had free so it was hard to pass up. Veteran blogger Ella has been to an instameet before whereas it was the first time for me and Rika. We met up at Lincoln Theater and the walking instameet adventure started from there. Disclaimer once again, these photos are all by Rika and you can check more of the photos she took at her blog.

Ella blends in with the walls

I pretty much claimed any green house I saw as my own

We walked so much that day. We started at Lincoln Theater and ended up all the way by the Convention Center. The walking tour featured many different historical sites for Black history as well as a lot of street art by Black artists. It was a part of the city that I had never really gone to explore and this was a great way to be introduced to a new perspective of D.C. My feet were killing me but in the end, it was all worth it. Check out the blogs of Ella and Rika since they posted about it too! It was also fun meeting new people and I definitely won't hesitate to go to another instameet whenever I can.

United States Botanic Garden

If you google maps it, it doesn't always turn up but I swear to you it's there. We only went into the conservatory since it is winter and all the outdoor plants are dead. I definitely love The Tropics part of the conservatory. It was warm and humid and all around great for my dying skin. For my blogging friends, not so much since the lenses on cameras and phones kept fogging up. Disclaimer, none of these photos belong to me. All photos were taken by my good friend Rika. Check out her blog here.

Featuring Ella, who Rika and I have to thank for bringing us there since we had no idea where it was. These two will most likely be posting the same pictures on their blogs. After all, it was kind of a collaboration and friend outing type of day. I didn't bother taking pictures of my own because my phone camera wouldn't be able to to capture anything as nicely as Rika's camera anyway. This was only the morning of our day out. Stay tuned to see what we did in the afternoon!