Vacation

Happy Year of the Sheep! I'll be picking up more regularly with my blog posts again soon as I return for the next semester (hopefully without too much interference from the newly-reinforced Great Firewall). Here are a few highlights from my vacation.

A trip into DC to apply for my visa, followed by wandering around the National Mall.

Washington Monument

WWII Memorial 

Lincoln Memorial

Lincoln

From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, the reflecting pool, National Mall, Washington Monument, and Capitol Building.

Federal Reserve Building

Smithsonian Castle

A quick trip to Princeton to visit some friends, and of course, the lovely chapel.

Another day trip into DC to pick up my passport (not pictured, but worth a visit, the National Postal Museum). I was not prepared for how stunning the Library of  Congress is, so bear with me on the pictures (and visit yourself if you get the chance).

The Supreme Court

The Library of Congress

Looking up in the main hall of the Library of Congress.

Another ceiling somewhere in the Library of Congress.

A mosaic of the Roman goddess Minerva.

The dome atop the main reading room.

Isn't it cute?

Illuminated manuscript: Giant Bible of Mainz, ca. 1450s.

Gutenberg Bible, also ca. 1450s and from the town of Mainz.

The Capitol, southern House wing. (The dome is covered in scaffolding for renovations.)

A trip to Arizona to celebrate my grandparents' anniversary (and a photo with me in it to prove that I am, indeed, alive and well).

Watching snow, birds (sighted this break: chickadees, house finches, woodpeckers, tufted titmice, robins, cardinals, nuthatches, dark-eyed juncos, and eastern bluebirds), and deer from my bedroom window. A downstairs window generally makes for better pictures, but my bedroom window is a perfect vantage point, as demonstrated today when I sighted a herd of seven deer in the surrounding woods.

Chickadee in flight.

House Finch, male.

House Finch, female (I think).

The most favorably positioned of the herd of deer.