I think that's a senator and his wife.

Our grand days out are generally made of the same components. Big city. Hamburgers for dinner. American history. Barnes and Noble. Anticipation, distress, exhaustion, contemplation. Every Friday we have come to expect the same line up of events.
This Friday we were feeling much anticipation for the Joanna Newsom concert we would see in the evening. Because the show was to take place in our nation's capitol, we decided to go down early and spend the entire day wandering around and seeing the things every American is supposed to see. I was looking forward to seeing dinosaurs and mr. lincoln. Chris wanted to see the giant squid and the insects. We were happy and had good music in the car.
Distress. On the way down of course the car started to over-heat. We had the heater blowing full blast which worked for a little while but while going through a long tunnel in Maryland the little hand decided to go past the red way-too-hot section and into the engine-about-to-explode section. We were both shrieking with disbelief, found our way off of the road and into a gas station in the middle of industrial Baltimore where we opened the hood and stared at the engine with great sorrow. And then we heard the lovely words we had been praying for come from behind us... "somethin' wrong with your car?" A friendly southern man in a work jumper and his adolescent son approached us and started poking around. He told us to turn on the air conditioning which would make two fans blow on the engine, and that would cool the engine down enough so we could drive the car to a mechanic somewhere. His trick worked for the most part, although we had to stop the car along the freeway every once in a while to let it rest. We drove the car straight to Washington and just put it in a parking garage and forget about it.
First we went to see the dinosaurs.

Chris' hair had a stupid wave in it all day. The insect exhibit and where the giant squid is were closed for renovations, and Chris was having stomach-twisting flashbacks to when things went wrong with his cars in late high school and college. A giant ground sloth offers no consolation when all you can think about is how you're most likely going to be stranded on the side of some foreign freeway between Baltimore and Delaware at 2:30 in the morning. We went to the Hirshorn museum and looked at some art and then went to the Lincoln memorial which had a big spire and a pool of water in the way of our getting there. We saw the vietnam veteran's memorial and when we were walking past the White House, Catherine told me a terrible story of her and her boyfriend being stranded on the side of i-5 late at night, and how it worked out okay in the end. This meant we could eat at Harry's with some peace of mind, and then go across the street to Barnes and Noble without much fret for our immediate future. Whenever you're feeling stressed in strange place, seeking out the familiar seems to be the way to ease one's mind, and the most familiar thing in Washington d.c. at that point was the Barnes and Noble with the starbucks inside. We sought the same respite when we were in downtown Philadelphia for the first time. We sat in there while it got darker and colder outside, and then we went to repark our car closer to where the 'black cat' is. the car began to overheat again as we drove it the 15 blocks to the venue, and we had to keep the a/c on low and start and stop the car when we could. This meant all my fears from earlier would be rekindled, and I would be tense and worried throughout the evenings show. But the show was gorgeous, Joanna Newsom is a genius, her new album is excruciatingly good, and unlike anything I've heard.
From 12:15 to 3:00, we drove with sweaty palms and frigid feet. Driving on a cold November night with the a/c on fearing that at any moment the car will uncontrollably overheat and blow up was nice for ensuring that the driver won't fall asleep. We were both oozing with thankfulness for the safe ride home when we finally found ourselves in bed that night.