elevators and escalators

I rode the largest escalator in the western hemisphere on Friday night. It's located at a metro station in Maryland. It's quite long, but not as long as I was hoping for. I wasn't struck by it, knowing that it must be the longest in the hemisphere.

Two housemates and I went. We brought our cameras and took lots of pictures of the escalator, us on the escalator, etc. etc. It was fun to be DC tourists in a very un-touristy location. We got lots of strange looks. I did my part for people-watching karma; we were the ones that people told their friends about that night.

And today I almost got stuck in an elevator. I was getting some casseroles from a church that cooks for the soup kitchen one day per month. I had to enter the church & go to the basement. I closed the elevator door & pressed buttons. Nothing happened. I pressed more buttons. Nothing happened. I started to freak out, remembering a NYT article I read last spring about a chinese food delivery guy who spent 4 days stuck in an elevator. People heard his yells for help & did nothing. He got stuck after he made the delivery, so he didn't even have food for sustenance. I was about ready to yell, when I reached for the door and tried to open in manually. I succeeded.