Thursday

Washington, DC 2019

Thursday January 3, 2019

It is rarely worthwhile to leave the house before 7AM in the morning.....but to catch the train for our annual trip to DC is one occasion that it is! We arrived in DC on time, checked into our hotel and walked across the street to Farmers and Distillers for lunch.

So what do you do in the nation's capitol with all of the building closures due to a government shutdown?  Answer: lots following Gary's plan! First we went to the Builders Museum where we saw three exhibits:


  • Secret Cities A review of how housing was built quickly for workers on the Manhattan Project and how the process influenced home construction in future decades.
  • Evicted A review of the impact of eviction on low income renters in the US, including the rate for every state.
  • Flickering Treasures A survey of Baltimore movie theaters from 1896 to present.





On the way back to the hotel, we walked a circuitous route through the monument for fallen law enforcement officers, by a statue of Abe Lincoln at the Old District Courthouse, and by a sculpture called Ashes to Answers, honoring all K-9’s commissioned to sniff out flammable chemicals as they help to “seek out justice.” Finally, we saw a sculpture of Louis Daguerre who introduced the first practical method to producing photographs in 1839,  the Daguerreotype.



We ended the day with our annual trip to Busboys and Poets for dinner!


Friday

We took the Metro to Dupont Circle and set off on foot exploring the Kalorama Neighborhood where we did find the house Jeff Bezos just purchased but could not view the Obama's house. We did get to chat with the policeman guarding their street!  Two of our companions were able to find their people, Norman at the residence of the Slovak Republic ambassador and




Gary at the Romanian Embassy.




Leaving the Metro station this morning, Gary realized the great  pizzeria we ate at last year was just around the corner. So, we decided to eat lunch there again and Sally was able to meet us for lunch!  Thanks Sally, we loved seeing you!




After lunch, we took the bus to the Adams Morgan neighborhood.  We were disappointed. It is really run down; certainly has not benefited from urban renewal!  We did find a yuppie coffee shop and were somewhat appeased!




We needed to stay in the Dupont Circle neighborhood since Emily had reservations at Giovanni’s Trattu for dinner.  So while Emily and David waited in a hotel lobby (the same one we crashed at happy hour last year), the rest of us walked to Georgetown University where Jinx earned her masters degree!  Note, Emily is recovering from her knee replacement and could not walk everywhere we went....but it was totally amazing how much she did walk during the trip!




Next we checked out First Fridays with a stop at the International Arts and Artists' at Hillyer art gallery.  It was a small art space with three neat exhibits. One was particularly neat...Permanence.  The artist painted a picture with water soluble ink.  Then he placed an ice block on it and projected the image on the floor.  So part of the image on the floor was blurred and...when the ice was totally melted the image on the painting was blurred as well!  Pretty cool! BTW, the art space was full of millennials, giving us the status of some of the oldest folks in attendance!




Saturday

Today we went to the Textile Museum at George Washington University.  It was quite interesting!  Did you know the sparkling threads in very old weavings were actually hand wrapped in handmade silver and gold foil?  There was also an exhibit of 1,000 historic prints, maps, and artifacts documenting the history of Washington, D.C.  We explored the grounds of GW, truly an urban campus before heading back to the hotel for an afternoon break from touring.  We highly praise Gary for inserting these "senility breaks" into this year's schedule!




After our break we rode the Metro to Foggy Bottom for dinner at Circa, then headed to the Kennedy Center.  The play we saw was called "The Play that Goes Wrong" or in truth "The Murder at Haversham Manor"!  It was two plus hours of slap stick humor that had the audience in stitches; really great acting and entertainment!




Sunday

This morning we found our way to the Southwest Harbor neighborhood.  It is a redeveloped waterfront on the east side of the Potomac just upstream from the Anacostia River.  The river walk is packed with restaurants, marinas, entertainment spots and apartment buildings; a destination I'm sure we will frequent again!






The only "old spot" left on the waterfront is the DC Fish Market; filled with vendors hawking their wares...a huge variety of plentiful seafoods.  It was neat to see this institution still anchoring one end of the waterfront!




After lunch, we walked to Southwest Arts Club displaying its very artsy facade.  




The current exhibit was a "graffiti" inspired show called Balancing Act by a DC designer named Matt Corrode. The art was eye catching and very cool IMHO!




One piece was drooled over by the TOF Brothers! Fortunately, it was not for sale, someone had already purchased it!




Alas, the time arrived for us to board the train and head home.  Another wonderful trip finding lots of new things to do in DC.  Thanks so much once again Gary for your awesome organization and leadership!  Emily, just think how good your knee will feel next year! You'll be ready to rock and roll!!




I do believe that next year's trip will be the next time Gretchen and I will leave the house before 7:00 a.m.! Oh yes, and we all look forward to those "senility breaks" in next year's schedule!!








Monday

Christmas 2018

Friday December 21st

We traveled to Hillsborough to begin our Christmas vacation with the Alexanders.  David dropped off the kids just before Katie got home from work.

On Saturday, Audrey, Henry, Grandma and I went to the North Carolina Museum of Art.  We had a great lunch in the Museum's restaurant.




Next, we visited the Georgia O'Keeffe exhibit which included other artists as well.  Audrey and Henry loved a wall that an artist made out of wax!




Hiking around the Museum grounds, I took this photo at the moment an alien spacecraft flew by!




On Sunday, the kids baked their mother her favorite pie...coconut cream.  Audrey did the dough and...




Henry made the coconut cream!  The pie was wonderful; Audrey and Henry are great bakers!




When Katie got home from worked we enjoyed a traditional turkey dinner with all of the fixins. 




On the night before Christmas, Grandpa read The Night Before Christmas before the kids went to bed wearing their new pajamas.




Christmas morning was a festive time with many presents to open including a Play-Doh kitchen set for Audrey,




a Lego remote control car that Henry had to build with his Mom, and a Nintendo Game Box with a Pokémon game from Santa Claus!




We had a wonderful Christmas celebration with you and the kids Katie!  Thank-you so much!!


Tuesday December 26th

We are off to Murrells Inlet to celebrate Christmas with the Hills. On arrival, we found Kelley and Maggie with festive decorations in front of their house!




When Seth got home from work, we opened presents and ate dinner before heading to the condo.  Wednesday morning, Kelley dropped off Maggie on her way to work and we headed out to get supplies for dinner and to eat lunch at Chick-fil-A.   




In the afternoon, Maggie made a pumpkin pie for her mom and dad.  It was delicious!  Maggie is a great baker!!



Thursday Maggie was itching to spend some of her Christmas money.  Kelley got tickets to see Mary Poppins, so we headed to the mall early so Maggie could shop.  She picked out a really nice sparkling backpack to buy, one like she always wanted! The new Mary Poppins movie is great, we really enjoyed it!




Friday morning arrived too soon and we checked out of the condo, stopped to say goodbye to Maggie and Kelley and then set the GPS for home!  Thanks so much Kelley and Seth for a wonderful Christmas celebration!