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!!
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