The Friday before Christmas, we were both off of work without a single thing to do. This is the first time I can remember this happening in forever. We decided to bum around the city, so we rode our bikes over and got some coffee at Port City by Eastern Market. It’s amazing to sit and drink a cup of joe without any sort of schedule or place to be. Then we rode over to the Air and Space Museum since neither of us had been there in probably the last 20 years, since middle school field trips or possibly earlier. We took the free hour-long tour, where Wayne told us all about the space race, various moon missions, Sputnik, and how rockets work. We also learned that Orville and Wilbur Wright were initially bicycle-makers that evertually got into the whole flying thing. Never knew that. Then we watched Hubble 3D in the IMAX theater. Highly recommend! It was one of those films that brings tears to your eyes in some places just over the sheer accomplishments that humans are capable of achieving. And the imagery is stunning. And you get to wear sweet red 3d glasses.
Afterwards, we went for sushi in Chinatown, walked through the holiday market, and then visted Cowgirl Creamery, where we purchased some delicious pepper-encrusted cheese and salty-crackers.
I seriously love being in the city, especially around the holiday. I don’t know what it is. You can just feel anticipation, excitement, and warmth in everyone walking around.
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National Book Festival
September 26th, 2011
On Saturday morning, we went down to the Mall for the Library of Congress National Book Festival. Dad and I have been trying to go to this for about the past 4 years now, but some scheduling conflict has always come up and we’ve never been able to make it until now. We started off by wandering around to all of the tables at the Pavilion of the States. I made it my personal mission to collect as many of the road maps as I could, and I left with a pretty big stack. The volunteers were handing out other things like bookmarks, travel and tourism info, pins, and candy. I’m not sure yet what I’m going to do with the maps — probably just keep them for reference for now, but what I should really do is start planning a road trip immediately! After that, we wandered through some more of the tents, many of them kid-themed, and stopped to watch the end of Jim Lehrer’s talk and his question and answer session. He was a great speaker – very funny and humble, too. It was a pretty cool event overall, I imagine even more so if you have a favorite author you’d like to meet or hear talk about their work. Glad we finally made it down there!
Pavilion of the States
watching Jim Lehrer questions and answer session
the Magic School Bus! who didn’t love this as a kid?!
The family visits continued!! This past weekend Jami and Kari flew out from Iowa (and mom and dad drove down from DE) to spend a long weekend with us in DC. On Thursday evening we enjoyed a Moroccan meal at Souk – somehow they managed to squeeze all 11 (Maine + Iowa) of us at one big table. The best part about dining on small plates with that many people is you can get a taste of nearly everything on the menu. Pepper hummus, baba ganoush, baklava… MMMMmmmm!
On Saturday afternoon, we spent some time being lazy and playing bocce ball in Lincoln Park. Bowser was the only one of us working really hard at moving all the balls around after they stopped rolling, but those are the rules – even though he was pretty lopsided towards chasing all the red balls, no arguing over whatever the dog does! He was like a team of his own. When we weren’t playing bocce, we took turns lounging in the grass (and lining up the ridiculous amounts of phones/cameras/technology we had with us for a simple trip to the park).
That night, we took our 6-person bike gang down to the Capitol and then across the National Mall to see some monuments at night. Jami and Kari took their very first CaBi rides and it was pretty sweet to see everything by moonlight. We stopped at the Capitol briefly, then rode past all the Folklife Festival tents on the Mall, then around the circle of the Washington Monument, passed by the WW2 memorial, rode along the under-construction reflecting pool, stopped to see Mr. Lincoln, where we were somehow more fascinated with the light coming from the kiosk at the base, and then finally walked along the Vietnam Memorial wall. The return trip was nice too – cruising along Pennsylvania Ave in the center bike lanes around 11pm — when the temperature in July in DC is finally tolerable — it’s always a pretty exhilarating feeling. No matter how long we live in DC, I will never get tired of seeing the city at night. It’s pretty amazing.
Sunday was pretty much the perfect day. Shopping at Eastern Market in the morning, pedicures in the afternoon, and sushi boat for late lunch/early dinner. Does it get any better than spending time with family doing those things?! I think Kari definitely enjoyed her first sushi experience and was pretty much a chopstick master by the time we finished. We came home and watched the DVR-ed women’s World Cup Soccer game — still can’t believe that header that tied us up with Brazil!!! Dinner was grilled corn with Old Bay and BBQ chicken followed by a vicious game of Asshole in which Jami was president the entire time . not fair!
It was sad to see them leave this morning. These visits always fly by so fast. Can’t wait until the next one…
Hope everyone enjoyed their 4th! We spent it with both the family and the masses – we checked out the parade that marched down Constitution Avenue in the morning, enjoyed a delicious seafood lunch in Chinatown (where Esther was also thankfully reunited with yummy Bon Bons), ended the day watching both the Hare Krishna festival and fireworks on the National Mall (great combo), and bringing in the wee hours of the morning over beer, cupcakes, sparklers, and enlightened argument conversation.
One of the things we enjoyed discussing was the melting pot of American culture that came together on the Mall yesterday. David remarked to me that they had already seen more people in one spot in 5 minutes than they might see in a whole month in Glenallen, Alaska (home). Though this is kind of a no-brainer comment, it was interesting to consider the types and numbers of people we all encounter in our daily lives. Kristy put it a little differently. She just started moo-ing when we got herded into line for the security checkpoint, and said something about a panic attack under her breath. Later, Uncle Sid said to me separately that he was glad our younger cousins could see such a cross-section of America in one place, different from the types of people they see at home in Maine.
And that’s what the 4th is all about. When David in his redneck hat can have a discussion on the power of God with a Swami on the National Mall, and it ends with the purchase of a book on meditation for $1, that everything great about America all rolled into one.
oh also! I have some new ink. While we were waiting for the show to begin, Esther, Morgan, and I got henna tattoos done. Mine is a peacock on my forearm, done by 11 year old Rameni, who was from Hawaii but moving to Florida soon, and who was in DC for her grandmothers 90th birthday and also to (apparently) draw henna tattoos for people on the 4th of July for the price of $5. She has 7 brothers and sisters, and drew a damn good peacock!
America = an oversized birthday cake float
the eagle has landed
OOOooooooooh
AAAaaaaaaaah
sparklers!
Morgan’s star, a circle, and not sure what Elek was drawing
The 4th is almost here! Bring on the family, BBQ, redwhiteandblue, and fireworks. woohoo! This morning I put flags out in the front yard, cleaned out the wheelie cooler, and got out the red velvet cupcake mix. I still need to find my stars and stripes headband if this is going to be an official celebration, but the preparations are in the works.
We had much too busy of a weekend to wander down into the actual craziness that took place on the National Mall, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t notice all the visitors anyways. Multiple rallies collided on Saturday to “Restore Honor” and “Reclaim the Dream” under the likes of Glenn Beck and the Reverend Al Sharpton. Unfortunately, we didn’t spot any celebrities in town while we were out and about, but we did see plenty of American-flag-themed paraphernalia, and sometimes that’s all you need.
This was the crazy sunset sky at our backs last night as we waited for Screen on the Green to begin on the National Mall. We rode our bikes down after work, picnic dinner in tow, grateful that the weather was finally pleasant. The feature was 12 Angry Men, a definite classic that caused the audience to clap at the very end for the (spoiler ahead) NOT GUILTY verdict. Besides the uplifting ending, the best part of the evening was, as always, the HBO dance.
The Folklife Festival wrapped up just two days ago. We happened to catch part of this Hare Krishna display close to where we were staking out a spot on the grass to watch the fireworks on the 4th. There was dancing and henna, as well as some creepy puppets displaying information about the food we eat. It was a bit odd to see this little pocket of celebration in the midst of the many families and tourists wearing their best red, white, and blue and enjoying traditional picnic food. But ain’t that America! …an interesting juxtaposition in the dusty field that is the National Mall.
Hope everyone had a rockin’ 4th of July! We had a blast grillin’ out in Capitol Hill, watching Tiki and Bowser dogs wrestle each other, playing backyard/lawn games, and eventually wandering our way down to the Mall for people watching, gin drinking, and of course fireworks over the monuments.
oh and check out some of our foodie pics below… stuffed and wrapped-in-bacon jalepenos on the grill, Matt’s infamous meat and cheese flag, and apple pie (before topping). MMMmmmerica!
On Saturday morning, Erin and I joined about 1,000 other people in a massive, free yoga session at the base of the Washington Monument on the National Mall. It was sponsored in conjunction with the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which is now in full swing, and Lululemon Athletica . Matt came along too in order to grab some photos, though eventually I will talk him into trying some yoga with me. On our walk over there, it was still a gray, overcast morning and I was a little grumpy about the lack of sun. But, as the instructor proclaimed about halfway through the session, “we brought the sun out!” And so we had, and suddenly it was a gorgeous day.
