Ah, D.C.... You are such a delight.
So I went back, this time with husband in tow, and had a lovely mini-vacation. It was so nice to be back and have time to do whatever we wanted - no awful tour buses or children around (at least, that we were associated with). The condo rental turned out to be quite nice, actually. Pretty simple studio situation in the basement of one of the less-well preserved rowhouses in the U Street cooridor - nothing fancy, but totally nice and worth the price (there was a vague smell like old cheese, but that dissipated once you were in the room a few minutes). The bathroom was by far the best part, all marble and new and spacious with a big jacuzzi tub. Being accustomed to NYC bathrooms which put the closet back into watercloset, it was quite luxurious to be able to BOTH be in the bathroom at the same time without one of us standing in the tub.
It turned out we were walking distance from Dupont Circle, the "gayborhood" of D.C., as evidenced by the many rainbow flags along the route to Whole Foods on our first night (turned out we couldn't get on the wireless there, so we had to do largely without the whole weekend *gasp!*). This meant there were a bevvy of nice restaurants and bars within easy reach, which we managed to take part of despite trying to do this on the cheap. The best food we had by far was at the local Ethiopian restaurant (who knew?). I had had Ethiopian before, but it had been awhile, I'd forgotten how good it is (and cheap). We ordered a vegetarian sampler platter to share and left totally satisfied for I think like $10 or $12. Too bad we had wasted almost $100 at a crappy upscale bistro the night before. Why is it that something as exotic to us as Ethiopian food should be so cheap, but a burger costs like $20?
We did the whole Smithsonian thing mostly (again, cuz it's free, sensing a theme?), stopping by several of the museums we hadn't seen before on our last trip together in 2002. There's a new Museum of the American Indian that they were just starting to construct in '02 that was pretty neat, and had an amazing cafe featuring traditional foods from every type of indigenous culture in North America (and chicken fingers for the less adventurous), which was awesome, I higly recommend if you're ever in town. We did the memorial walk, along the basin from the Jefferson to FDR (awesome) to Lincoln, and we didn't get to go in the White House, but we spent an hour or so in the Vistor's Center. The Capital is still closed to tourists, sadly, but we were able to get right up clost and personal, which was not the case in '02 for obvious reasons. I thoroughly enjoyed the National Archives, not really for the Declaration Indepence & Constitution (which are faded almost to the point of being completely blank), but for their permanent collection full of interactive video and computer exhibits about documents that shaped history - telegrams from WWI, radio addresses from various presidents, all kinds of declassified military stuff. All very nifty, if you like that sort of thing.
The best was the International Spy Museum, though, I have to say. The permanent collection was pretty cool, and we didn't get to spend enough time in there, actually, but they have all kinds of exhibits with James Bond-esque secret weapons and stuff like that. We did the "Spy at Night" thing, which is this murder mystery-type game where you and a bunch of other people use spy techniques to work together to solve this case. It was only slightly cheesy, as those types of things tend to be, but it was totally up our alley. We also played some spy-themed trivia games in the cafe afterwards and I won some free pigs in a blanket (or as they call them, Pigs Undercover). There was a real former spy there fielding questions from people as well. We didn't really know what to ask her, but we eavesdropped on her conversations with some other guests (guess the spy didn't see that coming).
And then there was the actual thing we went down there for, the wedding! Oh yeah, that! It was really beautiful: simple, elegant, tasteful, very Shannon. A couple of my friends whom I hadn't seen since I left St. Louis were there, and we had such a blast catching up, including Jeannie who has to come to New York and stay with us now (right?)!!! Shannon is singing all over the country, Rachel almost has her doctorate in choral conducting, James is managing a bar, Jean's photography is getting shown all over St. Louis, and Carole is still Carole. It was great to reminisce and to hear about all the ways Webster has changed since I graduated (can't help but feel like it became a real university right after I left, I was a little jealous). I do miss my Webster friends. Le sigh...
I sent out an evite for my birthday the other day and it made me realize how few friends I really have here in town. It's so hard to hang onto people in this city - people come and go so fast, and the ones that stay are often hard to keep in touch with because everyone's schedules are different, or they live somewhere far-ish and everyone's too broke to go out somewhere in the city. Somehow it always seemed easier to go meet up with people when you could just hop in the car and drive, and while I love the subway and not owning a car, it does seem like much more of a chore to take a train ride to NJ, or Brooklyn, or Staten Island, or blah... We found ourselves thinking "we should move here" while we were in D.C. more than a few times. I have a feeling it was mostly vacation syndrome - ie: we were enjoying ourselves more there because we left our jobs and worries at home - but it was definitely the type of place I could see us living, if there was a way for Nate to make money there (not that he makes much here). When you start thinking about the difference in cost of living, the presence of culture in a smaller atmosphere, attainable real estate, more down to earth people, it starts to look pretty attractive after living in the harsh city for nearly 6 years. Of course as soon as we left New York, we'd start complaining about how small and slow-paced everything is, and how not everything's accessible by train...basically the grass is just always greener.
At any rate, here's some pics from our trip...enjoy!
