I’m going to the nation’s capital today. I’ll try to have things cleaned up by Sunday.
Update
Getting wisdom from Albert Einstein:
Update 2 – Friday was an enjoyable day despite any number of errors, missteps, and other speed bumps that could have been aggravating had we been towing along cranky children. The flight itself was decent – just about one hour from wheels up to wheels down. Before the flight, I went to the newsstand for a newspaper, but couldn’t help myself and got a backpacking magazine. This is being a little cruel to myself since it shows pictures of places I won’t get to for at least another year.
Anyway, once we got to Dulles, however, we found out that it sucks as an airport. The baggage handling was ponderous. The wait for baggage took just about as long as the flight itself. Then the wait to get to the rental car took quite awhile. Then we checked into the hotel – and got a nice surprise. We’re here for a wedding, and the bride and groom had a nice gift basket with cookies and metro fare in it. I made a navigation error getting to the park & ride that took us into some snarled traffic at 2 p.m. on a Friday afternoon. Finally, we got to the park & ride – the Metro system in D.C. is pretty slick once you get to it.
Our first destination was a pilgrimage to the Lincoln Memorial.I like to gauge my level of jadedness by my emotional reaction to the Memorial. I still get a little choked up there, so there is still some humanity left.
After that, we got a little tripped up by the paucity of dining opportunities in the mall area. I would have been happy with a hot dog cart, but my dear wife was looking for something just a little more upscale (not much, just a little). After some wanderings (and discovering that I had “T”s phone number misprogrammed into my phone when I was calling to ask about the whereabouts of a Thai restaurant he’d mentioned near Foggy Bottom. Ultimately, we went to a little burger place near George Washington where I had an excellent burger topped with corned beef, kraut, and russian dressing.
Then we tried to walk to the Jefferson Memorial from the Smithsonian Metro station. Either it can’t be done or we took the wrong approach; because the sidewalk ended at the Treasury building and didn’t appear to go over the bridge to the Jefferson Memorial Island. At that point, we’d walked a number of miles and were just ready to get back to the hotel.
[To be continued]
Update 3
When we got back to the hotel, we thought swimming in the pool would be just the thing. But, as it turns out, the pool was kind of small and unremarkable and, in any case, was filled with about 8 teens playing volleyball with a beach ball. The elevator had mentioned they had a comedy club attached with shows beginning at 8. We had just enough time to make it, but when we went in the greeters said that the sign was wrong – it didn’t start until 9. So, we returned at 9. The audience consisted of ourselves and 10 other people. A dozen patrons at a comedy club. That’s pretty unfortunate for those comics who like to interact with the audience. It got even more pathetic — the first two comics were the greeters we’d met when we came at 8. Fortunately, the headliner was funny. My favorite bit was about Mel Gibson – “I mean, I’ve been drunk; but I’ve never been Nazi drunk.
This morning was a little slice of heaven, however. The kids being absent, Amy and I slept until a little after 9. That’s pretty much unheard of these days. So, the whole cleaning up D.C. thing has taken a back burner, but overall the trip has been enjoyable.
Yea!
Yeah, I’d like you to pay extra attention to the area around the Tidal Basin. I think it’s getting some algae stains this year. You can pick up some good algaecide at Beltway Distributors, ask for Francis.
You are talking about “cleaning” aren’t you?
Heh, I’m in Balitmore myself, for a wedding this weekend. Hoosiers are invading the east coast in record numbers!
Funny enough, once in Maryland on the drive here, I kept pace with another Allen Co. car, and a Lake Co. car, both of whom were heading toward D.C.
Maybe, you ought to stick around Lafayette and clean up instead…
http://www.theindychannel.com/news/16654643/detail.html
We fully expect that you will, Doug. After all, isn’t that what law degrees are for?
In the immortal words of the Joker (aka Jack Nicholson): “This town needs an enema!”
Good luck! Perhaps this can be your job training for moving up here to Lake County and doing likewise;-)
Hey! I remember that statue! Only I had about 65 8th graders with me most of who insisted on sitting on Mr. Einstein. Good times…..
Our last trip to DC, we did more U-turns than I would have liked. The route to the Jefferson Memorial is kind of screwy, too.
I think the Thai restaurant was called Thai Place. It was I think on Pennsylvania Ave. NW (diagonal road heading NW from the White House), and it was up by the GW University Hospital, looking at a map it looks like between 21st and 22 Street just short of the hospital. I think the World Bank was across the street. It was a hole-in-the-wall on the left side of Pennsylvania (walking toward the NW), jam-packed full of people at lunch, and good food pretty cheap.
I also found some really good Thai at the Tyson’s Corner Mall, but that’s pretty far out of the way.
DC at night from the air is a sight to behold, much nicer than daylight on the ground where one can imagine all sorts of sordid deals being brokered behind every door. I hear Lincoln after dark is quite a sight as well. I didn’t get to do that one. Have fun!
Any city from the air at night looks better than it does from the ground during the day.
Lincoln after dark is quite powerful. Glad to know that Lincoln still gave you chills, Doug. Guess you’re not fully a lawyer yet;-)
Last time I was in DC was when I had my learner’s permit-so dad didn’t let me drive there. And for a seasoned driver-a man who professionally drives trucks all over the country-I seem to recall him getting lost a time or two there.
I’ll get back again when the kids are old enough to appreciate it. Otherwise I have little use for most of DC; except the museums.
Just had another memory come back-part of the cool part of Lincoln after dark is facing the reflecting pond and seeing the Washington Monument lit up in the sky and lit up reflected in that pool.
Washington was the first place where I saw someone urinating on the side of a building on a busy street in daylight.
I remember that. Wasn’t our cousin Cindy with us at the time? Seems like he was peeing on a sign for the treasury building.