Awesome DC rambling

Photo by Kris Wilcox

When Kris and I came out here to DC for the big job interview early in January, we had two-plus days to stroll around the city... Here's some highlights:

From the State Plaza Hotel, which was pretty decent for the money--affordable because we were here in the slow season--we could amble to something interesting in every direction.  The cloud-impaling Washington Monument was close by and worth the short wait in a wintry breeze to board the elevator.  A free ticket gets you not quite to the top of the 555 feet, 5 - 1/8 inch tall obelisk, where the views of the city are predictably awesome.  Would love to climb the stairs, but alas, it's not open to the public.

Our wanders took us to the Lincoln Memorial and the awesome seated statue of the late president.  He must have been a large fellow.  We ducked down to the heated space below to check out the displays, well done.  We were then humbled, as is everyone, by the Vietnam Memorial nearby.  Wow.

We walked the length of the mall (about two miles), glancing over at the well securitized White House, and popping briefly into the Smithsonian Museums of Natural History and Air and Space along the way.  All free and totally awesome.  At Air and Space, you are greeted by John Glenn's capsule; the Columbia command module that brought Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins home from the moon; Amelia Earhart's solo Atlantic airplane, the Vega; as well as the Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis--all there in living color.  Elliott will love this stuff, said Kris (about her oldest nephew in Bellingham).  We'd do the museums justice later.

Near the U.S. Capitol, someone had gathered the last lingering liter of snow into a little snowman with stick arms and pebble eyes.  Kris must have taken a dozen pictures of him with her cell phone (see above).  Quite photogeneic with the dome of the Capitol in the background.  Frosty Jr. was perched on a railing surrounding the awesome U.S. Grant memorial, which includes a substantially correct, anatomically speaking, sculpture of a defining Civil War moment of men on horses, highly detailed.

We looked across the reflection pool and headed for the Capitol itself, surprised to learn that we could join a free one-hour tour of the place without a wait.  There's something to be said about visiting DC in the off-season.  It may be cold and flowerless, but it's also touristless, which makes everything quite accessible and enjoyable.  The numbers of people roaming the mall and museums had since climbed noticeably.  The Capitol tour was, well, awesome.

We scooted past the Supreme Court and I still look forward to sitting in on some deliberations there one of these days.  We marched into Union Station, one of the awesomest architectural monuments in the country.  They say you could lay down the Washington Monument inside and not touch the end walls.  After coffee and a bagel in the food court, we marched onward so I could show Kris where I'd be working if I actually got the job.

We ambled along through downtown and out to Adams-Morgan, a hip and cool part of the city with a lot of history, bars and artsy-fartsy hangouts, not as excessively gentrified as I thought it might be, but what do I know.  It was our first time seeing the place and the blocks upon blocks of century-old (and more) townhouses in all the bright and pastel colors and looking ever-inviting.  We grabbed a coffee at Starbucks, which gets you into the restroom, of course.

One of our three evenings we strolled out Connecticut to the even hipper and allegedly cooler Dupont Circle where the rents are outrageous, but the restaurants, at least some of them, we found to be reasonable.  We enjoyed an excellent meal at the Tomate, a great italian place with window seats and a lot of character.

Then to top it off with the hippest, coolest and charmiest of the old neighborhoods, we scurried over to Georgetown to see what was there.  The nightlife and the daylife both are diverse, curiously quaint and thoroughly entertaining, even for the non-shoppers, as long as you don't mind rubbing elbows with hordes of happy strangers on a sunny afternoon.  Many hours of good walking to be done here, on busy and quiet streets, as well as the old C&O Canal.  I think I'd enjoy living here.  Unfortunately, so would half the city, which seems to have induced some upward influence on rental rates.  Around $2,000 a month will get you into a two-room closet, but very cute.  For a cool $million, you can save your rent and buy your very own historic townhouse with scads of room for guests.  Awesome.

So that's a couple of days in a nutshell.  If this post hadn't gotten so long already, I'd mention the two black guys who sang stunning harmonies for us on the Metro (subway) platform, and the night out with our friends Louis (a former housemate and mountain buddy from Bellingham) and his wife of six (?) years, Elizabeth.  They both now work for Interior--different agencies, same building.  Their lovely two kids were also a kick in the pants.  Great time had by all.

So come to D.C. when the hankerin' hankers.  We'll leave the light on for ya.