washingpages-blog

[washingpages-blog]

We're back!! As soon as we have internet I'll do a Washington wrap up blog. Stay tuned!

[washingpages-blog]

Goodbye, Library of Congress!

[washingpages-blog]

Goodbye, Capitol!

and unknown man.

[washingpages-blog]

Goodbye, Mall!

[washingpages-blog]

Goodbye, District Doughnut!

[washingpages-blog]

It Was The Best Of Days; It Was The Worst Of Days

On Saturday two young guys who are moving into their first apartment came over to pick through our furniture.  Typically, I kept telling them that if they hated all of it, I wouldn’t be offended.  However, it turned out that they loved most of it.  They fit almost our entire living room into two small-ish cars.  It was great because that took a lot of stress off as far as what we were going to do with the furniture.  It was awful because now it’s pretty obvious that our time here is almost up.  We can only eat so many meals standing.

Here’s the apartment at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday morning:

And here it is at 1:00 p.m.:

On Monday morning another group is going to come over and take one of the beds, dishes, our printer, and various other items.  You may have noticed that the “Monster Chair” is left sitting all alone in the living room.  It is unlikely that the Monday group will take it, so it will go out with the last group to come through later in the week, “College Hunks Hauling Junk.”

[washingpages-blog]

What Happened?!

You know how it is when you have a little too much to drink and then you wake up the next day and find other people’s furniture in your house?  No, I don’t either (except for the time with a ceramic cat, but that’s another story... and so is the time that I accidentally ended up stealing a live cat; so I won’t be talking about either of those incidents here).  But remember all those fun blog posts that I put up almost a year ago about how we were going around finding furniture on the sidewalks and bringing it all home?  Let me tell you, it’s all fun and games until someone (me) has to get rid of all that stuff.  Now is the time and it isn’t easy.  Next week we have two groups coming to look at our furniture and hopefully they will take a bunch of it.  It’s pretty sad if you can’t even give your furniture away!

Pros and Cons

Since our year is almost up, you may be wondering how we feel about leaving. I came up with a list of pros and cons of living here.

Pros

-We love the Capitol Hill neighborhood - Living in the Capitol Hill neighborhood is almost like being in a small town.  We run into people we know; we see the same people going by our apartment each day. It has a small town feel.

-Great restaurants - Over the past year, we’ve eaten at about 30 different restaurants.  I can only recall one meal that we thought was mediocre.

-So much to do - We’re never at a loss to find something fun to do.  As an example, last week was the close of the Folklife Festival that took place on the Mall.  It was a circus and history of the circus all in one.  Free of charge.  The Mall itself is one of the pros for me.  There is always something going on.  I realized one day that it’s like the Minnesota State Fair every single day of the year (minus food on a stick, butter heads, and seed art).

-Beautiful city - From parks to memorials to buildings to sculptures, the city is full of beauty.  An added perk is that it is always in bloom.  Spring was spectacular with all the cherry trees, but now the Crape Myrtle trees are in bloom and they are everywhere.

-Metro - Yes, I love the metro.  I even bought a toy metro car to hang on our Christmas tree.

-Weather - There’s nothing wrong with having beautiful weather almost every day.  I’ll admit, though, I will be happy to see some snow this winter.

-People are actually excited to visit us here - No offense to Eau Claire, but it’s not as easy to get friends and family to visit us there as it is here.

Cons

-Dog ownership and no yard - Probably the toughest part of being here is being here with our dog.  We are lucky to have two parks close by, but we still have to put him on a leash and go outside with him.  Five times a day!  It gets old.  In fact, it was old back in September.  Now it’s old and hot.

-No family or friends - Okay, I shouldn’t have put the dog ahead of this one. The number one negative aspect of being here is having no family or friends close by.  Although, you’ll be happy to know that we aren’t complete losers; we have made a few friends here too.  Still, it’s been tough having a very small apartment with junky furniture where we can’t really invite people over.  We miss that a lot.  If there’s anyone actually still reading this, we miss you!

-Could never afford it - And here’s a catch having to do with our wonderful neighborhood:  we could never afford living here.  We’ve made it work for a year, but the houses are far too expensive for us. 

-Harder to get around - It still feels like an ordeal to me to get around.  I’m fine in the neighborhood; I’m fine in parts of Arlington.  I don’t enjoy driving around though.  That makes it kind of confining. 

-Traffic and noise - It’s a city, so there’s the constant sound of traffic and lots of sirens.

I’ll sum all of it up with this:  If we could move all of our friends and family here, we would stay if we could.  I guess it would have to involve a major lottery win too. So, family, friends and lottery win and we would stay.  Needless to say, we’ll be home August first.

[washingpages-blog]

It’s Brutal!

When you think of architecture in Washington, DC, you probably think of beautiful memorials and buildings such as the Lincoln Memorial, the White House, and the Jefferson Memorial. However, peppered (and heavy on the pepper) among those well-known structures is a lesser known type of architecture.  It’s called “brutalist.”  Popular from the 1950s-1970s, brutalist architecture is fairly easy to spot as it is frequently massive and heavy on the concrete, and the buildings are often elevated.

It is apparently also loved by some in the city.  I had definitely noticed the buildings and felt little appreciation of them until I read an article in the Washington Post that defends brutalist Architecture.  The DC Metro stops are also an example of brutalism and the Post author describes how the cleaning and painting of the Union Station metro caused outrage:  

“Then photos of the paint job circulated on social media — and local architects, design aficionados and critics (including this one) erupted in fury. ‘Keep Metro Bleak!’ urged one headline, while another decried the makeover as disrespecting the architecture. The controversy dragged from this past March into April, as more people saw Metro’s handiwork up close. ‘RAAAAAAAGEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!’ tweeted an architectural blogger from Union Station on April 8.” (From “The case for preserving — and improving — brutalist architecture” by Amanda Kolson Hurley, May 25, 2017)

I have to admit, after reading the article, I started to feel a little love for those homely structures. Like a dog so ugly that you have to feel some compassion, such are these buildings.  Here are some examples so you can decide for yourself.

 The Hirshhorn Museum - I actually truly like the Hirshhorn.  The inside of the structure is all windows.

 The Department of Energy

 The Smithsonian Metro Station

I don’t know what building this is, but it’s got all of the brutalist traits.

So the next time someone is going on and on to you about how beautiful the architecture in Washington, DC is, you can safely say, “It’s not all great.”  Unless, of course, you’ve taken a liking to it.

[washingpages-blog]

Pop Up Protest

I was out walking Virgil in Garfield park tonight, when a police car went by.  Then a police van.  Then two officers on motorcycles.  Off in the distance, I noticed a group of people outside a house. When I saw that they had posters, I guessed that they were protesting at the house of one of the members of congress.  I chatted with another woman who was watching and eventually we figured out that it is Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski’s house.  I wonder if it bothered the group that the black and white dog across the street was barking loudly at the motorcycles?

[washingpages-blog]

4th of July in Washington. Parade is about to start.

[washingpages-blog]

Last night's July 4th concert rehearsal at the Capitol.

[washingpages-blog]

Know Your Quadrant!

Quite a while back I talked about the layout of the city, how Washington has four areas: NW (northwest), NE (northeast), SW (southwest), and SE (southeast).  Each quadrant has a grid and all four are (mainly) the same - alphabet named east/west streets and numbered north/south streets.  So it’s possible that one address can be found in all four quadrants.  For example, there may be a 708 A Street in NW, NE, SW, and SE.  Here’s an event that demonstrates the importance of knowing your quadrant.

Yesterday morning, Pete was out for a run, Eydie was still sleeping, and I was getting breakfast ready.  I didn’t pay much attention when I heard a fire truck coming down the street.  Then it stopped in front of our building.  When a second truck stopped in front of the building, I went to take a look.  I saw about 10 firefighters jump from the trucks and run to an apartment at the back of our building.  They were carrying hoses and a crow bar.  That’s when I sprang into action.  I grabbed the cat carriers and shoved the cats inside, all the while yelling to Eydie to get out of bed and get ready to leave the apartment.  As I was putting Virgil’s leash on, I looked out and saw that Pete had returned.  He was standing outside talking to one of our neighbors.  At the same time, I noticed that the firefighters were heading back to the trucks.  One truck left immediately while the other had the hoses to roll back up.  When Pete came in, he told me that the neighbor had heard the firefighters get the call over their radio that they were supposed to be at our same address but Southwest not Southeast.   Oops!

Return to Georgetown

Eydie and I went back to Georgetown last week.  During our last trip we had completely missed the riverfront area, so I wanted to see it.  We decided to walk from the nearest metro stop: Foggy Bottom.  It’s supposedly about a mile walk but it didn’t feel like that at all.  About midway, you walk past the Watergate Complex which is interesting to see.

The inside of the Watergate Complex:

Here’s what the Georgetown riverfront looks like:

We also walked up to see the canal but were a little disappointed.  It’s being worked on right now and all the water is gone.  If you recall the beautiful photos that I put up of it months ago, here is what it looks like right now.

[washingpages-blog]

The Call Box Project

For months after we first arrived here I would walk by a metal box on the corner, and, even though it was draped in Christmas lights, I didn’t give it much thought.  Then a woman showed up and over the course of 3-4 days, she turned it into this:

A Prince shrine!  That’s when I began to wonder about the box and what it was originally.  There are others in the neighborhood, but they aren’t painted or even very well cared for.

A few weeks later, while on the embassy tour, I saw this:

Today Eydie and I took a walking tour of the Dupont Circle neighborhood and I discovered more boxes and some information on them.  I had thought that they were probably originally call boxes in case of a fire or emergency, and I was correct. The call boxes were first installed in the 1860s.  Since 1999, the city has had something called the Police and Fire Call Box Restoration and Rejuvenation Project.  There are over 250 volunteers who transform the abandoned call boxes into works of art.  Here are the ones that we saw today.

The website for the call box restoration includes information on how to adopt a call box.  There are a number of steps to go through which include submitting ideas and having neighborhood meetings to decide what to do with a call box.  I suspect that the designer of the call box on our corner is a rogue artist and not part of the official call box project.  As much as I admire the Prince shrine, it just doesn’t look quite like the other boxes.

[washingpages-blog]

The National Arboretum

A week ago we went to the National Arboretum.  It’s another of those out-of-the-way places that would be hard to get to without a car, but I highly recommend it for those who can figure out a way to get there.  I’m just going to let some photos speak for themselves.

[washingpages-blog]

The Golden Ticket!

As I mentioned in my last post, I managed to get a ticket to the National African American Museum.  Ever since I first saw the museum from the outside, I’ve wanted to visit.  The structure of the building is unlike anything else in the city, and it’s beautiful.

The museum has been essentially out of tickets ever since it opened in September.  But there are a few ways to attempt to get tickets.  One is that they open up tickets a couple months in advance.  For example, in April or May I tried to get tickets for July with no success.

A second way to get tickets it to show up at the museum at 1:00 in the afternoon.  I never tried that because I needed to meet Eydie after school and that wouldn’t have given me enough time to see the museum. 

The third way is to go to the website at 6:30 a.m. when they release some number of same-day tickets.  A couple weeks ago, I was sitting at the computer at 6:28 a.m., and I kept hitting the refresh button over and over until finally the tickets for that day showed up.  I chose a time slot and then typed as fast as I could to get my information in before someone else grabbed that same time slot.  And I did it!  My years of working for a closed captioning company finally paid off.  I was able to type faster than who knows how many other people to get a ticket!

The museum was well worth the hassle of getting the ticket.  The exhibits start three floors underground and go chronologically.  As you go through each floor and work your way up, you go from pre-slavery, through slavery, freedom, segregation, and 1960s and beyond.  The top floors are dedicated to African American community and culture.  My only complaint was that the floor with exhibits on music and entertainment had too many audio tracks competing with each other.  Also, the exhibit on the many talented African American musicians was more a showing of their clothing than their music.  It would have been great to be able to listen to some of the music.

From the inside:

This outfit would have been a fantastic Father’s Day gift for Pete if only they sold them in the gift shop!

[washingpages-blog]

Memorial Weekend Guests

Just a week ago we had a houseful of guests - sort of.  My Mom, my sister Amy, and my Aunt Kathy were here.  Amy stayed at the apartment with us and Mom and Kathy stayed at an airbnb nearby.  As always, it was a lot of fun to have people visit and to have people to show around.  And we did a lot!  The first day they got settled in and we had dinner at our apartment.  After we dropped Mom and Kathy off at the airbnb, they walked the 6 blocks to the Capitol.  We walked down to Navy Yard with Amy to look around and get some ice cream.

Good thing I’m wearing 1-inch heels or that girl next to me would be taller than I am.

On Saturday we took the metro to the Mall.  Our first stop was the Lincoln Memorial, then the Vietnam Memorial, next the White House, a quick lunch and then home again.  One thing that was interesting was that there were hundreds of thousands of bikers (as in Harley riders) in the city for the annual Rolling Thunder Ride.  Rolling Thunder is an advocacy group for Prisoners of War and Missing in Action. When we got into the long line of people to see the Vietnam Memorial, many of the people were Vietnam vets.  I have seen the memorial a few times already, but I have to say, going through it alongside a group of veterans gave it a whole new meaning.  It was quite moving to see people touching the name of a loved one or hearing them talk about the person. People had also printed photos and information about loved ones and left those at the base of the memorial.  I had been kind of dreading having all the bikers in the city for the weekend, but there was no down-side to having them here.  Plus, Washington can absorb a lot of people; you’d never know that there are an additional 300,000 or 400,000 people here. 

On Sunday we started out at the Natural History Museum, then went to the American History Museum.  As I see more and more of the Natural History Museum, I’m enjoying it more than I did during our first visit.

Monday was their last full day here and there were three things that we still wanted to see:  The Basilica, the Library of Congress, and Roosevelt Island.  And, of course, the three are not at all near each other.  Did we squeeze them all in?  Of course we did!  We went to the Basilica in the morning, Library of Congress in the afternoon, and the island later in the afternoon.  No problem!

Next time, I’ll tell you how I scored a ticket to the African American Museum!  I’ve been wanting to go since it opened in September and haven’t been able to get a ticket.  But last Thursday, I did it!

[washingpages-blog]

New Favorite

Last week I noticed on my long list of things to do and see in Washington that there was one final memorial that I hadn’t seen - the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial.  So I made plans to go there on Thursday.  Unfortunately, it’s harder to get to than some of the others.  Kind of a familiar theme for the Roosevelts; you may recall that many months ago I raved about the Teddy Roosevelt Memorial which is an island on the Potomac.  It would be difficult to get to without a car.  The FDR Memorial is in Washington on the Tidal Basin, but it’s quite a hike.  I noticed that most of the other people there that day had arrived by tour bus.  I took the metro to get there and still had to walk over a mile.  After I had toured it, I decided to walk home - 3 miles.

The memorial consists of a sequence of outdoor rooms with waterfalls of various sizes, gardens, and sculptures.  Other than the fact that I was one of a few hundred people there, it was very peaceful.