Adventures in D.C.

Had a rollicking blast in Washington, D.C. Other than a brief weekend for a wedding about eight years ago, I hadn't been as an adult. And let me say - much better trip than when I was thirteen and got rushed through every site in like, I don't know five hours, so we could get back on the road to Colonial Williamsburg and see people make candles and take pictures of ourselves with our heads and arms in the stocks. (but enough on my family's odd and limited vacation habits, which, by the way, limited themselves mostly to things that were just off the interstate and within easy reach of either a Howard Johnson's or a Sizzler. I'm serious, folks. I did not grow up in a household that vacationed well or often. My husband often takes this into account as he tolerates the LIST of places we MUST see because damn it I never went anywhere and I'm making up for it now)

But anyway. D.C. Loved it. Well, okay, except for the endless crowds of school kids being dragged from monument to monument so they could get back on the bus and head to Colonial Williamsburg to see those candle making folk.

As for us, we did a lot of Metro riding, museum hopping, monument touring and walking. Lots o'walking. Explored Georgetown and Dupont Circle and Foggy Bottom and Capitol Hill neighborhoods. Walked that Mall area for all it was worth. Waited in line behind the aforementioned school kids at the National Archives. (heard more than one slightly bored teen comment versions of, "I'm too tired to really look, but I can say I've seen it" and one very diplomatic ten year old tell his mother at the Lincoln Memorial about nine thirty one night, "I really appreciate you taking me and all, but my legs hurt. Can we go back to the hotel?") Spent over three hours at the Holocaust Museum, which I have to say is the most moving and meticulously designed museum I've ever been to. By the end, I sat in the Hall of Remembrance and simply cried.

In between the museums, we walked some more, ate great food, chatted with some great Brits at the hotel happy hour and decided that the three story Barnes and Noble in Georgetown was the best ever. And a thankful shout out to friends Kim and Robb who now live in Capitol Hill in this awesome hundred year old row house and who took us to all their favorite haunts and even did the monuments at night thing with us which is definitely more touristy than one needs to get if one sees said monuments on the way to work every day.

And couldn't end this post without a report on the pandas at the National Zoo, whom I did not see because they spent six unsuccessful hours trying to mate on Tuesday (feel free to insert your own mental image) and then were taken out of commission for artifical insemination on Wednesday. We were also in DC for St. Patrick's Day and for the protests on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, but as there was no parade and the protestors mostly protested in front of the IRS building and (no joke ) Caribou Coffee, the pandas were really more interesting. Shouldn't have been. But they were.

Til next time...