June 9-12, 2011
It's time to catch up on happenings after my trip to Kansas. The day after my mom went back to California, Rowan and I and our friend Sally jetted off to Washington D.C. for a few days of fun.
Rowan had a one day meeting at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), but we spent the rest of the time visiting our dear friend Arvydas and doing some sightseeing and, of course, gorging ourselves on seafood and everything a large city has to offer. It also just happened to be Pride weekend, so there were many events to attend, as I will get to later in this post.
We stayed at the FABULOUS Fairmont Hotel at Dupont Circle. We usually don't spring for such a lavish place (we are happy staying in just about anything as long as it has running water. Remember, we have been in India!), but that is where Rowan's meeting was, so here we are! I won't waste post space on photos from the inside, but if you have ever been in a Fairmont Hotel, you know how beautiful they are.
Our first order of business after arriving was a nap :o) and then a walk over to P Street to meet Arvydas for dinner. Seafood was our first choice as we were so near the ocean. Our first thing was to get some fresh oysters in our bellies, so we ended up at Hanks Oyster Bar.Arvydas, me and the oysters
The next day, while Rowan was at her meeting, Sally and I ventured off to see some of the sights of DC. We started with the Black House (that's what we call it now because we are so proud to have an African American living there :o) ) We stopped by to say hi to Barack and the many squirrels who were there to greet us (I think they were all working for the secret service).
The Black House
As we sat on the stone wall in the shade in front of the Black House, a squirrel came up and nearly got on my lap as I was eating my apple. I handed him my apple core when I was finished. He ran out onto the Black House lawn to eat his prize, obviously telling command central that we were OK and to let us sit there and enjoy the view as long as we liked.
No trip to Washington DC is complete without stepping into at least one of the Smithsonian museums. Sally hadn't been to the Museum of Natural History (my favorite), so that was our first stop on the National Mall.
Sally is a dentist, so the first thing she wanted to do was get up close and personal to have a look at old Trex's teeth. Definitely a meat eater! :o)
This is a most frightening sloth-like dinosaur. Good thing the sloth decided to evolve into a smaller, kinder animal. This one is about the size of a Trex. Can you imagine coming across one of these while out hiking in the woods?!!
This was the most fantastic giant prehistoric tortoise. These amazing creatures have hardly changed in millions of years.
Imagine the poop that would be on your head from this Pterodactyl !! :o)
After we had our stroll through natural history, we ventured back out into the 100 degree heat (ugh!) and took a walk through the National Gallery of Art sculpture garden. Here are a few of my favorites in the garden:
This fabulous stainless steel tree titled,' Graft', by Roxy Paine is an amazing sight.
Louise Bourgeois, Spider
After walking around the sculpture garden in the +100 degree heat, we HAD to stop at one of the carts on the Mall and get something really cold. The obvious choice was a snow cone. As we sat on a stone wall in the shade at the back of the National Gallery, we could almost see the steam come off of us as we took bites of the frosty cold wonderfulness. Whew!
As we continued to walk back up Pennsylvania Avenue, we came across many bike racks full of bikes anyone can rent for 30 minutes to a whole day. Just put your credit card in the slot and off you go, for as cheap as $3.00. There are bike stations all over the city, so you can pick a bike up at one station and leave it at another. A really fabulous idea most cities in the US should be embracing. Who doesn't want to see less cars on the road and less pollution and independence from being prisoners of the oil industry! DON'T get me started!!! :o) And, think of the exercise and how good that would be for our overweight, diabetic, depressed population. The health benefits are HUGE! Yes, I do have an opinion, as usual :o) Notice how as I write this post, we are walking everywhere and not even taking the metro or a taxi. We must have walked 8-10 miles on today's adventure.
After all that heat and exercise today, Sally and I had to have a quick nap before heading out for more night life with our friend Arvydas. Rowan snapped this photo when she came back to the room after her meeting. Oh dear..........
After our nap, we freshened up and prepared ourselves for another evening of more walking, eating and pre-Pride festivities. For those of you who don't know what Pride is, it is the yearly celebration for the gay community that takes place in towns and cities all over the world during the month of June. We just happen to be here for the DC Pride weekend. There will be more on all of that in the DC & Pride Part 2 of this post.
As we walked through the Dupont Circle neighborhood to get back to Hank's Oyster Bar (it was so good last night, we are eating there again tonight), I kept stopping to take in the architecture. The city is so old that there are many centuries of architectural style to look at. One of my most favorite things to do is photograph architectural carved faces and gargoyles. I have taken photos all over the world of images like these on buildings. A craft hardly used in modern architecture today. Here are just a couple from DC.
So, when is the last time you saw a Merman used as an adornment to hold up a window seat?
I find the lions head worn as a hat on this very Beau Arts face fantastic.
This panther/monkey type gargoyle shot out from the second story of an 18th century stone mansion. You can just imagine how it protects this building from evil spirits.
As we walked up the street past the many old brownstone buildings, we came across lots of small front courtyards that were so creative. Here is the home of an artist (he had his plaque outside) where there was a garden of large ceramic asparagus spears and two large chairs carved out of limestone. Wanted to make us sit down and take a rest right there.
Once at Hank's (http://www.hanksdc.com/), Rowan got right to her sake oyster shooter followed by a splash of beer. We followed that up with more plates of oysters and seafood. YUMMMMMM!!!!! Is this woman happy, or what!!!
We stayed out playing with Arvydas until about midnight and then headed back to the hotel for some zzzz's. We are planning another day of walking around town tomorrow, so we need our strength. It is supposed to be 98 degrees! ugh!
The first stop on our Saturday adventure was at the Human Rights Campaign National Headquarters. This is the largest LGBT organization in the country. A big weekend for everyone at the HRC.
After our stop at the HRC, we continued down the street to the National Geographic Museum.
If you have ever seen one of their magazines, you can imagine the wonderful photojournalism we saw here. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photographs inside the museum so none are featured here. You will have to go to their website or visit it in person (http://events.nationalgeographic.com/events/locations/center/museum/). I did take this great photo of Rowan and Sally just outside the museum with this wonderful bronze mountain fountain.
We also stopped at the historic Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle. The church has been at this site since 1893. Go here for the wonderful history of the church: http://www.stmatthewscathedral.org/about (Services for John F. Kennedy were held here after his death). As we were walking by, we could hear that they were having a mass. We were drawn inside by the beautiful angelic music being sung by the choir and congregation. We stepped into the back rows and just stood there and enjoyed the moment with the wonderful sound being amplified by the huge rotunda. It was so beautiful it took our breath away.
Stay tuned for Part 2..............The Parade!
