Our Nation's Capital
Ok, so one week in, what is it like here? Very interesting. The air feels different. It is about as hot and humid as it is in the vast river deltas of the central US. But here, nearly everyone is very busy. Except the street people, who stand out (sitting) in sharp contrast to the people striding by. We live just two blocks from the Capitol and see more than our fair share of staffers racing between horribly-important meetings and who know what all. We have seen some famous and powerful people, too. Sometimes by accident, and at least one time in their native habitat (floors of the House and the Senate). Obama was fascinating. There was quite a buzz when he entered the Senate chambers. There were plenty of other famously-powerful people there. But there was a palpable electrification of the air when he walked in. He looks polished when he appears on TV. What you don't see, on TV, is the sort of charisma he generates. (Hillary didn't have it at all, even though people in the galleries were almost as excited when she walked in. Were she still a viable candidate, I don't know if that would have been different.)
Our apartment occupies one floor of a turn-of-last-century row of brick townhomes. The livingroom is about 12feet square, as is the front room (now serving as children's bedroom). The kitchen and bath divide the next 12-foot square space, and the last 12-foot square space in the back is the other bedroom. It is all a bit tired looking. I feel good that the bathroom is very modern and capable of being clean. We share the kitchen with a few (a family about the size of ours)cockroaches, but they are fairly well-behaved and don't really fight us for the space. We have our own washer/dryer, and since maintenance came on Wednesday, the dryer is now working (so exciting. I did two loads of laundry yesterday morning, in half the time it had been taking for me to do half as much.) The little (exorbitantly-priced)grocery is around the corner, as is Starbucks plus a lot of other more interesting local restaurants, of different ethnicities and all with cafe seating on the sidewalk. The neighborhood is pretty colorful, but fairly safe up where we are. The local pocket-parks in the surrounding terrain all have their own permanent residents. We are 2 blocks from Metro, our preferred form of transportation. We do have a parking permit which allows us to park on the streets around the apartment, and we have been fortunate enough to find a spot somewhere in the block where we live. We leave the car there as much as possible.
What have we seen? Holocaust Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Air and Space Museum and Planetarium, Natural History Museum, Library of Congress (Paul and me), National Botanical Gardens (Paul and me, again), Capitol, House where Lincoln died, Georgetown, Iwo Jima Memorial and the Marine parade band and drill team, Five Guys Hamburger restaurant (look them up on the web), National Archives, Old Post Office, Union Station. (And Williamsburg, on the way here, as well as Newport and the Monitor museum) Today we are off to see Pandas. After pancakes. I wonder if that will be enough to get the older kids out of bed.
Our apartment occupies one floor of a turn-of-last-century row of brick townhomes. The livingroom is about 12feet square, as is the front room (now serving as children's bedroom). The kitchen and bath divide the next 12-foot square space, and the last 12-foot square space in the back is the other bedroom. It is all a bit tired looking. I feel good that the bathroom is very modern and capable of being clean. We share the kitchen with a few (a family about the size of ours)cockroaches, but they are fairly well-behaved and don't really fight us for the space. We have our own washer/dryer, and since maintenance came on Wednesday, the dryer is now working (so exciting. I did two loads of laundry yesterday morning, in half the time it had been taking for me to do half as much.) The little (exorbitantly-priced)grocery is around the corner, as is Starbucks plus a lot of other more interesting local restaurants, of different ethnicities and all with cafe seating on the sidewalk. The neighborhood is pretty colorful, but fairly safe up where we are. The local pocket-parks in the surrounding terrain all have their own permanent residents. We are 2 blocks from Metro, our preferred form of transportation. We do have a parking permit which allows us to park on the streets around the apartment, and we have been fortunate enough to find a spot somewhere in the block where we live. We leave the car there as much as possible.
What have we seen? Holocaust Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Air and Space Museum and Planetarium, Natural History Museum, Library of Congress (Paul and me), National Botanical Gardens (Paul and me, again), Capitol, House where Lincoln died, Georgetown, Iwo Jima Memorial and the Marine parade band and drill team, Five Guys Hamburger restaurant (look them up on the web), National Archives, Old Post Office, Union Station. (And Williamsburg, on the way here, as well as Newport and the Monitor museum) Today we are off to see Pandas. After pancakes. I wonder if that will be enough to get the older kids out of bed.
Labels: vacation, Washington DC