Weekend Adventures

The past two weekends, I've been playing the role of a D.C. tour guide. One of my new year's resolutions was to "get to know D.C. like a local," so hosting guests is a great opportunity to test out how far I've come along in that goal.

Carla's Visit

The weekend before last, Carla was in town. She got in fairly late on Friday night, as she and her friend were driving down from Buffalo after an exam, so we stayed in, sipping wine and catching up with one another, which was quite lovely.

On Saturday, after a leisurely breakfast of cinnamon rolls and coffee, Jess, Carla and I started the day by visiting the Pentagon Memorial. Although I live two miles away from the Pentagon, I had yet to visit the site of the 9/11 attacks. It is a very mysterious memorial filled with symbolism representing each victim.

We then headed into D.C. to visit the Capitol. We took the Capitol Visitor Center tour, and, although it was my third time taking it, I nonetheless enjoyed seeing the rotunda. One of my favorite things to see are the statues from each state in the National Statuary Hall Collection. Each state has two statues in the Capitol, and they are allowed to replace the statues with different ones periodically. One of California's statues is Junipero Serra. Until recently, the other statue was Thomas Star King--yeah, I didn't know who he was, either--but, he was replaced this year by Ronald Reagan.

The most exciting part of our visit to the Capitol was that the House of Representatives happened to be in session all day to pass the health care bill! We were able to get tickets to go into the Visitor's Gallery of the House, which required waiting in line for an hour and going through multiple metal detectors. It was so worth it! When we sat down, a Democrat was giving a speech in support of the bill. Naturally, when he finished, the Democratic representatives applauded. However, when I joined in, I was swiftly reprimanded by the guard for clapping, which is expressly forbidden. I had read the back of the ticket, and knew this, but, but... I just got swept up in the moment! Oops.

We walked across the street to check out the Supreme Court (closed on the weekends, but still quite impressive from the outside) and the Library of Congress. I bragged without reserve about my Library of Congress researcher card, which gains me access to the Main Reading Room. My favorite part is Thomas Jefferson's Library, which is an exhibition of the books from Jefferson's personal collection, which he sold to the Library of Congress after the British burned down the Capitol. (Darn British!) The fascinating thing about the collection is that Jefferson had his own system of categorizing books--Memory, Reason, and Imagination. So intriguing.

After that, we strolled along the Mall, visiting the National Gallery Sculpture Garden (more on this below) and then regrouping at Starbucks. We decided to take the Metro back to Arlington to collect Jess's car, so that we could visit the Jefferson Memorial and F.D.R. Memorial, which are not easily accessible on foot. Jess and I agree that the F.D.R. Memorial is our favorite memorial in the city, and it is especially wonderful when lit up at night. We also checked out the White House, the World War II Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. Jess took a very creative photo of us by using her 10-second delay function:


On Sunday morning, the three of us went to Mass at my dear law school's chapel, and then walked over to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which had several fascinating exhibits. One featured American folk art, with art made from bottle caps, quilts, wood, and even tin foil. I also enjoyed the exhibition on 1934, which only had paintings from that year, capturing a wide variety of scenes from American life in that era. We concluded our time together by eating lunch outside at Busboys and Poets, taking in the beautiful sunshine. It was a joy to see Carla, not only because I missed her, but also because, with the three of us together, it felt like a little bit of ADX, which is a nice feeling.

Matthew's Visit

This past weekend, Matthew came down from MIT to visit. It was wonderful to catch up with him, as we hadn't seen one another since his semester in Berkeley. Matthew got in Friday afternoon; after we ate Chinese food in Chinatown, we walked to the Supreme Court to catch the last courtroom lecture of the day. There were a lot of high schoolers in the crowd asking obnoxious questions that demonstrated their complete misunderstanding of the judicial process. How is it possible for high school to offer only one semester of civics?! Not enough!

After that, we did a brief tour of the Library of Congress, and then walked around the city, stopping by the the National Gallery Sculpture Garden--well, until we got kicked out by a guard shortly after nightfall, when the garden closed. Boo. We saw most of the sculptures, though. My new favorite is a full-sized silver tree, which provides an interesting contrast to the surrounding real trees. We had dinner at La Tasca, a great tapas restaurant, which included very sweet duck, snow peas paired with Canadian bacon, delicious marinated beef, a green apple salad, and a bizarre deep-fried potato-and-chicken purée with a garlic dipping sauce (my least favorite dish).

On Saturday, Matthew and I strolled along the Mall to the Lincoln Memorial, and then took a tour to the top of the Washington Monument. It was overcast (Ida was still affecting us), so visibility wasn't spectacular, but at 500 feet it nonetheless afforded us a great view of the city. I noted that our tickets abbreviated the monument as "WaMo," which I really hope catches on as a new nickname. You know, like MoMA!

Next, we headed over to the National Archives. In my mind, the exciting documents to see are the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, but Matthew was amazed by the Magna Carta. In retrospect, I think he has a point... and, yet, the Magna Carta is treated as a mere side attraction. As Matthew put it, it seemed like it would be pretty easy to steal the Magna Carta without anyone noticing, whereas two guards flank the U.S. Constitution.

After a mediocre lunch at the Archives' cafe (which I do not recommend), we walked to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. We spent over three hours there, and only made it through about 70% of the exhibits. It's so huge! My favorite things there are Lincoln's hat, the original American flag, and the exhibit on American presidents. They had a new exhibit on The Scurlock Studio and Black Washington, which I loved. What fantastic photography, to tell such stories and capture such emotion.

We attempted to go to the Sign of the Whale (the official bar of the D.C. Cal Alumni Club) to watch the game against Arizona, but unfortunately Matthew couldn't get in without his passport to supplement his Australian ID. We were a bit bummed out at this, but then I took us over to Afterwords, one of my favorite restaurants, in DuPont. It's quirky... you have to walk through its bookshop to get to the restaurant, which really makes me happy for some reason. Anyhow, they often have amazing specials, and that night was no exception. Matthew and I both ordered the following:

Narragansett baked ½ lobster w/crabmeat
½ New England lobster
stuffed w/jumbo lump crabmeat
brushed w/sweet butter & fired under the broiler
w/puréed butternut squash & Café mac & cheese
corn & lima bean succotash; grilled fresh asparagus

It was amazing. Matthew and I were silent through most of the meal because we were too focused on the food to talk. Wow. The best part--it was only $20! Most of the entrées are around $15, so it wasn't much of a stretch. Neither one of us had ever ordered lobster before because it tends to be prohibitively expensive, so it was quite a treat. Lobster is good, but I still think I prefer crab because it has a more palatable texture. All of the sides were so good, too... They were all fairly buttery, which complemented the lobster perfectly. When I first read the description, I had assumed that those were our choices of sides--but, no, we got all of them! One of the best meals I've ever had, especially for the price.

After spending all day on our feet walking the Mall and shuffling through museums, we were pretty tired, so we headed back to my apartment and watched Rent. Such a great movie!

This morning, Matthew and I went to Mass at the Georgetown Law chapel, and I gave him a little tour of campus. Then, we had lunch (at Busboys and Poets, ha ha), and caught the Circulator bus toward Georgetown to visit the Dumbarton Oaks gardens. I had never heard of the place, but a friend of Matthew's recommended it, so we decided to check it out. It is so beautiful! It is humongous, with lots of little stone walking paths to meander. We explored the garden for an hour-and-a-half, which gives you an idea of the size. One of my favorite parts was the rose garden, which smelled lovely. Oh, and there was a lawn in front of a fancy brick house that looked like something out of a Jane Austen novel! I cannot wait to visit this gorgeous garden again in the spring, when everything is in bloom.

We took the bus back to Chinatown, and spent the balance of our time at the National Portrait Gallery before Matthew had to catch his flight home. Matthew was sweet enough to give me a novel called Dirt Music by Australian author Tim Winton as thanks for letting him sleep on our couch. Actually, I was amazed that Matthew, who is rather tall, fit on our couch. Then again, one of the reasons Jess and I chose that couch was specifically because we could think of tall people who might come visit. (And, Jess is quite tall, for that matter.) All in all, it was a lovely visit that made me feel like I was on vacation, too. I feel recharged and ready to study for final exams!