Tuesday, March 25, 2014

The Travelling Aunt Visits Washington DC


The Travelling Aunt Visits Washington DC
(I cannot make the fonts match no matter what I do.  Just saying.)

The Travelling Aunt had occasion to travel to Washington DC in January.  I would recommend another season of the year for your DC travel.  However, I was provided an opportunity to enjoy the city a bit while being flexible in my plans.
First you have to go to San Francisco.
Is travelling with a screaming baby worse than travelling one seat if front of it?  Is boarding your shuttle on the trip to your connecting flight, only to find yet another screaming baby, a guarantee that you can of skip perdition?  What precisely is perdition?
You’ll be happy to know that once off the shuttle, and having climbed (yes climbed) actual stairs, The Travelling Aunt’s first sighting in the San Francisco Airport was Yankee Pier, a seafood restaurant.  Never mind the prices.  Truly.  A waiter comes to your table and takes your order.  And the wine arrives in an actual wine glass.  The only plastic present is the knife, which, since 2001, has been plastic inside most airports I have frequented.  And I promise not to refer to myself in the third person again.  In this post.
There is something to be said for a 2 ½ hour layover.  Thanks, Honey.  Did I mention there is a book store just outside the Yankee Pier?  Did I mention that the fish and chips are $17?  Did I mention that you just need to get over yourself,  enjoy the “no-cry zone” and tip the nice waiter?
A travel advisory here:  If you are in a hurry or have scheduled your arrival in late evening or during a chilly time of year, arrange for one of those little blue vans ahead of time (or for a local with a car) to pick you up at the airport.  My 10:00 arrival, a subsequent wait for tardy luggage, allowed me to enjoy the crisp curb at the Reagan airport for 20-30 minutes in a line that went on for ever and ever.  Fortunately I was properly coated and gloved and the temperature was mild.  For DC in January.
Chefs serenade us at the Du Pont Circle Farmers' Market

I love surprises.  Most surprises.  How delightful to find the DuPont Circle Farmers Market on Sundays included an orchestra of chefs (see picture above).  Those who do not play actual instruments use pot lids as cymbals.  Oh, and you can buy apples and grass fed beef too.

I encourage you to use a map and explore the city.  The underground is the Metro.  It can be confusing to figure out how to buy a ticket.  A gentleman in a glass cubicle came out, locked his cubicle, and used an automated ticket dispensing machine to buy my ticket.  You insert said item into a slot whenever you encounter a turnstile.  You pick it (or its replacement perhaps) up a few inches into the turnstile.  Thank you, sir.
My exploration took me to the Building Museum.  It was thankfully located at the exit of my metro, not the 1/2 block away that MapQuest had insisted I would have to walk. And east?  Which direction would that be?
I was satisfied with my visit to the Building Museum even though it is not really a museum.  They've taken a very old building that was formerly used to process benefits for serviceman and women and created a few areas of interest, including visiting exhibits which change every few months.  I was delighted to have a private tour as I was the sole guest for the docent tour.  You can see for yourself here:  The Building Museum.   I might be being generous with praise here because 1) I loved the gift store and 2) I was very proud of myself for finding my way to The Building Museum.
Having said that, It is time to insert here a couple of "being a tourist in DC" caveats.  1) Always decline to give  the guy who wants change as in “Do you have a 20 for two tens?” even when he holds out the two tens.  Giving him the 20 enables him to take the tens, turn away and come back holding a $1 as in “You made a mistake and gave me a one.” 
This enables you to say quite loudly “I gave you a twenty!  Are these counterfeit???”  Whereupon he will walk away as your train enters the station and you can get on and feel dumb and slightly proud at the same time.  
I did say a couple of caveats and I'm sure I'll think of more.
Walk when you can.  Especially in the lovely snow, the kind that falls in big fat flakes.  
Encounter pleasant surprises, as the building below evidences.  My daughter is a foreign service officer and unmarried.  Imagine my pleasure in discovering the building shown below quite by accident:

Go up to the roof.  If you are not a city dweller, go up on the roof of wherever you are staying.  


The building in the background is the Washington Cathedral from my daughter's roof.  Which is quite spacious and has a barbecue and lots of outdoor furniture which will be quite handy if it ever stops snowing.  Her apartment's roof, not the Cathedral.  Of course I can't be sure about what is on the roof of the Cathedral, which probably shouldn't be capitalized in this context as a noun anyway.  But you never know.

I highly recommend all of the Smithsonian museums as they are free and quite nicely put together.  I did not visit any of them on this trip but have done so previously.

My favorite thing to do, aside from George Washington's house which I found incredibly small, is to spend a day in Alexandria,
88


where I chose not to have a fish-eating-my-feet-skin pedicure and I have always regretted it, but I did dine in a restaurant that totally convinced me I was in Morocco and then discovered The Torpedo Factory

where you can not only see art of all kinds, but often watch the artists create.  It's at the end of the lovely main street, on the Potomac, if I'm not mistaken, and easily accessible by public transportation, which I know because I went there all alone without having to get a ticket salesman to come out of his booth to show me how to buy a ticket there.  I really do insist that you go there.  And try the fish pedicure.  I really do regret to this day that I did not.

Note:  I cannot go back and correct the spelling mistake because the page on which I'm writing this is showing nothing but complete black where I'm typing.  Just so you know.

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