a dapple of my weekend, in dc

You know those weekends that literally feel like they only lasted about five hours and make you feel physically ill to see them end?

Yeah, that was this weekend.

Since we had a car in the city, we took full advantage of driving ourselves around everywhere, even if that meant giving up a perfectly good parking spot and sitting in Fourth of July traffic. At least we got to drive by Lincoln sitting up in his chair.

Since the weather was oppressively hot, we spent quite a bit of time by the rooftop pool, having breakfast and playing water games and drinking cold mimosas.

No weekend would be complete without Eastern Market of course, so we bore the heat for about 20 minutes, admiring doorknobs and tasting hummus and buying the late-in-the-day on-sale produce. We then went promptly across the street into an air conditioned shop and gulped iced teas.

And of course, we trekked to the mall with a million other tourists to see the fireworks above the monument on Sunday evening.

Not included in photos: barbecuing with friends in front yards drinking beer, kayaking down the Potomac (if only my camera was waterproof!), going to the salon for extremely intimate waxing sessions (yipes!), relishing in bars just around the corner from Rachel's apartment, deciding to go home and eat artichokes instead of bar-hop some more, and falling asleep during movies on air mattresses.

Oh yeah, and we were eating something delicious every other minute, just as it should be:

And then I drove home alone with my book on CD, sadly.

the newseum

While visiting Rachel in DC (what seems like years ago), we decided to visit the Newseum, since everything else in the city was (literally) closed. Although it was expensive and a trek from her apartment, it was one of our limited options so we took it.

And it was well worth it. With six floors and multiple interactive exhibits, we stayed all afternoon, and kind of made up for not having done much of anything in the days before. We saw a video on news throughout the centuries, witnessed some very disturbing and moving 9/11 footage (note: not appropriate for children, my ten-year-old sister included...), got to see and touch pieces of the Berlin Wall (below), and even got to host our own newscasts.

It was a great, great sister day.

I'd highly recommend.

ben's chili bowl

While in DC this weekend, going to Ben's Chili Bowl was at the top of our to-do list--blizzard or no blizzard. We attempted this the last time I had visited Rachel, only to find the line winding out the door and drunken fools shouting across the street. Apparently, chili dogs make very good drunk food.

But hey, we wanted our drunk food, too.


So this past weekend, we indulged. After hearing so much hype about the famous Ben and his chili and even reading about it here, I knew I had to try.

But I have to admit--it wasn't anything fabulous. Maybe it was the weather and the lack of excitement in the place (and very few customers), but I wasn't very impressed. Although, I don't think I'm really a chili-dog kinda person, so perhaps I'm not the best judge.

However, there was this really cute enormous-sized snowman across the street, so it kind of made the snowy walk (although only ten minutes long) completely worth it.

Note: Please make sure your stomach is in the right state before attempting Ben's Chili Bowl. It's been known to, um, mix things up.

back from/to a blizzard

Whew. Let me tell you--I am so done with snow. I've seen more snow in the past week than I'd care to see all season. Washington, DC got hit with a major blizzard the day after MH and I arrived (we even heard stations calling it "The Blizzard of Twenty-Ten") and we saw it through till the bitter end. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Rachel bought MH and I plane tickets to come visit her for our birthdays in the fall. This was MH's very first plane trip, so excitement was in the air for weeks beforehand. I'll admit--I was a little wary of traveling alone with my ten-year-old sister and being by her side nonstop for four whole days (which turned into five), so I tried to, um, keep my distance the week before. I can only handle so much tween-age.

I've never seen so much excitement in a child. Unfortunately, it was a nighttime flight so we couldn't see much, but she was ecstatic all the same. Which was actually helpful for me, nervous flyer that I am--I was busy trying to keep MH excited and not let her see that I was anxious about the whole ordeal, so I didn't have time to freak out. Worked out nicely, actually.

We sat next to a sweet old lady who was traveling to DC to help her daughter shop for her wedding dress that weekend. MH offered her a piece of gum (she was very preoccupied with making sure her ears didn't hurt) and we made friends. Thinking back, she must have never gotten to shop for a dress. Everything was closed (including every single Starbucks we tried--devastating, I know). I never did get her name, sadly.

By the time Friday afternoon rolled around, snowflakes were starting to fall and the city was shutting down. Apparently, our nation's capital does not handle blizzards well. AT ALL. We got in our White House tour in the morning, but the Library of Congress closed early, along with practically everything else in the city. We walked around a bit more as the flurries continued and stopped in at the Botanic Gardens, which is probably my favorite place in DC. Since we couldn't bring cameras into the White House we didn't get any real pictures (phones just don't count) so I have nothing to show for it. But know that if you're ever in DC, the Botanic Gardens is definitely worth a stop. Especially with a blizzard going on outside the greenhouse walls.

We woke up Saturday morning to a winter wonderland. We naive-ly decided to bundle up and head out into the ever-increasing snowstorm. Apparently our trip to the top of the Washington Monument was canceled (which we also missed when we visited last summer on account of a thunderstorm).

We walked out to face fallen trees, covered cars, and pure-white streets. The city was literally a ghost town--we saw maybe three cars sillily trying to navigate the streets and a handful of people bundled up like we were.

Walk down the middle of a busy street in Washington, DC? No problem.

Unfortunately, we didn't realize how bad the storm really was, and didn't last long. By the time we reached the mall and the Monument, we were miserable and ready to go home. I couldn't keep my poor camera dry and MH was getting blisters on her feet. Blizzards can really kick butt.

Later that night, we ordered Chinese food from the only open place around and then headed up to the roof to play in the snow some more (in dryer clothes, and more layers this time).

On Sunday, we braved the snow again and went out for a photo walk to the Lincoln Memorial (because everything was still shut down completely).

I'm still trying to figure out this new camera, and the white balance or something was off-kilter so most of my snowy pictures came out too bright.

The steps up to Lincoln were barred off (apparently people in DC don't know how to behave in the snow, either) so we had to settle for pictures with the Monument and shoe-skating on the reflecting pool.

After 5 1/2 miles of traipsing around the city (that's right, we Google mapped it--I want my credit for our only exercise of the weekend), our fingers were numb and our legs were tired, so we headed home. Another day without any real plans, but we figured it was our only option and we were headed home in the morning anyways, so we'd take it.

Since all of the museums and government buildings and stores were closed all weekend, we did a lot of movie-watching, eating, and lounging. Which was just fine with me.

Lucky for us, our Monday morning flight was cancelled (yes, they were still recovering from a snowstorm that ended Saturday evening) and we got to stay an extra day with our sister. Out of lack of other options and sick of tv-movies, we decided to try the Newseum for the afternoon.

Finally, Tuesday morning came around and we sadly headed back to BWI for our flight home. After four straight days of snowed-in-ness and over 24 inches of snow, we had to say goodbye to our hostess-sister and fly home. It was very sad.

Fortunate, though, that we got out when we did--flights later that night were already being cancelled for another impending storm. That city does not need any more snow. And now, the storm has made its way to Connecticut, and MH and I are seeing even more snow than we thought we ever would.

Snow, I am officially sick of you.

But I'll take the day off from work, anytime.

*****

Thanks for a lovely trip, Rachel! We can't wait to see you again soon! (And GET to the top of that Washington monument, some day!)