Christmas at Mount Vernon

The weather in DC is weird, in a really, really great way.  It was 60 degrees in early December and the landscaping outside of National Geographic looks like this:

 These flowers survive all winter - FLOWERS!

I bought the annual pass for Mount Vernon, George Washington's Estate overlooking the Potomac, partially so I could easily take visitors there, but mostly so we could go look at the sheep whenever we wanted. 

It turns out that Christmas at Mount Vernon may very well be the best time of year to go.  Not only are they all decked out with trees representing each room in Washington's mansion, but they ship in a camel to commemorate the 1787 Christmas when Washington paid 16 shillings to have an exotic pet on hand for his guests to admire.  It's clear that much of what Washington did was simply for show.  I think he would have much rather been farming than entertaining, but those are the breaks when you're trying to form a brand new country and want the capital to be named after you.

Poor camel - 60 degrees is probably cold for you.

There was another surprise: THE actual turkey that President Obama pardoned this year for Thanksgiving.  He will live a long life with another pardoned turkey in a hut almost as big as our apartment.

 I also enjoyed seeing the 16-sided barn that Washington invented to process his wheat.

 16-Sided Barn

The view of the Potomac is amazing.

Alison watches the geese.

 This gingerbread Mount Vernon replica was created by the head White House Chef.  I stood for a long time wondering if anyone would really miss one of those chocolate sculpted trees.

Foo Fighters

It's been a long time since Nathan and I went out, left Alison, and didn't return until the wee hours of the morning, but the Foo Fighters were in town and we needed to go see them.

 11-11-11 - The only picture Nathan or I got of the Foo Fighters before our phones died.

They played at the Verizon Center, which is near DC's Chinatown neighborhood, a place with a lot going on for the plethora of rich (and poor), unattached 20-somethings this city turns out.

 Chinatown's Friendship Arch

Photo Credit: historicdc.net

We tried a new restaurant beforehand that proved to be a lot like Noodles & Company, but for chicken: Nando's Peri Peri.  I enjoyed the $8 heavy-on-the-fruit-flavor pitcher of Sangria.

The opening acts were Social Distortion (which is only on my radar because of this Guitar Hero song) and The Joy Formidable, which turned out to be an awesome band.  Nathan bought their entire CD on iTunes the next day and we've been enjoying it ever since.  Alison especially enjoys twirling to Whirring.

But, nobody goes to the concert for the opening acts.  The Foo Fighters, after 16 years, are simply amazing.  They're pros.  Could I run around screaming for three hours?  Heck no!  Dave Grohl talked a lot about his childhood in Alexandria and his pride at finally selling out the "big-*ss-f***ing arena in his home town".  I'd be proud too.

The set they played was great.  You can find the list here.  I don't think they missed anything.  I hope they come back because I'd go again.

Congress

An email came out to the whole society that began, "If you've ever wanted to walk the halls of Congress, here's your chance" and that's about as far as I read before I decided to volunteer.

The week before the world gained its 7 billionth person, National Geographic put together a special issue just for Congress: a compilation of the articles it has been running all year on the world reaching 7 billion people.

Since we're practically right down the street from the Senate and Congressional office buildings, I was given 15 magazines for 15 occupants of the Longworth Congressional Office Building.  I was excited to see what actually went on at Congress, but first I would have to get past security.

I don't have a staffer badge, and I didn't really have a good reason for being there.  I did, however, wear a suit and have generally found the notion that a smile and a clipboard can get you anywhere to be very true.  I also must generally look non-threatening since people tend to let me through security without a thorough check and strangers have left both purses and children with me before they even knew my name.  This worked to my advantage and I walked right in without any questions asked.

My 15 representatives included Gabrielle Giffords (who I did not meet) and Jim McDermott (who was the only representative I actually saw in the building).

There is a definite feeling in those halls, though.  These aren't just normal offices (although they look very normal).  Everyone's office has a nice nameplate displaying the representative and their state, plus most keep flags outside the door, making everything look very official and important.  Inside, everyone's office is different, but most are decorated in over-the-top admiration for the state who elected them. 

 Halls of Congress - I'm not really sure I was supposed to be taking pictures.

Found a Wisconsinite!  I was later told Paul Ryan "is not one of the good ones".

I can see why everyone wants to keep their jobs.  In addition to the fact that this seems like a nice place to work, there's definitely a general feeling in these buildings that exudes both power and an optimistic viewpoint that people here are really trying to make a difference.  Or maybe that's just me projecting my own vision on what Congress should be doing on the halls themselves.

My mom told Nathan that I'm the kind of person who would step foot inside the halls of Congress and decide to run.  She knows me pretty well.  I would never make it through a campaign, but I think I would do a pretty damn good job in office.

MLK

I love it when people visit because it gives me a good excuse to wander around the National Mall.  Two days after Alison's birthday and only one full week after it opened to the public, I stood in front of a towering Martin Luther King, Jr staring at me with a stern look on his face that could only mean: our work in this country to improve civil liberties is not finished.

Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope

It was crowded, and probably the most diverse crowd I've ever seen in a National Park.  I most enjoyed bumping into our favorite ranger, who had wandered over after a failed attempt to gather people for a bird hike.

Ranger Nathan King who gets asked often if he is related to MLK.

That day we also discovered a great place to cool our feet and relax...

 National Sculpture Garden Fountain

...and Alison enjoyed wandering around the FDR memorial with her grandparents.

Maybe next time I'll be able to successfully talk someone into paddle-boating on the tidal basin with me!

Newseum

The Newseum is a privately-run museum in DC and despite its $22/adult price tag, I'd always heard great things about it.  For the first time in its history, it was free last weekend to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of September 11th.

There are a couple of sites around DC where they very clearly have money and aren't afraid to spend it.  The Newseum is one of those.  It is seven floors of news, news history, movies, interactive games, and shops with a giant glass elevator running from the basement to the 6th floor.  At the top they have a terrace with an amazing view of the Capital.  Inside there were a few gems and a few things that made me angry.

First, I should preface this with the disclosure that lately I haven't been very happy with the media.  While I wholeheartedly support free speech, I also support fact-checking and honest reporting.  Sensationalizing every little story just to sell it has driven our economy deeper into recession, further polarized the country, and is just plain fear mongering.  I think our media is out of control and it's time for them to self-regulate a little better.   One trip out of the country and you'll realize how self-centered and off-center our media really is.

The Newseum generally reflects this industry standard by devoting huge areas of the museum to their most successful stories, mainly September 11th and Hurricane Katrina.  They praise themselves throughout for using their right to free speech for good, "Look at us, we trudge through the backcountry and risk our lives to bring you the news.  We're the first ones to get to the biggest stories.  Blah.  Blah.  Blah."  I was not impressed, but it did get more interesting as it went along.

There are a few things well-worth coming to see.

First, they have the largest chunk of the Berlin Wall outside of Germany.

 Berlin Wall

They also have the broadcast antenae from the top of one of World Trade Towers set in front of a backdrop of worldwide front pages from 9/12/01.

 9/11 - The Newseum's favorite subject

There is a memorial to journalists who have died in action with some interesting details about where they were and why.  My favorite room was probably the News History room, where they have front pages from newspapers dating back to 1455 (you can see the front page from when the Spanish Armada was defeated!).  I also enjoyed this exhibit on worldwide freedom of the press.

  It turns out in addition to having the best education, quality of life, and health care system, Finland also has the most freedom of the press.  Should we move?

Alison liked the tour of a real-life news studio (ABC Weekend Something...) and the exhibit on the presidents' dogs.  There are also theaters galore, including a 4D show (which I was scared would include very lifelike paparazzi running after you), and an entire floor of interactive news games where you could report on your own story and post it to youtube (for a price).

By the time I was done, my anger at the press had subsided and I was happy to have seen the museum.  Was it worth the $22?  Not unless you've already seen ALL of the free museums and are incredibly hungry for some drama.

National Gallery of Art

Last Sunday my mom and I went to the National Gallery of Art.  I had been there once before, with only enough time to view the first wing I came to.  I thought it was neat, but was unimpressed by the barrage of French, Dutch, and Flemmish artists I had never heard of.  Alison fell asleep.

This time, we happened to start on the lower level at a temporary exhibit, From Impressionism to Modernism: The Chester Dale Collection, and walked straight into famous artist central.  The gallery may not have anyone's most famous piece, but they have a lot of big names and if I'd studied Art History, I may have been in heaven.  As it were, I have studied Spanish art and was excited to see several Picassos (one from his blue period, one from his cubism stage, and the others were earlier works), a room filled with El Greco, one Dali, a couple Velazquez, and a Goya or two.  In short, more Spanish art than I've seen since my last trip to Madrid going on eight years now.  Here's a sampling of some of the more interesting works they have at the gallery.

Degas - First painting you see in the Chester Dale Collection

Picasso

 

 Monet

 

 Da Vinci - The Gallery's crown jewel, this is the only Da Vinci work in the United States

The entire building itself is art, with marble columns, ancient wallpaper, gardens, and fountains.

It's a great place for babies who love to look and learn!

Earthquake Spam

It's true that when something happens to the East Coast, that's all the rest of the country gets to hear about on the news.  It's because we (I mostly mean the East Coast-based news media) are all pretty self-involved and a bit over-dramatic.  We had an earthquake this week and thanks to all the facebook spam from your friends on the East Coast, you know.  So, while Peru just had a 7.0-magnitude earthquake which blows ours out of the water, I'd like to obsess about our 5.8er this week.

I was in my cube on the 4th floor of our 7-story building on Tuesday (prime earthquake flattening location now that I think about it), when things started to shake.  I'd asked someone when we moved if we ever got earthquakes here.  They said no, so my my train of thought went something like this:

Whoa.
Are we in an earthquake?  No. They don't have those here.
Oh crap, I'm in DC, probably a bomb.
Well, I'm still alive, so that's good news.
I'm sure they would have bombed the National Mall, but Nathan's at MLK - he's probably OK.
Um.  What the hell? This thing is still going?  Holy sh*t this is getting bad.
Holy sh*t what do I do in an earthquake?  Doorway!  Wait, get out of here?
I never learned where the stairwells were in this building.  That was stupid.
No time to move if this thing is going to collapse it'll do it before I leave.
Doorframe, get to the DOORFRAME.  Could this building collapse?
HOLY CRAP IS THIS THING GOING TO COLLAPSE, I NEED TO LEA - phew, it stopped.

We evacuated.  (What I should have known to do right away.) 

Our street during the evacuation.

No phones worked, no internet.  It was pretty hard to get information.  Having never been in an earthquake, I guessed it would be about a 4.0 based on the fact that everything was still standing.  When I found out it was closer to 6.0, I felt kind of proud that I'd been through that.  It was thrilling, in retrospect.

Luckily, in a city ill-equipped for earthquakes, not much damage was reported except to the National Cathedral and Washington Monument, a structure Nathan says he won't go back into unless they give him an option to buy more life insurance.  Lovely.  A few things fell off the shelves in our house and pictures were skewed, but luckily Alison and Grandma went right outside and Alison really enjoyed seeing everyone in the building in one place.

Photo Credit: Nathan King

It took me two hours to get home.  In order to inspect the entire Metro railway system, trains moved at 15 mph for the rest of the day.  I stood on the crowded platform at Farragut West and watched three over-crowded trains go by before I decided to go the opposite direction, then get on at a less-crowded stop.  That worked.  Just as I thought my commute couldn't get any worse, however, there I was, stuck in a super-crowded railcar going 1/4 of its normal speed when I saw it.  The largest spider I'd seen since Kansas crawling up the girl's skirt next to me.  I couldn't move away - too many people.  This might be very close to my worst nightmare, but it wasn't the scariest thing that happened that day.

So, today, as Hurricane Irene creeps up from the South, I'm creating an emergency/evacuation kit.  I guess you can never be too careful.  It's also my opinion that you can never have too much SPAM.