DC: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

We are finally in our new location: Alexandria, VA!!  We have been here for just over two weeks, but a first impression is a lasting impression, so here's what I think.


The Good

Let me paint a picture of why this place is amazing.

I got into my car last Saturday at 11:15am and the local NPR station was playing my favorite show: Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me.  I drove five minutes to pick-up my very first Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) box which included all kinds of yummy, organic produce from local farms.  Outside the restaurant that organizes the CSA (called Food Matters - I have yet to try it out, but it looks great), a troop of girl scouts sold me my first six boxes of cookies for the year.  Later that day, we all got in the car, picked up Nathan's brother, Justin, and visited the National Zoo - for free.

My first CSA bag - complete with wildflower honey!

Flamingos at the National Zoo

There are literally one thousand adventures to be had waiting for me at my doorstep every day.  I don't need to go very far - heck, I don't even have to drive to get anywhere if I don't want to.  The possibilities are endless.  I feel like I could go anywhere and do anything here, using DC as my launching pad. 

 View of the National Mall from the Mt. Vernon Trail

In Rochester, I had to join a special group to practice speaking Spanish.  Here, I've had to use my Spanish just to get around and talk to my neighbors.

In Kansas, we lived in a construction zone and I feared that Alison might kill herself if she started moving on her own through that house.  Now, there is crown molding in our apartment and everything was updated as of a couple years ago.

People are very open-minded here because they come from all corners of the country.  The DC Badgers alumni group sends me almost daily event emails, whereas in Kansas, the only other Badger in the area had an asterisk by his name claiming he had died in 1994.

The Bad

Could there BE any more people here?  Every single nook and cranny of this area is overflowing with people.  People on the roads, people in the stores, people in the restaurants.  Big people, small people, people of every background.  If there were a nuclear holocaust and we were all forced to find our own food, there would be around a 1000 to 1 human-to-squirrel ratio and we would surely all die of starvation.

I miss my view of the bluffs from my front door in Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  Yes, we have an amazing top floor view from our new place, but nature trumps urbania.  That is just a fact of life.

Stainless Steel Tree in the National Sculpture Garden

Please don't let this be the future of our natural world! (Although it IS really neat!)

The Ugly

Picture the largest freeway you've ever seen.  Then picture it full of cars during rush hour.  Now double the amount of cars on the road.  Add people who learned how to drive in places like Rochester, MN where they do not know how to drive. Then add a few tourists.  Now have someone tell you the traffic is only really bad during rush hour. Now picture yourself maming that person because they are completely, horribly wrong.

Traffic is awful here.  The infrastructure just can't handle the people and drivers have to pull crazy stuff just to get where they need to be.  Stop lights last for days.  It's best to just stay out of your car.  Period.

Worth the Wait! Wait!

Yesterday Nathan and I checked off another one of the quirky entries on my life list – we went to a taping of NPR’s Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell Me, Live from the Chase Auditorium in Downtown Chicago. I think this might have been the best $22 I’ve ever spent.

But first, some news about the other excellent pieces of our East Coast Extravaganza 2009. We made a stop in Milwaukee to visit Nathan’s dad, who took us to an amazing Brazilian restaurant downtown called Sabor. This place had a fairly unique concept. Everything was all-you-can-eat, including the first course: the “salad bar”. It's in quotes because this was not your ordinary salad bar. Sure, you had some greens and dressings, but there was also exotic vegetable concoctions: grape/walnut/unidentified delicious white thing mixture, watermelon/yellow tomato/feta cheese mixture, fresh salsa, fish fritters, and a host of other options.

When you’re done with your salad course, you flip a little coaster that’s orange on one side, green on the other, to green. This signals the waiters that you are ready for your meat course. Did I say course? I meant courseS! There were 12 types of meat ranging from leg of lamb to bacon-covered beef and chicken, plus filet mignon served in small portions. The kitchen would just rotate through them and when ready, bring them out to the people whose stoplight coasters were green. You could try as many or as few as you wanted. We were able to get through 10 out of the 12 meats before starting to feel sick. Each table also had sides of beans and rice, mashed potatoes, and cinnamon bananas. Any positive adjective I use here to describe this meal would be an understatement. Yum!

Ambiance

The next day we headed to Chicago for Wait! Wait!, but we had an entire afternoon to kill. If you had an afternoon in Chicago, would you spend it:

a) Shopping?

b) At a museum?

c) Driving around looking for parking and wishing people would learn how to drive?

The answer for us was b, but sadly, we were stuck with c too. The Field Musuem was hosting a special exhibit called Real Pirates. Aye, it was well-worth the admission price, it was! Lots of info on a pirate ship they discovered call Whydah, including a reproduction of the ship and the only real pirate treasure that’s ever been found! It also dispelled pirate myths, so a few of my hopes and dreams were dashed when I found out that pirates didn’t really bury their treasure and that not a single pirate treasure map has ever been discovered. The museum also has amazing exhibits on evolution, dinosaurs, plants, animals…well, it was a museum.

We stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel for the night with a lake-sliver view through the surrounding skyscrapers. Nathan took advantage of the Check In, Rock Out program, which lets you check out Gibson guitars and use them in your room throughout your stay.

Ok, but none of this really compared to Wait, Wait, so welcome back to this topic. For those that have never heard Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell Me, go the website and download the podcast – you will not be disappointed. Each week, Carl Kasell, Peter Sagal, and some near-celebrity panelists (this week it was Charlie Pierce, PJ O’Rourke, and Kyrie O’Connor) make light of the week’s news in a quiz show format. The only prize? Carl Kasell’s iconic voice on your answering machine, which is enough to draw plenty of callers.

Wait! Wait! Stage

Charlie Pierce, Kyrie O'Connor, & P.J. O'Rourke, Panelists

For those that have listened to the show, you’ll appreciate this. The show last night started out with Peter chastising Obama for not arranging the Olympic Decision announcement for Thursday instead of Friday. Given that they are making that decision the day after they tape the show and a day before it first airs, we taped the beginning of the show twice – once as if Chicago won the bid, and once as if it hadn’t. Sneaky.

All panelists and hosts were present (they don’t call in). The callers who play games, including the celebrity “Not My Job” contestants actually do call in. The thing that impressed me most was that they taped the show all in one take – barely any mistakes. Then, we taped the alternate beginning. Finally, the producers went through and made them redo a handful of lines (really, only four or five) that they messed up or that were covered by some noise that made the lines inaudible. Peter promised us in the beginning that there were three reasons we would want to stick around until the end:

1) The chance to get WWDTM merchandise, including an exclusive bowling shirt (every one comes with the name Carl on it).

2) We got to ask them questions at the end. I chickened out of just asking outright if I could have Carl Kasell’s voice on my answering machine. I bet they get that question all the time.

3) The stars stick around after the show so you can meet them.

Nathan & I in front of the Wait! Wait! stage

While most people were filing out of the auditorium, Nathan and I made our way to the stage and got to meet EVERYONE. Really, we have autographs to prove it! I also got my picture taken with Carl Kasell and Peter Sagal. While standing there giddy with the excitement of meeting the people responsible for making me laugh so hard every weekend, I was tapped on the shoulder by a stagehand and asked if I’d like to have the script Peter Sagel used in tonight’s show? "YES!!"

Nathan & I with Carl Kasell!

Peter Sagal

The script had Peter's hand-written changes. It’s also fun to see how much of the show really is scripted and how much isn’t. On Peter’s script, the panelists’ witty quips are nowhere to be seen. That doesn’t mean that they are all spontaneous, but it does mean that they are not scripted – the panelists make up their jokes and jump in when they feel like it. The hints that Peter uses to help contestants win more often then not are scripted. Anyway, the net is that I got a pretty unique souvenir for free just by hanging around acting like a groupie. It might be the best souvenir ever.

Souvenirs

This is just the beginning of our trip, join me next time for more anecdotes from Gettysburg & Washington DC. If anything interesting happens there, you’ll be sure to hear about it right here on Amber’s Waves.