Two evenings in the capital

Soooooo . . . .  we had a couple of days in Washington DC. A LivingSocial deal (and I might mention here that I have enjoyed everything I ever purchased through LivingSocial.)

Arrived on Thursday, checked in, and then hurriedly figured out how to use the Metro, the lovely Metro, to get to our destination.

We had made reservations with Bike the Sites for a tour of the monuments at night. We got our reflective vests, helmets, and bikes.

Out tour group of about twenty included families with young children. Daylight was fading by the time we had biked over to the National Mall.

Our first stop was the Jefferson Memorial, which looks fabulous at night. I'm sure it looks fine in the daytime, too, although plenty of people told me that it's better at night.

The next stop was the FDR Memorial, which features lots of waterfalls.

And there were plenty of professional or semi-professional photographers busy taking photos in the dark.

And several sculptures showing people during the Depression, such as this man listening to FDR on the radio.

Then to the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial.

Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.

Next, the Korean War Memorial, a field of sculptured soldiers marching through the night like ghosts, and a wall behind them in which the faces of the dead have been etched. These are taken from photographs of the people who died in the war. The effect is uncanny.

And then to the most famous, the Lincoln Memorial.

From the Lincoln Memorial you have a clear view of the Washington Memorial, and its reflection.

Then to the Vietnam Memorial, which, of course, features a wall of names rather than a wall of faces.

Even in the dark it is quite moving, particularly as one goes deeper and deeper into the ground, and the names rise up higher than one's head. All that loss.

Next we rode over to the World War II Memorial, which is enormous. I have only a photo of the fountain in the middle, and this doesn't give a very good idea of how huge this monument is.

We ended up at the Washington Memorial, which has been closed to visitors since the earthquake damaged it.

I loved this tour. Never would have seen all these monuments on foot, but it was easy and fun on a bike.

Back to the Normandy Hotel, and our comfy bed. In the morning, a feast for breakfast! I had a bagel with lox and cream cheese.

There was a very impressive coffee machine, which made lattes and espressos and cappuchinos on demand.

And wonderful fresh fruit - even blackberries! Yum. The breakfasts were part of the package deal.

We ate plenty, which turned out to be a good thing in view of our afternoon plans. We managed to get to Alexandria (this time we took a taxi, and met an Ethiopian taxi driver who is a huge fan of Reagan and Bush, and of America in general), where we picked up a couple of bikes and a map of the Mount Vernon Trail.

It wasn't all trees and water. One of the more interesting parts of the trail is the park that lies directly under a highway. In addition to picnic tables and playground equipment, there are acres of space for biking and skating.

The Mount Vernon Trail is much more hilly than anything we were accustomed to, and it was a bit of a challenge to bike the nine miles to Mount Vernon. Once we arrived, though, we fortified ourselves for the return trip with lunch. I had the Virginia peanut and chestnut soup.

And salmon corncakes.

And we did manage to make the return trip to Alexandria - our longest bike ride to date! That evening, we met friends for dinner, at Kramerbooks and Afterwords - a combination bookstore, cafe, bar, and restaurant. When we last saw these friends they were planning their wedding. When we met them in Washington DC, they were planning their daughter's wedding. Time flies, but sometimes in a very nice way.

Saturday morning we had another fine breakfast and drove back to Pennsylvania.

I really like these little mini-vacations. A long one would be even better, but these are just fine.

If we didn't collect anything, how would we remember who we were?

Just finished reading The Hare with Amber Eyes, by Edmund de Waal.

Enjoyed it thoroughly. I agree with the reviews on the back cover, such as "To be handed a story as durable and exquisitely crafted as this is a rare pleasure"; "Mr. de Waal's nostalgia is tart, tactile, marvelously nuanced."

I don't quite agree with the advice from the reviewer in The Economist: "Buy two copies of this book; keep one and give the other to your closest bookish friend." It's fine advice if you have lots of money to spend, but noting the great pleasure I received from this book is the closest I can come to "giving" it to friends.

The book did inspire me to make a trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, in search of netsuke, the tiny Japanese wood and ivory carvings that inspired de Waal to write this memoir. I also wanted to look at ceramics (de Waal is Professor of Ceramics at the University of Westminster, and writes with feeling and intelligence about the mystery of why we find some objects beautiful).

But first, breakfast at Beck's Cajun Cafe, located in Reading Terminal Market.

I chose red beans and rice with andouille sausage, a fried egg on top, and two big chunks of cornbread - the Cajun breakfast bowl. Excellent fuel for a day of walking around museums.

Then I hopped on a bus for the museum, and went in search of netsuke. I did not find any. (Later, though, I did find an image of a netsuke rabbit on the web.)

(This image is misleading, since netsuke are tiny, no more than three inches high. All that detail in a tiny, tiny space.)

And I saw lots of other interesting things. Suspicious saints.

Chinese snuff boxes.

The face of Bhairava.

A 17th-century monkey with an earring.

And a 17th-century dog with two earrings.

And in the sculpture garden, a giant Claes Oldenburg plug. (Items related to electricity are very popular in Philadelphia public art.)

Then I took a shuttle to the Perelman Building across the street, which houses a textile and fashion museum, among other exhibits.

The current exhibit is Great Coats - the museum owns lots and lots of couture, and they periodically exhibit various pieces. How about this stunner?

You can read about it here:

The museum gift shop featured some fascinating and horribly expensive pieces of apparel, including these cool boots:

All in all, a good time wandering around looking at collections of stuff.

I'll end with a selection from one of the amazon reviewers of The Hare with Amber Eyes:


What are objects to us? Do they change when we hold them, display them, give them value? Do they "retain the pulse of their makeup?" If we didn't collect anything, how would we remember who we were?


Collecting photos and memories is a way of figuring out who we are, I think.

A morning in the park

Riding our bikes at Northampton Municipal Park this morning, a glorious morning.

I love listening to the birds and the insects, and the hum of the tires. And I also enjoy watching the walkers and runners and bikers and skaters and vollyball players and roller hockey players, and baseball players, and soccer players, and baby buggy pushers, and dog walkers, and picnickers, and photographers.

Clown Shoes Pimp?

Busy days. Good, busy days.

The big news - my older son, Chris, who was working at Cornell University, was informed a couple months ago that his department was being laid off due to budget cuts (he worked in the horticultural department, taking care of vineyards and orchards - a job he loved).

But (this is a bad news/good news story) before his job even ended, his best friend from high school asked him if he'd like to work with him, in Washington DC. Yay!

So Chris is living with us for the next 6-8 weeks, training in Philadelphia, and commuting to DC on the weekends, where he and his significant other have a shiny new condo with a shiny new lease in the Waterfront area. (I think he said Waterfront - I'm not all that familiar with DC neighborhoods.) But I love having Chris at home again, even if it is just for a few weeks.

And his new job is with a fabulous artisan coffee company, which means he brings home some great coffee!

What else?

A friend from high school was in Philadelphia for a meeting, so we got together. Here's Neil and Pam at our favorite Philly eatery, Perch Pub.

I had the Clown Shoes Pimp (nope, no idea how this beer got that name):





We posed by a statue of the Philly Phanatic.

After spending a ridiculous amount of time looking for a place to park in the historic district, we took a tour of the city. It was nice and cool on the top of the bus. Below is Pam, going past one of my least favorite pieces of Philadelphia street art.

As you can see, it was windy. And then it was rainy.

So we finished the tour on the lower level, and even though the tour was not so great, we had a wonderful time, and I laughed more than I have in a long time.

Before the rains came down, we did pass by the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum, where two wedding parties were taking photos (it's a very popular spot for weddings).

The rains cleared the air and cooled us all off, and when I woke up this morning and took Bean out for his walk, I knew it was really and truly fall. I love the change of the seasons.

Twenty-four hour getaway, forty-five minutes from home

Last Thursday we drove to lovely Lambertville, New Jersey (about 45 minutes from home) and used a Christmas present - a LivingSocial voucher for the Chimney Hill Estate Inn Bed and Breakfast.

In addition to a nice old farmhouse (the older part built in 1820, the newer part in 1920), this B&B has suites in the "barn" (it's not like any barn I ever saw), and is also an alpaca farm.

Upon arrival we were given a bottle of wine, a $50 certificate for dinner at a local restaurant, a $25 voucher for the alpaca-related item gift shop, and two bags of alpaca food. (Plus a voucher for a tour of a local winery, which we didn't use. I remember being so thrilled with my first winery tour, and with the next three or four, and then it started to all seem like just a sales pitch to try to get you to buy wine, and the thrill was over, just like that.)

But this was my first experience with alpacas, so I was suitably entertained. The alpaca herd is guarded by a pair of llamas, although I forgot to ask what they are protecting the alpacas from. Llamas look a little more intimidating than alpacas:

Alpacas seem to have some rather serious dental situations going on, but they nibble food right out of your hand with their almost prehensile lips, resting those enormous bottom teeth against your hand. It's weird, but not unpleasant.

Dinner was at Anton's at the Swan.

I had duck breast.

Neil had a steak.

This was one of the best dinners we've ever had. In the top twenty without a doubt.

But I will remember Anton's not only for the food, but because it had the only women's room I've been in that is decorated with erotic posters, magazine covers, and art - not hard core, mostly just funny stuff. Still, I've been in a lot of women's restrooms and I've never before seen one with such an obvious theme. Perhaps I've just been going to the wrong restaurants.

The next morning we woke up a couple hours before breakfast was served, so we drove into Lambertville to a local beanery (I've been wanting to use that word!), Rojo's Roastery. The owners are very serious about coffee. Inside, tables and chairs are placed inside space that is filled with huge bags of coffee beans, a vintage gas-fired roaster, and lots of coffee equipment. I wish they had been roasting beans while we were there:

Then we drove back to Chimney Hill for breakfast, which was Heavenly Bananas, bacon, home fries, and a sausage and cheese strada. Everything was great except the coffee, which tasted like water after the good coffee we had just had at Rojo's.

We said good-by to the alpacas, and got rid of the rest of the alpaca kibble.

There was time to sit on the little balcony outside our bedroom and read a few poems.

And time to look at some of the outbuildings on the property. I don't know whether or not this is a common type of shed, but it looks unusual to me.

We visited the alpaca gift store, where we exchanged our gift certificate for a man's tie and a little coin purse for our granddaughter. But there were lots of other knit and woven items, very pretty.

We drove across the Delaware River to New Hope, which is Lambertville's sister city. Both are tourist towns, very old - lots of restaurants, galleries, antique stores, book stores, gift shops. A bicycle club was visiting on this perfectly gorgeous day.

You can't tell from the photo, but it was a group of more than twenty cyclists, and they are all over 60 years old.

On the main street there is a church that has been turned into a restaurant.

I admired the hand-crafted items for sale, with a very contented non-desire to purchase anything at all. (What a pleasant change from the continual frustration of my earlier years, when I wanted to OWN everything I admired.)

If I did have lots of money I might be tempted to buy odd things, like this etagere featuring carved monkeys.

You can't really appreciate it until you look a little closer.

 It's probably a good thing that I don't have $28,000 to throw around casually. It seems as though it could be one of those impulse purchases you regret later.

I walked across the bridge between the two towns, while the peaceful Delaware flowed calmly below.

Because New Hope and Lambertville are both centers of artistic endeavors, you will sometimes see an odd grouping of items in someone's back yard, perhaps waiting for use in an installation, perhaps just a collection to be admired.

The clothing stores have their own ways of getting the attention of shoppers.

And other shops advertise on benches.

All in all, it was a lovely way to spend Thursday afternoon through Friday afternoon. What a refreshing change of pace for just twenty-four hours.