14 posts tagged “dc”

 

Wow. Just wow. Those guys are SO good, and SO much fun!

When I found out that FoTC were touring the US this spring, and that they were doing a show in DC the day after Easter, when we were going to be there visiting anyway, I was pretty excited! We don't get HBO, but Nikki had told us about the show last winter, and we watched the 1st season DVD with her when she was home, and pretty much were hooked. Then when we went to New Zealand in November, it somehow helped me "get" them even more... The whole country seems to me gentle and understated, and slightly offbeat (and I mean that in a very good way).

Unfortunately, the tickets I got were way the heck up in the back corner of the venue (DAR / Constitution Hall), but we were still able to see well, and the sound was fine. There were a few times when a light was shining right in our faces, but there were video monitors mounted high beside the stage, so that was good for seeing facial expressions and so on. And I think my camera zoomed fairly well, considering the darkness and distance.

 

 

I bought a Band Meeting t-shirt before the show...

 

 

To the left is the graphic that was displayed on the video monitor before the concert began.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kristen Schaal (aka Mel) opened for the guys, and she was hilarious! Here, she was performing a one-act play, a sort of love triangle among the pot, spoon, and lid. She "practiced" a number of different styles of jokes on us, from self-deprecating, to political.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are my best photos, not all that great, but you get the idea...

I neglected to take a photo of Nigel (the NZ Symphony Orchestra), but he was also very good, and even got to speak once or twice.

They really did a lot of songs; they explained that if they stop singing and talked for a while, not to worry, they would sing another song soon. Or, if you came for the talking, you'd have to wait till the song was over. I would have actually liked a little more talking (in those adorable kiwi accents), like about the "Issues", saving the whales, etc, but it may partly have been because of the time they had to take to shush stupid people in the audience who were calling out song names.

They came out in robot suits, and started with "Too Many Dicks on the Dance Floor", very disco-y with lights and smoke and dancing, lots of fun. They admonished DC to do a better job of keeping in touch, just so they wouldn't worry about how everyone is doing... Then (not in order), they also did "Hurt Feelings" (video below - not mine, but from this show), "The Most Beautiful Girl in the Room", "Business Time", "If You're Into It", "Motha 'Uckas" (that was the one with Bret on drums), "Hiphopapotamus vs Rhymnocerus", "Bowie" (nipple antennae and all), "Busdriver song", "Ex-Girlfriends" (with the women in the audience doing the oooo's as directed by Bret), "Humans are Dead" (WITH the binary solo!), "I'm not Crying", "Sugalumps" (involving an a capella final refrain with dancing - see mstresbabette's video from the show), "You Don't Have to be a Prostitute", "Jenny" (old video below - I couldn't take any video, being so far away, but this is one of my favorites...), and a new ballad about Stana, very funny!  So that's a lot of singing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Excellent, excellent show! We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!

We decided on Saturday evening to not try to get everyone up and going in time for 8:00 church Sunday, but rather to wait till the 4:00 Evensong service, which sounded kind of like something different anyway. So we planned instead to have a little earlier brunch with one of Alex's former roommates and his family who were in town for the weekend, and we left it up to the boys to arrange when and where (not easy for 9 people at the last minute for Easter Sunday brunch in the city...). Nik and I got up early enough for a light breakfast at the B&B; we had told our hostess Kristin the day before that we would not be having breakfast since we thought we were going to early church, but then when we decided not to do church, but rather brunch, we figured we still didn't want her to cook for us, but we did go down to the dining room for some excellent coffee, mango-orange juice, and cereal. We also got to meet our housemates, a couple from Connecticut (though really from Georgia), and a family from Washington state.

 

The boys decided on Cafe Deluxe in the Cleveland Park area, because we didn't need reservations for brunch, and we met Phil and his family there at 11:00. There was only a wait of a few minutes, very surprising, and the brunch was really very good! I had a mimosa and brioche french toast. A lot of the others had egg/omelet dishes; everyone liked what they had. We really enjoyed meeting Phil's family, and celebrating his mom's birthday. We talked a lot with his aunt about the school where she works, which sounded really interesting!

 

 

 

 

After lunch, we took Alex back to his place so he could work on his speech for class Monday night, and we went back to the B&B. Then we decided to take a little walk before it was time for church; we just looked on the map near our B&B, and found a little park about 7 blocks away, called Meridian Hill Park. It turned out to be a pretty interesting little city park, with lots of exposed aggregate balustrades and obelisks, a bronze statue of James Buchanan, and a very cool cascading fountain down the steep hillside (though the water wasn't running yet for the season. so people were climbing on it). There was a historical marker nearby that explained that 18th St got so steep in this area that the original DC city plan stopped here because horse-drawn carriages couldn't make the grade.

 

 

 

The various ornamental trees were in bloom, too, and the weather was just gorgeous, though cool and windy in the shade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we walked through the whole park, we headed back toward the B&B, but took a detour down U St to pick up some stuff we needed at the drug store. We also stopped for coffees at Love Cafe, which was a very cool (and apparently popular) place, affiliated with the CakeLove bakery across the street. I had a piece of lemon cake with my cappuccino, because I just had to try one of those delectable pieces of cake sitting there in the case!

 

 

Then it was time to get dressed back up, and pick Alex up for church. The Evensong service at the National Cathedral was a much different service than the early morning Festival services we've attended the past two years, mostly choral, and much more subdued. I was a little concerned when I saw in the program that we were all supposed to sing the creed and Lord's Prayer, but it turned out they were sung in monotone. After the service, we took a little walk around the Bishop's garden, which was very pretty, though the flowers weren't quite ready yet. If you've never been to the National Cathedral, you really owe it to yourself, it's quite an impressive edifice!

 

 

 

 

 

And then we went out for a traditional (haha) Easter sushi dinner at Murasaki in Tenleytown, very good! At Alex's suggestion, we had steamed edamame as an appetizer; also we had some very large Japanese beers (Asahi), and this was our shared plate (avocado maki, California roll, Crisp spicy tuna roll, Screaming spicy roll, Alaskan roll, and Spicy salmon roll):

The roll with the cilantro and red sauce was extremely hot, but they were all excellent!

A great end to a nice day!

 

We got a good start Saturday morning, got out the door by 6:30, stopped for our coffees at 7:00 in Cranberry, and headed out the turnpike with our new friend Lori (the TomTom One) guiding us. Of course, we already knew where we were going, but she's new, and we just wanted to put her through her paces. She said we would arrive at 11:40, which eventually was revised to 11:20 once she realized the speed at which some of us drive :-)    Unfortunately, it started to rain after about a half an hour, and it never let up till we got to DC.

 

Best part of the trip: seeing and hugging our two kiddos for the first time since January! After we all met up, we went to 2Amys near Tenleytown for lunch. Excellent, excellent! We ordered 3 pizze: Etna (eggplant/olive/caper), Vongole (cockles/capers), and Norcia (salami/grilled peppers). All the pizze are baked in the wood-fired oven, and had delicious crusts!

We also had some good beers: Moretti, and Weihenstephan. And dessert: I had the marsala custard, which was really tasty (very wine-y and unusual); we ordered a cookie/biscotti platter; and of course espressos all around.

After lunch, we followed Lori's instructions to Akwaaba to check in (more on the B&B later, but it's great!), and then we relaxed there for the rest of the afternoon. Meanwhile, the weather turned very nice and sunny (though still fairly cool), so we decided to walk the mile to dinner in Adams Morgan. We left a little early, and stopped at Idle Time Books to pick up some reading material for the rest of the weekend. It's a really cool bookshop, with lots of used and unusual books to rummage through. I bought two in German (Pride & Prejudice, and a collection of folk tales), and something for my sister. Alex found some sort of esoteric economics book, and Nik got Utopia and some really cool cards.

Another highlight of the day was meeting Emjay and her husband "in real life" for dinner at Meskerem, an Ethopian restaurant. Great food (lots involving lamb, various sauces, lentils, potatoes, etc), all served on a big round piece of teff bread, with more bread to scoop it up with. Take a trip over to Emjay's blog - she has lots more information about the food! We had eaten here in the summer of '05, when we doing the college tour thing, and we had really liked it a lot, so I thought it was time to try it again. I really enjoyed meeting Emjay, we learned a lot about telescopes and such from her hubby, and she & Alex talked about Australia.

It's always fun to put a face with a name, especially when you've already learned so much about someone from their blog... 

Before going grocery shopping in Tenleytown, Alex and I wanted some lunch. He suggested a sushi place on Wisconsin, but when we got there we found they were closed for remodeling, so we decided instead to go to Neisha Thai. We had been there once before, for dinner, and had enjoyed it. Here, I'm having Spring Roll, which I've never seen presented quite this way - pretty! Very tasty too. The drink is ginger-lemon iced tea, really gingery. Alex is having a calamari appetizer, and then he had Pad Thai (a lunch special). For dessert, I decided to see what taro custard was like; the answer is that it's delicious! It was a square of very sweet custard, almost a bread-like texture, with sort of a slight crust on top. A little flan-like, I guess I would say.Alex had a fried banana with coconut ice cream, which he said was also very good.

 

There was a check for $10 in my mail yesterday, from the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority!

That almost (but not really) makes up for their denying our WBE (Women Business Enterprise) certification last year. Who needs it anyway? We've already produced precast stairs for at least a dozen projects for them without having their piece of paper, but it's the principle.

We picked Alex up at 7:15 to head over to the National Cathedral for 8:00 Easter Sunday service. You want to see impressive and awe-inspiring! Flowers galore, banners, trumpets, choirs, you name it.

 

Here are some interesting facts about the cathedral... for example, that it was completed in 1990 after a construction period of 83 years. And the interior of the nave is 10 stories high - and the top of the bell tower is equivalent to a 30-story building. I don't know how many people it holds, but I'm pretty sure there were well over 1,000 for the 8:00 service. 

Here is the text of the sermon, which I thought was really meaningful, especially the exhortation to work to make a difference in this world, to give yourself to causes that matter, and to start doing things boldly. There are a fair number of aspects of Christianity that I'm not sold on, but the part that I feel really is vital, and what keeps me involved with the church, is the notion that we should - no, must - love one another and that our whole reason for being in the world is to do good for each other. It doesn't really matter to me whether there's a God or a heaven, there may be or there may not be, but until we find out at the end, there's a lot we each can do to ease the journeys of our fellow travelers. There, that's my sermon :-) 

Happy Easter, Happy Spring, Happy Life!

Since this was to be Nikki's first time to come along with us to DC since Alex started school there, I'd told her a couple of weeks ago that she could choose the ethnicity of our Saturday night dinner [each trip we choose a different type of restaurant, since DC has them all - so far we've had Afghan, Ethopian, Indian, Italian, and Thai]. She chose Moroccan, and asked for belly dancers, too, if it wouldn't be too much trouble! And here you have it...

 

I looked online before leaving home, and made reservations for 7:00 at Marrakesh Palace, on P St NW, only a short walk from Hotel Madera.

The interior is very pretty, as you can see from the above photo I snagged from their website. We sat in the room in the photo, which has a big glass skylight, so it's like a middle-eastern courtyard, with a fountain in the center. We didn't get to sit on the silk-cusioned seats around the outside of the room, which I was slightly bummed about, but maybe you have to request those - or maybe they save them for larger groups, which there did seem to be a number of. Two gaggles of teenage girls in fancy dance-style dresses - we couldn't quite figure that out, since there were no young men with them, and eventually a middle-aged woman came in and shepherded them out when it was time to go. (?)

Dinner was quite tasty. First, there was bread and a variety of olives for the table. Nikki & I each chose a different red Moroccan wine, which unfortunately I can't tell you the names of, but we liked mine better - it was sort of spicier.  I had Soup Harira to start, which was a spicy lentil soup, very yummy. Nikki tried the Zaalouk (a chilled roasted eggplant dish), and Alex had Merguez (grilled lamb sausage, which he said was excellent). For dinner, I had Chicken Mkali, which was a sort of stew [tagine] with whole pieces of chicken, preserved lemons, and lots of olives, interesting spices, yum. The others had lamb tagine, lamb stew, and shrimp kabob, all good from the reports. To finish, I had a coffee, which darn it, I can't remember what they called it, but it was like a cappuccino, but not quite. Al & Alex had tea, which was poured with a huge flourish from a gorgeous teapot into pretty tea glasses. I had a dish of very fresh fruit, which seemed to be drizzled with a slightly spicy honey. And according to the receipt, 2 chocolate mousses were eaten, but I don't recall who by or what they looked like [as I'm writing this 2 weeks later]. 

 

And to top it all off... a belly dancer, too! [this photo is mine]

Some of the other guests even got up and danced a little with her. Totally fun! Though Alex may have been a little embarrassed by so much wiggling right in his face... or wait, maybe that was me that was embarrassed, heh.

So anyway, not inexpensive, but highly recommended for a fun and different dining experience!

 

After dinner, we walked back to the hotel, and lounged around for a bit watching the Pitt game, then I drove Alex back to his apartment - got back just in time for the milk and cookies in the lobby! And I was able to make warm milk since there were mugs and microwave in the room! I love this hotel!

After we checked in at the hotel, the kids and I headed into the city to go to the International Spy Museum. We walked the couple blocks to the DuPont Circle Metro station, and while Alex easily added some money to his fare card that he uses all the time, I was having technical difficulties buying cards for Nikki and myself (difficulties in the sense that I wasn't understanding the system quickly enough for the impatient kiddos). After a couple failed attempts, the end result was that the machine ate a $10 bill. We were just working out "why", and "what to try next", when a Miss ________ [unfortunately I didn't catch her name, so I'll just call her Miss WMATA] came over from her monitoring booth to see if she could help. I said I thought we had it figured out now, thanks, but Nikki (the ever-assertive) told her the machine ate our $10. Miss W said "well, just follow me", and she took us to the booth where she filled out an envelope form which theoretically will get us our $10 back in the mail, and not only that, but she comped our ride by calling ahead to the Federal Triangle station where we were going, and told them she was sending us through and to let us out with no charge! She gave us a "secret" code number to repeat at the other end, but as it turned out, they didn't even ask for it. So that was all a pleasantly surprising experience with the Metro Authority!

On the other hand, the Spy Museum idea was a bust :-(   By the time we got there it was about 4:00, and all the entry tickets were sold out for the day (I had expected maybe the "Operation Spy" tickets would be gone, but I hadn't thought about not being able to get in at all!) ... we decided it must have been because of the Easter weekend. I still really want to go there, so we'll try to reserve tickets online next time, I guess (or get there earlier). Bah.

 

So we pondered what else we could find to do so late in the day, but yet still make it back to DuPont Circle for our 7:00 dinner reservation.... We spotted the National Portrait Gallery across the street, and although we weren't all that interested in it, we popped inside to try to find out the hours for the various Smithsonian museums, and a list to choose from. While inside, we headed out the opposite door, and found ourselves in this great courtyard [which I saw in this Sunday's newspaper was named to a list of 7 modern architectural wonders!]. My photo doesn't do it justice; you should check out the link for better pix.

 

 

 

 

 

So anyway, we looked at a map, and decided on the National Aquarium, having never been there, so I checked the Nav on my phone, and we struck out. When we found ourselves on Pennsylvania Ave, and at the proper end of it, I suggested we at least take a quick look at the White House, even if it would probably be impossible to get a tour (do they even do that any more?). So we trekked over there, and they had apparently just opened up the sidewalk which had been barricaded, so lots of people were swarming in to take photos through the wrought-iron fence. It's certainly a much different setup than when I was there in 1969 or so. More secure, I suppose, but also less American it seems to me. As you can maybe see in the photo, they were setting up for the big Easter Egg Hunt or whatever it is they do there on the lawn for Easter. We wondered to ourselves how kids get picked to participate in that? Sons and daughters of oil barons perhaps? :-)

[Digression: I went to Washington DC as a child with my family in 1968 or 1969. I know we went for the cherry blossom festival because I've seen the photos, but the images I remember are: the changing colored lights in the fountain below our hotel window, standing in line to tour the White House, and not being able to go to the Washington Monument because of a "hippie" (per my Dad) protest there, where they were pulling over the flagpoles as I recall, but that may just be a child's eye...]

So, on to the National Aquarium... another bust. The sign said it was only open till 5:00, and by then it was about 4:30, but also it cost $5, not $0 like many things, so we didn't feel it would be worth it for 1/2 hour when it probably is no better than our Pittsburgh AquaZoo. Sooo, we decided on the Natural History Museum, having not been there for a while. Another bit of a trek, but I figured I was pre-working-off my dinner! Nikki recommended the nature photography display, which really was fantastic! In fact, I noticed Beanie had recently posted a bunch of these photos - you should check them out! In the gallery, they're all blown up to a very large and wonderful size - just astounding!

 

We also especially liked the skeleton exhibit (which I don't really recall from previous trips), and the insect zoo. After the gem & mineral exhibit, our feet were tired, and it was about time to find a Metro station and head back, which we were able to do uneventfully.

We drove to the Hotel Madera (very easy to find, about 1-1/2 blocks off of Dupont Circle), and everyone waited in the car parked illegally while I ran in to find out what we were to do with the car. The desk clerk called for the valet, because apparently that's the only way to park, besides taking your chances with finding a spot on the street (basically nil). But luckily (and here's the cool part!) because we drive a hybrid car, the normal $35 overnight valet fee was waived! That's just one of the eco-friendly aspects of this hotel (and apparently of the whole Kimpton chain), that I really liked.

 

I really liked our room itself, as well - very stylish and well-appointed.

 

Here's my SUSAR  (highly subjective) rating:

Amenities: Aveda toiletries (rosemary-mint shampoo, and the like, mmm), leopard-print bathrobes (and for-purchase PJ's in the closet), nice little kitchen and office space, complimentary goodies (wine at 5:00 [which unfortunately we missed], cookies & milk at 10:30 [a little disappointing to find cookies meant Oreos though], organic coffees & teas in the morning), a decent selection of magazines in the room (including Body+Soul, one of my favorites). Parking is valet-only, but as I mentioned above, it was free to us, and in any case included in-and-out privileges upon just a call to the front desk, so it was fine for a city hotel. Another nice feature was that after I made my online reservation, I received an email offering $5 upgrades if they were available when we checked in (for example, to a "cardio" room which included a stationary bike, or an "entertainment" room which included more of a home theater arrangement). Free wireless internet, though we didn't have any computers with us. I'm giving it a 4.5.

Aesthestics: No question - a 5 - just look at their website and especially the Virtual Tour link for an idea of the coolness of the decor. I absolutely loved it!

Sleep Quality: The beds were very comfy, and the feather comforter and pillow didn't hurt, either. We were on the 6th floor, so I can't speak for the lower-level rooms, but we heard no street noise that I can recall. 4.5

Food: Well, it's not a B&B, so no free breakfast, but we did have Easter Sunday brunch at the attached hotel, the Firefly (post later), which was very good, so I'll count that. And actually there was a note on the menu that said something about a Hotel Madera voucher being good for a continental breakfast, so maybe on the weekdays there is a free breakfast. 4 on the food.

Location: I see I had given the Inn at DuPont Circle a 4 on location, but that's mainly because all we were doing that trip was taking Alex to school. This time we also wanted a good selection of dinner restaurants and proximity to the Metro for a trip into the city, so I'm giving it a 4.5.

Staff: All the desk staff, the valets, and everyone we came into contact with were very friendly and helpful. I had called the hotel Friday to ask if they knew where we could eat on Easter Sunday, and they suggested their restaurant of course, but also when we checked in, there was a 2-page printout of other local restaurants serving brunch on Easter, which I thought was thoughtful. They were able to direct me to the nearest drug store, and I heard them finding somewhere for another guest to catch the Man U match on Sunday. 5 for the staff.

Value for the $:  Our room was $149 for 3 adults with 2 queen beds, which I thought was very reasonable for DuPont Circle. It was less than the Inn at DuPont Circle, which I didn't like quite as much, and a little less than Kalorama Guest House, and less than half of what we paid per night on Long Island in December. So I'll give it 4.5

Overall score is 4.6 - I highly recommend the Hotel Madera (and I already have told everyone I know how great it is). We would definitely stay there again, even though it's not a B&B which is normally my preference. Not only that, but I would definitely like to try some of the other properties in the Kimpton group. I put my business card in a dish to try to win a free night, and also filled out their online survey after we got home which makes me eligible for a 2-night stay, so it would be nice if that works out. 

The three of us drove down to DC to spend Easter weekend with Alex, rather than try to figure out a way to get him home for only 2 days. We left around 7:00, after breakfast and coffees at home (for a change), and headed out in the mini-snowstorm (enough, already!). It was variously snowy, sleety, and sunny all the way down - we even hit a snow squall right outside of DC!

We got there a little after noon, picked up Alex behind his building, and headed to Tenleytown for a light lunch (looking forward to our big dinner in the evening) and some grocery shopping for him (to make use of the car). He told us there were plenty of restaurants near the Safeway, and it was certainly true.

 

After parking at the store, we walked down Wisconsin a little way and spotted one called Casa Fiesta, which said it was Mexican and Salvadorean, which sounded intriguing. They served very good chips & salsa for the table, though I still like El Toro's homemade salsa better. I chose the ceviche, which is an aperitivo on the menu, but I wanted to be sure to save room for dinner at 7:00. It was extremely yummy, and a very generous portion - in fact I had them package some leftovers for Alex to take back to his apartment. I wasn't so thrilled about my choice of beverage; I tried horchata, which was a berry juice with milk (the waiter said it was Salvadorean and I really wanted to try some things I'd never had before), which I thought sounded good, but either it was too sweet, or I was too unsure whether he said almond milk (which some of the other drinks were made with) - I just couldn't get much of it down - luckily Al liked it and helped out, because I always feel bad not finishing something I've especially asked for. Everyone else enjoyed their lunches, too, though Nikki only ate the chips since she had just finished a sandwich she bought at Sheetz in Maryland. It was all pretty reasonable, too: $36 for the - well, I guess - 3 of us... reasonable for NW DC anyway.

After lunch, we helped Alex grocery-shop for the next week or so - I was so proud - he had a list written up and actual meals planned out involving actual cooking (spaghetti, crockpot sausage & peppers, etc). I think he'll be alright! He even has a Safeway shopper discount card! Though he did say after we got the total, that we weren't as careful shoppers as he usually was :-)

Then we carried all the bags up to his apartment and we put away the perishables while he checked online for info about the Spy Museum, which was what we had decided to do in the afternoon. And which he had been supposed to have researched prior to our arrival. Well, some things probably won't change ;-)  

We met one of his roomies briefly, who seemed nice. They have the apartment arranged well, I think - and they've made good use of our ping pong table - they have one half folded up, and are using the other half as their dining table (and then of course if that were ever clean, they could play ping pong!). Alex gets to live in part of the living room (as opposed to one of the two bedrooms), so he and Nikki had gone to Home Depot in January when she took him down there, and he built a room divider with lumber and fabric (and using his construction experience gained at Castcon over the summer) - pretty nice actually! And the shelving unit constructed of cardboard boxes and duct tape was a great finishing touch!

So once we figured out how to get to the Spy Museum, we headed out to check in at our hotel first, since we'd be able to take the Metro or walk everywhere else that day. More posts to follow...