I have visited lots of cities in the U.S. but for some reason, never Washington D.C. – until now. My friends Bob & Margaret moved here last fall, and I love, love, love their house which is in the Cleveland Park area. They have a cool porch and a fantastic, overgrown, crazy looking park across the street.

Right now the park is devoid of greenery and I desperately want to be here when it erupts into Spring. But, with only five days I don’t think that will happen.

Yesterday, on my own, I must have walked about fifteen miles (and, unfortunately, I am totally feeling that today – in my calves, my hips, pretty much everywhere.) I got off the subway at the Mall along with about five hundred school kids and their chaparones and parents. Thankfully, the Mall is pretty enormous. I wanted to go to the American History Museum, but it is closed for renovations or something. So I just walked, to the Washington Monument, all the war monuments, the Lincoln monument. Everything looked really close on the map! The sun was out, and it was very warm, and if there is one thing I have learned in my travels it is: If the sun is out, utilize it. So I kept walking. And another thing, I couldn’t get that image of Twyla Tharp’s dancers writhing in front of the Washington Monument in the film version of “Hair” out of my mind, or the lyrics to the song they were dancing to:

Prisoners in Niggertown
It’s a dirty little war
Three Five Zero Zero
Take weapons up and begin to kill
Watch the long long armies drifting home

I’m not trying to make any kind of statement here, except that I am the kind of person who can’t get lyrics out of their head.

In all my reading about this city I have come to be pretty interested in Pierre L’Enfant, the architect who laid out the plans for this city – basically, he had this grand plan to design a European style city in a swamp. I think he was kind of a pain and he eventually got fired, but this vision, and how it actually worked out, is very intriguing to me. So, I decided to go check out L’Enfant Plaza, which I was sure would be a really cool square with cafes and restaurants around it. Not. They need to make it grander, to reflect L’Enfant’s contribution to this city. It’s a 1970’s business park.

I got on the subway there and headed to the Eastern Market, because I love markets, and this one was pretty cool but not in the original building because I guess that one had a fire and they are restoring it (I think I need more current guidebooks.) Instead they have the market across the street in a big tent. Lots of butchers, cheese shop, etc. but it was freaking hot in there and it is only March.

On the way, this couple sat down next to me and when we got to the stop before Eastern Market, they asked each other “is this L’Enfant?” So I said, are you going to L’Enfant station? ‘Cause that’s the other way. They looked at me like I was trying to put one over on them. I repeated it. You are going the wrong way. I just came from there. They got out their map. So much for trying to be helpful. Keep going then, homies.

After the market, I walked and walked… through the Capitol Hill area which has some really cute houses, and a nice vibe, then to the Library of Congress and to Union Station. Union Station is awesome! I love old train stations, and this one has all kinds of shops and restaurants. I stopped at one and had a glass of wine and half an avocado with crab on top. It was just OK, but I really like it in there.

Now I was pretty tired of walking so I took the metro to Dupont Circle and, uh, walked around. Toyed with the idea of going to a bar that my friend Sue recommended called the Fox and Hounds, but arriving there it looked like more of a nighttime place so I kept walking and eventually came back to Cleveland Park and a nice glass of Pinot on the porch.

Last night we ate at the famous Dino and it was really, really good… fantastic fried artichokes, some killer halibut, great pasta with wild boar sauce.. Dean himself told us what to eat and it was all spot on. Had some good Nebbiolos, too.

Woke up to rain, and it looks pretty wet, so I’m off to the National Gallery of Art.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 7:32 am and is filed under Tales from a Strange Land. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.