Washington DC

We arrived in DC late on Friday evening and were planning on staying until Monday afternoon. The last time I was in DC was probably six years ago and we did the whole tourist thing, but because of that I didn't get a really good feeling of the city part of it. This trip staying with my friend in her place along with the other six people she lives with definitely gave me a good feel of the city. We did a lot of tourist things as well, but we also ran some errands and ate at places that I'm sure 98% of the tourists who go to the city have never heard of. Here are some highlights:

Saturday morning several of us went out to brunch at the Colorado Kitchen (named that way because it is located on Colorado St.) Excellent fresh homemade doughnuts before a pretty spectacular waffle.

Saturday night there was a house party for our friends birthday and a lot of the people she has met through work were leaving, so there was a lot of dancing and eating and meeting a lot of really cool people. (Side note here - the six of the seven people living in this house - including our friend - work for non profits in the city - and all seven of them are extremely liberal and not the biggest fans of the current administration - so we all got along together pretty well.)

Sunday we got up and went to the Spy Museum which was pretty cool. A lot of spy gadgets - a replica of the Bond car from the last Bond movie - and then a whole tour of the history of spying from the time of Caesar to East & West Berlin to the current technology of spying with the internet and everything. Although curiously enough, there wasn't any mention of illegal wire tapping or any of the other points of spying going on in our government today... The souvenir store at the Spy Museum was pretty sweet, and although I had no need of anything - if I had a lot of money that I had no need of, I think I would have spent an awful lot there.

Sunday night we all just hung out at the house and order Thai food and watched John Stewart rock the Oscars. It was the first time I watched the entire thing from the very beginning of the red carpet to the end of the awards show - and I think it will probably be the last time also. The awards show is fun, but I'm really not into seeing what all of the stars are wearing.

Monday we went downtown looking for a place for brunch. After asking a city employee we were directed to "The Waffle Shop - Chinese & American Diner" right across from the Ford Theatre and next door to the house where Lincoln died. It was an experience. Pretty good food (although none of us tried the Chinese - we all got their waffle special) but the experience alone was completely worth it. The next time you go to DC, have breakfast at The Waffle Shop. It was the first time I had ever had scrapple (I think its a patty of grits fried in animal fat. It tastes like some kind of meat - but it isn't.) and I think the last time.

Then it was a walk to the National Mall to the National Gallery where an exhibit was showing of Paul Cezanne. It was a huge exhibit (probably about 200 of his paintings) and many paintings that I had seen before in calendars, postcards, or what not. Much, much cooler seeing the actual painting a foot in front of your face. Then we wandered up to the Capitol building and saw the security guards milling about with their very large guns in full display, and then walked back home just in time to gather our stuff and catch the metro to the bus back to BWI airport. So easy. Why can't Denver get it together?

Great impromptu trip - and then it was back to work on Tuesday. I'm going to have to take more of these random long weekend trips to other cities.