Thursday, September 08, 2011

Best Back-Up Getaway


So this weekend I almost went to Nashville, but I didn't, so I went down to DC Friday night to meet up with Jeff.  He was staying with his fellow Boilermaker, Briana.  She lives near the park called Lincoln Park.  We walked through it on the way to the Eastern Market for breakfast on Saturday.




For years I've been hearing about this Eastern Market and its famous Blue Buck Pancakes.



And now I have eaten these famous Blueberry Buckwheat pancakes.  With warm syrup.  And bacon.



I ate my pancakes with Jeff.



And Courtney.



And Lori.



And the above-mentioned Briana.



Market things.  I should have taken a picture of all the meat.  They had so many kinds of meats.  And fishes.  And poultries.



Peaches are hilarious.



We went to the famous Capitol Hill Books.  It was packed full of books.



So many copies of Ulysses.  See that "A Shorter Finnegans Wake" edited by Anthony Burgess?  I bought it.  What?  I've read the long version already.



A little later we went to Union Station to pick up Briana's sister Cassie.  She is not any of these girls.









Then we went to Frederick Douglass's house.  You know what I think?  I think Frederick Douglass is underrated.  That's the lesson I took away from my visit to his home and visitor's center.



His house is way up high on a hill.


From it you can see the Capitol, where he worked.  And you can also see Maryland, where he was a slave.  What a view for Frederick to have!



Our fellow tour takers awaited.  Some eyed us skeptically.



The tour begins!



His house was pretty nice.  He bought it for six or seven thousand dollars, the equivalent of two million or so dollars in our day.  It came with ten acres.




Just about everything in the house was original.




Like, those are his books.  The books Frederick read.





There's lots of tours where you can't go upstairs.  This was not one of them.


Father and Son.






Frederick Douglass's many wallpapers.









Frederick's desk.  Notice the wrestling bears.






I'm realizing I don't have a lot of pictures of the house.  Cedar Hill.  That was its name.


And do you know what this is?



The Growlery!!  I'm building my own Growlery in Little Italy right now.





For dinner we had Ray's Hell Burger.  This time I had the New Jack Zing.




And another chocolate shake.



We went and saw the monuments of the tidal basin.  Here's Cassie.  At last.




These two you should know already.  And that's Charles on the phone.  Typical Charles.




The Main Attraction: The new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial.  It makes an impression and draws a crowd.  I'd like to come back sometime when I can read the many inscriptions.





Less bustling: the FDR memorial.  It's a really complex memorial, I liked it.  A hidden gem!  As far as memorials go.  Also: Not very hidden.





Have a fun time with your family re-enacting the Great Depression.






Then we came across the George Mason Memorial, the most chilled out memorial I've ever seen.




And finally, Jefferson.  Who I had never visited before.  Except probably when I was a baby.




This girl was just standing there like this forever while her mom tried to work a camera and I was like "What is this teapot doing?"




Oh, wait.  Yeah.  Probably holding up the Washington Monument.






And so there he is.



And there he is again.  I'm a big fan of any monument with a bathroom.  I guess I'm a fan of most monuments, actually.





Okay, Sunday . . . I'm just going to talk about the beginning of Sunday.  We went to Mormon church in an old Safeway.  That was fun.  This church is by Briana's house.  It says "Come Holy Ghost" on it.  I liked it.



After church we helped a friend of Briana's do a few things at her house.  We: Swept the whole upstairs and Cleaned all the windows.  Cassie used a power saw to cut tiles because she's an architect.






And then, after being helpers, we went and did something totally awesome that I've been dying to do for two and a half years now.  What was it?  Wait and see!  I'll show you tomorrow.  Probably.

2 comments:

Jenna Theobald Broadbent said...

I really like whatever camera you're using these days.

Brigham said...

Most of them were taken with my Leica M8, the Tidal Basin shots were taken with a Canon S90.