Scoping out D.C. before the inauguration

Last Friday Becky and I loaded up and headed west toward Washington D.C. Anniversary weekend and New Year’s all in one.  Great planning 47 years ago when she was 18 and I was 19.

Traffic was light as we crossed the flats of Delmarva.  Dynamic wintry cloud formations and simple conversation made the driving interesting. A massive thunderhead-looking cloud just south of Greenwood gave up snow flurries as we passed the cemetery on a little rise just east of the village.  Before the flurries the car’s temperature read-out indicated 43.  In the flurries it dropped to 39.  West of town, where the leafless hardwoods showed waxy hollies in their understories, the temperature returned to 43.  An inversion, I wondered.  Not sure what that is but it came to mind and I’ve come - as I near my 67th birthday - to honor my mind.

An hour later we rolled into the parking lot at the New Carollton Station of the DC Metro and parked in a cold concrete garage. On a mid-afternoon Friday, few people moved around the station.  We bought smart cards to get us on and off the trains and waited for the next one into town.  In a few weeks I’ll head back to D.C. for the Trump inauguration so Friday worked as a dry run.

We trained to DuPont Circle, walked a half mile or so to Kimpton’s Hotel Rouge - $135 per night - checked in, freshened up and then hoofed our way to a restaurant called Momofuku for some Asian food. Everything we did on Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning involved only walking.  No cabs, no buses, no Ubers.  Everything we wanted to do was within walking distance and that made life simple and less expensive. People were friendly and nice.  The homeless folks, huddled under blankets at the base of statues or near the warmth of steaming grates, smiled when I said God bless you, happy for a kind word and recognition of their existence, even if I didn’t buy them a burger.   I thought of them the next day - them and their cotton sleeping bags and blankets - when a light rain began to fall.  City concrete is cold stuff.  Fortunately the first weekend of the new year was relatively mild for January.

A young man in a Navy blue Newseum-labeled jacket outside the complex facing Pennsylvania Avenue recommended the new FBI exhibit.  We love the Newseum.  In a city loaded with great museums, the Newseum is one of the best. I recommend it highly. The FBI exhibit, as advertised, engaged us immediately.  A beat-up gray Nissan Pathfinder at the entrance to the exhibit showed the chilling preparations of a terrorist. The FBI’s intelligence network foiled his plot to truck-bomb a crowded Times Square in New York City a few years back. Now the truck’s in the museum as a graphic example of how terrorists work.  In the back of the vehicle were three propane tanks and two red-plastic gasoline containers.  Interpretive signs showed how the tanks were strung together and wired to a detonating time clock.  Sinister.  The exhibit showed the evolution of FBI customers from gangsters like John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson to more recent terrorists including the DC snipers, the Unabomber, the Oklahoma City bomber and the Boston Marathon murderers. A film as part of the exhibit explains the particularly daunting task the FBI has of tracking and thwarting cyber crime and cyber attacks. It’s a great exhibit as is so much of the Newseum.

Only a few blocks away is the Smithsonian’s Museum of American Art.  We went to see an exhibit of the sculptural work of Isamu Noguchi which was amazing.  We also walked through galleries of great American paintings and photography including the awesome collection in the national portrait gallery. The Edward Hopper paintings thad out for me.  They alone are worth ten times the price of admission which is free.  Our tax dollars at work. An important reminder of the power of art as an enrichment of life.

After five hours of museum exploring - fueled by omelets and coffee from a corner café in Chinatown - it was time for New Year’s Eve dinner.  We like a big afternoon meal on special occasions.  We walked past the District Chophouse as we hoofed our way from the Newseum to the Smithsonian.  It grabbed our attention, Becky confirmed good ratings on her phone, the decision was made. Becky had a chardonnay to start, I a martini - three olives, a little dirty, and Tito’s vodka.  I wasn’t worried about getting picked up on the way back to Hotel Rouge for WUI. With my burger I had an Australian blend of Shiraz and Viognier - Yalumba.  I’m a sucker for the 15-percent alcohol of the typical Viognier which makes it very soft, and the apricot and peach flavors. It was good enough for a second glass. Becky went with pinot noir which never disappoints .

The manager stopped by to ask how things were going.  We told the truth.  It was all good. I asked him how business was - ”solid” - and how he felt the inauguration would affect his operation.  “I think there will be a lot of people in town to see Trump inaugurated and a lot of people in town to protest.  We will be busy.”

The chophouse is eight or 10 blocks from the capital.  From the sixth-story upper deck at the museum we could see preparations underway for the Jan. 20 festivities. What a history-rich town, with talk of politics and past events everywhere.  In that section of town, lots of interpretives signs and plaques on buildings commemorate the Civil War and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Coming out of the men’s room at Momofuku’s I was chatting with a young man in town from South Carolina.  “Columbia,” he said. “State capitol.  Niki Haley’s the governor but not for long.  Trump’s appointing her as representative to the United Nations.  Two for one deal for him.  She didn’t support him for president and he’s not real big on the United Nations. But by appointing her to that position it makes way for our Lt. Governor to take over South Carolina. And he was a Trump supporter.”

That’s the way it goes in Washington D.C.

We had a good visit to the capitol.  The streets were clean; the monumental buildings confirmed the power of our history; and the Newseum reminded us of the vitally important role played by the Freedom of the Press.

Happy New Year!