We started out in Philadelphia, then spent two days in New York. Our last weekend was upon us, though, and we in DC. We arrived early Friday afternoon and checked into our hotel in Rosslyn, across the river from Georgetown. Julia used to live in Rosslyn during college, and Mo’s girlfriend also lived in the neighborhood, making it a convenient location. We stayed in a Hilton, which was nice enough, but after the hotel in New York, it seemed wastefully gigantic.
We had some time to kill that afternoon, so we walked across the Francis Scott Key bridge and headed into Georgetown to wander. I had only been in Georgetown once, ten years ago on a college trip, and at night, so I really didn’t remember much of it at all. It’s as nice as everybody thinks:
For dinner, we got together with Mo, his girlfriend Devi (whom I met for the first time), her roommate, and another acquaintance for some delicious Mexican food at a nearby restaurant. Since we had traveled all day after waking up around 5 AM, we were pretty beat and called it a night.
Saturday morning Julia and I headed into “The District”, with the first stop at the Holocaust Museum, which neither of us had ever visited before. It’s hard to put into words the impact of seeing that museum, as anybody who has ever visited can attest to. It was not just the exhibits in the museum that were stunning, however. Sadly, some woman chose to wave her terrible ignorance around like a banner when she commented that President Obama’s “takeover” of power in this country was exactly like what Hitler did in Germany; a rather low-class outburst for something like the Holocaust Museum, all things considered.
After the museum, we walked around a bit on the National Mall, which is in such terrible shape that it ought to embarrass every single American: dirty, trashed, patches of lifelessness, it’s a shame. The National Mall, with its great monuments and location as the center of government, is arguably the most important public space in the country, and it deserves to look as such. As bad as the Mall was, though, it could not take away from what was on it:
Since I had last been in Washington, the WWII Memorial had been completed, so it was nice to see that:
From the Mall, we went to Adams Morgan, a neighborhood I had never heard of that is supposed to be “hip”, and “with it” and all the other things kids are these days. Living up to the hype, it certainly was all of that and more, with an art fair and a breakdancing competition:
Leaving Adams Morgan, we went out for dinner with Julia’s uncle, who lives near Logan Circle, a neighborhood that is up-and-coming. True to form, it has a very nice Italian restaurant where we at dinner, as well as a chocolate shop where we got dessert before heading back.
And then, Sunday, our day of return. We went out for brunch with Mo and Devi, then started the drive back to Philly with the rest of the weekend commuters, sports fans, and itinerant travelers. Traffic wasn’t too terrible once we got outside the Beltway, and we made it in plenty of time to the Philadelphia airport to catch our flight home (this time, no delays or cancellations or similar fun). Finally, around 10 PM, we bid our cab driver goodbye and entered our apartment to find it in one piece, yet still trashed by our two cats. Our vacation was sadly at an end.