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Thursday, July 10, 2008
DC Vacation
The enormous Lincoln Memorial -- Picture by blogSpotter
by blogSpotter
Following is a short diary of my 4-day vacation to Washington D.C. over July 4th weekend. I went with my friend Eric and my brother Bryan flew in from Seattle to meet us. The city is incredible and we had a good time. Following are the details. Enjoy!
THURSDAY JULY 3RD
Eric and I caught an early 8:20 flight (had to get up at 4:45, egad) to DC. We checked into the Hotel Rouge near Dupont Circle at @ 2PM. Hotel Rouge is a gray brick 1950's building that's been completely gutted and remodeled in a contemporary style (all furniture in shades of orange, pink and red). It's a great location, close to Union metro, fashionable clubs and restaurants. We visited Kramer Books on Dupont Circle. Kramer’s is college-oriented and very trendy -- it also has a historical footnote as the bookstore subpoenaed by Ken Starr for Monica Lewinsky's purchase history. Eric and I had a late lunch at Kramer's sidewalk cafe called Afterwords. We were served by a flaky aging hippy but the quesadillas were excellent.
We then took the metro to the National Mall where I was overwhelmed by the huge proportions of it all. The mall must be a minimum of 2 miles in length and you can easily wear down walking the whole perimeter. We just took in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and returned to our hotel for 'disco' naps. Bryan arrived shortly after that and we met up at Jack's Cafe on 17th Street. Bryan was served a beer he didn't like; it was comped. Then, the waiter spilled a glass of tea on Eric. As we left, we remarked that the beer was on the waiter and the tea was on Eric.
We went to Juniors (nearby nightclub) on 17th street right after this; I must say I like the ambience of DC. The clean cut J Crew look is still popular -- we saw next to no one with barbed-wire tattoos, shaved heads, steroidal muscles or other extreme looks we've seen a lot of in Dallas. No one was "X-ing" and no one was going to a White Party. Pleasant change in the scenery to say the least. We went to Cobalt two blocks down afterwards -- it was horribly overcrowded with a very young crowd. The Fire Marshall should be after that place; I left and went back to my room after @ 10 minutes of that. Stopped by the all-nite CVS for mandatory junk food and called it a day.
The Korean War Memorial -- Picture by blogSpotter
FRIDAY JULY 4TH
We had waffles and eggs at a great "greasy spoon" place, Luna Grille, recommended by the hotel desk clerk. We then walked down to the National Mall and toured the WWII, Korean and Viet Nam memorials. We saw the Lincoln Memorial which is huger than huge -- easily 200 feet high. We stopped and noshed on greasy, over-priced hot dogs and then looked at the beautiful American Indian Museum (completed in 2004). This one is worth seeing for the building as well as the artifacts. Rain started falling, so we caught a cab back to Hotel Rouge.
Timely interjection: Washington is very temperate; it has pleasant weather and frequent rainfall -- very green and verdurant. There were towering trees the whole way from Dulles to DC. I remarked to Eric that they have more trees on a random square acre than we have in a square mile of Dallas. We were rained on 3 times but they were quick summer showers that came and went.
That afternoon we attended the Hotel happy hour. Bryan had red wine; Eric and I had Izze pomegranate soda which tastes kind of like champagne -- very good. That night we had a sampler plate dinner at Meze Turkish Cafe in Adams-Morgan, also good. It was pricey, but DC is pricey as a rule -- have to be ready for that. After eating, we went back to Juniors which was packed. One fellow was slumping and had too much to drink (but still conscious). His friend got in back of him and started moving his arms like a puppeteer. He (or they?) was touching, groping, tapping and doing all manner of inappropriate things to people going by. Have to say I laughed a lot -- maybe I'm easily entertained. Didn't know you could use a live human as a puppet. From here we walked to Omega, a sleazy pickup joint that I tolerated for only a few minutes before calling it a night and returning to the hotel.
SATURDAY JULY 5TH
I had coffee and newspaper at Caribou Coffee, before Bryan and Eric even awakened. Caribou is a trendy coffee place a la Starbucks but less expensive. Very nice crowd and the coffee was good. After joining up with Eric and Bryan we got on the Hop-On Hop-Off bus tour at Union Station. For much of the ride we rode on the open upper deck and enjoyed the cool air rushing over us. We stopped at National Cathedral and then in Georgetown. Georgetown is an upscale district where we went to Martin's Tavern -- place where JFK proposed to Jackie. We got back on the bus and debarked at Arlington National Cemetery. This cemetery was Robert E Lee's plantation prior to the Civil War -- amazing in its size and grandeur. The Lee mansion still sits impressively on a high hilltop. Here we saw, JFK's grave and the Tomb of the Unknown soldier among other things. The cemetery was the last part of our tour, and we returned to the hotel for a much needed rest. A bit later we met up again for dinner. We had light meals (walnut salad for me) at the 17th Street cafe and went back to Juniors. The crowd was less good, or maybe I was tired. We took a cab over to the DC Eagle but I couldn't get in wearing flip-flops. I took a cab back to the hotel and took the Eagle's rejection as a sign that I should call it a night and relax in the hotel room.
Bryan sympathizing with the cheetahs -- Picture by blogSpotter
SUNDAY JULY 6TH
We had a repeat breakfast at Luna Grille; this might be a habit if I lived there. Luna Grille is near Dupont Circle, gets a fun crowd and has good food at reasonable prices. From here, we took the metro to the Holocaust Museum where we spent a good 2.5 hours. I've seen much of the subject matter before on PBS specials and such, but this was pretty overwhelming. One exhibit showed a huge pile of victims' shoes recovered from the ovens (they were sooty but still recognizable as shoes). After this thought provoking albeit disturbing museum, we took the metro all the way up to Woodley-Park where we saw the National Zoo -- one of the best in the nation. By the way, did I mention that all these exhibits are FREE? In DC, most of the museums have permanent endowment funds that allow tourists free access.
The National Zoo was gorgeous -- we spent lots of time at the panda exhibit since that's one of the main attractions. It started to pour rain so we grabbed a cab and went back to Hotel Rouge. We regrouped and later went out to dinner at La Tomate. La Tomate is a pricey, fashionable Italian bistro on Dupont Circle where Chelsea Clinton went on her first date. These tidbits of history made everything more interesting. The food (seafood fettuccine for me) was good but you get small portions for the grand price. We went back to our same clubs this night and we figure it was just an off night -- everything was kind of dead. Called it an evening pretty early since the next day was a travel day.
MONDAY JULY 7TH
Bryan wanted to experience Kramer's Cafe so we went back there. The service was slow again, but the food and crowd made it worth the wait. Alas, Bryan checked out and departed the Hotel at 10:30 to return to Seattle. Eric and I still had a whole day to kill prior to our 8:30PM flight. We went to see the White House -- turns out you can't just buy a ticket anymore. Since 9/11, you must get a letter from your Congressman, six months in advance. In place of that, you can go to the White House Visitors' center (cattycorner to the real deal) and see exhibits of everything. From here, we walked over to the Smithsonian Museum of Flight and Aerospace. This museum oddly had the biggest crowd of all. Apparently a lot of people are excited by planes, missiles and rockets. They also had rides and simulators that appeal a lot to kids.
From here we went back to Hotel Rouge and the Hotel provided us a Lincoln Town Car limousine as our return vehicle. (No extra charge for the limo). Eric and I enjoyed the luxury. Our plane was delayed an hour due to weather, but we finally got back to Dallas @ 1AM central time.
OVERALL
DC is a beautiful city; it is fitting that the most powerful nation on earth should have at least one city with such grandeur and such impressive architecture. In places it reminds me of the grand boulevards you might see in Prague, Paris or Berlin. It turns out that much of the original city was designed by a French-born architect (and urban planning pioneer) Pierre L'Enfant. Everything is larger, grander in scope than I ever imagined just from postcards and history books. I figure that a city like this would be very livable. We all enjoyed our trip and would easily go back to catch the hundred things we missed on this one.
© 2008 blogSpotter
Labels: Travel
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Only Swingers Need Apply
Twisting the night away -- Picture courtesy of CBS
by blogSpotter
What is America coming to? I’ve now caught 3 episodes of CBS’s new dramedy Swingtown, and I have to say we're headed in a shocking direction. Now, I couldn’t be too shocked or I wouldn’t have sat through 3 complete episodes. Swingtown is set in an upscale Chicago suburb in the mid 1970’s. The website summary talks about 3 couples exploring new attitudes and choices at the precipice of change.
In fact, the title tells it all -- Swingtown is about 3 couples discovering that they can swing with each other. Yes, in the sexual sense of that word. Set against the polyester, disco backdrop of the 1970’s, this show purports to show the swinging attitudes that we had back in the 70’s. Bruce and Susan Miller move across the street from libertine couple Tom and Trina Decker. At a block party, the Millers get drawn into the Decker’s tawdry web. In last week’s episode, the web caught more victims of moral indecision -- the Miller’s old friends, the Thompson’s, stumbled upon the Decker’s wife-swapping shenanigans at a vacation cabin.
The only problem with the show’s concept is that this facile situation never existed -- it’s a 70’s that never was. If anything, the freewheeling 2000’s with Craig’s list and Internet chat rooms would be much more an accurate setting for this debauchery. But I digress with this line of judgmental thoughts -- the show is immensely entertaining. In some ways, it reminds me of soft core, woman-oriented pornography. All we lack is someone spilling wine on the lap of the pizza delivery boy.
The show actually redeems itself a little bit (from the credibility standpoint) with the plot lines of the children. The Miller’s daughter has a nascent affair developing with her teacher and the Thompson’s son is helping a neighbor girl with a dysfunctional mother. The attitude of Swingtown is much like that of Desperate Housewives. It’s a wink-wink dramedy that’s much likelier to elicit laughter than serious critique.
If your moral senses are easily offended, do not tune in on Thursday nights. The American Family Association and the Parent’s TV Council have both already moved to protest this show and boycott its advertisers. Swingtown is the creation of Mike Kelley, who’s already played with our moral compass in shows like Big Love and Rome. If you can enjoy something with about the depth and credibility of a Harlequin romance, (but heightened giggle factor), by all means tune into Swingtown.
© 2008 blogSpotter
Labels: Television
