For the second weekend in a row, I spent my days off visiting with friends -- this weekend in DC was considerably less jam-packed than last weekend in NY, but I definitely had a lovely time. Mom and I drove straight to DC from the franklin institute on Saturday, making great time (2.5 hours! no traffic!) We listened to the wonderful Beltin' Broadway Babes mix created by a certain Skrevsky and I, and finished the ride listening to The Lion King. Lovely choices all around. I can think of few images I enjoy more than my mother singing Hey, Big Spender :)
We arrived in DC around 7:30, whereupon Alli gave us the grand tour of the apartment (I had seen it in June, but it was Mom's first visit) I realized as we walked around that the two months since I had last been there had gone by awfully quickly, between work at Abramson and then the transition to the franklin, and then a whole month of work at my new job . . . crazy. I'm definitely in a very different place than the last time I visited DC -- I was so stressed about not having a job and not knowing where I was going to be and . . .oy.
Anyway, after the tour, we hopped into Alli's car to drive to dinner. That's when the ridiculous Gold family antics ensued. Alli decided that we should go to this place in Cleveland Park, the Open City Diner, for dinner. She neglected to think about the fact that parallel parking is not really her forte, and in her vain attempts to find parking near said dinner establishment, accidentally got onto the Rock Creek Parkway. Ten minutes on the parkway later, we were downtown near GW, frantically attempting to figure out where we were and what was going on. To her credit, Alli kept her head and remember that a CPK was nearby, so we found someplace to eat and park and all was well. But being in a car with Mona and Alli is tense at the best of times, so this was mildly trying. Anyway, we had a lovely dinner and then drove back. (Alli did swimmingly this time! -- she really is a very good driver, and she handled it much better than I would have) We started watching the Olympics, but I crashed pretty early, demonstrating my amazing ability to sleep through anything (sleeping through men's gymnastics really IS a feat).
The next morning we woke up relatively early and lounged about Alli's apartment, watching the Olympics and then the first half of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which was mildly ridiculous, since Mom hadn't seen or read the fourth book, and barely any of it made sense for her. Anyway, I got lots done on my embroidery project (!) and soon enough it was time to leave for the Fenster-Gold family adventure! We got on the metro and waited for about 25 minutes (apparently they're doing track work on the Red line - ugh), and I was in a snarky I-don't-like-waiting-and-I'm-hungry mood, which didn't help things. Eventually the subway came, and we got to Dupont Circle, where we walked to this lovely bookstore/restaurant to meet Jason and Marilyn, his Mom, for brunch.
We embraced and were silly and poked around the bookstore for a few minutes until our table was ready -- such a fabulous bookstore, with a great selection of just the kind of books I like, and a very cozy atmosphere. We got to our table and enjoyed a wonderful brunch -- a little expensive, but all of the meals came with mimosas (I got a strawberry one, yum!) and I had a vegetarian version of eggs benedict, with avocado and tomato instead of ham. SO utterly delicious. Also, the bathrooms there require a special bathroom coin that you have to ask your waiters for, but I didn't use mine and just kept the coin because it was so cute. oops. After lunch, we walked around the bookstore some more, and i decided that I need to buy Salt: A history. After browsing for a bit, we all hopped onto the subway, which we took to the botanical gardens.
I've never actually been to the national conservatory and botanical gardens, which seems improbably considering my mother has apparently given talks there and I'm, well, me. Anyway, the botanical gardens are beautiful, but we spent most of the time inside the conservatory, which is wonderfully curated, with really fabulous specimens. It had been a long time since I've had the leisure to walk around a greenhouse figuring out plant families, and Jason and Alli were wonderfully tolerant of me (and I think may have actually enjoyed themselves, too!) They have a great exhibit on scents and spices, which I loved, and a fabulous "cool globes" art installation in the garden, which I'm very into. I definitely want to go back another time, and could absolutely see myself working someplace like that in the future.
We spent the rest of the afternoon walking down the Mall, passing the Air and Space museum and the very clever to-scale (by 1/10-billionth) model of the solar system along the sidewalk. We got ice cream and soft pretzels and walked around the Hirschhorn sculpture garden which was nice, but not fabulous -- I like my art exhibits with a healthy dose of explanatory descriptions. Anyway, it was a wonderful day, and so very great to see my favorite mr. fenster and to galumph around DC as a group. Afterwards, Mom, Alli, and I went back to her apartment, watched the rest of the Harry Potter movie, then went to Guapo's in Tenleytown for delicious Mexican food. I was beat, and collapsed into bed early for the second night in a row, while Alli and mom chilled out and watched TV.
Yesterday morning, we woke up early, got the car packed and some of Alli's stuff packed, and then jumped into the car for a morning of shopping and fun! We drove to Friendship Heights, where we went into Borders (I got my Salt book), Loehmanns (Alli got a cute shirt), and Filene's (Alli and Mom bought purses). We ended up at Cosi for lunch, where Alli and I both enjoyed the amaaaaazing signature salad -- hello, who doesn't love pear, gorzonola, grapes, pistachios, and a sherry vinaigrette all in the same salad? crazy people, that's who.
When we came back to the car, we realized that we had totally forgotten to put money in the meter. Expecting a towed car or a ticket, we were happy to see neither, and particularly amused when we realized that the DC parking authority had parked right in front of us and hadn't noticed. (it seems like the officer was on a lunch break, thank goodness.) We dropped Alli off at American, then drove home, stopping only for Barnes and Noble (that's right, two large chain bookstores in one day; Grandma Hilda would be ashamed), where I bought myself a history of the Little Ice Age and its impacts on empire building (!)
So all together a lovely, family-filled weekend. Next weekend, Mr. Stern comes home to Philadelphia!!!
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So in addition to the odd Brandeisian words that I have now introduced to HUC (including "he's a beast!" and "you're so snarky"), I realized after reading your post that I say "hello!" a lot...emphasis on the first syllable. That already gets a few giggles from surrounding colleagues. But since I'm in Israel I also interchange it with "Shalom." It's all very amusing.
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