The Circle...

Sunday, June 7 - I continue to find myself drawn toward Dupont Circle. On this warm, sunny Sunday, I decided to drive there, following the now-familiar route – straight down 16th Street all the way into the city, then right on P Street (Google Map Link HERE).

Dupont Circle (Google Map Link HERE) itself is an enormous rotary where New Hampshire, Connecticut and Massachusetts Avenues cross in controlled chaos. P Street , running east and west, and 19th Street, running north and south, bisect the whole mess. While it’s not the most pleasant place to drive, I am hopelessly captivated each time I walk there.

I park a few blocks away. It is safer and easier, and the short journey on foot is a pleasant one. Along the main roads that lead to the Circle are clothing shops, cafes, gift emporiums, hair salons, coffee houses, bookstores, bars, bistros and restaurants. The tree-shrouded streets of the nearby neighborhoods are lined with aging brick homes and apartments. Corner markets sell soft drinks, cigarettes and newspapers.

Looking North from the Edge of the Park Up 19th Street:


The giant traffic circle surrounds a small park with a fountain as its focus. The stone centerpiece looks like an enormous chalice standing upright in a pool with granite walls. Water pours from the upper edges where notches have been cut to channel the flow. Tiny birds roost at the top, anxious for the opportunity to dive for stray crumbs abandoned by the plump pigeons that scratch the ground lazily.

The Fountain:


The middle of the park – around the fountain – is open, but rows of trees shelter the surrounding grassy areas. Six sidewalks converge in the center, and people enter from all directions. Some are simply passing through, walking briskly, with purpose, while others meander for no reason at all. There are joggers and bike riders and pet owners. Many come to stay - to read or write or chat or rest on the benches. Sun bathers lay about in great numbers. A line of small sturdy tables with chessboards embedded attracts a curious crowd. Men sit or stand in the shade, thinking. Thick fingers shift bishops and knights and pawns from square to square.

Chess:




In most cities electrical outlets in public places are covered with locked boxes, but, here, a few are purposely left open for street musicians to plug in (or even to charge a cell phone).

Power Outlet


Listening closely, you can hear music coming from different gatherings all around. The sounds of guitars, congas, violins and voices mask the din of the passing traffic. I inch my way closer to one group. They are really good.

Street Musicians:


Th people-watching is endlessly fascinating. Hours have passed, and I am sunburned and thirsty, but I find myself saddened when it is time to leave. Something is different here. These are not beggars or derelicts, just residents with no back yard. The aura is real, and the energy is palpable as they gather purely for the sake of gathering. City stresses evaporate like mist from the fountain pool. While the turbulent currents of daily life literally swirl around them, they seem content to relax, take a breath, and treasure the simple moments that make it all worthwhile.

360 Degree Video:

The CCT...

Saturday, June 6 – I finally made time to grab both my bikes off their storage rack, and clean them up from top to bottom. It doesn’t take long for a bike to show signs of neglect, and mine had spent three weeks outdoors – two weeks strapped to the back of my car or under a tarp at my campsite, and a week on the back deck of my hovel. It took two hours, but I scrubbed and re-oiled the chains, and cleaned everything as well as I could. To celebrate, I decided to explore the Capital Crescent Trail (Link HERE)

It is permissible to bring your bike on the Metro, as long as it is not during rush hours (7 AM to 10AM and 4 PM to 7 PM on weekdays), so I biked to the station near me, dragged my bike on to the train (you can use the handicapped elevators for access, rather than trying to manhandle your bike up and down the escalators), and hopped off in Silver Spring. There is a mile or two of side roads to negotiate before you get to the top end of the Trail, but, as soon as I made it I was SO happy I did.

I can’t say enough good things about the Trail. It is fabulous. For the first couple of miles, the surface is crushed gravel, and not suitable for a true road bike. I rode my mountain bike. Once you reach Bethesda, it is fully paved from there to Georgetown. I hadn’t ridden in a long time, and it was a beautiful day. Tons of people use the Trail for walking, running, biking or just hanging out. There are many historical sites and other points of interest along the way (Link HERE), and, once it curves around and follows the Potomac, it offers terrific scenery and views. One of my previous entries had a link to the photo page of the Capital Crescent Trail website, and if you didn't view the page then, I recommend doing it now (Link HERE).

After riding all the way down to Georgetown (about 11 or 12 miles), I wandered around for a while (Georgetown itself is amazing, and will most certainly be the subject of future blog entries), and stopped in the Daily Grill inside the Georgetown Inn (Link HERE) for a glass of wine. It was the perfect end to the afternoon.

A short ride up P Street brought me to the Metro station at Dupont Circle for the trip home...

Top 10 Reasons...

I hope my faithful readers will accept my apologies; I have added no blog entries in the last few days. I had grand plans to do a few interesting things, but the weather was uncooperative, and my time was mostly spent on the computer job-hunting and sending out resumes and cover letters. While these activities were clearly vital, they are not terribly interesting to read about.

But, since I am a vastly intelligent and incredibly considerate blogger (please hold the laughter), I have saved a few topics for dry spells (or wet weather spells) such as these.

Without further ado, here are my Top 10 Reasons for Moving to the DC Area:

10) For some reason, over the last few years, I've developed a desire to live in or near a big city, use mass transportation, and just generally enjoy some of the advantages a big city offers.

9) The economy in the DC area isn't expected to suffer as much as it is in other areas. Many jobs here depend directly or indirectly on the federal government, and the government - last time I checked - is not going away. I've read that they expect the economy here to grow by 2.5% by the end of 2010.

8) As noted in one of my previous entries (Link HERE), this is a truly international city. Every day I am amazed at the diversity of people, cultures, languages, etc.

7) As someone who grew up camping, but has gotten away from it in recent years, I like the proximity to the mountains and other outdoor recreation. I am seventy-six miles from the northern end of Skyline Drive and the Shenandoah National Park, and there are countless other parks, lakes, rivers, ski areas and biking trails within reasonable driving distance.

6) I am intrigued by the cultural opportunities here. There is certainly no shortage of museums, concerts, sporting events, etc. For a town its size, Gainesville had a nice offering of cultural experiences, but, seriously, can anyplace compare to the DC museums?

5) As noted in one of my previous entries (Link HERE), the history and mystery here are unmatched. Sometimes it seems like every street and building has some story to tell or some secret to hide.

4) The challenge of being in a new place and being forced to think, improvise and adapt is very appealing. Living in the same town for twenty-seven years has its advantages, but, in my case, portions of my brain went into hibernation.

3) There is a lifetime worth of Civil War exploring to be done here. There is much to learn just about the city itself during the war - political as well as military events. By the war's end, Washington DC was surrounded by more than thirty-seven miles of fortified lines, including no fewer than sixty-eight forts, over twenty miles of rifle pits, four picket stations and ninety-three separate batteries of artillery containing over 1,500 guns. Even now, the names of the parks and neighborhoods trace their origins to the war: Ft. Slocum Park, Ft. Davis Park, Ft. Reno Park, Ft. Bayard Park, Battery Kemble Park, Ft. Washington, Ft. Myer Heights, Stronghold, and more. Even the area around the Metro station where I sometimes change trains is called Ft. Totten.

That's just IN the city. Once you get out into Maryland and Virginia... holy cow. It is said that there were 10,000 Civil War battles or skirmishes, and it has been estimated that 60% of them occurred in Virginia. On top of that, the chair in which I now sit is seventy-one miles from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It is fifty-eight miles from Sharpsburg, Maryland (Antietam). And it is forty-one miles from Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. You get the picture...

2) As much as I like reflecting on history, here I have the opportunity to witness history in the making. With President Obama in office, and the political climate changing (I hope), it seems like these will be interesting times to live in the nation's capital.

1) And the number one reason for moving to this area... (drum roll)... being over thirty-five and single in Gainesville sucks.

Starbucks...

I hadn't really given much thought to the idea before, but I have come to understand why people like chain stores - department stores, restaurants, etc - especially when they are travelling or in an unfamiliar place. You have a pretty good idea what to expect every time you walk into a Chili's, for instance. You know it will never be the best place you've ever eaten, but you also know that it won't be the microwave Mexican food from hell.

I have told many people about my experience in France. On our second day there, in our rented Renault, we were making a wide sweep from northeast of Paris to the Normandy coast to be there for the 60th Anniversary of the D-Day landing. As I recall, it was about 180 miles. We'd had our morning coffee, and it wasn't more than an hour or two before nature called. Then it dawned on us - driving along the highway we hadn't seen anything like the typical rest area in the U.S., and we couldn't understand the road signs. Our bladder pressure continued to build with each passing minute, and we had begun considering ways to... shall we say... improvise. As the situation became critical, up ahead I spotted something that looked familiar: the Golden Arches! I do not regularly patronize McDonald's, by any means, but I'd rarely been so happy to find one. I knew there would be Big Macs and Coca-Cola. And rest rooms.

So it's time I should admit that I have become a fan of Starbucks.

First of all, I don't know what they put in their coffee, but I am simply unable to brew a pot at home that tastes as good as theirs, and I appreciate it every time I have a cup. Secondly, I have now been in enough of them that I know what to expect. I know the terminology. I have caved in and begun ordering tall, grande or venti coffee rather than small, medium or large. And, at some point recently, they made it so that regular customers can have wireless access free (it was stupidly expensive before). After that, and since I embarked on my New Clothing Enterprise, I not only visit Starbucks frequently, I have come to rely on them. No matter where I am, I know I can find a place to sit, surf the web, and get a nice caffeine buzz.

Now that I'm at the point that I will be intensifying my job search - most of which can be done online - I don't want to sit in my hovel and browse. I still want to get out and see things and be around people. Starbucks lets me do that.

I searched their website this morning. There are nineteen Starbucks locations in the District. I think I'll end up visiting most of them. Earlier, I was at 1201 Maryland Ave, SW (Google Map Link HERE). I could look out the window and see the top of the Jefferson Memorial. It was busy, but it was one of those Starbucks where people just come in, get their cup, and then leave. So I had plenty of room. It wasn't one of those Starbucks where random people go in and hang out for hours. What kind of crazy person would do that anyway?

Learning Curve...

I can still count with single digits the number of nights I have spent in my new hovel. It’s only been a month since I left Gainesville. Sometimes it seems like ages, but I haven’t accomplished many of the things I need to accomplish, so I’m glad that time isn’t flying as fast as it sometimes feels it is. There is a huge learning curve here. At least several times a day, I find out something new, or have a completely embarrassing moment when I am left looking like a naïve tourist amongst a bunch of city slickers. It’s good. It’s what I wanted.

Two things I learned recently:

1) If you drive anywhere, on any day except Sunday, you need to have about ten pounds of quarters. There is no such thing as free parking. Ever.

2) During weekends, they perform maintenance on the Metro tracks. That means delays, as I discovered yesterday when “scheduled maintenance” (according to the PA announcement at the Metro Center station) meant that my Metro journey would take twice as long as usual. This caused me to miss my long-planned Potomac cruise with the DC Gators. What can you do?

I ended up exploring the departure point for the cruise, a fabulous place called Washington Harbor (Googe Map Link HERE), wandered around the streets of Georgetown (a breathtaking area of DC), and found a nice bar inside the Georgetown Inn (Link HERE) with a reasonable happy hour. Then I wandered down P Street (I will shoot a brief video of this one day soon, and post it on my blog), crossed the bridge over the Rock Creek Parkway, and climbed on a bar stool at the Brickskellar (Link HERE). From there, I wandered up to the Dupont Circle Metro station and rode home.

I wonder what it takes to make the city feel like home? A job would help, I’m sure! In the meantime, it amazes me constantly. Today, I drove down 16th Street into the city, and took a right on P Street to Dupont Circle. There are people everywhere – riding, jogging, walking, sitting, standing – just enjoying the day. An impromptu gathering of musicians is jamming in the park. There are so many different kinds of people. I went to the ATM, and, when it asks you to select your preferred language, there are SEVEN options: English, Spanish, Portugese, German, French, Polish and Italian.

Even if it gets to feel like home, I hope I never get used to it.

History and Mystery...

Friday, I needed to go into the city for a few reasons. I am trying to establish a routine that allows me to do the things I need to do to survive here – look for a permanent job, stay in touch with my advertising clients back in Gainesville, and get some work done for Push Button Productions. I had only been in my hovel for five days when I packed up last Thursday to spend a week in Atlanta, so everything is still new to me. And, yes, I got lost again Thursday night when I drove downtown to watch the Gator girls in the first round of the College World Series, and then tried to find my way back. In the dark. In the rain. Again. It didn’t take nearly as long to get unlost as it did last time, so I guess that’s a good sign. The cable is out at our house for some reason (lightning/storm), so I needed to go somewhere to get online, and I want to get in the habit of getting out even when my goal is to sit somewhere and work. You never know who you’ll bump into on the Metro or in Starbucks or on the street. Even though it’s more distracting, it’s far more pleasant and interesting than sitting in my room. And I learn something every minute that I’m out and about.

Every city has its share of history and mystery, I suppose, but Washington DC is different. As you walk or drive around, it is difficult to not be overcome by a feeling of fascination and awe. Everywhere I go, I want to stop and look and ask questions. The familiar landmarks are there, of course; the monuments, museums and government buildings that we all recognize. But you can’t help wondering if every building has a story. Many of them do. Even if it’s a story that can’t be found in history books, I wonder about the people that built the place. Was it a family of immigrants? Freed slaves? Diplomats? Congressmen? Criminals? (I know, I repeat myself). I wonder who has been there and what has happened there. Who knows?

Let me give you a couple of examples…

1) I have discovered that 16th Street is the best way for me to go straight into the city if I am driving. Click on the link and bear in mind that I live at the very top of the map off of Layhill at Georgia Ave (Route 97). Follow Georgia Ave down through Silver Spring, under the beltway (I-495), and you’ll see (where the “A” is) that I can turn on to 16th Street near the place labeled Colonial Village. Double click there to zoom in, and you notice that 16th Street goes straight into the city from there, and ends at Lafayette Square, literally a block behind the White House.

Map Link --> HERE <--

I was driving this route yesterday – down 16th Street - and suddenly saw a building feature that looked familiar to me. A distinctive wall. Then I looked up at the building. The Washington DC Hilton. Not ringing a bell?
Watch the video below (you don’t have to watch the whole thing)...



Yes. It was THAT wall. The one you see as they pin John Hinckley against it and wrench the gun from his hand. It was strange that I recognized it instantly, but how many times have you seen that video and not really thought about the location? The Washington DC Hilton. I drove right by it. Who knew?

2) I have been reading a great book called The Day of Battle by Rick Atkinson. It’s the second installment of a planned trilogy about World War II. This one focuses on the Allied campaigns in Sicily and Italy. It’s a fantastic book. As I was reading the latter section of the book, I noticed a paragraph describing a high level meeting during the war. Here is the description from the book:

Before returning to Italy, Clark (General Mark Clark, commander of the Fifth Army) was whisked one evening from the basement garage of Renie’s (his wife) apartment on Connecticut Avenue to the private entrance of a nineteenth-century town house at 1806 I Street in downtown Washington. Here in the Alibi Club, the well-heeled and well-connected of Washington’s elite gathered to “cook oysters, lobsters and duck to suit themselves, play poker, and put away a lethal sort of drink based on Medford rum,” as Marshall’s (General George C. Marshall, Army Chief of Staff) biographer wrote. To hear Clark’s progress report on the war in Italy, Marshall had assembled a dozen powerful figures, including Vice President Henry A. Wallace and Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn. For more than an hour, while his auditors slurped oysters around the table and tossed the shells into a bowl, Clark in his deep, mellifluous voice described campaigns past and future; the desperate fight at Salerno, the struggle at the Winter Line, the Anzio gamble, and, now, soon, the great thrust that would carry Fifth Army into Rome. None of these men, Clark concluded, had any inkling of what it was like to wage war in mountainous Italy.

I searched the location on Google maps, and the street view showed that the building is still there. --> Google Map Link HERE <--

So, when I took the Metro downtown, I decided to head there just to take a peek, and then look for a good place to sit and get some work done. Farragut West is the nearest Metro stop, and, as soon as I got off the train and rode the ascending escalator, I saw this:



The Google Map street view is accurate. It is an old-looking, but fairly nondescript building, appropriately “sandwiched” between a Subway and a copy shop with office space on the floors above. If I hadn’t read the passage in my book, I’d have no idea that this was the site of the Alibi, and a semi-clandestine gathering place for highly-placed citizens and government officials back in the day. How many of these plain old buildings have secrets like this one? Who knew?

Conveniently, there was a Starbucks almost directly across the street. I got a cup of coffee and sat down with my laptop to get some work done. A couple of hours later, I looked up and saw this:



A gigantic limo. Could it be? Is it STILL a semi-clandestine gathering place for highly-placed citizens and government officials? I Googled “the Alibi, Washington DC, “and look what I found. Wikipedia Link HERE Who knew?

How many secret meeting places are there that nobody knows about? Many buildings in Washington DC have a story to tell. I want to know them all!

An International City...

I went to get a haircut Thursday. The couple on the sidewalk was speaking Portugese (I am assuming. It was Hispanic, but I have heard enough straight-up Spanish to know it wasn’t that). The lady that cut my hair was a lovely Italian lady named Maria (“You wanta da haircut? Sitta downa. Alla be right dare.”). Afterward, I got a sandwich from the Subway nearby. The lady behind the counter was Indian. The guy behind me in line was black. The guy behind him had an English accent. The guy talking on the phone in the corner was speaking some kind of Arabic. There was a Mexican restaurant next door with some very Mexican looking people standing in front of it. The bitch that cut me off in traffic on the way home was Asian, driving a Toyota. It’s awesome.