Hello! I am back. I was away at a conference for work for the past few days. It was the American Montessori Society annual conference called The Montessori Event. It was held in Washington D.C. this year, which is a place I have never really had a yearning to visit.
It ended up being really neat.
It was cold and rainy the first day but cleared up to cool and sunny over the next few. My first foray took me to Dupont Circle where I saw my first ever European Starling (they are so beautiful!).
A couple co-workers and I hit up Kramerbooks and Afterwords Cafe. Kramerbooks is a retail bookstore where I picked up Circe and had an incredible burger in the cafe and a divine Goober pie (chocolate and peanut butter). I soon discovered that D.C. is my book capital.
We stayed at the Marriot Wardman Park in the Woodley district. It was very nice. But no free wifi, which kinda sucked. The neighborhood had many instances of public art which I did enjoy.
Walking and the Metro were the best options for us since we were just sightseeing and meandering. I enjoyed roaming the residential areas and neighborhoods the most.
Everything was just coming into bloom. The flowers. The trees. We were told many times we wouldn't see the cherry blossoms. That it wasn't time.
This was the second bookstore I hit up, Idle Time Books. This one was a used bookstore and one of my favorites. It was in a vibrant part of town. I picked up an unedited proof of a book and then a novel called Widdershins.
Saturday night all our staff went to Ford's Theater and watched Into the Woods which is a fairytale musical. It was pretty good. The actual theater itself and the museum underneath were most fascinating to me though.
I didn't get around to going the to monument stuff until late Saturday night after the musical. My friend Stephanie and I roamed the National Mall which was honestly a tad scary at midnight with very few people around but also cool being all lit up.
The Lincoln Memorial was my favorite and moved me the most.
The last day we spent in D.C. was pretty much a free day. We attended a keynote speaker by the name of Dr. Scilla Elworthy who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times so far. She was awe inspiring.
After hearing her speak we decided to roam once again. This time towards Chinatown.
The most amazing place to eat with mouth watering Beef Chow Foon is a teeny tiny shop called China Boy. If you ever end up in Chinatown D.C. please do yourself a solid and go there. Only two tables in the whole place but the noodles are handmade and it is cheap and delicious with generous portions. We ended up sitting at a table and three other people joined us. One was working for a non-profit helping refugees and another and his wife worked for the Department of Defense. We had a nice conversation and they were excited to learn more about the Montessori method and what living in Florida was like.
After lunch we made it over to the National Gallery of Art and sure enough we ran into some cherry blossom trees in bloom. Many had red and white thread tied onto the ends of the branches and silver bells and strange trinkets.
It was a beautiful trip where I learned about many things like beekeeping, using visual arts for a Socratic Seminar, how to foster peace and pretty much just be a better human in general. I ate amazing foods. Spoke to many friendly strangers. Used Uber for the first time with many errors. Bought a butt-ton of books.
What do you like to bring back as a souvenir when you travel? Are you a rental car, subway, taxi or Uber/Lyft kinda person?
Beautiful trip! I also had never had a burning desire to go to DC, but I went there the first time for work when I was 28, and I loved it! I now tend to go every few years at least for a conference - and literally every time I've been there, without exception, stayed at your hotel, because that's where my conferences always are, too! - and I love it. I love DC! The people are so nice and the food and culture are always great. I will try the noodle place you recommended next time, thank you! I always go to Ethiopian food when I am there, and on more recent trips, I've had great West African food and usually also get Afghan food. I've never been in spring and would love to go there at that time. I've always been in the fall or deep winter. I'm so glad you had a nice time! <3
ReplyDeleteThank you! Isn't that hotel nice? I do wish it had free wifi but otherwise the beds are comfy and the place is really clean. You are right about the people being kind. I met and talked with so many friendly humans. There really was a ton of choices for various cultural foods. I was honestly overwhelmed. We ate Indian, Chinese and Japanese but the Lebanese looked good too. If I ever go back again I will check out the African foods. I bet it is beautiful in fall too. As you know, fall is a non-event as far as foliage here in Florida but I am taking the girls up to Salem, Mass this fall and very much looking forward to that. <3
DeleteThere is something sentimentally cozy to me about capital cities in spring. Your pics of the lion with blue sky, and the rainy scene with umbrellas bring out the warm fuzzies for me because they bring back memories of a trip to Madison long ago when my sister had artwork in the state exhibit/competition, and then more recently (but still long ago) when my son did as well. Both visits were wet, sunny spring days. :)
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You are right! It was a wonderful time of year to go. I didn't know what to expect but it was very lovely. I like that you have similar memories. How cool about your sister and your son having artwork featured in Madison. Do they still paint/draw? Do you have blooming trees and such around your house? It was neat for me to see what a true spring looked like. To see the barrenness start to shift into colors and buds.
DeleteTrees are starting to get buds around here, and some green poking up in flowerbeds but nothing blooming yet in my immediate area.
DeleteMy sister recently started dabbling in art again, went to a paint class with some friends or something like that. My son, nope. It's funny cuz he was never really into art anyway so it's funny one of his was selected.
~Deb
Well it sounds like art runs in your family naturally though! You are creative and artistic as well. I realized I has missed doodling, painting and such. I brought my sketch book to work yesterday and while the kids were doing their tests I sketched out a couple things and it felt good.
DeleteMy souvenir would be lots and lots of books from the Idle Time Books for sure! How fun was this trip?!! Such beautiful pictures, it appears to have been a magical escape. So Glad you got to get away for a little while and that you are doing well
ReplyDeleteYES!!!! You are my kinda traveling buddy. <3 My friend Stephanie and I ended up getting a couple books from Idle Time for sure. I have a weakness for used bookstores. They even sold little pieces of art and such cut out of destroyed old books. I really enjoyed the scents and meandering aisles. It was indeed a fun trip. Way more fun then I expected to have. It's funny because this trip and Adam's work trip ended up being unexpected travel experiences this year that enjoyed very much. Thank you for the well wishes. I hope you are doing well too. <3
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