capital break

9/24/06
655p
This weekend was fantastic, I spent it withtwo beautifu brits in our nation's capital. We realised early last week that we had a three day weekend, and decided to do a random road trip. It was great fun, from cheking out the public mnuments to viewing a smithsonian modern art gallery to walking along the potomac under the stars and planes flying low overhead. We also had chances to walk though more industrial ghetto areas (our hotel was in one) figure out the public transport system, visit georgetown in search of good eats (the alamo grill? Is okay, and mostly worth it, but make sure you ask to sit on the roof) and accidentally run amok in adams morgan.

Adams morgan was perhaps the most fortuitous of our trip, in finding a nice new orleans style restaurant that actually was somewhat akin to cajun and creole food (though not so much that they served ever trendy café du monde coffee instead of the true louisiana staple of community coffee.) and though they asked if we wanted beignets to "complement" our meal (when have beignets ever been a complement to a meal? Aren't they more of a separate snack meal usually served with coffee and chickory?) I forgave them as the food was quite good and rather reasonably priced.

After our dinner we walked around a bit, grabbed some maggie moos ice cream (akin to marble slab and amy's ice cream) and headed to perhaps one of the most incredible parks ever stumbled upon. (pictures will follow when I get to a computer and am not sitting on a bus typing on a pda). It was gorgeous set in a part of town which has still remnants of former wealth, but now mostly an african and hispanic neighbourhood of the lower working class. The site apparently was an alternate location considered for the whitehouse.

It had whispering water steps, grand views, greenery, ponds and other beautiful things that turn studying into a relaxing occupation and one's body a tad satisfied and a great deal lazy.

Later on, I stole away into our enemies bathroom (starbucks) and then regrouped with the girls to review the attack plans for the night and assess the one most likely to lead to success.

We decided to search the historic u street district (which fortunately was a stonesthrow away) for signs of jazz. (Duke ellington and various others played here.) After being turned away from various bars due to minimum ages, and having a bouncer in th very HEART of the district swear there was no jazz around (there were a few next door to his place in fact) we were finally directed to two possibilities that might cater to all ages... The first sounded a bit like they were using sythesizers and also had a steep cover ($15)... So we decided to trek to the last choice which proved a fair distance away. But also proved to be an amazing gem; HR57. The place was all ages, served wine, beer, and dinner and had three distinct, but comingled atmospheres. From the music club, to the social lounge to the chess parlour, the place offered quite a bit in moods and pleasures.
The jazz was fantastic as well, with a pianist that as chantal said "is perhaps the most animated" any of us had ever seen.
And the food by the way was delish... Fried chicken, collard greens, and red beans and rice for $6. Oh how I miss the south sometimes. Chantal being our token veggie friend had to eat some veg lo mein from a nearby store, which she said was quite good.

We also managed to keep our tradition of oversized large cups (aka, the various plastic containers you find in grocery store salad lines) alive and well with the intoduction of a half gallon of oj and a liter of sparkling water from the neighbourhood wholefoods. (we were allowed to bring in our own food and drinks, and alcoholic ones had a $3 per person "corking fee" that tough reasonable coupled with our severely mild interest in drinking quashed any chance of us buying spirits at the store to the south.)

All in all this is a long post, its 737 and I'm on a bus from chinatown to chinatown (dc-nyc) for 35$ roundtrip... My finvgers are tired and my friends need some attention. So au revoir.
741p