d.c., day 5 aka a birthday with the presidents (and Drew!)

On day 5 in D.C., I turned 29. I started the day off by sleeping in. I met Drew for lunch and we went to Nirvana, a vegetarian Indian restaurant. Then I went to the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Now, women have been marginalized in many walks of life, so art was no different. Since women were not allowed to study art or figure drawing, it is no surprise that art is a male dominated field. Many women artists got their start through their connections to male artists in their family. When I studied art history, there was barely any mentions of women artists. And, when I was at the School of Visual Arts, we had to attend these lectures given by successful photographers in the field. They were mostly men. I complained to the chair of the photography department that this was unrepresentative. He didn't care. I was uninspired. Anyway, I was excited to go to this museum and learn the other half of the story.

There were a lot of cool artists in the museum: Judy Chicago, Alice Neel, Louise Nevelson, Lee Krasner, Frida Kahlo, and below, Jane Hammond. I really like this piece because the artist has superimposed her face on the bodies of popular icons that are usually male. It really made me think.

I love this quote. So, so true, and we could substitute any profession for "artist." (it says "The chief obstacle to a woman's success is that she can never have a wife. Just reflect what a wife does for an artist.")

I took my time in the museum, and it was a great way to spend a birthday. But the fun wasn't over yet. I met Drew after he was finished working, and we journeyed to the National Mall, to pick up where we previously left off. We started with the Vietnam Women's Memorial and made our way to the Vietnam Memorial Wall.

We followed a path around a pond (where ducks were diving underwater!) and got a great view of the Washington Monument and the Reflecting Pool:
We headed up to the Lincoln Memorial, which I loved. It had quite a presence, definitely larger than life.
We left the Lincoln Memorial and headed to the Korean War Memorial. I don't really know what the Korean War was about, and neither did Drew, though maybe he should have because he did do a report on the Korean War when he was in sixth grade. Oh well. Anyway, the soldiers look confused and as if they don't know what's going on, so I'm not sure if that's what is meant to be conveyed. All right, I'm looking it up in wikipedia right now. Hang on.
Okay, well that detour didn't really tell me anything, except that each statue is around 7.5 feet and weighs about 1000 pounds. Moving on. Drew and I headed around the tidal basin to the FDR memorial. Here's yet another view of the Washington Monument:

I got lots of cool shots at the FDR memorial, but here's one of FDR's fireside chats.
The FDR memorial is quite possibly the coolest of all the presidential memorials on the National Mall. (there are only four presidents who get memorials, so I guess FDR is already ahead of the curve) I guess that when you deal with a depression and a world war during your tenure, you sure as hell better get a kick ass memorial. Anyway, the memorial was expansive and had lots of waterfalls. Besides the fireside chat sculpture, there was the infamous breadline, a tribute to Eleanor, and a sculpture depicting FDR in his wheelchair. I wonder if he would have been elected president had people known that he had polio and was unable to walk unassisted. Actually, I wonder if he could have gotten elected in the modern era. Anyway, moving on...
We continued on and passed by the Jefferson Memorial. And here's your last shot of the Washington Monument:
So, it was, in a sense, a birthday with the presidents. Drew and I hit up Lincoln, FDR, Jefferson, and Washington. We had intended to eat pizza in the park across from the White House, just to round out the evening with the presidents. However, it was getting dark so we saved this for lunch on day 6. (of course, pictures to come later)

Instead, we went to Ben's Chili Bowl for a late dinner. Ben's Chili Bowl opened in 1958 and seems to have become a DC institution. This landmark restaurant contains a lot of history, and it's survived a lot of change and turmoil, namely the riots following King's assassination. While the rest of the community was burning and shutting down, Ben's stayed open. Since then, it's recovered, but not without a lot of help and media publicity. Also, it turns out that the owner's son decided to forgo a law career after graduating law school and instead helped turn the family business around. (again, I must have a secret obsession with lawyer-turned-entrepreneurs; see my affinity for Cakelove and PB Loco)
They really like Obama here!
And Bill Cosby, who helped Ben's Chili Bowl celebrate its 45th anniversary. (in case you can't read it, the sign says "Who Eats Free at Bens: Bill Cosby and the Obama Family, but he paid)
I ate the chili cheeseburger, which was quite tasty and had the just the right amount of chili. Not too much, but just enough so that it oozed out the sides.
And there you have it. It was a birthday with the presidents, and of course, Drew. Naturally, the former could never top the latter.

d.c., day 4

On Day 4 in D.C., I again set up shop at the Corner Bakery and wrote in the morning. For lunch, Drew and went to the Washington Deli. He knows that I have an affinity for sandwiches, and we are on a mission to test out all of the sandwich shops and delis in the area. After consulting the Vegetarian Guide for Washington, D.C., we decided to go to the Washington Deli for lunch. Tucked next to a sushi place and a fitness club, the deli served up pizza and sandwiches, both with and without meat. Drew ate the Vegan Gary Williams, with vegan turkey, cole slaw, and Russian Dressing, and I ate the falafel. Halfway through, we traded. It was good, but not as good as the egg salad from Heidi's Brooklyn Deli.

After lunch, I went to the National Air and Space Museum, two things that really don't interest me. But, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian made the museum look so cool that I had to go and check it out. Yes, I am superficial sometimes. As you can see, the museum lobby was quite large and spacious, and full of things like, well, planes of course, and telescopes and such.

Amelia Earhart got a brief shout out, but I suspect that it might only be due to the popularity of the Night at the Museum movie.

I quickly walked through the main attractions in the lobby exhibit hall, and I went to three other exhibitions. Fortunately, it turns out that the exhibitions that are interesting to me are not interesting to children. Seems that kids really like all the planes and rockets and stuff, but not the exhibit on Wilbur and Orville Wright, the solar system, and aerial photography. Here is the plane that the Wright brothers designed and flew:

I really enjoyed the solar system exhibit, mainly because I harbor a secret desire to go to the moon. When I was in the fourth or fifth grade, I did a science project on the solar system. I don't really remember what it was, but I do recall painting styrofoam balls of a variety of sizes. So while I didn't think that I was interested in air and space, I was pleased to find an exhibit on the solar system containing lots of information on planets, moons, and meteorites. (Hey! Sounds like a rock band!) I learned that Clyde Tombaugh (actually, I forgot this and just looked it up on wikipedia) discovered Pluto, and I wondered if he would be pissed to find out that it's no longer considered a planet.

After the air and space museum, I went over the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. The museum contained abstract, modern, and contemporary art filled with sculptures, paintings, and installations. The cool thing about D.C. is that it has two of my favorite things: politics and art. There are museums dedicated to American Art, African Art, Asian Art, and well, you get my point. Whenever I visit a new place, I always check out the art museums.

The Hirshhorn was a round building, like my high school. In the center was a very tall water fountain, which sadly, is not like my old high school. I actually spent so much time staring at the art that I didn't finish it all and saved the rest for day 6. Stay tuned. In the meantime, here is a mobile by Alexander Calder:

Heeding Carol's advice, Drew and I went to Soul Vegetarian, this small hole-in-the-wall vegan restaurant with some neat-o character and great food. Here is Drew with country fried "steak," tofu teriyaki, collard greens, and cookies and creme cake. Doesn't he look happy? Now, Drew is a vegetarian, but we don't get into food fight because I am not. I don't eat tons of meat, but I do like a cheeseburger every now and again. It does help that I am veg friendly and like all sorts of food, both vegetarian and vegan.

I ate the barbeque tofu sub and collard greens.

We saved the cake for dessert at home. The cookies and creme cake was very, very moist and chocolate-y. So, so moist. I just want you to know that. There is nothing worse than a dried out cake that only looks good but tastes absolutely awful. This cake not only looked good, but it tasted wonderful. Drew and I are already planning a second trip.

d.c., day 3

This morning, Drew went to work and I went to a coffee shop to write. We met up for lunch at a deli and had some awesome egg salad. When he went back to work, I went to the Renwick Gallery, a branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. There it is, the brick red building:

I did some quick browsing and headed to the National Mall. I walked around the Washington Monument.

Then I went to the Holocaust Museum. So, we have a museum dedicated to the genocide of Jewish people and their remembrance, but we have no museum to educate people about the atrocities of slavery, the second class treatment of women, the internment of Japanese Americans, or the removal of American Indians. Instead, we have a museum dedicated to injustices that occurred halfway around the world. What about all the injustices that took place right here on U.S. soil?

The Holocaust Museum was educational and well done. I learned about the Nuremberg Trials , the genesis of Hitler's dictatorship, and the genocide in Darfur. There was a discussion about how Jewish people were considered racially inferior, and how "science" backed this up. However, the same belief was used to justify slavery in the United States but there was no mention of that. The good thing was that there was a discussion of laws used to segregate and strip Jewish people of their rights, and it was mentioned that these practices were modeled after the U.S. Oh, and it talked about how other subordinate groups were also victims of the Holocaust, like homosexuals and the Romas (gypsies).

After the museum, I headed back to meet Drew. I stopped by the back of the White House. Here's the picture you used to seeing:

And here's my interpretation:

Drew and I stopped by Cakelove on the way home. This may sound familiar to you. In January, I blogged about my new Cakelove cookbook. And I recently baked a chocolate pound cake, a Cakelove recipe. So imagine my excitement to learn that Cakelove is right down the street!

We got the New German Chocolate cupcake and the Strawberry on Chocolate cupcake. Let me tell you, the frosting is phenomenol. It is light and airy, and it is obvious that there are real strawberries in the buttercream. The toasted coconut is just the right touch on the German Chocolate. As for the cupcakes themselves, the cake was fairly moist, and the flavor was light and not too chocolate-y or overwhelming. These were not overly rich or heavy cupcakes.

d.c., day 2

On the second day, Drew and I headed back to the National Mall. We started with the U.S. Capitol building.

Then we walked across the street to the Supreme Court building! This was definitely a highlight, and I took A LOT of pictures. As you may well know, the Supreme Court is my favorite branch, so this was super exciting.

The Supreme Court is definitely underrated. In fact, Chief Justice John Roberts has said that when he leaves the building, sometimes people hand him their camera and ask him to take their picture. So, it was no surprise that a couple people asked me which building this was.

Drew and I left the Supreme Court and headed back to the Mall. We passed a bunch of House Office Buildings.

Ha! I thought this sign was funny. I had never noticed signs like these in Minnesota, but this snow emergency sign caught my attention.

Drew and I walked around the mall toward the Jefferson Memorial. We paused for a break at the Tidal Basin.

On to the Jefferson Memorial. We took the elevator down to a small exhibit, which painted a very rosy picture of Jefferson with no mention of the alleged children fathered with his slave Sally Hemings and how he even owned slaves.

Our plan had been to hit up the war memorials and the Lincoln Memorial, but like I mentioned earlier, the Mall is huge, and so we called it a day after Jefferson. We plan to finish up the Mall later in the week.

d.c., day 1

First up on my first day in in D.C. was breakfast with Drew. He whipped up some breakfast burritos, a favorite that we never make the same way twice. This version had eggs, swiss cheese, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, garlic hummus, and actual garlic too. Mmmm, very good. We decided to head down to the National Mall, via Dupont Circle.

Next we stopped by the White House. It was full of people, which I'm sure is not unusual. There were also a few protesters, but neither Drew nor I can remember what they were protesting.
I stopped for a firecracker popsicle in front of the National Treasury.

The National Mall is much bigger than I'd anticipated. It's definitely not something that you can walk in a day. Random Trivia: The National Mall is actually a National Park. Who knew? Drew and I stopped at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden. Below, I break the rules and pose with one of the sculptures.

A break in front of the fountain:
We finished up the day with fireworks on the National Mall. How cool is that? Check it out:

taxation without representation

The license plates in Washington, D.C. say "Taxation Without Representation." Now, D.C. gets a House representative, but it is not represented in the Senate. So, I looked up the population, and according to the US Census, D.C. had approximately 591, 000 people in 2005. Seeing as how this is about the population of Wyoming, D.C. should get 2 senators, right? All right, that's all I got for now.

d.c., en route

I m currently blogging to you from our nation's capital, Washington, D.C. I flew out on Friday to visit Drew, and naturally, I am having a good time. Here are a couple notes from my flight:

I have decided out that people see to be incapable of following simple instructions. Now, I have heard many grad students say this with shock and disappointment about their students, but I have decided that human beings are just incapable of listening. This isn't a quality specific to undergrads. Take, boarding an airplance for instance. I don't know how many times we were instructed to place smaller carry on items under the seats so that larger items could it in the overhead compartments. I heard this several times. Yet, as I was walking down the aisle, I saw several items in the overhead compartment that could have easily fit under the seat. Fortunately, I found space for my small suitcase; otherwise, I would have removed somebody's small carry on, yelled at them, and beat them over the head with it before placing it under their seat. I'm just kidding, but a part of me would get some pleasure out of this. I mean, seriously, my backpack fits under the seat, and that contains a computer, books, magazines, brownies, water bottle, my ziploc baggie of liquids, and a partridge in a pear tree. My point here is that a lot of crap will fit under the seat, and nobody listens to fight attendants.

My layover was in Salt Lake City, Utah, and I think I pretty much saw everything that could sum it up from the plane. I saw the lake and mountains. Anyway, as I was making my way from the plane to the terminal, I could definitely tell that it was humid. I hate humidity, and the nice thing about Southern California is that we don't have it. There. I said something nice about California.

I was on the plane, flipping through the Sky Mall magazine. This is the catalogue of overpriced crap that we don't need. I found a pet geneology kit for $59.95. Then I found a company that sells business book summaries. See, apparently, business people are too busy running their companies and making money to read business books. Enter in a company that will send you 5 page summaries of important business strategy books. It boasts a 5,000 summary database and you can have unlimited access for $299. If that price sounds too high, you can pay $89 for 30 summaries. But there's a catch with this one: you pick 4 summaries, and then the company sends you 26 other summaries based on what you picked. So, not only are you not even reading the books, but you're not even choosing which book summaries you get to read.

I also came across a Marshmallow Shooter Gun for $24.95. I don't think I need to explain this one. I was thinking that this was an incredible waste of money and wondering what on earth someone would do with a marshmallow gun. But then I had visions of myself standing on the balcony outside my 6th floor office, shooting marshmallows down at unsuspecting passerby on Ring Road. And so I reconsidered my original thoughts. Maybe a marshmallow gun isn't such a silly idea.

All right, more blogging to come later. Lots to explore in D.C., and of course, it's great to see Drew.