D.C.: The LJ post
QOTD: "We're coming up on Salem. I hear it's a nice place."
So from the 13-20 of March was the D.C. trip. I've been putting off the entry because I knew it would be long and I've been feeling pretty miserable and having my weekends absorbed by work duties and when that all happens frankly I'm much more interested in porn than the transcription of life events. But I think tonight I'll take a stab at it (with the help of Alicia's more timely post as reference for my reconstruction) and see how it goes. May end up somewhat backdated, but maybe I've forgotten enough that I can get through it in just a few hours.***
The regular cast:
Joy: Goddess of hosting, muse of Bacchus
Alicia: Master planner, orchestrator of happiness and order
Daniel: Sleep-resistant overseer of long-range transportation
Me: Freeloading punk, buyer of things
(Alicia took a lot more photos than I did, so I've included some of hers in this entry. You can view her entire LJ gallery of the event here, including the forbidden hair roller photos.)
Friday
Ending a relatively slow week at work, I had a few shoots right up against the end of my day and I was dismayed to fall about six photos short of completing all the pending work in Photo. I'd managed to get out of a night shoot since I was needing to travel directly to Starkville after work in order to make the Birmingham destination in a timely fashion. I changed clothes to something more travel friendly and then realized I'd forgotten to print my directions to get to Alicia & Daniel's place. (Though I've been there several times, there are long stretches of nothing and I panic that I've missed something so I feel much better having something to consult.) My departure was delayed about half an hour because of this since all of the computers had been shut down and things locked up.
The drive up was pretty uneventful. I often stop in Gulfport for evening food, but since I was in a hurry I decided to take the newly completed Hwy 67 off I-110 to see how it performed as a timesaver. My calculations are surely off, but I swear that I recovered the half hour delay by taking 67 instead of taking I-10 to Gulfport and catching 49 from there. I stopped at Wendy's in Hattiesburg for food and discovered their salads are fail. Eating gluten-free, I'm not sure where else on that route I could've stopped, but I might have to figure something out. I don't really like eating while driving. Beyond Hattiesburg, things were just fine. I hit some rain, which is when Alicia called to see how I was progressing and to let me know that they were still packing. I had planned to make some new travel CDs to make the Starkville jaunt more bearable, but my new computer didn't have a suitable burner installed and Burrrn is apparently not Vista compatible, so I had no new discs. Very sad.
As I arrived at Alicia & Daniel's, they were packing the car in a pretty chilly drizzling rain. It was not so cold on the coast and I was not properly dressed. They were almost ready and I added my stuff to their car for the trip. We loaded up and as we were about to go, the GPS decided to not turn on properly. This upset Daniel considerably. He had updated the maps and the unit was working properly the night before. He went back inside to try and get it working again and Alicia and I waited in the car. After a bit, I went in to see if I could help. The device was not functioning properly. We eventually conceded defeat and decided to continue to try fixing it once we got to Birmingham. That leg of the trip was rainy (foreshadowing) and we made one wrong turn right at the end as we tried to find Nate's apartment. Nate relinquished his entire apartment to us for the night (he left), which surprised me, and the continued efforts to repair the GPS were unsuccessful, which exacerbated Daniel's upset condition considerably. It wasn't long before we were asleep, as we had arrived after midnight.
Saturday
Long drive day. A continued fight with the GPS was largely unsuccessful, though when we finally loaded up (we had two dogs with us, by the way) the GPS was functional enough to display driving instructions for the trip. We had determined that the screen sensor had malfunctioned and the outer third of the screen was unreachable. Touching the outer left or right edge would register farther into the screen rather than under the contact point. This was not a repair we could perform in the field. But with driving directions being displayed accurately, Daniel (driving) was satisfied and his irrationality was subdued appreciably.
The drive was largely unremarkable. A light to moderate rain was pervasive for the duration until we actually reached Joy's place. We stopped for gas and because of the rain, we ate parked in the car outside of a Wendy's. (I had acquired a McDonald's salad from the gas station we'd stopped at immediately prior.) A long drive later, we arrived in Alexandria and managed to locate Joy's apartment. Joy proved herself quite the host for this entire trip and to prove this, I offer that she had wine on hand and ready to pour and even had gluten-free considerations in her foodstuffs (including some truly amazing brownies from a Trader Joe's mix). After some wine, it was decided that monuments should be visited. Mind you, we'd arrived at 1 or 2AM Sunday morning. Daniel and I thought they were crazy (we were quite fatigued), but we went. Ultimately, it was a good choice.
A photo from the car on the drive up, second day.
It features me with no jawline and apparent Vulcan/Romulan heritage. Simon Tarses, what?
Dogs in Cars, the lesser known sequel to Boys in Cars
Lincoln.
Still not sure why it's such a popular car. It's huge. Just look at it!
I suppose one photo of statuary is much like the next
You know, I've never seen any pearls from Pearl Harbor. Are pearls big there?
A lot of the night photography was really difficult without a tripod.
It was pretty cold out with the wind and all, but it really was the best time to see the monuments. Most of them had adequate spotlighting for hand-held photography (the Vietnam Memorial being a noted exception), so that was nice. We saw all the monuments in the Vietnam/WWII/Lincoln area and then called it quits.
Joy reviews one of Alicia's photo books with delight.
More photo books! Look, Halloween things!
Sunday
First stop of the day was the International Spy Museum. Given all the things with free admission in the area, I felt the $18 admission was steep given the exhibit. It was an interactive kind of thing but it didn't strike me as being fascinating the way I expected it to be. Maybe it tried to appeal to both kids and adults at the same time and that kinda threw me, I don't know. I think I might've been more interested in the stuff toward the end of the exhibit, but by then everyone was mostly tired of it. The section on the contribution of pigeons toward reconnaissance was fairly interesting. There was also a poster from the Cold War era that had a woman running with a toddler toward a fallout cellar. The child looked just as excited as could be. I was very much going to buy a copy from the gift shop, but the gift shop was seriously weak. I was shocked at this. The gift shop had super cheap kids things and super expensive adult things and not much in between. The museum logo needed more versions, too. They needed a classy one that didn't look like it came from an amusement park. A redeeming element of the exhibit is that it explained microdot photography. It's fascinating and I might investigate that on my own.
Ben called as we were leaving the spy museum and we made tentative plans for he and Tiffany to visit later in the week. It was a little rainy and we hit some nearby clothing stores, namely Urban Outfitters and Ann Taylor Loft. I didn't buy any clothes that day, but Alicia started raking them in. We left the city early to get back to Joy's place because she was having a party for us to meet her friends. Joy did a great job of this, truly, and things went very well. Her friends were interesting and the copious quantity of wine was consumed. Afterward, Joy started pulling bottles out of her recycling bag and proved that almost a dozen bottles had been emptied - equal to one per guest. Very successful event.
Monday
Joy had to work Monday, so the three of us went shopping out in Virginia. First stop was Ikea since we lowly Mississippians haven't any Ikeas in our humble, backwater state. It was Daniel & Alicia's first time at one and only my second. I think I liked the one I went to in Orlando better, but it may have just been the stock rotation. I bought another mug like I got at the Orlando location and that was all, though Alicia got some folding baskets and a long rug.
At the nearby mall, I went to H&M (a focus of the trip) for the first time. I was shocked (too weak a word for the experience) to find clothes that fit me right off the rack. I bought several long sleeve button-up shirts. The arms were of proper length! The chest and waist did not billow excess material! It was euphoric. Spent about $120, $90 of which was absorbed by my credits from me scanning all my grocery purchases for Shopper's Hotline. Hooray for market research! $120 worth of clothes for $30? Yes, I can live with that.
We stopped at several other stores, mostly for Alicia, and I was reminded how much I need to get some decent shoes. There was a shoe store I liked, but given the financial commitment I'd made to fitting not-shoe clothes, I decided I couldn't afford the investment. Alicia and Daniel both got some shoes according to their needs and Alicia's glasses broke while in one of the dressing rooms. Fortunately she had a spare set in the car. We ate Chinese food in the mall's food court after being solicited by several Chinese food providers. The one we chose was one Alicia and Daniel found annoying, though I had been amused by him. I actually was going to buy from another place, but the lady there was so busy trying to get me to buy that she couldn't shut up long enough for me to read her menu, so I went elsewhere.
We got back to Joy's around rush hour time and then went to the grocery store Joy regularly shops, My Organic Market. I found tart cherry juice (not readily available in MS) and Metroelectro (not available in the tri-state area at least), so that was exciting. I also got some kind of seaweed wrap snack which ended up being very strange. We then went to a Thai restaurant for dinner to meet up with some of Joy's friends we'd met at the party the previous night. The restaurant was great and I have nothing but compliments on the specialty drinks and rave commentary on their entrees. After dinner (filling!), we went back to Joy's place and had custard and sorbet that she'd picked up on her way home from the custard place she'd been raving about. She even had animal-friendly frozen treats for the dogs. Even more wine was had, Fluxx was played and cameras were on the ready. (this set is all Alicia's and I apparently was only interested in posting mostly pictures she shot of me)
Ah, better jawline here. Less alien earpoints, too.*
Joy looking happy again. I think it's part of her cover.*
Well.... I thought it was funny.*
That's me and a dog. Not many pictures of me with dogs.
Well okay, well not many pictures with me and canines.*
I don't know what was said, but it got a pretty interesting array of responses.*
Mandy the dog consuming frozen yogurt for dogs.
Not to be confused with frozen dog yogurt or dog-frozen yogurt.*
Tuesday
Joy had taken the day off and we hit the D.C. H&M. I saw a suit that probably would've fit me, but it would've cost me my entire spending allowance (and been worth it) so I didn't even try it on - else I be tempted to indebt myself. I found about $75 worth of things, including a nice pair of grey linen slacks that I have to figure out how to properly launder. Alicia bought a large bag of holding. We stopped at a nearby Zara, but nothing fit me there. Not even the belts. Joy, however, found truly amazing deals. Metro to the Dupont area, which was grand for early afternoon diversion. We stopped at a sex shop briefly, but there wasn't anything of strong interest. We ate lunch at Zorba's Café [location], which I very highly recommend. I was indecisive so I got the combination plate and it was worth every cent. Everyone was fully satisfied with their meal experience when we left. We hit three bookstores, the names of which I do not recall other than Lambda Rising, where I bought a compilation book of explicit uniform photos because it was on sale with heavy markdown.
Since it was St. Patrick's Day, we were going to go to The Brick Skelter, but it didn't open for another several hours, so we abandoned that plan. We stopped at another bookstore, which I'm told was a very nice bookstore despite there being no prices on anything I was interested in. Erik would have been entertained by the man at the register, who looked more like a character from a bookstore in a fantasy novel than a real person. Considerable time was spent in the bookstore, partially to rest aching feet. Deliberations on continuing activities concluded with a decision to return to base. The Metro ride back out to Braddock had us all looking pretty pathetic as we had time to sit and rest, knowing the bulk of the day's walking was over. I showed Joy my H&M purchases and Joy complained about how the packaging her new hair rollers were in had been made in China but she'd missed the label. Joy's been doing a year without China, so she was not amused.
Upon getting back to Joy's, we got in the car and drove to Target. I don't remember why we went to Target. Daniel bought Castile soap. Daniel and I wandered a bit and then Joy and I wandered a while. Joy contemplated shampoos. Alicia bought some exercise things. We headed to Whole Foods, but Joy's mistaken something else for what she thought was a Whole Foods, so she called informational backup and got the closest location. The Whole Foods we found didn't have any rice flour, which is what I'd wanted to get (so that I didn't have to make another Metairie trip when I got back). I don't think I bought anything, which is probably the only time I'll ever go to a Whole Foods and leave empty-handed.
After Whole Foods, we stopped at Trader Joe's (my first time) and I was surprised how small the store was. The content of the store was quite impressive compared to what I've got around where I live. I picked up two bags of the gluten-free brownie mix that Joy had made since they were amazing and there wouldn't be a quick way for me to get more in the future. I also got one of their pancake mixes because the brownies were so good. They had some gluten-free biscuit/rolls that I got because my bread that I'd brought had gone bad and I needed something for sandwiches the next day. Ingredients for nachos were procured. I'd intended to buy the meat for the project since Alicia had provided a large supply of food already, but I got distracted at checkout time and missed my chance and felt bad about it.
We got back to Joy's place and nacho preparation commenced. We had some deluxe nachos. It was really more along the lines of a taco salad because we had spinach and avocado and salsa and whatnot. I'd brought some Harry & David's chips on the trip and was pretty dissatisfied with them, but we used them for the nachos and they were superior. They didn't break or get soggy and it was the perfect use. The nachos as a whole were very successful, indeed, and everyone was quite pleased. Ah, and beer from Trader Joe's was also had. Also a success. There was also more wine which, by now I hope, you realize was a success. Oh, it was a lot of wine. Enough to cause problems for everyone getting started the next day.
Vogue.
Murder on the dance floor.
Ecstatic response to the progress of wine consumption.
At first I was confused.
But it readily became apparent...
And what was left for me to do but document it?
And, of course, the small matter of removing the cork...
I don't remember what she said, but it was clearly pretty funny.**
Things got funnier as the wine did its work.**
And funnier...**
There was quite a bit of wine. Joy pulled no punches in supply.**
Then suddenly it wasn't funny anymore.**
Because the cat overload showed up and was not amused.
Wednesday
Ben and Tiffany came in from Delaware for the day. We started off hitting the Air & Space Museum, which was a favorite of mine when I was much younger. It seemed much smaller now. I found that a little disappointing and as a result, my interest in the entire museum was somewhat diminished. I spent a lot of time reading about Mars and Jupiter (and the Galilean satellites). Walked around most of the exhibit with Ben and Tiffany. Bought some freeze-dried ice cream. I was very excited about this because even though I'd been to Air & Space when I was young and I'd been to Stennis at least once, I'd never had any. I ultimately found it to be relatively unremarkable, but at this stage in my life, what isn't, y'know? So I claim it as a victory. We could all use some more victories.
Lunch was right after Air & Space. Alicia had stowed lunch for everyone into her recently acquired H&M large bag of holding. We ate on a bench in the sculpture garden. A squirrel was nearby and Alicia began to photograph it. Someone said to give it a piece of food. She said she didn't believe in feeding wild animals. So a woman on another bench threw a piece of food at it. Reminded me of the damned tourists on the beach feeding the sea gulls. The lady's lucky I have a standing policy of not killing people eating in sculpture gardens positioned near national monuments. After we finished eating, we perused the sculptures, which Ben offered critiques on. Of. Of which he offered critiques. He didn't issues critiques while on the sculptures. That was forbidden. Except from upon the seat sculptures*.
From lunch until dinner began the largest foot trek of the entire trip. From the sculpture garden, we went to the Capitol building, then to the National Gardens (?). The gardens were nice. All the outside stuff was pretty much dead, but the inside was lovely. I imagine it's a welcome respite from winter weather for tourists that are in the know. I took lots of photos here (not as many as Alicia, mind you) because I really enjoy photographing plants. I tried to restraint myself. I was proud that I successfully identified the room with the highest risk of dinosaur threat before it became certain.
The group after the National Air & Space Museum.
Sack lunches in the sculpture garden.*
The Q-bert memorial.
Joy looking fantastic.
Joy was kind enough to do a brief modeling session for Alicia.*
I stole Alicia's shots.
And then I shot Alicia.
Here come the photos from the National Gardens!
The exclamation point means you're supposed to get excited.
It looked interesting, so I took a photo. No idea what it is.
I might be trying to get back to my elements of photography basics.
This is clearly a pattern and repetition assignment.
Ben and Tiffany display some tickets from The International Spy Museum that
they found on the ground inside one of the gardens.
The great thing about Ben is how cheerful he always is.
Sometimes you think you see a great photo and you really don't.
This photo is a little yellow.
I just felt that you should know.
Ah, good light for a cactus.
For shots like these, I always take three shots because I always get the focus wrong.
I thought this looked pretty epic for an indoor garden.
Still can't figure out what fruit this might be. Any ideas?
After the gardens, we walked down to the WWII monument (daylight this time), the Washington Monument (outside stop only), Lincoln Memorial, Einstein sculpture, then the White House (back side, then around to the front). That's a hell of a lot of walking, my friends.
Shoddy panoramic of the WWII memorial.
Alicia's ready for some monument action.
This monument photo is brought to you by Viagra.
As I've said time and time again, overexposure is in.
Alicia. In the flesh.
I know, I know! I never expected to get a photo of a celebrity!
The White House footrest.
By the time we reached the back of the White House, our feet were getting pretty achy. We caught the nearest Metro stop from the White House and got off to eat at Ben's Chili Bowl, which Alicia had a particular interest in visiting. The place was PACKED. We were super lucky because there were enough of us to meet the minimum group size to order/eat in the back and a table was freeing up just as we got there. It was a noisy place (it was PACKED) and I was frustrated by the bread in practically all the meal options. Joy spotted me cash for the meal and I got chili cheese fries and a pineapple milkshake. The chili was great (hence the name, I suppose) and had a surprising kick to it that I enjoyed considerably. It was easily the heaviest meal I've eaten in several years. I wasn't sure my stomach would be able to handle it, but I think my system accommodated better than everyone else's since by the time we left, people were groaning a bit. Everyone was pretty satisfied, though. At that point, after eating and walking for the whole day, we were done. Metro back out of D.C. and the substantial water Daniel and I had consumed had us moving doubletime on the power walk back to Joy's place. Wednesday was one of only two days that it didn't rain during our trip.
Thursday
Departure day. Joy left for work in the morning and we readied ourselves for final sights to be seen. Primary item for the day was the Holocaust Museum. The temperature dropped dramatically very early and Daniel and I were not properly attired. Fortunately the line for passes was shielded from the wind and we weren't outside too terribly long. Now, if you haven't been to this museum, I'm calling it a must-see. Really even if you have no particular interest in the Holocaust itself, you'll be impressed at how well-designed this building is to house the exhibits. I'd say it's the classiest museum I've ever been in, and quite well designed for its purpose. We spent about two and a half hours there and could've easily have spent the entire day. We discussed it a lot on the drive back. You could spend an entire day just on any one of the permanent exhibit's four floors. I was very impressed by the variety of displays and the quality of their interactive materials. Overall, I'm not sure how a museum of the Holocaust could be done any better. I was very, very impressed.
We made one last stop at the D.C. H&M where I picked up a few more things, including a hoodie that I'd seen at the other location but thought didn't fit well. I changed my mind (though I'm still not crazy on the color). The hood actually covers my entire huge head!** Scandalous, I know. We returned from the city and ate Thai leftovers and got on the road later than anticipated. We made the jaunt to Knoxville and arrived well after midnight. We'd stopped for food at an IHOP somewhere in Tennessee, I think. Did you know that IHOP puts pancake batter in their omelet eggs? It's true. Says so on the menu. I thought that was a little ridiculous. Anyway, our hotel didn't have a fridge, so our IHOP leftovers we'd hoped to keep for breakfast were forfeit. They also didn't have free wifi, which upset Alicia considerably. But we slept very well and slept in slightly.
Friday
The clock in our room was not set properly and had we not been operating on our own clocks, would easily have missed our checkout time. We searched for breakfast, but it was after 10 and lunch was the menu. We ended up at a Burger King, which I've found to be totally devoid of gluten-free foods. I jogged over to a KFC to check them out, but everything is breaded, so I went back to BK. I got an Angry Whopper without the bun and it was neatly served in a bowl with a lid. I realized halfway through that I couldn't eat the onion rings on it, either. Breading will be the end of me. The food was acceptable, though.
The trip back was pretty unremarkable. We got back into Starkville around 5, I suppose. I could've stayed there for the night (and might've had a great time) but I decided I'd go ahead and head back to the coast. Got home in the hour of 10, I think. End vacation.
I had a great time. Alicia proved yet again that her organizational capacity is above reproach. Joy really shined as host. I'll be hard pressed to find someone more lavish and prepared than she was. Very impressive, indeed. (my god, how many bottles of wine had she bought, for real) I'm very excited about the new clothes, though really they're so nice I don't even know how to wear them. I suppose that sounds kind of strange, but even though I know they look good and [shock] fit properly, I'm unaccustomed to that. It's going to take some time. I had integrated one of the shirts into my daily attire already, which is very good. I'm in need of a nice sport coat or the like to wear with some of this.
Spent most of Saturday running around getting gardening supplies. Inspired by Alicia's seedling growth, I got some small starters at the Cedar Lake Home Depot and started some of the pepper seeds I'd gotten from my Henry Fields debacle (more on that as it concludes). I've already posted about the growth of those and they're starting to get their first real leaves now. I bought some potting soil yesterday at Wal-Mart. It's the first time I've bought something from Wal-Mart in a long time. I've got more to say, but it's just as well to put it in another entry.
* Photo by Alicia
** Photo by Joy or Daniel
*** Clearly, that didn't happen. I wrote that in April.
So from the 13-20 of March was the D.C. trip. I've been putting off the entry because I knew it would be long and I've been feeling pretty miserable and having my weekends absorbed by work duties and when that all happens frankly I'm much more interested in porn than the transcription of life events. But I think tonight I'll take a stab at it (with the help of Alicia's more timely post as reference for my reconstruction) and see how it goes. May end up somewhat backdated, but maybe I've forgotten enough that I can get through it in just a few hours.***
The regular cast:
Joy: Goddess of hosting, muse of Bacchus
Alicia: Master planner, orchestrator of happiness and order
Daniel: Sleep-resistant overseer of long-range transportation
Me: Freeloading punk, buyer of things
(Alicia took a lot more photos than I did, so I've included some of hers in this entry. You can view her entire LJ gallery of the event here, including the forbidden hair roller photos.)
Friday
Ending a relatively slow week at work, I had a few shoots right up against the end of my day and I was dismayed to fall about six photos short of completing all the pending work in Photo. I'd managed to get out of a night shoot since I was needing to travel directly to Starkville after work in order to make the Birmingham destination in a timely fashion. I changed clothes to something more travel friendly and then realized I'd forgotten to print my directions to get to Alicia & Daniel's place. (Though I've been there several times, there are long stretches of nothing and I panic that I've missed something so I feel much better having something to consult.) My departure was delayed about half an hour because of this since all of the computers had been shut down and things locked up.
The drive up was pretty uneventful. I often stop in Gulfport for evening food, but since I was in a hurry I decided to take the newly completed Hwy 67 off I-110 to see how it performed as a timesaver. My calculations are surely off, but I swear that I recovered the half hour delay by taking 67 instead of taking I-10 to Gulfport and catching 49 from there. I stopped at Wendy's in Hattiesburg for food and discovered their salads are fail. Eating gluten-free, I'm not sure where else on that route I could've stopped, but I might have to figure something out. I don't really like eating while driving. Beyond Hattiesburg, things were just fine. I hit some rain, which is when Alicia called to see how I was progressing and to let me know that they were still packing. I had planned to make some new travel CDs to make the Starkville jaunt more bearable, but my new computer didn't have a suitable burner installed and Burrrn is apparently not Vista compatible, so I had no new discs. Very sad.
As I arrived at Alicia & Daniel's, they were packing the car in a pretty chilly drizzling rain. It was not so cold on the coast and I was not properly dressed. They were almost ready and I added my stuff to their car for the trip. We loaded up and as we were about to go, the GPS decided to not turn on properly. This upset Daniel considerably. He had updated the maps and the unit was working properly the night before. He went back inside to try and get it working again and Alicia and I waited in the car. After a bit, I went in to see if I could help. The device was not functioning properly. We eventually conceded defeat and decided to continue to try fixing it once we got to Birmingham. That leg of the trip was rainy (foreshadowing) and we made one wrong turn right at the end as we tried to find Nate's apartment. Nate relinquished his entire apartment to us for the night (he left), which surprised me, and the continued efforts to repair the GPS were unsuccessful, which exacerbated Daniel's upset condition considerably. It wasn't long before we were asleep, as we had arrived after midnight.
Saturday
Long drive day. A continued fight with the GPS was largely unsuccessful, though when we finally loaded up (we had two dogs with us, by the way) the GPS was functional enough to display driving instructions for the trip. We had determined that the screen sensor had malfunctioned and the outer third of the screen was unreachable. Touching the outer left or right edge would register farther into the screen rather than under the contact point. This was not a repair we could perform in the field. But with driving directions being displayed accurately, Daniel (driving) was satisfied and his irrationality was subdued appreciably.
The drive was largely unremarkable. A light to moderate rain was pervasive for the duration until we actually reached Joy's place. We stopped for gas and because of the rain, we ate parked in the car outside of a Wendy's. (I had acquired a McDonald's salad from the gas station we'd stopped at immediately prior.) A long drive later, we arrived in Alexandria and managed to locate Joy's apartment. Joy proved herself quite the host for this entire trip and to prove this, I offer that she had wine on hand and ready to pour and even had gluten-free considerations in her foodstuffs (including some truly amazing brownies from a Trader Joe's mix). After some wine, it was decided that monuments should be visited. Mind you, we'd arrived at 1 or 2AM Sunday morning. Daniel and I thought they were crazy (we were quite fatigued), but we went. Ultimately, it was a good choice.
A photo from the car on the drive up, second day.
It features me with no jawline and apparent Vulcan/Romulan heritage. Simon Tarses, what?
Dogs in Cars, the lesser known sequel to Boys in Cars
Lincoln.
Still not sure why it's such a popular car. It's huge. Just look at it!
I suppose one photo of statuary is much like the next
You know, I've never seen any pearls from Pearl Harbor. Are pearls big there?
A lot of the night photography was really difficult without a tripod.
It was pretty cold out with the wind and all, but it really was the best time to see the monuments. Most of them had adequate spotlighting for hand-held photography (the Vietnam Memorial being a noted exception), so that was nice. We saw all the monuments in the Vietnam/WWII/Lincoln area and then called it quits.
Joy reviews one of Alicia's photo books with delight.
More photo books! Look, Halloween things!
Sunday
First stop of the day was the International Spy Museum. Given all the things with free admission in the area, I felt the $18 admission was steep given the exhibit. It was an interactive kind of thing but it didn't strike me as being fascinating the way I expected it to be. Maybe it tried to appeal to both kids and adults at the same time and that kinda threw me, I don't know. I think I might've been more interested in the stuff toward the end of the exhibit, but by then everyone was mostly tired of it. The section on the contribution of pigeons toward reconnaissance was fairly interesting. There was also a poster from the Cold War era that had a woman running with a toddler toward a fallout cellar. The child looked just as excited as could be. I was very much going to buy a copy from the gift shop, but the gift shop was seriously weak. I was shocked at this. The gift shop had super cheap kids things and super expensive adult things and not much in between. The museum logo needed more versions, too. They needed a classy one that didn't look like it came from an amusement park. A redeeming element of the exhibit is that it explained microdot photography. It's fascinating and I might investigate that on my own.
Ben called as we were leaving the spy museum and we made tentative plans for he and Tiffany to visit later in the week. It was a little rainy and we hit some nearby clothing stores, namely Urban Outfitters and Ann Taylor Loft. I didn't buy any clothes that day, but Alicia started raking them in. We left the city early to get back to Joy's place because she was having a party for us to meet her friends. Joy did a great job of this, truly, and things went very well. Her friends were interesting and the copious quantity of wine was consumed. Afterward, Joy started pulling bottles out of her recycling bag and proved that almost a dozen bottles had been emptied - equal to one per guest. Very successful event.
Monday
Joy had to work Monday, so the three of us went shopping out in Virginia. First stop was Ikea since we lowly Mississippians haven't any Ikeas in our humble, backwater state. It was Daniel & Alicia's first time at one and only my second. I think I liked the one I went to in Orlando better, but it may have just been the stock rotation. I bought another mug like I got at the Orlando location and that was all, though Alicia got some folding baskets and a long rug.
At the nearby mall, I went to H&M (a focus of the trip) for the first time. I was shocked (too weak a word for the experience) to find clothes that fit me right off the rack. I bought several long sleeve button-up shirts. The arms were of proper length! The chest and waist did not billow excess material! It was euphoric. Spent about $120, $90 of which was absorbed by my credits from me scanning all my grocery purchases for Shopper's Hotline. Hooray for market research! $120 worth of clothes for $30? Yes, I can live with that.
We stopped at several other stores, mostly for Alicia, and I was reminded how much I need to get some decent shoes. There was a shoe store I liked, but given the financial commitment I'd made to fitting not-shoe clothes, I decided I couldn't afford the investment. Alicia and Daniel both got some shoes according to their needs and Alicia's glasses broke while in one of the dressing rooms. Fortunately she had a spare set in the car. We ate Chinese food in the mall's food court after being solicited by several Chinese food providers. The one we chose was one Alicia and Daniel found annoying, though I had been amused by him. I actually was going to buy from another place, but the lady there was so busy trying to get me to buy that she couldn't shut up long enough for me to read her menu, so I went elsewhere.
We got back to Joy's around rush hour time and then went to the grocery store Joy regularly shops, My Organic Market. I found tart cherry juice (not readily available in MS) and Metroelectro (not available in the tri-state area at least), so that was exciting. I also got some kind of seaweed wrap snack which ended up being very strange. We then went to a Thai restaurant for dinner to meet up with some of Joy's friends we'd met at the party the previous night. The restaurant was great and I have nothing but compliments on the specialty drinks and rave commentary on their entrees. After dinner (filling!), we went back to Joy's place and had custard and sorbet that she'd picked up on her way home from the custard place she'd been raving about. She even had animal-friendly frozen treats for the dogs. Even more wine was had, Fluxx was played and cameras were on the ready. (this set is all Alicia's and I apparently was only interested in posting mostly pictures she shot of me)
Ah, better jawline here. Less alien earpoints, too.*
Joy looking happy again. I think it's part of her cover.*
Well.... I thought it was funny.*
That's me and a dog. Not many pictures of me with dogs.
Well okay, well not many pictures with me and canines.*
I don't know what was said, but it got a pretty interesting array of responses.*
Mandy the dog consuming frozen yogurt for dogs.
Not to be confused with frozen dog yogurt or dog-frozen yogurt.*
Tuesday
Joy had taken the day off and we hit the D.C. H&M. I saw a suit that probably would've fit me, but it would've cost me my entire spending allowance (and been worth it) so I didn't even try it on - else I be tempted to indebt myself. I found about $75 worth of things, including a nice pair of grey linen slacks that I have to figure out how to properly launder. Alicia bought a large bag of holding. We stopped at a nearby Zara, but nothing fit me there. Not even the belts. Joy, however, found truly amazing deals. Metro to the Dupont area, which was grand for early afternoon diversion. We stopped at a sex shop briefly, but there wasn't anything of strong interest. We ate lunch at Zorba's Café [location], which I very highly recommend. I was indecisive so I got the combination plate and it was worth every cent. Everyone was fully satisfied with their meal experience when we left. We hit three bookstores, the names of which I do not recall other than Lambda Rising, where I bought a compilation book of explicit uniform photos because it was on sale with heavy markdown.
Since it was St. Patrick's Day, we were going to go to The Brick Skelter, but it didn't open for another several hours, so we abandoned that plan. We stopped at another bookstore, which I'm told was a very nice bookstore despite there being no prices on anything I was interested in. Erik would have been entertained by the man at the register, who looked more like a character from a bookstore in a fantasy novel than a real person. Considerable time was spent in the bookstore, partially to rest aching feet. Deliberations on continuing activities concluded with a decision to return to base. The Metro ride back out to Braddock had us all looking pretty pathetic as we had time to sit and rest, knowing the bulk of the day's walking was over. I showed Joy my H&M purchases and Joy complained about how the packaging her new hair rollers were in had been made in China but she'd missed the label. Joy's been doing a year without China, so she was not amused.
Upon getting back to Joy's, we got in the car and drove to Target. I don't remember why we went to Target. Daniel bought Castile soap. Daniel and I wandered a bit and then Joy and I wandered a while. Joy contemplated shampoos. Alicia bought some exercise things. We headed to Whole Foods, but Joy's mistaken something else for what she thought was a Whole Foods, so she called informational backup and got the closest location. The Whole Foods we found didn't have any rice flour, which is what I'd wanted to get (so that I didn't have to make another Metairie trip when I got back). I don't think I bought anything, which is probably the only time I'll ever go to a Whole Foods and leave empty-handed.
After Whole Foods, we stopped at Trader Joe's (my first time) and I was surprised how small the store was. The content of the store was quite impressive compared to what I've got around where I live. I picked up two bags of the gluten-free brownie mix that Joy had made since they were amazing and there wouldn't be a quick way for me to get more in the future. I also got one of their pancake mixes because the brownies were so good. They had some gluten-free biscuit/rolls that I got because my bread that I'd brought had gone bad and I needed something for sandwiches the next day. Ingredients for nachos were procured. I'd intended to buy the meat for the project since Alicia had provided a large supply of food already, but I got distracted at checkout time and missed my chance and felt bad about it.
We got back to Joy's place and nacho preparation commenced. We had some deluxe nachos. It was really more along the lines of a taco salad because we had spinach and avocado and salsa and whatnot. I'd brought some Harry & David's chips on the trip and was pretty dissatisfied with them, but we used them for the nachos and they were superior. They didn't break or get soggy and it was the perfect use. The nachos as a whole were very successful, indeed, and everyone was quite pleased. Ah, and beer from Trader Joe's was also had. Also a success. There was also more wine which, by now I hope, you realize was a success. Oh, it was a lot of wine. Enough to cause problems for everyone getting started the next day.
Vogue.
Murder on the dance floor.
Ecstatic response to the progress of wine consumption.
At first I was confused.
But it readily became apparent...
And what was left for me to do but document it?
And, of course, the small matter of removing the cork...
I don't remember what she said, but it was clearly pretty funny.**
Things got funnier as the wine did its work.**
And funnier...**
There was quite a bit of wine. Joy pulled no punches in supply.**
Then suddenly it wasn't funny anymore.**
Because the cat overload showed up and was not amused.
Wednesday
Ben and Tiffany came in from Delaware for the day. We started off hitting the Air & Space Museum, which was a favorite of mine when I was much younger. It seemed much smaller now. I found that a little disappointing and as a result, my interest in the entire museum was somewhat diminished. I spent a lot of time reading about Mars and Jupiter (and the Galilean satellites). Walked around most of the exhibit with Ben and Tiffany. Bought some freeze-dried ice cream. I was very excited about this because even though I'd been to Air & Space when I was young and I'd been to Stennis at least once, I'd never had any. I ultimately found it to be relatively unremarkable, but at this stage in my life, what isn't, y'know? So I claim it as a victory. We could all use some more victories.
Lunch was right after Air & Space. Alicia had stowed lunch for everyone into her recently acquired H&M large bag of holding. We ate on a bench in the sculpture garden. A squirrel was nearby and Alicia began to photograph it. Someone said to give it a piece of food. She said she didn't believe in feeding wild animals. So a woman on another bench threw a piece of food at it. Reminded me of the damned tourists on the beach feeding the sea gulls. The lady's lucky I have a standing policy of not killing people eating in sculpture gardens positioned near national monuments. After we finished eating, we perused the sculptures, which Ben offered critiques on. Of. Of which he offered critiques. He didn't issues critiques while on the sculptures. That was forbidden. Except from upon the seat sculptures*.
From lunch until dinner began the largest foot trek of the entire trip. From the sculpture garden, we went to the Capitol building, then to the National Gardens (?). The gardens were nice. All the outside stuff was pretty much dead, but the inside was lovely. I imagine it's a welcome respite from winter weather for tourists that are in the know. I took lots of photos here (not as many as Alicia, mind you) because I really enjoy photographing plants. I tried to restraint myself. I was proud that I successfully identified the room with the highest risk of dinosaur threat before it became certain.
The group after the National Air & Space Museum.
Sack lunches in the sculpture garden.*
The Q-bert memorial.
Joy looking fantastic.
Joy was kind enough to do a brief modeling session for Alicia.*
I stole Alicia's shots.
And then I shot Alicia.
Here come the photos from the National Gardens!
The exclamation point means you're supposed to get excited.
It looked interesting, so I took a photo. No idea what it is.
I might be trying to get back to my elements of photography basics.
This is clearly a pattern and repetition assignment.
Ben and Tiffany display some tickets from The International Spy Museum that
they found on the ground inside one of the gardens.
The great thing about Ben is how cheerful he always is.
Sometimes you think you see a great photo and you really don't.
This photo is a little yellow.
I just felt that you should know.
Ah, good light for a cactus.
For shots like these, I always take three shots because I always get the focus wrong.
I thought this looked pretty epic for an indoor garden.
Still can't figure out what fruit this might be. Any ideas?
After the gardens, we walked down to the WWII monument (daylight this time), the Washington Monument (outside stop only), Lincoln Memorial, Einstein sculpture, then the White House (back side, then around to the front). That's a hell of a lot of walking, my friends.
Shoddy panoramic of the WWII memorial.
Alicia's ready for some monument action.
This monument photo is brought to you by Viagra.
As I've said time and time again, overexposure is in.
Alicia. In the flesh.
I know, I know! I never expected to get a photo of a celebrity!
The White House footrest.
By the time we reached the back of the White House, our feet were getting pretty achy. We caught the nearest Metro stop from the White House and got off to eat at Ben's Chili Bowl, which Alicia had a particular interest in visiting. The place was PACKED. We were super lucky because there were enough of us to meet the minimum group size to order/eat in the back and a table was freeing up just as we got there. It was a noisy place (it was PACKED) and I was frustrated by the bread in practically all the meal options. Joy spotted me cash for the meal and I got chili cheese fries and a pineapple milkshake. The chili was great (hence the name, I suppose) and had a surprising kick to it that I enjoyed considerably. It was easily the heaviest meal I've eaten in several years. I wasn't sure my stomach would be able to handle it, but I think my system accommodated better than everyone else's since by the time we left, people were groaning a bit. Everyone was pretty satisfied, though. At that point, after eating and walking for the whole day, we were done. Metro back out of D.C. and the substantial water Daniel and I had consumed had us moving doubletime on the power walk back to Joy's place. Wednesday was one of only two days that it didn't rain during our trip.
Thursday
Departure day. Joy left for work in the morning and we readied ourselves for final sights to be seen. Primary item for the day was the Holocaust Museum. The temperature dropped dramatically very early and Daniel and I were not properly attired. Fortunately the line for passes was shielded from the wind and we weren't outside too terribly long. Now, if you haven't been to this museum, I'm calling it a must-see. Really even if you have no particular interest in the Holocaust itself, you'll be impressed at how well-designed this building is to house the exhibits. I'd say it's the classiest museum I've ever been in, and quite well designed for its purpose. We spent about two and a half hours there and could've easily have spent the entire day. We discussed it a lot on the drive back. You could spend an entire day just on any one of the permanent exhibit's four floors. I was very impressed by the variety of displays and the quality of their interactive materials. Overall, I'm not sure how a museum of the Holocaust could be done any better. I was very, very impressed.
We made one last stop at the D.C. H&M where I picked up a few more things, including a hoodie that I'd seen at the other location but thought didn't fit well. I changed my mind (though I'm still not crazy on the color). The hood actually covers my entire huge head!** Scandalous, I know. We returned from the city and ate Thai leftovers and got on the road later than anticipated. We made the jaunt to Knoxville and arrived well after midnight. We'd stopped for food at an IHOP somewhere in Tennessee, I think. Did you know that IHOP puts pancake batter in their omelet eggs? It's true. Says so on the menu. I thought that was a little ridiculous. Anyway, our hotel didn't have a fridge, so our IHOP leftovers we'd hoped to keep for breakfast were forfeit. They also didn't have free wifi, which upset Alicia considerably. But we slept very well and slept in slightly.
Friday
The clock in our room was not set properly and had we not been operating on our own clocks, would easily have missed our checkout time. We searched for breakfast, but it was after 10 and lunch was the menu. We ended up at a Burger King, which I've found to be totally devoid of gluten-free foods. I jogged over to a KFC to check them out, but everything is breaded, so I went back to BK. I got an Angry Whopper without the bun and it was neatly served in a bowl with a lid. I realized halfway through that I couldn't eat the onion rings on it, either. Breading will be the end of me. The food was acceptable, though.
The trip back was pretty unremarkable. We got back into Starkville around 5, I suppose. I could've stayed there for the night (and might've had a great time) but I decided I'd go ahead and head back to the coast. Got home in the hour of 10, I think. End vacation.
I had a great time. Alicia proved yet again that her organizational capacity is above reproach. Joy really shined as host. I'll be hard pressed to find someone more lavish and prepared than she was. Very impressive, indeed. (my god, how many bottles of wine had she bought, for real) I'm very excited about the new clothes, though really they're so nice I don't even know how to wear them. I suppose that sounds kind of strange, but even though I know they look good and [shock] fit properly, I'm unaccustomed to that. It's going to take some time. I had integrated one of the shirts into my daily attire already, which is very good. I'm in need of a nice sport coat or the like to wear with some of this.
Spent most of Saturday running around getting gardening supplies. Inspired by Alicia's seedling growth, I got some small starters at the Cedar Lake Home Depot and started some of the pepper seeds I'd gotten from my Henry Fields debacle (more on that as it concludes). I've already posted about the growth of those and they're starting to get their first real leaves now. I bought some potting soil yesterday at Wal-Mart. It's the first time I've bought something from Wal-Mart in a long time. I've got more to say, but it's just as well to put it in another entry.
* Photo by Alicia
** Photo by Joy or Daniel
*** Clearly, that didn't happen. I wrote that in April.