My Adventures in Washington, DC
So, this weekend I finally had the chance to see the amazing Megan Mullally perform in concert. I saw her last February on SNL (waited all night in the street in the freezing cold and rain for tickets, it was worth it) but she didn't sing. So now I've seen her both act and sing in person, next stop: doing both at the same time, I do so hope she comes back to Broadway some day.
The concert was at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC so I had to do a bit of traveling. My friend Suzanne was supposed to spend the week in NYC with me and we would go down together, but she couldn't make it so I took my cousin Janet. I took the train to Harrisburg, where I met Janet, and we drove into Maryland and parked in a deck to ride the Metro into DC. The train ride was fine, but I always get a little impatient. I read about half of Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and then got a lovely surprise phone call that got me through the rest of the trip. I burned copies of both of Megan's CDs so that Janet could hear her music before the concert and we played those on the shortish drive toward DC. The Metro was really easy, though I didn't think it was as good as the subway here. ;) We arrived in time to check into our hotel and change before walking over to the Kennedy Center in search of a place to eat.
I was shocked to find that in a ten minute walk through Washington there were no restaurants, in NYC you can hardly go a block without finding one. We ended up getting salads at the cafe there at the KC, after more than a little confusion about where everything was inside the building. Then, we accidentally went to the wrong part of the terrace level because we thought the concert was in the main theatre there. Actually, they had set up this cute little jazz cafe in the other end of that level and we had to go there. The concert was part of a series, they're attempting to recreate the jazz cafe feel of the 40's and 50's and it was really cute. There were about 40 tables arranged in the small space, with candles on each of them and blue curtains around the wall, creating an intimate space. There was a bar at the back, but we didn't drink anything. Megan sang for about an hour and a half, mostly doing songs she's never recorded. I expected a little bit more jazz because of the theme of the concert series, but she didn't really do many 40's numbers. Everything she sang was wonderful, though, and when she came back for an encore she did Ave Maria and then an old country number called The Grand Tour which is on her second CD. It's kind of a sad song, but Megan is definitely an actress and she hammed it up during that number and made it really funny. She also gave a lot of asides to the audience during her show which were really funny, she's got such a great personality and is very entertaining in every way.
We walked back to the hotel and had to order pizza because the salads had been our only meals since breakfast. I was really impressed by both of us the next morning because we actually managed to wake up at 8 like we'd planned and had time to go out and see some of the monuments before leaving. Janet had never been to DC before and unfortunately we had to make our walk around pretty quick because of my train schedule for going home. We got to see the Washington Monument, the newish WW2 one, Lincoln, the Vietnam Wall, the (new?) Korea monument which was eerily realistic looking, and the new women's Vietnam memorial which is a small statue of three women with one dying male soldier. Then we walked up and looked at the White House before heading back to the hotel to check out.
We attempted to stop at a Cracker Barrel to eat on the way back to Harrisburg, but there was a wait and we didn't have the time so we grabbed something faster and I got to the train a little bit early but it wasn't bad. The ride home went quickly and I was glad to be back in my apartment. It was a really nice weekend, though I felt pretty much cut off from the world for two days. I think it was exactly what I needed even though on Friday night I didn't feel much like traveling. Janet and I have only recently started spending more time together and emailing a lot and it was nice to have her company for the trip.
Wow, that was really long. I'll end here before I bore everyone to death.
The concert was at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC so I had to do a bit of traveling. My friend Suzanne was supposed to spend the week in NYC with me and we would go down together, but she couldn't make it so I took my cousin Janet. I took the train to Harrisburg, where I met Janet, and we drove into Maryland and parked in a deck to ride the Metro into DC. The train ride was fine, but I always get a little impatient. I read about half of Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and then got a lovely surprise phone call that got me through the rest of the trip. I burned copies of both of Megan's CDs so that Janet could hear her music before the concert and we played those on the shortish drive toward DC. The Metro was really easy, though I didn't think it was as good as the subway here. ;) We arrived in time to check into our hotel and change before walking over to the Kennedy Center in search of a place to eat.
I was shocked to find that in a ten minute walk through Washington there were no restaurants, in NYC you can hardly go a block without finding one. We ended up getting salads at the cafe there at the KC, after more than a little confusion about where everything was inside the building. Then, we accidentally went to the wrong part of the terrace level because we thought the concert was in the main theatre there. Actually, they had set up this cute little jazz cafe in the other end of that level and we had to go there. The concert was part of a series, they're attempting to recreate the jazz cafe feel of the 40's and 50's and it was really cute. There were about 40 tables arranged in the small space, with candles on each of them and blue curtains around the wall, creating an intimate space. There was a bar at the back, but we didn't drink anything. Megan sang for about an hour and a half, mostly doing songs she's never recorded. I expected a little bit more jazz because of the theme of the concert series, but she didn't really do many 40's numbers. Everything she sang was wonderful, though, and when she came back for an encore she did Ave Maria and then an old country number called The Grand Tour which is on her second CD. It's kind of a sad song, but Megan is definitely an actress and she hammed it up during that number and made it really funny. She also gave a lot of asides to the audience during her show which were really funny, she's got such a great personality and is very entertaining in every way.
We walked back to the hotel and had to order pizza because the salads had been our only meals since breakfast. I was really impressed by both of us the next morning because we actually managed to wake up at 8 like we'd planned and had time to go out and see some of the monuments before leaving. Janet had never been to DC before and unfortunately we had to make our walk around pretty quick because of my train schedule for going home. We got to see the Washington Monument, the newish WW2 one, Lincoln, the Vietnam Wall, the (new?) Korea monument which was eerily realistic looking, and the new women's Vietnam memorial which is a small statue of three women with one dying male soldier. Then we walked up and looked at the White House before heading back to the hotel to check out.
We attempted to stop at a Cracker Barrel to eat on the way back to Harrisburg, but there was a wait and we didn't have the time so we grabbed something faster and I got to the train a little bit early but it wasn't bad. The ride home went quickly and I was glad to be back in my apartment. It was a really nice weekend, though I felt pretty much cut off from the world for two days. I think it was exactly what I needed even though on Friday night I didn't feel much like traveling. Janet and I have only recently started spending more time together and emailing a lot and it was nice to have her company for the trip.
Wow, that was really long. I'll end here before I bore everyone to death.