In the shadow of the dome

How will I ever do and see it all?  There are only about twenty quadrillion things to do in and around D.C., and seeing as how I'm about eight months in on this two-year gig, there are only sixteen-ish months left for all of these explorations.  I've reconciled myself to the fact that I really can't do it all (let's face it, all is a little overwhelming and unreasonable), but I'm going to knock out as much as I can. 

Two times a year Cultural Tourism D.C. offers a plethora of free walking/biking tours through various neighborhoods in the city, and what better way to enjoy the early fall temperatures than setting out on a Sunday afternoon to enjoy "In the Shadow of the Dome," offering the opportunity to "travel around Washington’s most famous architectural icon, the U.S. Capitol, and the buildings of America’s legislative and judicial branches of government. You will discover that “Capitol Hill” does indeed describe a rise above the city and that its leafy green setting features historic trees, fountains, outdoor sculpture, and even a grotto. The Library of Congress, U.S. Botanic Garden, and U.S. Supreme Court are all stops, as is the home of Alice Paul, who worked tirelessly to guarantee American women the right to vote."  Next time I'm going to try to grab a spot in "Spies of Georgetown" before the online reservations fill up, but for today I think some Capitol Hill explorations fit the bill.

Our group met up outside the Capitol South Metro stop at 1:30 (or closer to 1:35 for those of us who may have been running a tad bit late and decided to walk the mile and a half to the Metro stop instead of actually riding Metro...it involved switching lines from my home Metro stop, and honestly, with their weekend schedule, it probably was faster to walk...I digress...), and the next two hours of our lives were placed in the capable hands of Andrew, a political communications student at George Washington University and afficionado of all things D.C., specifically the political scene.

Our first little bit of trivia included a brief glimpse at the rowhouses where young legislators cram themselves in four at a time while Congress is in session (former residence of Barack Obama!  suddenly a truly historic landmark!) and some tidbits about the Capitol Hill Club, a rather elite little establishment where I doubt I'll ever have the pleasure of having a drink or attending a lavish wedding.

Next viewing - Library of Congress.  Did you know that Thomas Jefferson offered up his personal collection of books after those darn British set fire to the Capitol building in 1814 and destroyed the original volumes held within the Library of Congress?  I mean, he didn't just hand them over - there was definitely payment involved.  Back to the library - there's a Gutenberg Bible in there!  Also, after this fire fiasco and the "we can't buy new books all the time!" revelation, all publishers are required to submit two complete copies of all of their published works, meaning that the Library of Congress holds a ridiculous number of books, housed in three separate buildings with this really cool cart/tunnel system thing that zooms books from one place to another as needed.  I still need to make it inside and check out the Reading Room.

I'm not sure why I keep forgetting which side of the Capitol houses the Senate or the House, but I'll definitely keep it straight now that I've gotten some background on the office buildings that line Independence and Constitution Avenues and which legislators reside where.  Oh, and the Rayburn House Office Building made pretty good use of the "additional sums as may be necessary" for its construction - those additional sums far exceeded the original appropriations and were put to use for, among other things, a swimming pool and basketball court.  As you can imagine, offices in the Rayburn building are in high demand. 

We made a quick stop outside the U.S. Botanic Garden, where I learned...well, not too much, but we did get a nice little break in the shade and learn that Congressional aides are a fan of the jungle's balmy 75 degree comfort in the midst of winter - take your lunch on over to the Botanic Garden, kids, while your powerful bosses take taxpayer dollars on over to Charlie Palmer for a nice steak.

We continued our circle around the Capitol with a stop at the James A. Garfield Monument, which is a really interesting statue depicting him at three stages of his life and unfortunately is having some issues with its bronze eroding.  Garfield was assassinated pretty early on in his presidency, but actually hung in there for quite a while after he was shot - turns out they were having trouble locating the bullet with this fancy new metal-detector device because of the metal bedsprings in the bed.  Oopsie.

Did you know the Capitol dome is actually made of cast iron and painted to look like marble?  The darn thing's heavy enough as is, and cast iron is quite a bit lighter than marble, so...there you have it, American innovation.  I've shared quite a few Capitol tidbits before from the tour with the Vaughns, so let's move on to the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial stationed directly in front of the Capitol.  It's very much an homage to his time in the military rather than his presidency, which I find pretty interesting, and I find it especially interesting that the sculptor, Henry Shrady, spent twenty years of his life working on the memorial and sadly died two weeks before its dedication in 1922 - this poor guy actually joined the Army to better understand Grant's dedication and really threw himself into the job.  The cavalry sculpture to Grant's right depicts Shrady moments from being trampled to death by horses.  Talk about a stressful job if that's the way you're going to memorialize yourself in a piece of your work.

I've walked past a couple of things many times before and had absolutely no idea what they were - well, now I know that a random stone structure provided some primitive air conditioning to the Capitol back in the day, and a lovely little red brick structure is known as the Summer House and served as a response to complaints in the late 1800s that visitors to the Capitol could find no water nor any place to rest on their journey.  That hill really does people in, you know.  Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, who designed Central Park in NYC, was hired to develop and improve the Capitol grounds and make it more hospitable to visitors...hence all the trees around that strategically provide some shade during the sweltering summer heat.  The benches installed in the Summer House also had very sturdy stone armrests installed to encourage visitors to...sit upright...and...avoid certain activities.  You should have heard the older ladies in the walking group giggle and gasp at that one.

Final stop?  Some tidbits on the Supreme Court and slavery's contribution to the building of the Capitol.  It was really interesting to spend a couple of hours walking around so many things I've seen before and never knew quite as much about.  Thank you, Washington Walks!  I'll be back for Memorials by Moonlight and possibly a few others.

Again, completely in love with all of the free things to do in this city.

Arts on Foot

Yesterday afternoon I braved the clouds and cooler temperatures (ok, the cooler temperatures didn't really require braving - that I embraced.  The clouds, though, did look a little bit menacing...) to check out the Arts on Foot festivities going on in my neighborhood.  In its seventeenth year and billed as Washington D.C.'s "premier outdoor arts festival," I figured it was worth walking the two blocks over to check the art market, restaurant samplings, and varied musical performances.

I was pretty impressed with the set-up - plenty of people offering directions and guidance, a well-marked information booth, lots of seating, sufficient trashcans, and a semi-logical traffic pattern for winding your way through all the different booths.  The weather didn't seem to deter many people - check out the crowd captivated by remarkably flexible dancing/gymnastic type people from local dance ensembles...as well as some older ladies shaking it with hula-hoops that maybe shouldn't have been shaking it:

My personal highlights?

• Made a lunch out of king crab risotto from 701 and chips with spicy guacamole from Rosa Mexicano.  I realize they don't logically go together, but I was tempted by the risotto first and then encountered the chips...and seeing as how I'd spent a chunk of the morning reading a somewhat fascinating tortilla chip article in Texas Monthly, I had chips on the brain and HAD to have them.  Tasty on all counts.
• Signed up for my library card.  Seeing as how the main branch is a mere three blocks from my apartment, I figured I might as well.  With no Half Price Books anywhere in sight, maybe this can be my back-up cost-effective book plan.
• Caught a few moments of D.C. Shorts Film Festival offerings.  It's going on for the rest of the week, so I might go check out an actual screening one night.  With my highly limited attention span these days, short films are probably the way to go.

There were all kinds of art/jewelry/crafty things tempting me, but I resisted purchasing and just admired.  I also passed on the wine tent, which had a line snaking down the block and was quite obviously the place to be.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not opposed to some wine in the afternoon - I just didn't want to fight the crowd and/or shell out the bucks.

On my way out later in the day I also passed some stragglers who opted for more of an "Activism on Foot" rather than "Arts on Foot" approach to the day.  In case you missed the headlines, there were about a gazillion people down on the national mall on Saturday forming a rather large march/rally/protest, the general purpose of which was to beat down the Pres and Congress for everything from bailouts to health care to taxes.  They made an impression on me because they refused to obey traffic signals and caused me to sit at a red then green then red then green then red then OH-you're-finally-out-of-the-crosswalk light.  I'm all for freedom of speech, but I promise your message isn't diminished if you have small gaps in the crowd caused by law-abiding actions.

Rooftop times with the Democrats

A D.C. moment for you...since we work with so many well-connected people, there are occasionally tickets floating around to various events that make their way down to the senior and associate level. Three of these tickets brought forth a Tuesday night where Dana and I, accompanied by co-worker Donna, found ourselves on the roof of some schmancy building at the corner of 7th and I NW, surrounded by members of the Democratic National...Committee?...Caucus?...something like that, enjoying wine and appetizers while liberal ideas flew all around us. Oh, and Nancy Pelosi had some words for the crowd, and I was about fifteen feet away from her while she shared those words. It's a good thing the Republican in me didn't come out too much, because she had a security detail in tow - the serious looking guys with the earpieces and all. So there you go, politico sighting...now that I've got the Speaker of the House out of the way, I'm going to set my sights on...oh, you know...the President. I hope he heads out for burgers again soon.

They really live here?

At the White House, that is. I can't imagine packing up and moving into the White House. Since I'll never be POTUS, it's ok that I can't imagine that, but it's still just odd to me that this remarkably historical place also serves as a residence. Anyway, one of the perks of working in the D.C. office as a tour rather than a permanent person is that you can occasionally take a little chunk of time away from your work day to do things like...oh, I don't know...go tour the White House. Provided someone (ah-hem, me) has the patience to coordinate a visit for said tours through a local (I still claim Texas as local...thank you, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison) Congressional representative. Seriously, it's quite a process, the requesting eons ahead of time and gathering of social security numbers and harassing the poor aide who's in charge of coordinating everything and can't give you the final yes or no answer until about 36 hours before this event should commence.

Last Thursday morning about fifteen of us gathered in the lobby at work and then walked over to the White House to check out the home of the First Family and all of the inner goings-on. I was secretly hoping that Michelle would pop out and offer us some coffee...or that we might see adorable little Bo frolicking about on the lawn. Well, let me just put that to rest and say that we didn't not see/greet/come anywhere near any two-legged or four-legged member of the Obama family. Stinkers. However, we did get to feel kinda important for about a second as we lined up alphabetically by last name and made our way past the security/Army/defender of the free world guy who checked our names off the pre-approved list and allowed us to proceed on to the metal detector.

Now, we'd read beforehand that the tour is self-guided, and they really mean it. You're handed a combo map/pamphlet and told to escort yourself through several rooms on the ground and state floors of the East Wing. There are security officers in each room who are there to answer any questions you may have (along with serving an actual security purpose, I'm sure) as well as a few explanatory signs posted along the way, but we made do with our handy pamphlet. There were a few other groups who seemed to have some fairly knowledgeable people leading them around, but we never could determine exactly where those people came from. Of course, no cameras allowed anywhere near this tour, but I do have a few tidbits for you, made out of words rather than images, of a few of the rooms we got to see:

• East Room - the largest room in the White House, it is used for receptions, ceremonies, press conferences, and other events. Nellie Grant, Alice Roosevelt, and Lynda Bird Johnson held their weddings here, and the bodies of seven Presidents have lain in state in this room. When we were there it was set up for a jazz concert later that evening. They only hold tours in the morning, and then they whisk away the ropes and poles and mats, put all the rugs back in place, and go on with their days.
• Blue Room - often used by the President to receive guests, and it is furnished to represent the period of James Monroe. The White House Christmas tree is placed in this room.
• Red Room - frequently used for small receptions and often a favorite room of the First Ladies. John Adams used it as a breakfast room, and Rutherford B. Hayes took the oath of office there in 1877.
• Other rooms we could take a peek in and/or walk through - library, Vermeil Room, China Room, Green Room, State Dining Room, and the entrance and cross halls.

We saw quite a few portraits along the way, including 1797 portrait of George Washington that has hung in the White House since 1800. Dolly Madison saved it when the British burned the White House in 1814 in retaliation for the destruction of some public buildings in Canada by American troops. And a couple more history bits for you...every President except George Washington has conducted the government of the nation here, and the Trumans had to move out from 1948-1952 when the severely weakened structure was rebuilt.

All in all, we zipped through in about 30 minutes. We probably could have gotten a bit more out of the experience with a stop at the White House Visitor Center, but I'll probably go hit up in some random winter month when it's less clogged with tour groups.

I got to go see the President's house! From the inside!

Silly signs

Just a few more reasons why I always try to have my camera with me. Silly signs amuse me.

Likely intended to provide some awareness of a school/playground in the area, but I'm going to take it to mean "beware of teeter-totter AND children with floating heads."


I don't recall learning it quite that way in school. Special earbones? I wasn't aware that was a distinguishing feature of mammals. Merriam-Webster makes no mention of special earbones. Every other resource does, though. I think I glossed over this in my years of science education. Good thing the Museum of Natural History is here to set me straight.


You know some moron, mesmerized by the hypnotic beauty of the cherry blossoms, smacked his head into a branch and possibly (1) developed a small bump and accompanying headache and/or (2) fell into the Tidal Basin. Both possibilities now warrant the city posting signs for something that is glaringly obvious to anyone with the gift of sight. Oh, that reminds me - please exercise caution with hot beverages.



Neat and tidy liberal spray-painting defacing city property. Theoretically put in place before last November's election.



The best part is "signs paid for by Georgetown University" at the very bottom. Hush up, now, all you crazy college kids, and please stop disturbing your very wealthy neighbors.

On a side note, tomorrow I welcome a Texas visitor in the form of Jenny P, fresh off a week of imparting her knowledge on impressionable young minds at Pdub's national tax training. SO excited that she'll be here for the weekend, and I can't wait to see her!!

Not a crumpet in sight

It's not often that you get to enjoy high tea at the residence of the Finnish ambassador (in my own personal experience, anyway - maybe someone out there has a more personal connection with Pekka Lintu), so when offered the chance to skip out on work a little bit early for such an occasion, you take it. One of our PwC partners bid on a "high tea for up to 30 people" shindig at a recent charity event, and upon winning he graciously invited the current "tour of duty" gang to join him for this experience. I put "tour of duty" in quotes because I think of it as a rather military term, and it's not like those of us here in DC have gone into enemy territory to protect our country or anything. Enemy territory, hmmm....the Beltway crowd and Yankees (this is not the South, I don't care what those Virginians say) all around...maybe I should rethink that phrase. I digress....back to foreign relations and tea and all that good stuff.

Speaking of foreign relations, those are probably more important to an ambassador than meeting a bunch of accountants/lawyers/businessy-types, which possibly explains why Mr. Lintu had actually departed for Finland earlier in the day...so no, we didn't actually meet the ambassador. We did, however, meet his rather charming wife, Laurel Colless, who's not Finnish at all but fascinating in her own right, working diligently to bring energy efficiency and green thinking to the world at large. A couple of actual Finns were present, which lent an air of authenticity to the whole endeavor...even if they were the au pair and housekeeper #1.

We had quite a spread for our high tea experience - the usual beverage options of tea, coffee, water and the like, and quite a few appetizer/dessert options, including cured salmon, a salmon-quichey thing, roast beef and beet something (I think a lot of people were scared of purple food - come on, guys, go for it!), cucumber sandwiches, mushroom and rice pastries, strawberry-mint mousse cake, cookies, and assorted other carbalicious items I've forgotten about. I'd love to have pictures for you, but whipping out my camera in their home would have felt a little intrusive and disruptive of the whole high tea experience.

It was an odd feeling to walk around through their home, children and dog underfoot, and take tea on their expansive, gorgeous back patio, complete with pool and sauna. Also complete with multiple housekeepers/all-purpose staff who graciously greeted us at the door, poured beverage refills, and quietly snuck in to relieve us of dirty dishes. Oh, and not that we could really use the sauna - I mean, business casual doesn't exactly lend itself to steaming - but it's nice to know it's one of the perks of ambassador living. Actually, one of the most fascinating parts of the whole experience was seeing this home smack in the middle of DC with an enormous backyard and space all around. I guess you can have space in the city...you just have to have the right connections along with the accompanying financial means. It's just fascinating to me that this is their home, and they have a guest book and brochures waiting for you at the front door.

As much as I don't want my personal space invaded by tea-seekers all the time, I think I could handle the ambassador life. Send me off to Spain, please, or Italy or Greece or anywhere I might like an extended vacation. I'm guessing my government wouldn't care to foot this particular bill at the moment...or ever, for that matter.

Did sneak in a couple of pictures there at the end, mostly to obtain evidence of something that said "Finland" to document the experience.

All in all, I learned a little bit about...Finland, saving the Earth, Finnish cuisine, living the ritzy life in DC, and my coworkers. And while our treats were delicious, we weren't exactly filled up on our cured salmon and assorted baked goodies, so Dana and I made our way to Dupont Circle and spent a pleasant evening on the patio (yes, the patio! It actually kinda feels like spring here in DC!) at Veritas sharing some charcuturie (so much more fun to say than "cured meat," right?), cheese, and a rather tasty cabernet. Not a bad Thursday.

Supreme Court smackdown

Today was one of those days where I thought, "this is cool...my employer is going to pay me to stand in a line, AND there's a pretty neat-o experience waiting at the end of said line." My previous work on April 1 has typically consisted of much pulling of hair, consuming of Diet Coke, and fighting with spreadsheets, so going to hear oral arguments at the Supreme Court (in a state tax case, no less!) was a welcome change of pace.

This endeavor is not for the weak. If you want to sit in on the oral arguments in their entirety (and aren't one of those lucky press pass/privileged DC bar member types), you better set that alarm, because the line to get in starts forming during an hour when I prefer to be asleep. Our work informants suggested arriving between 7:00 and 7:30, so my fellow state tax buddy Stephanie and I set a goal of 7:15 to meet on the steps of the Supreme Court. She managed to beat the large group of sleepy high-schoolers making their way through the city...unfortunately, I did not. Neither of us beat the enthusiastic folks who showed up somewhere around 6:30 to kick things off...ick. They typically only seat 50-60 people for the oral arguments, so I was afraid we were going to end up waiting it out for nothing. Fortunately, Stephanie ended up with an actual ticket (#57!) and ALSO managed to snag two highly valuable tickets from the pair behind her who decided they didn't really need to get up close and personal with Polar Tankers, Inc. v. Valdez. Victory!! As we valiantly clung to #57 & #58, the powers that be allowed 50 people to file in a little after 9:00. Oh, please don't let us get this close just to make us miss out and end up at the office after all.

Of course the sky decides at this moment to open up with some sprinkles. Please please PLEASE let us in out of the impending downpour so we can hear all about state tax issues! Please! And again...victory! 20 more people through the door - phew, actual seats. Let the tax smackdown begin.

Hearing oral arguments before the Supreme Court is really a pretty cool experience. Justices dramatically entering courtroom en masse through curtains. Clarence Thomas (not even discretely!) sleeping, which is apparently nothing new for him. The rather imposing courtroom. Justice Breyer beating down counsel for the plaintiff and his inability to articulate exactly what he was trying to say. I mean, he really zinged him a couple of times. Scalia getting all animated about taxes. Realizing just how many issues come before the court and how remarkably varied they are. The action on the bench. The number of times Chief Justice Roberts puts his glasses on, takes them off, puts them on, takes them off. The highest court in the land in action. Moments like this are when I actually like my job.

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign

Never hurts to always have your highly portable camera on hand. As much as I would love to invest in a ridiculously awesome camera and the lenses to go with it, it's hard to pass up the handy size of my current device. I try to always have it on hand so I can capture whatever might come across my path during the day. I mean, you really never know. I've spotted some interesting/amusing/probably-only-funny-to-Erin signage along the way, and it's time to share a few:

Parked outside the Judiciary Square metro stop. Now, does the FBI really need "police?" I mean, they are the FBI....why don't they just put "FBI" on the side of the car and be done with it? I guess they have to distinguish between the truly intimidating folks and the ones who push paper all day.

Spotted near a security checkpoint outside the White House. Do they intend for the dogs to throw away their trash? "Now, Bruiser, you throw away that greasy wrapper from your street vendor hot dog!" Maybe it has something to do with training vicious attack dogs, fierce canines who sniff out drugs and would-be terrorists...

Snapped this picture while driving through Georgetown. Tons of diplomat plates all over this city, but I don't think I usually see them on a Hyundai Azera. Cost cutting is everywhere!! Actually, this car probably sets you back more than I think it would. I really enjoy the pretty shade of blue that distinguishes a diplomat plate from all the commoners on the road.

This won't comfort Mom and Dad too much, but I snagged this picture while stuck in traffic about a block from the only Target actually in DC. Logically, shouldn't this particular warning be in effect no matter where you are? I'm guessing this area is known for something more than the fairly recent opening of large chain stores...

And continuing with our stuck in traffic photo opportunities...grabbed this one while winding my way down Constitution Avenue, and I knew when I laughed out loud at the bumper sticker under the brake light that I should snap a quick picture and share it.

More to come, I'm sure - there are all kinds of crazies in this city and signs to go with them.

So that's where they put them

You know how people want to do demonstrations at the White House? Make bold political statements and all? I mean, if you're trying to make a point to Mr. President, your message comes out a lot stronger when you're at his home. Anyone who's strolled in front of the White House before might not have noticed the lack of their presence, but these people exercising their "freedom of speech" rights aren't exactly making a big display at the front of the White House. Pennsylvania Avenue is reserved solely for some security officers in the street and hordes of tourists who want their picture taken with those famous columns. The demonstrators aren't visible there because....our nation's leaders have seen it fitting to assign them posts at the back of the White House. Here's the can-can girls:

I say "can-can" because they were dressed up like can-can dancers, complete with feather boas and heels, handing out bright pink flyers sporting the slogan "yes we can-can stop the war!!" while twirling around on the sidewalk. I give them props for their enthusiasm.

There was also a rather old man with a rather odd large sign containing indecipherable script...who was singing rather loudly...with bits of English and perhaps gibberish thrown in. I opted not to go for a picture of that one since I had no idea what kind of statement he was trying to make. And also because I was maybe a little bit freaked out.

We also have tent lady demanding peace. She's been stationed out there for quite a while and has a pretty decent set-up:

I think I'll head back periodically to see what kind of statements people are making. Just a guess that the statement-makers might pick up once summer tourist season rolls around. If we get another snowstorm, I'll go see just how many enthusiasts brave the slushy mess.