On Saturday night we went out to a bar in the ‘trendy Adams Morgan district’ (that’s how it’s always described in tourist guides) which is just a short walk from where Michelle lives. There we met up with her boyfriend and his friends. It was a good night but after little sleep the night before and a long drive I wasn’t up for a long one. But despite leaving relatively early, Michelle and I talked a good while when we got back to her apartment. Isn’t it great how you have friends, that no matter how long it has been, you can always pick up from where you were. Michelle and I are like that. I last saw her in March 2004, before that September 2002. We talked a few times over this year but we weren’t regularly in touch, yet this weekend was just like old times.
On Sunday morning, Michelle performed her hostess duties wonderfully and made us cinnamon French toast. Mmmn. Then we headed out to the National Cathedral. It was only built in the Twentieth Century but has all the architecture of a Gothic Cathedral. We didn’t go to a service there or anything but it was still nice to go and see it.
Washington DC is a brilliant city for me to go to. I honestly can’t decide what I get more excited about when I’m there, the Government buildings and Memorials or the fact that so much reminds me of the West Wing. The National Cathedral was like that. I mean it was cool to see where (some) Presidents have funerals and are buried, the State flags, the architecture, and I suppose above all, a place of God where a nation comes to mourn national tragedies and pray for the country. All that being said however, it’s also the place of one of the most amazing scenes ever from The West Wing, Mrs. Landingham’s funeral.
‘You get Hoynes!’
As we were on our way out Michelle spotted a sign advertising coffee. We went over and to our delight there were also cookies. As Michelle and I lifted one, a priest came over. Man, did he make us work for those cookies. In those situations, it's always nice to be able to drop in who I work for.
So after the Cathedral we went to the National Zoo. The zoo is one of Michelle’s favourite places in the world apparently. It’s right across the street from where she lives, and like most things in DC, it’s free. Yay!
Even this had West Wing connotations (when Mandy tries to get a panda from China). Michelle was super excited to see the pandas. There was one born about a year ago, it seems DC was gripped by the story at the time. They still are. There was also a headline this week that Michelle showed me, and no joke, it was ‘Breaking News: Tai Shan still adorable’. We laughed about that for a good twenty minutes. No, actually all afternoon.
Michelle had invited round some friends in the evening for a barbeque. Again, it was good to meet her friends, especially because some of them were from the UK and we were able to have a chat about all things British, you know the football, the pound, the Queen, tea, fish and chips...
On Monday I
Even though I’ve seen it before, it’s still amazing to stand here.
We then headed over to the Washington Monument. When I was there last they were still building the World War Two Memorial so I wanted to see that. There was some sort of exclusion zone set up between the Mall and the Memorial and we had to walk the long way round to get there, which got Michelle explaining about she loved DC but hated all the security sometimes, especially as the funding for DC police who provide a lot of security for national politicians comes out of DC taxes. Fair point, but it was kind of lost on me as all of a sudden a helicopter landed right in front of us. Then another one.
A crowd had gathered to see who disembarked. As I looked around I decided, in my wisdom, that there just wasn’t enough security for it to be anyone dead important and although we couldn’t really see from where we were, the people that got off looked like they were getting off the 11.30 from Baltimore or something. But just as I was wondering what all the fuss was about, a third helicopter swooped in. This one didn’t land on the grass in front of us though. Oh no, this one went straight on to the South lawn of the White House.
We decided that the first two were Press, and that's why the people who got off them looked so thoroughly bored and as if landing on the lawn at the Washington Monument was no big deal.
A quick check on tinternet later told us that El Presidente had been in Maryland delivering a speech at an training centre that morning. I don’t care what you say, I saw Marine One and Bush was on board! This is Marine One leaving, captured quite beautifully between the Washington Monument and a water fountain at the WW2 Memorial.
We walked up the Mall towards the Capitol building. All my photos up that point had been just me and/or the sight in question and I needed to get some of me and Michelle. So I stopped a fellow tourist with a camera to get him to take the photo. He passed the camera to his wife, saying, and I quote ‘oh I’ll let the photographer take the photo’. This is her work:
Well so long as our knees are in the shot!
Seriously, am I just being fussy at these attractions or do people take crap photos for me? The dome is probably the most distinctive feature of the Capitol and there she’s gone and chopped it off. Right enough I said ‘can you take a photo of us?’ but we were standing right in front of, arguably, the most important building in the US and she couldn’t find room in the photo for it. Some day I’m going to set up an international course, Tourist Photography 101. It’ll be just a short course but the graduates can wear a badge when they are out and about and people will know that they can approach them to take a decent shot of them at wherever. I like to think of it as my bit to promote harmony among the nations.
Alas, our sightseeing was over all too quickly and it was time for me to hit the road again back to North Carolina. However there was one stop to be made on the way home.
That’s right, dinner in West Virginia. Chalk another one up to me. Hicksville, NC has nothing on Beyondbackofbeyondburg, WV. I now know how Doc Hollywood felt, I was clearly the biggest news in the town since Bobbie-Ray fell off the tractor in 1978.
One last note to show off about my cool friend Michelle. That’ll probably be the last time I see her in DC for a while at least. She just got a new job which is more to do with her qualifications in Forensics (told you she was smart). She’s off to New York City to be the assistant to the Chief Medical Examiner doing DNA analysis on crime scenes. That’s right, real life CSI:NY. (Or for those students amongst us, she’ll be the Sam to some Quincy or other, only with DNA. Ah imagine what Quincy could have done with DNA, no more matching blood types. He’d have been unstoppable. Much like my cool friend Michelle it seems).
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