it's been 12 years or so since i spent time in dc (save for a trip to nasa hq 18 months ago for work), when i used to visit friends there during my grad school days at university of delaware. we made the trip this past weekend to see our friend who moved back there from san diego, and to experience the city from a different perspective from the one i used to have. more precisely, to get a feel for what it's like to live there rather than what it's like to get plastered there. and it's always fun to see how san diego stacks up.
upon our arrival at dulles airport i was amused to see that the oversized humvee-like people transporters still ferry you from the
eero saarinen-designed terminal to the departure gates. yet these are finally on their way out, to be replaced by the
aero train next year, pictured here. and there are plans to spend 5 billion dollars to
extend the metro rail service to dulles. granted, millions more people travel through dulles vs. lindbergh, but our airport agency didn't even consider rail of any form during its
recently-approved "makeover" which apparently consists of widening harbor drive and building a new parking garage.
ok, airport gripes out of the way, we settled into our friends' house in arlington and took a lazy walk through old town in nearby alexandria that afternoon.
later, we enjoyed some excellent sushi at
spices in cleveland park near georgetown.
the next day we did a quick trip to west virginia so jay could knock off his 48th state (look out north dakota and alaska), then checked into our free sheraton hotel (thank you starwood points) just across the river from dc in arlington, and conveniently located to the pentagon city metro station.
finally we were able to really explore the urban side of dc, empowered by the extensive metro. we jumped on and within minutes were in dupont circle, surrounded by hordes of people out enjoying one of the first warm weekends of the year. restaurants with packed patios lined the streets. we walked from there to adams morgan, which skews much younger (and straighter), enjoying the tree-lined streets and incredible architecture surrounding us. is there another u.s. city that can rival the range of architecture the dc offers? street after street of brownstones, historical buildings and embassies, and large, spectacular structures abound in these neighborhoods and in georgetown. it made me think of the controversy over the kensington terrace project and how it supposedly doesn't fit the character of the neighborhood. well, at some point these structures didn't fit their neighborhoods either, but they seem to have turned out ok.
dupont has plenty of gay clubs to choose from, and unfortunately the crowds never showed up at apex, where we avoided the tired trance music, retreating to the near-empty back room where obscure 80's videos played (what's up with that creepy nu shooz video?). we manged to salvage the night by enjoying the much more interesting hip hop being played at the nearly all-black (well, except for us) fireplace bar down the street. no queeny twinks here - the thug look and acting like you're on the DL seem to be the norm.
while i wish san diego had some of the benefits that dc's larger size and higher density provides, it wouldn't be fair to skip the negatives, like the fact that much of the city is pretty rough. we had a taste of this on the way home on the metro, where we accidentally took the green line to southeast dc at 2 in the morning and sat in an empty station for 20 minutes waiting for the next train to take us back. topside wasn't really an option at that hour/location.
we hung out on the mall the next day, hitting the national gallery after getting shut out on tickets for the monument and holocaust museum. it's huge, so we just walked through the modern art section, where i really enjoyed works by jean dubuffet and romare bearden, especially the latter's "tomorrow i may be far away", shown here.
the mall was sun-drenched, including the new WWII memorial in the foreground below, the design of which had to not block the line of sight between the washington monument and lincoln memorial, which delayed the project:
that night we headed up to baltimore to see some friends there - more on that in another post - and for our last day in dc we took in a baseball game at the new washington nationals ballpark. they've basically wiped out this whole area of dc to build the stadium and to redevelop the area, petco-style (including the gay bars concentrated here - they have until october to re-open under their grandfathered liquor licenses, according to the photographer for the metro weekly we met). except it's on a way bigger scale that petco and east village. all around are piles of rubble, a huge new federal DOT building, and plans galore for new construction, including the dc yards mixed-use project. they appear to be following the successful model of urban redevelopment spurred by a new sports stadium that's been employed in many other cities, with baltimore's camden yards being the first example.
the stadium itself is unremarkable - polished and new, but with no distinctive features like petco's western metals building. "bland" was the washington post's take. it could definitely use some landscaping (give credit to petco on that one), a more open face to the city, and some views of the river to the south. but it was nice to see a team with an actual offense composed of young, fast players - as opposed to the bunch of slow, unproductive and overpriced old-timers we have roaming the outfield at petco.
after the game we headed over to georgetown, making our way through the crowds to the river, where rowers passed and the kennedy center gleamed downriver in the afternoon sun. we were a bit disappointed in the late night dining options that night, but it was a sunday. we couldn't get a half smoke at the legendary ben's chili bowl, since it was closed, ditto for the best falafells in town at amsterdam's in adams morgan. just down the street however, the diner, packed at midnight, did serve up a tasty cubano pork sandwich. we wrapped up the night at atlas, which was celebrating the return of the sunday night lizard lounge event. whatever it was, it turned out a pretty big (and young) crowd for a sunday night, spilling out onto the front patio.
we lucked out with fantastic weather during our stay in dc - sun-filled days with no rain, amazing for dc in spring and a big improvement from the may gray we came home to. spring and early summer is a pretty special time for dc, where the tree lined streets shade the cobblestone sidewalks and varied architecture under their canopy. it's been cemented as my most livable city on the east coast, but as much as i love what it has to offer, the cold and gray days of winter are an inevitable part of living there.
Labels: "washington dc" metro "dupont circle" georgetown
