A Walking Tour

Friday afternoon I walked over and met Tom at his office then we walked just a few doors down on base to the General's house where he was hosting an Oktoberfest party. Yummy brats & fixin's and got to meet some great people.

Costume winners!

The general and his wife welcome us.  Wish I could have photographed the inside of this awesome, historical house right on the Potomac!

It also happened to be the general's birthday so they surprised him with a cake

 Saturday was the Southwest neighborhood festival.  There were rummage sales, food stands, live music, art displays and all sorts of things throughout our streets.  We hooked up with the walking tour that was showcasing history and the "renewal of urban renewal".  Our particular neighborhood has gone through a major makeover in the past few years and our tour guide walked us through some of the areas and explained what they used to be as opposed to what they are now.

This was how it looked in 1958

This is a wall that is all that's left of what used to be a neighborhood courtyard with water features providing a community outdoor meeting place.

 Our guide had all kinds of interesting information.  You'll notice our address 905 6th St. SW has our quadrant SW attached to it.  Any address in the District of Columbia has either NE, NW, SE, SW attached to it so you know which quadrant you are looking for.  The same address could exist in all 4 quadrants so it can get VERY confusing!  The SW is the smallest of the quadrants with only 16,000 people living here.  That makes us feel a little more like a neighborhood.  Ours is the Southwest Waterfront neighborhood.  We're in the same "ward"(that's what they call their voting districts) as the Capitol.

This area used to be home to a lot of the projects which housed the very poor.  There are still sections that need cleaning up but the difficulty comes in the how to clean up without displacing people from their homes and all they can afford.  This seems to be a continuing problem.

This is the Arena Stage at the Mead Center which is right next door to our apartment complex.  It went through a major renovation that was completed in 2010.  The original theatre which was made completely of cement had been declared a historical landmark so they couldn't mess with it in anyway.  The architect ended up building this beautiful sweeping glass design that wraps around the original building.

We took a tour of the building with Chad Bauman, who is the associate executive director.

 This ship is in Molly Smith's (artistic director) office.  It was made for her by the architect Bing Thom to represent their adventure in making the renovation work.  From the outside you can see inside through the glass to all the offices, costume and scene shops.

This little farm stand is right across the street from us on Saturday's at the SW duck pond.

It was late afternoon when we finished our tours so we continued our walk over to the waterfront & fish market to get our lunch/dinner.  Every kind of fresh fish imaginable but we opted for fresh crab which they steam and season right there for you while you wait.  You get your dozen crabs in a double brown paper bag then put inside a plastic bag so you have someplace to dispose of your shells.  We sat on the edge of the water and took a good long time cracking and cleaning and with our bare hands!  Two days later my fingers are still sore from claw punctures!  We'll go better prepared next time with paper towels, shell crackers, picks and wipes. Yummy, but very labor intensive.