Georgetown

 I am lucky to have friends here from Utah that I get to still see occasionally.  I've been helping my friend Dalliss with a retreat that's coming up in a couple of weeks so I've been heading to Vienna, VA every Thursday for that, but went in early one day so I could have lunch and visit with another friend Stephanie who was also from Utah.  She showed me their cute neighborhood right behind Wolf Trap (they can hear the concerts!), helped me find a nursery where I could buy some plants, showed me Chuck Hagel's house, complete with secret service parked out front, we had a yummy lunch and then I got to see her darling daughter Anna, who I have not seen since they left Utah seven years ago!

Friday, my friend Denise (who I also knew from Utah) and I headed to Georgetown for the day.  She and her husband are moving to Colorado next month for his job.  He has been at the Pentagon since they left Utah and you may recall we stayed at their house with Denise while Jeff was deployed and while we were looking for housing here.  Anyway, she picked me up Friday morning, we parked and wandered the streets of Georgetown for several hours.

 The streets are lined with shops and cafes but you can walk up the side streets and see all these great town homes.  As we got to the top of one street we could see Georgetown University where they were holding graduation ceremonies at several tented locations around campus so we poked our noses in around there as well.

Denise is completely fascinated by the Kennedy's and knew they had 7 Georgetown homes they had lived in during their time in DC.  She looked them up on their phone and we tracked this one down that John F. Kennedy lived in when he was a congressman and before he was married.

She was also completely stoked when we had been driving into town and passed the Watergate apartments!  She couldn't stop talking about that!  

 Georgetown Cupcakes was on our list of things to see. I had to admit I didn't know about them and hadn't seen the show but after we had stopped at a small market and grabbed a quick sandwich and water.....we went looking for the shop.  Sure enough, as we walked up the street....there it was!

 I had the BEST red velvet cupcake I've ever eaten and Denise had lemon.  Cake was moist and yummy and the icing was creamy, not too sweet and just perfect!  Worth the $2.75!

 This was the Francis Scott Key park which we followed down toward the river.

 Yeah, see those cute blue shoes?  Brand new, comfortable flats that I thought would be perfect for walking all day.  When I got home I had gigantic blisters on 3 toes!  I guess that's what happens when you splurge big and spend $5.95 on shoes!  We had a great day though...perfect weather and managed to see everything we wanted to see (except the Exorcist stairwell which I'll have to look up for next time) without the benefit of maps.  We squeezed a whole heck of a lot into a few hours.

Solitary Road Trip

So I now have an agent in DC to represent me for film and theatrical work.  Capital Talent Agency is located right here in the city but can represent me from NYC to CA.  Frankly, I don't know that I'm that interested in running to New York for auditions, but there's not that much that shoots right here in the city because the bureaucracy of making that happen is such a nightmare.  There is a lot of live theatre here though and film work in both Maryland and Virginia.  Hence, my road trip.  So my agent called to see if I'd go in to audition for  House of Cards (a Netflix series) in Baltimore, MD. The show stars Kevin Spacey and takes place all around DC but they've actually built the sets inside a warehouse in Baltimore.  So, I drove the hour trip into MD to make a 10 AM audition there.  But my agent had also arranged for me to go in for a Ridley Scott film he's doing for National Geographic that was taking place in Charlottesville, VA at 3 PM.  He did say they were in opposite directions but after I agreed to go and starting mapquesting it, I realized it was a 3 hour drive from Baltimore!  Oh well!  I need to meet the casting directors around here if I ever want to work so I got an audio book to keep me company (Anne Lamott's Imperfect Birds.....I prefer her non-fiction just for the record) and started my day trip.  Both auditions went well and both casting directors were incredibly nice, complimentary and welcoming. I really wanted to stop and take more photos of the gorgeous rolling hills of VA but there wasn't room to pull over.  Passed alot of old barns, some wineries, a Plow and Hearth outlet which I would have loved to have stopped for but I really don't have space for more stuff, and some lovely old churches.  But mostly, it was just peaceful scenery and made for a gorgeous drive.  

Mother's Day

A favorite photo of the kids from our mission trip to Mexico several years ago

 I only had one kid to actually spend the day with, but got lovely greetings from the other two.  After church I had to make a Costco run while Tom had Coast Guarding work to do so I opted to grab a pizza to bring home.  Tom thought it wasn't very special but I thought it was fine and really didn't feel like going out so after a relaxing meal, we took a walk over to our garden to check it out then spent the rest of the evening just hanging out.

Taylor has a friend from Salt Lake who has been doing an internship with Congressman Chris Stewart from Utah.  His internship got extended into August, but his housing did not.  Taylor asked if he could come stay with us and we said it was really up to him as he would have to share his room.  He was fine with it so we have two big boys...Taylor on his bed and Logan on an air mattress sharing our very small apartment.  Logan's a great kid and they have similar interests so they hang out and jam with Taylor's guitars and percussion instruments, read and eat.  Logan was only here for a couple of days before he headed home to Utah to spend mother's day with his family and go to a friend's wedding.

Walking the City

So Tom and I will often head out for a walk after he gets home from work.  Sometimes its a relatively short one (less than an hour) then we'll come home and have dinner.  Because of our proximity to the waterfront and wharf, we'll often head that way then go to the Jefferson Memorial.

Other times we'll head to the Mall where there's ALWAYS something going on.  Live music, festivals, protests, food trucks, tourists and great people watching.  It's only a 15 minute walk from our apartment so we might go there and make a loop or two.

We might even sneak through the courtyard of the luxury Mandarin Oriental Hotel as we work our way back home.

However, one friday evening we left home, again, with no destination in mind and just kept going.  The problem is, that there is so much to see and we always think, "let's just go a little further" in our exploration and we end up wandering for quite a while.

We found our way to Barracks Row which is where the Marine Barracks are and where the church we go to is located.  It's an old theatre.  It's also a street lined with great restaurants so we decided to split a Thai dinner in a little place we'd never been to.

National Community Church

This lot backs up against Barracks Row and is where a new LDS Church is going to be built.

These make me wish I had window boxes at the apartment.

Murals on Barracks Row

As long as we were this far, and had an idea of where home was, we decided to keep going.  We ended up down by the Navy Yards and the Nationals Stadium before heading home.  Arrived and sat down at the computer to map out our friday date night trek.  About 7 miles with plenty to see and do!

Spring in DC

As pretty as the cherry blossoms were, they were short lived and we've moved on to the gorgeous azaleas!  Every place I go, their bright and large swashes of color almost take my breath away.  When I walk Tom to work in the morning we pass these pretty bushes and the Titanic Memorial which is tucked away from the main street and close to the river.