Washington D.C. or How I walked my legs to teeny tiny painful little nubs.

In Washington DC we discovered a cantilevered highway on our drive into town.  This may not be all that weird and hey they sort of happen all over, but it was kinda cool nonetheless.  This particular highway, Hwy 29 or Canal Road runs along the canal which runs along the Potomac river.  This is a beautiful quiet spot filled with greenery and the loudest cicadas ever.  It seems to be a favourite spot for runners and joggers, as we saw tons in the few minutes we walked around. 

This little drive really reminded me of Toronto's own Rosedale Valley Road.

After settling into our hotel, we walked over to Georgetown just a few short blocks away.  Besides the Paper Source store, which was quite a heavenly find for a paper crafter, the stores were typical of shopping malls everywhere.  One thing we did notice though, was that fine dining in Georgetown was just not going to happen for us, we simply were not dressed for it.  In this political town, people dress for dinner.  You'd be hard pressed to find a restaurant in Toronto with anything resembling a dress code, but here, no jacket, no service.  As the light of the day faded, out came the bling and the glitz.  High heels, pretty dresses and shirts and ties were everywhere.  Subway was about our speed that night.

The next morning dawned hot, hot, hot and soupy.  Off we swam to the Mall and the slew of Smithsonian museums on its shores. We walked from our hotel, which it turned out was quite a jaunt. The farthest point on our outing that day was the Air and Space Museum.  It is about 4.5 kilometers from our hotel, the Marriott at 22nd and M.  So just walking there and back was about 9 kilometers and doesn't count walking around in three museums.  They were awesome museums though.  We went to the American History Museum and the Natural History Museum in addition to the Air and Space.  I would highly recommend skipping the Natural Science Museum on the weekend, as it was crammed especially with strollers, babies and very small children, many of whom were not thrilled to be there.

We got back to the hotel, pizza picked up along the way and ate in our room.  We then soaked in the hot tub and passed out in our beds early.

The next day we headed out to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles International Airport.  So well worth the drive.  An amazing museum!  We followed a guided tour led by a very knowledgeable and friendly docent.  Our group had the pleasure of hearing first hand from Robert Harris about his record breaking high altitude flight in the Grob 102 Standard Astir III that belonged to him and is now on display at the museum.  He was in our group, following the tour.  Very Cool!  I have to admit I got a bit teary eyed walking into the room consumed by the shuttle craft Enterprise.  The tears didn't last long as my daughters and husband started looking for all the little jokes on the alien space ship used in the filming of Close Encounters.  From the surreal to the sublime.  Great, great time spent in Washington.

Where have the last two months gone?

I don't know what black hole I fell into, but it ate 2 months of my life!  I have not scrapped a single page since sometime in August.  Now half that time disappeared into an amazing trip to Florida and home again.  In the true spirit of a road trip, the trip was a huge part of the awesome.  I'd share a picture today, but the one I really want to share is of Falling Water, a Frank Lloyd Wright house outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  The ticket says you can only use the photo's for personal use and you're not even allowed to post them on line in any way.  Wow.  Do they have people searching the nit continuously looking for people breaking the rules?

The house was awesome, but in a way that I did not really like per se.  It was cool to know a little about Frank Lloyd Wright and his extreme need to control his design past his control.  He was an artist, but he was a total control freak, whose need to pound you over the head with his ideas is reflected in almost every aspect of the house.  The house, which is situated adjacent to and cantilevered over a water fall, allows no view of the water fall.  Wright was enamored with the sound of the water fall and thought it the most important element, as far as enjoying the water fall went.  Well, don't try looking at the water fall.  Without hanging over a balcony wall, and endangering your life, you can't.  Wright couldn't stand the thought of some uneducated slob not getting it.  I think that's the part of his designs that kill me the most.  He didn't trust the person paying the bills. 

I am sure that students of architectural history will disagree with me wholeheartedly.  I do concede he did some cool things with architecture, but without factoring in the personality of the man, you can't really appreciate the extent of what it was he was doing with his designs.