Our mini-vacation

We returned from four nights in Washington, DC, yesterday afternoon and, while we were gone, it snowed quite a bit.  I suppose what's on the ground now will stay until spring, unfortunately.  We stayed in a B&B on Capitol Hill and could see the domes of the US Capitol and the Library of Congress from one of our windows.  It was a "basic" place - no frills with dormitory-type furniture and make-your-own-breakfast - but at least we had our own bathroom and the location was perfect, once we got oriented.  The first night, we wandered around looking for a restaurant and finally asked some cops for a suggestion.  The Union Pub turned out to be just what we needed - a crabcake sandwich, fries, and a nice glass of wine for me.

The next morning featured wet, sloppy snow, making the charming brick sidewalks a little treacherous to walk on.  We went a few blocks to the Folger Shakespeare Library and had a wonderful tour.  No other tourists were there, so our docent, Sarah, took her time (2 hours!) to tell us about the Folgers and their collection.   The library owns 81 First Folios - amazing.  We saw the little theater, the reading room, and a Churchill-Shakespeare exhibit, too.   After lunch in a diner we reached by walking through a downpour, we rested a bit before dinner at Café Berlin with Paul's old friend Dave.  They met while working at a college library in Tennessee many years ago, and now Dave is preparing to retire from the DC Public Library.   We discovered the restaurant only 3 blocks from our B&B, almost across from the Union Pub that we had taken a circuitous route to/from the night before.

Friday morning, we headed down past the Capitol to the Newseum, which is quite an interesting place but also a magnet for school groups, busloads of them.  There were quite a few interesting journalism memorabilia, including remnants of the Berlin Wall.  The graffiti'd side was on the "free" side, while the plain side was on the Communist side and had been painted white to reveal anyone trying to climb/escape.  There was a "death tower" on display also, but I couldn't get a good picture.

The Newseum also has a piece of the Twin Towers, original copies of US newspapers with important headlines, Pulitzer and other prize winning photos, and lots of videos about the role of the press in important moments in US history, such as the Civil Rights movement.

After such bad weather Thurs., it was a lovely day to be outside, and my Fitbit registered over 11,000 steps Friday.

Saturday was equally pretty, and we took the subway over to Arena Stage near the Waterfront in the late morning for brunch followed by Anything Goes.  It was a fabulous production with excellent singing and dancing.  On the way home we couldn't resist stopping at Café Berlin for dinner again.  The taxi picked us up Sunday at 6:45 am for National Airport, and we were back home in the frozen north by 1 pm.   We were happy to have had time in the "big" city, but, despite the winter, there's no place like home!