Mocha and Motorcade

When you live in DC, you have to learn to deal with the traffic, which is almost always backed up because of the Presidential motorcade.  Even if you're not on the street, but tucked away working in a charming, funky coffee shop, the buzz of six motorcycle cops followed by 12 black vehicles, an ambulance, and at least two police cars is enough to distract you from your book. You know you've lived here for a while if you know who's in the cars by the number of motorcycles riding out front. People in DC like to be nonchalant about it, or even perpetually grumpy--both dispositions are cool in DC.  But the truth is, living in a city where the President of the United States buzzes on a regular basis, is more of a rush than a double espresso.

The shot is a bit blurry because it's a still from the video below.  fyi, the President usually travels in the second car. 

 
                                        

To Spring!

It's the weekend! And, even better, it's spring break! I only have a couple of days off so I'm heading down south to visit my family.  I'll be gone for a few days, but until then, a toast to spring! This is a cajun themed Jean Daley from Bayou on Pennsylvania Ave. in Foggy Bottom.  It's sweet tea vodka, lemonade, and Razzmatazz. Cheers!

Little Wooden Church in the City

Since 1854, this small, wooden chapel has set in this little corner of DC as the city has grown all around it.  The other buildings in the neighborhood are brick and brownstone rowhouses from the late nineteenth century or new, shiny condo complexes looming above. Yet, somehow, in one incarnation or another, the church has survived.  When it was first constructed, it was Fletcher Chapel, a Methodist church that was believed to be one of the stops on the Underground Railroad. It's also been the Church of God and the Saints of Christ Church. In the 1960s when New York Ave. was being expanded and modernized, it was nearly demolished until the presiding church leaders, congregation, and community rallied around to save one of the oldest houses of worship in DC.  In 1997 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places, preserving it, and its history as part of the DC Civil Rights Walk, for generations. 

Same view, different look

My Neighborhood

"Your Neighborhood" from the March Daily Photo Challenge.  This is taken from the end of my block, looking down the street, because I thought posting my actual street on the internet would be dodgy.

Fruit

A few days ago, my good friend Eleanor suggested that we participate in something called the "March Photo Challenge," as a way we can virtually hang out because an ocean has worked its way between us, and neither of us are able to cross it as much as we'd like. You can find these calendars all over the internet, but the idea is that each day has a different theme, and the only rule is that you have to take the picture on the assigned day.

Yesterday's photo was "Up." Today's keyword is "Fruit."  I don't have much free time on Fridays, so my only chance for fruit was Whole Foods, which you can find in pretty much any town these days. How could I also make it about DC?  Well....DC does have a strange, strange relationship with grocery stores.  There aren't that many of them, for starters.  The Whole Foods, for instance, just opened in September and became the only large grocery store conveniently located in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood.  There's a Trader Joe's a few blocks away, but it's about the size of a gas station, and the lines stretch down every aisle. Until recently, there was a Safeway--the Social Safeway, it was called--in the Watergate, but the produce was as old and moldy as the senators who live there.

That's the other weird thing about DC and grocery stores: we name the Safeways.  The Watergate store was the Social Safeway because you could run into Condoleezza Rice buying milk or Ben Stein picking up a loaf of bread.  The Dupont Circle branch is Soviet Safeway because the lighting is 40 watt and the shelves are always unstocked.  In my neighborhood we had the Sexy Safeway, because it was sleek and shiny, specialized in gourmet foods, and had an extensive and impressive wine selection.  The economy crushed the local Giant though, and suddenly Safeway was narrowing aisles, is more packed than the Red Line at rush hour, open 24 hours a day, and has security personnel at all the doors.  Now they call it Ghetto Safeway, and I'm wishing I could still pick up produce at the Social Safeway.

But there's a ton of farmer's markets in DC, all through the week, all through the year.  But they deserve a post of their own.

The most beautiful day in months