I’m on a compressed work schedule, working 9 days per biweek and getting every other Friday off. Sounds good? It is!
Yesterday was my day off, so my husband Greg and I spent some time exploring metro DC, partly as tourists and partly as residents.
US Capitol Building
First we took a stroll along the National Mall. When we got to the National Gallery of Art, we decided to go in. Neither of us had ever been inside before, despite roughly a dozen trips to DC over the last two decades.
National Gallery of Art
We loved it. We spent about two hours inside and saw approximately 10% of the collection. We’ll be going back repeatedly to see more.
Then we walked down to the Washington Monument and the White House. By then we were well and truly sunburned, so we ducked down into a snazzy cocktail lounge and had lunch.
Phallic!
On the way home we stopped at the Pentagon City Mall. OMG. Just, OMG.
Consumerist Temple
I shed a tear, embarrassed to be human upon seeing this monument to consumerism. I’ve read that people are leaving the church in droves, giving up any faith in God they had. Now I realized they haven’t left entirely. They still worship a deity: the almighty dollar. I truly wanted to hurl myself over the edge and go splat on the floor below, except I knew no one would notice as they were too busy rushing from store to store, clutching their precious credit cards and designer apparel.
Also in the mall was an Apple store. That’s the second one we’ve stumbled upon since moving here. Do you know how many were in Dayton? Zero. I think there may have been three in the entire state of Ohio. But here in NoVa we live within 5 miles of two.
As we walked by the Apple store we noticed it was jam-packed with people. I said to Greg, “Are those people really buying things or are they just a bunch of nerds with nowhere else to waste time?” We agreed it was the latter. We’ll be joining the nerd collective soon enough, for we decided to take the plunge into the world of smartphoniness and buy the new Apple iPhone 5 next month when it comes out. Please either wish us luck or recite kaddish, however you feel about it all.
When we got home we were wiped out from the sun, so we guzzled down a beer and went over to our new favorite Mom & Pop restaurant, Atlantis, and had a Greek pizza (with tomato, feta, and gyro meat). Mmm.
And that was our day in the big city.
Out near Alexandria / Arlington is Vaso – a great little family owned place you’d like. I’ve gotten off the orange line at Pentagon City bc I’ve had to poo. So, it’s good for that.
Thanks for the tip, Blobby. I just looked Vaso’s Kitchen up on Yelp and found most of the reviews are favorable. The good ones are very good, while the bad ones are hardly bad at all. Greg and I will definitely be checking this place out.
Carlos and I made our first trip, together, to DC for the HIV/AIDS March on Washington last month and cannot wait to go back. He hasn’t been since he was a wee queer, and I haven’t been since I was a young adult queer.
On your next trip here let us know ahead of time. We’d love to meet you.
We’ll do that. It’ll probably be after the first of the year when Carlos is up fort vacation time again!
Sounds like there’s lots of fantastic things to see in your capital city! You’ll be able to explore all the museums, galleries and attractions for many years without ever getting bored. Exciting! Another benefit to leaving Ohio, for sure.
AND the smithsonian museums are FREE!+++++ there are still things I never saw when I lived down there; but I can also say the same about philly.
OK, we go to atlantis when I visit; mom n pop places are much better than chains.
pentagon city mall has not changed since I left town. overpriced crap.
Did you know that the Pentagon has it’s own private department store underground? It was Hect’s but since the merge is probably Macy’s now. The Pentagon may only be 5 stories high but it goes really, really deep. Just like a good top.
Don’t do it, don’t succumb to the cult of Apple. I’ll explain why:
1) You cannot change out the battery pack in an iPhone. You can do so in almost every Android phone out there.
2) That fiddly dock connector on iPhones sucks. Android phones use a standard mini-USB charge connector. And most every Android phone comes with a wall charger and the USB connector if your car lacks, is only about $5.
3) It’s pretty easy to tether your Android phone. Not so easy on an iPhone. A $10 app lets you sling it to your computer.
4) The current Google jump into the Apple v. Samsung fray is going to be interesting, particularly the timing of this.
5) Swype. Seriously – I had to plug in an address on a friends iPhone today. I was pissed that it didn’t have Swype. If you don’t know what Swype is, you just drag your finger across the letters and it completes words based on that. Common terms are really nice.
6) If you already use an iPod there’s an app that will copy all your iTune library into an Android phone. It’s called DoubleTwist. It’ll even let you sync wirelessly if you buy the AirSync app.
7) Navigation on the iPhone sucks. The default application is horrid. Navigation on my Samsung phone is awesome.
8) Web browsing – you’re stuck with Safari on the iPhone. Android can run Firefox!
Do I need to go on?
And btw, I hold claim to the term that malls are modern Cathedrals to Consumerism.
Ha! Maybe we should pull a “Jesus” on them. Only together can we defeat the dark side.
that all sounds well.
I am glad you had a thoughtful time as well as a good one.
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