1. I first visited Washington, D. C. in 2012 and as I wandered the National Mall and the streets of Downtown, Chinatown, the Penn Quarter, Dupont Circle, and other areas, I was dizzied by the way streets and circles were laid out and by the intensity of the traffic. I swore right then that I would never drive a car into the center of our nation's capital.
All I can say now is, be careful what you swear.
Today the Deke and I decided we wanted to check out Second Story Books and Kramerbooks in the Dupont Circle neighborhood and we decided to take the car.
I studied our route and pictured the whole plan in my mind with the help of Google maps.
I punched our destination into my phone's navigation app.
It was kind of thrilling to come into D. C. on Maine Ave, briefly merge onto Independence, veer onto 17th, see the Tidal Basin and Jefferson Monument on the left and the Washington Monument seem to jump into our windshield as we skirted the National Mall and then to drive on Pennsylvania to 20th and turn east on P and look and look for a street parking spot and find one on Q Street -- where, knowing my limits, I jumped out the car and the Deke took the wheel and parallel parked. I've damaged the Sube's body enough in its nearly twelve years of existence in reverse and wasn't in the mood to do it again. Again, I know my limits.
2. The Deke and I enjoyed walking to Second Story books, seeing where the Phillips Collection is located, gawking at the embassies of Indonesia and Portugal, and, then, after browsing for a while, navigating Dupont Circle on foot and browsing around at Kramerbooks. We had a blast, and it was made all the more fun by finding our car where we parked it. I got back behind the wheel, entered Dupont Circle for the first time, succeeded in shooting off onto Massachusetts Ave., headed toward New York Ave. and soon we were flying north on the Baltimore Washington Parkway leaving a most successful trip to Washington, D. C. behind.
I was jazzed.
3. We decided to cap off our trip downtown in Beltsville at the Old Line Bistro where the taplist is always top notch and we enjoy trying out (and splitting) their unusual burgers. I was thrilled to see they had DC Brau's winter beer, the December '15 version of Alpha Domina Mellis on tap, and I enjoyed a couple of snifters along with the Game of Thrones burger we split. It's a half pound wad of brisket accompanied by prosciutto, bacon, and brie on a brioche bun. We had a premium gab session about beers with Ryan, our server, making our late afternoon dinner a perfect conclusion to our day out and about.
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