I really don't do this every weekend, just last weekend, and this weekend... and some other times... everything turned out rather nicely considering I didn't really plan anything past arriving in Virginia around noon on New Year's Day...
I spent New Year's Eve with my older brother and his wife and some friends just outside of Philadelphia (a mile from where I went last week!). They're pretty fun, although they don't exactly encourage a good night's sleep... we watched the Jersey Shore "marathon" (3 episodes does not a marathon make, especially when I knew the Twilight Zone marathon was on...), which could be an entire post in here about how it's not actually about us here at the shore, just the crazies who come visit in the summer... arghrghhh.... but anyway. Lovely time in Willow Grove!
The good night of sleep would have been useful the next morning, when I drove to northern Virginia, but I made it safely to Alexandria where my friends Alison and Scott live. (Last time I saw them was their wedding weekend! Hooray!) We went down to Fredericksburg together to enjoy lunch at my favorite Chinese food place (where the waiter still remembers me and wanted to know where all of my music department friends were, and what I was doing there...) and eventually meet up with our friend JT, who is home for his short winter break from his grad program in Nottingham, England. We snacked at the new University Cafe because all the awesome places I love were closed on New Year's Day, but eventually Capitol Ale House opened, where we had dinner and a drink. Beer of the day: Terrapin's SunRay Wheat.
After a good visit, I spent the night at Scott and Alison's and headed into D.C. for the following day. None of my friends were awake/functioning when I first headed in, so I went to the Smithsonian African Art museum by myself and wandered around for hours, really taken by the current exhibit of Yinka Shonibare's work. He does a lot of interesting things with headless mannequins, Dutch wax printed cotton, and political statements of sorts. My favorite was called Scramble For Africa. It's a dozen of said headless mannequins (representing the mass beheadings of the French Revolution and/or various rulers not using their heads and brains) dressed in late Victorian clothing made from said Dutch wax print cotton, arguing around a table with a map of the African continent on it. It was pretty cool.
Also, I found a random weird tree near the Smithsonian Castle. The Wollemi Pine. It's considered a living fossil, and scientists thought it was extinct until the mid-90s! Tree of the trip. It was about 20 degrees with wind chill of single digits in D.C. due to gusts above 40mph, so it's not like a whole lot else was green and identifiable during this trip (though this tree had a little sign next to it, explaining its significance, truthfully).
Eventually, people woke up. I met with a few other former Mary Washington Geographers and associates, Taylor, Scott Z. and Tim. We went to the National Building Museum and went through two exhibits: one about the history of the parking garage, and one about the development of the city of Washington, D.C. It was pretty cool, but we were mostly baffled as to why such a small set of exhibits was in such a huuuuuge building-- turns out it's the former Pension Department, which we still question as to why it was located in such a huuuuuge building. Interesting, though mostly being utilized as an indoor park in the chilly weather. Kids everywhere playing with blocks and toys.
We took the Metro to the Court House stop and had an early dinner at a sweet place called Earl's. I am liking Northern Virginia more and more all the time. I had the Mona Lisa, which is eggplant with mushrooms, peppers, provalone and pesto mayo on fresh bread. So good. I metro'd back to my car and drove back to New Jersey, total mileage around 550 if you include Scott and Alison driving me to Fredericksburg and back from Alexandria... this entry could be subtitled "the 500 more". Good weekend!
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