My new address?

As you can see the real estate market in D.C. is dooming. The house on the left is on Embassy Row about a block away from Dupont Circle. The house on the right is across the street from the Supreme Court. I was practically standing on the court's back steps to take this picture. Which do you think we should buy???

I have to admit I am leaning toward the house on the left. I found it on Saturday during the Dupont Neighborhood Museum Walk. Ten museums in the Dupont area were hosting a weekend when people could visit for free, and they provided a shuttle between them. My first stop was Woodrow Wilson's house. Hey, where else would an American history buff start? I managed to make it to Dupont Circle even though it required transferring Metro lines which was a piece of cake and riding backwards on one train which I don't recommend. There was supposed to be a table set up in the park to provide information, but I didn't find one. There was a handy tourist sign with the names of various local attractions including Wilson's house so I just decided to start walking. It was quite a hike, and then it seemed as though I was getting into a residential area, and the only other person on the side walk was a girl. I was beginning to think I was in the wrong place when one of us asked the other if we knew where we were going. She was looking for the Textile Museum, and I had no clue where that was. It so happens that there was a man in his front yard so we asked him and he told us we were within a couple of blocks of both places because they are right next door to each other!

Well, Jenny, my new friend, and I toured the Wilson House first, and they had a really cool exhibit of his walking sticks. Now, you wouldn't think that this is very interesting, but he had over 30 of them, and they were all unique. Making walking sticks used to be quite the art form. Then we went to the Textile Museum where children could do block printing or weave little mats or make bracelets out of yarn after watching it being carded, spun and dyed. They let big kids like Jenny and me make things too so she made a block print bandanna and I made a bracelet.

Next we took the shuttle to Dumbarton House which is really interesting. It is staged as the family's home circa 1800 and had things I hadn't seen before such as an ice cream pot, an ingeniously designed commode, and finger bowls that were used to rinse wine glasses between courses. After that we took the shuttle to the Anderson House. Larz Anderson was a diplomat who was our ambassador to Japan for a while. His house is staged as it would have been in 1905 when he was in diplomatic service. He was quite the robber baron! After his death, his wife gave the house to the Society of Cincinnati to use as its headquarters. Google the story of Cincinnatus because it is pretty interesting.

Our next stop was the Phillips Collection art museum. This place had some interesting art and some nervous employees. It was wonderful to see pieces by Monet, van Gogh, Cezanne, and Picasso all in one place, but when one of the workers practically slapped Jenny's hand for pointing too close to the art we decided maybe it wasn't the type of museum for us! I was near here where I found "my house". I have seen how hard it is to drive around the area, but the metro is right there so I think it would work out o.k.

There were five other museums we could have explored, but by this point we were tired and the last shuttle would be leaving soon so we decided to leave the tour. The National Geographic Society has a museum that isn't too far away, and Jenny really liked it the last time she was in DC so we decided to go there. Jenny is 21 and a biology major from Florida. She is here working for 10 weeks as an intern at the National Institutes of Health in cancer research. This is her second internship. Last summer she spent 13 weeks working on a different project for the NIH. She was full of good advice from her last trip here that she shared with me, but next year she is hoping to intern with NASA so this could be her last extended trip to DC. A lot of things on my list to do are also on hers.

We toured the National Geographic Society museum which focuses primarily on their work to help third world countries with shelter, transportation, education, and clean drinking water. Sometimes it feels like there is nothing that can be done to end poverty, but there are wonderful things being done. It is just a matter of getting these things to the places where they can do the most good.

After this last museum Jenny and I said good-bye, but we might try to hook up again. She has weekends off and likes to go exploring. The other interns she has met so far aren't interested in things like the Dupont Museum Walk so she was by herself and didn't mind hanging out with someone old enough to be her mother! She didn't make me feel too old, though, bless her.

Today I found the other house. I went to the Folger Shakespeare Library to see Hamlet. Wow!The actor playing Hamlet was wonderful! It made me remember how much I really love live theater. Not enough to start directing high school theater again, but I really need to go see more shows. I got to the theater a little early so I decided to walk around a bit. I went past the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court where I found "my second house". I also found The Sewall-Belmont House close by which I think is miss named. It was actually owned by Alice Paul who fought for years for the passage of the 19th Amendment to give women the right to vote and the ERA Amendment. I took a quick tour of her home and made it back to the theater in time for the play. Today was a much easier day :)

Well, which house do you think I should buy?

Tami