Category Archives: THE EAST COAST MISC

Another spectacular day of weather in the 70s, bright sunshine. We took the metro to Foggy Bottom and walked an easy 15 minutes to Georgetown (so there is a metro there, sort of) where we met up with the grandsons and their parents at a friendly little cafe called Feta and then went to a pretty playground Rose Park Tot lot. I had a surprisingly easy 15 minute scenic walk to DuPont circle for a working lunch at Sette Osteria with my literary agent (who just happens to be based here, as fate would have it.) and a quick browse and purchase at Kramers, which used to be Kramer Books and afterwards in the 80s.

I had no idea DuPont circle was so close to Georgetown but then I’ve never really gotten a handle on the lay of the land in DC, despite my many visit. From the playground I walked on a path through a ribbon of a park high above rock creek parkway. Later in Georgetown we stopped along the wharf for an overpriced ice cream cone at the Hershey’s shop. This area of Washington never seems like dc to me, which I don’t associate with waterfront and boats, although the Wharf development by Navy Yard also has both.

On our walk back to the metro we bumped into a friend of Noah’s who stayed with us in iowa (while volunteering during the caucuses) so we stopped to chat. DC felt like a small town. very Des Moines, and gave me hope that this can happen in places like Chicago. Dinner was at Carmine’s – two long tables and maybe 30-40 people, mostly family and heaping platters of pasta, clams, meatballs etc.

Noah and I wandered into the bakery Souk on 8th Street just south of Eastern Market (and our Airbnb) at 6:30 pm and found out it had just closed for the day, but we ended up leaving with a bag full of baked goods, two muffins, a jalapeño biscuit, a cinnamon bun, a scone…all free although we practically begged the guy there to let us pay. What a nice welcome to Washington DC. We will definitely try to return as paying customers.

Dinner was at a Cambodia/Taiwanese restaurant Maketto on H street with an unusual decor/vibe – a large display of designer sneakers which apparently they also sell – and delicious food, not much of which I recognized, although we have been to Cambodia. The steamed pork buns were the best I’ve had, very soft and savory. The crisp scallion pancakes were perhaps my favorite item. The fried chicken served on crisp toast reminded us of Japanese Chicken Katsu and some greens ( book Choi) had unusual additions of olives and dried anchovies. We ate out side in a courtyard in the rear with high brick walls briskly painted with manga style illustrations. Fun vibe and delicious food. Lovely walking in this pretty old neighborhood, Capitol Hill, with flowers in full bloom, tulips, azaleas, dogwood, lilacs, redbuds, flowering crabs, a riot of colors pink, purple, red, yellow, orange, white and lots of green. A sight for sore eyes, as was Noah!

The weather gradually cleared and we had blue sunny skies punctuated by the occasional slow moving dark cloud filled with showers and wind, nothing that kept us from bike riding all over with Noah. We started the morning at Eastern Market which is a block away from our well-situated and well-appointed Airbnb on 8th street near Independence (Noah’s street.) I fell for a delicious French pastry I’d never heard of, a kouign-amann ( “queen a-man) “a cross between a croissant and a palmier, with layer after layer of buttery, flaky pastry on the inside, yet caramelized with ever-so-slightly-burnt sugar on the outside,” according to Wikipedia.

We rode in Noah’s lovely Capitol Hill neighborhood, admiring the spring blossoms and old architecture. How strange to have the US Capitol as part of your neighborhood. I couldn’t help but think about the Trump rioters and the Shanksville 9/11 heroes as we passed that august building, now surrounded by a black fence and concrete Jersey barriers. So many threats. Next we glided onto the mall, past the smithsonian museums, the Washington monument and American U. college graduates in their robes posing by the Lincoln Memorial. We rode onto the Jefferson Memorial, covered in scaffolding and looked across the water at the MLK Memorial. We rode around Hains Point or some such which has a golf course and then over to the Wharf development that felt very un- DC, with high rises and trendy restaurants along the riverfront. We had Cuban coffee at Colada Cuban cafe.

After biking,dirck and I drove to Georgetown for a quick stop and purchase st the Allbirds (shoes) store, not far from a good burger place we got food from our first night called Good stuff Eatery. Dinner Was take out from a Chinese Korean place in Noah’s neighborhood called Chi Ko.