June 22, 2012 · 8:39 pm

Hot in dc but very cool at newseum

I usually last about two to  three hours at a museum but I had To force myself to leave after five hours at the newseum. My first visit and it’s nirvana for a news junkie and history buff. The building is gorgeous, with a spectacular view of the mall from the sixth floor balcony. Too many highlights to list but here are a few:

The 911 exhibit which includes a very powerful film with interviews with journalist who covered the bombing as the towers fell.

The Pulitzer prize photographs including interviews with some of the award winners about how thy got their winning shot, including a former dmregister colleague of mine.(it was fun to see several reporters I know pop up in one exhibit or another)

The selection of historic papers

Variousfilms on topics from women in journalism to anonymous sources.

I will definitely be back.

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June 19, 2012 · 6:36 pm

Where to eat in D.C.’s U Street Corridor

515 Florida Ave. NW, Washington DC 20001 | Tues – Sun 5:30pm-10pm, Closed Mondays

The recommendations are many:

My 20-something stepdaughter who lived in DC says her favorite is Cafe Saint Ex.
This from a friend’s 20-something son who lives in DC:
  • I would highly recommend this one Thai X-ing; http://www.thaix-ing.com/though $30 per person is a little pricey but it’s a ton of foodprix. it’s a small rowhouse with a mish mash of tables (though its gotten more professional as its gotten more popular)and the guy cooks you this amazing Thai mealwhich for $30 and BYOB is actually a pretty good deal.multicourse – the pumpkin curry is incredible”
  • Ethiopian is generally affordable and that area is known for that Dukem is good or Zenebech Injera, which is a little further away.
  • Busboys and Poets is also popular and interesting for the atmosphere but food is meh
The  NYTimes recommends: Local 16 (allegedly a Democratic hangout) and cork wine bar. (see below.)
… Head to the always hopping U Street Corridor, and plop yourself on a stool at Local 16 (1602 U Street NW; 202-265-2828; www.localsixteen.com), a popular Democratic hangout. There are multiple lounges and, best of all, a roof deck, where you can see the city lights while you sip your predinner watermelon martini. A lot of Democratic fundraisers habituate the place, so don’t be surprised if there’s a private party in one of the rooms.Have dinner a few blocks away at Cork Wine Bar (1720 14th Street NW; 202-265-2675; www.corkdc.com), which might have the best fries in town. The owners, Khalid Pitts and Diane Gross, are friends of Barack (well, Mr. Pitts is director of political accountability with the Service Employees International Union, which endorsed Mr. Obama, and Ms. Gross has worked with the Democratic political establishment for years). The menu includes both small and big bites, from marinated olives and cheeses to duck confit and sautéed kale. And for goodness’ sake, don’t forget those fries! They are tossed with garlic and lemon. In fact, order two helpings. Dinner for two with wine, around $60.

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June 18, 2012 · 2:20 pm

Eeking out 30 miles biking the Chichaqua Trail east of Des Moines

Intriguing sign outside Valeria, Iowa

We just managed to get in 30 miles of biking on the Chichaqua Trail, east of Des Moines – riding from the tiny town of Valeria (pop. 62, which may be an overcount) west through bucolic farmland (including surprisingly high corn for June) through the slightly bigger towns of Mingo, Ira (featuring an uncommonly clean, spacious port-a-potty in the park, which believe me, is good to know), and Baxter. We had to ride a little around the town of Baxter in order to accumulate a few more miles, including riding up the hill on the highway into town to the convenience store for some ice tea.

Part of the problem with clocking 30 miles on this trail is that it’s technically closed for repairs west of Valeria. (I’m not sure how far west. When we were on the trail last, in October, it was closed through to the start of the trail in Bondurant.) But even though there’s a big barrier blocking the trail at Valeria, when we were driving home and crossed the trail a little west of Valeria we spotted two riders we’d seen earlier on the trail who appeared to have ridden it west from Valeria. Hmmmm.

Valeria, by the way, has got to be one of the friendlier little towns we’ve ridden through. As we rode up and down the town’s two very short main streets, we were warmly greeted by everyone we passed – including a large group of people gathered in a circle on lawn chairs, who waved at us, and a guy mowing his lawn who stopped to wave and say “Howdy.” We remain intrigued about why – as the sign on the highway boasts – Valeria is the “Town of A Railroad Romance.”

On the way back to Des Moines, we stopped at a favorite east side ice cream stand, Granny’s on Hubbell Ave. That was dinner before we went to see the last performance of “Billy Elliott” at the Great Des Moines Civic Center, which was – as expected – fantastic.

A post-biking treat on Des Moines’ east side

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June 16, 2012 · 8:15 pm

To do list for Washington DC next week:

Ben’s Chili Bowl, a neighborhood landmark in U Street Corridor

I’m off to DC next week for a family get-together to celebrate my sister’s 50th birthday – and to check in on my son who is interning for a U.S. Senator so here’s my list of possible things to do when/if I have some free time:

– Newseum and Holocaust Museum. Never been to either.

– Martin Luther King statue on the Mall and visit to Vietnam War Memorial, which includes my husband’s brother’s name.

– The eastern market/U street corridor (recommendations from a friend who visited recently). I’ve been to Detroit’s Eastern Market but never DC’s. Didn’t know it existed. It in the Capitol Hill neighborhood and sounds like best time to visit is during the weekend market when there’s crafts, antiques as well as fresh produce.

The U Street Corridor is a commercial and residential neighborhood in Northwest Washington, D.C known as the center of Washington’s live music scene with several old clubs, theaters and jazz venues. Ben’s chili bowl looks pretty cool too. It’s at located at 1213 U Street, next to Lincoln Theatre, in the Shaw neighborhood of northwest D.C. It is known locally for its chili dogs, half-smokes, and milkshakes. (I remember photos of Obama visiting.)

The corridor  runs from from 9th Street on the east to 18th Street and Florida Avenue on the west. Most of the area is part of the larger Shaw neighborhood, with the western end entering the Dupont Circle neighborhood. It is served by the U Street Washington Metro station.

– Politics and Prose, a longtime favorite bookstore (that a friend now owns!)

– ellicott city, Md. I’m visiting a friend who lives there. Sounds like the five-block historic downtown is worth a wander.Fun facts: it was founded in 1772 and has the nation’s oldest railroad station.

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June 15, 2012 · 11:02 pm

Note to self: when next in Milwaukee – try the Iron Horse hotel

Established 1882

A friend came home from a weekend jaunt to Milwaukee raving about the city in general and the Iron Horse Hotel in particular. (Nope that’s not it above – that’s the fantastic Milwaukee Art Museum) The Iron Horse a boutique hotel in a former 100-year-old warehouse at the crossroads of the city’s Fifth Ward and Latin Quarter.   With its urban chic decor and high marks from the travel industry, it looks like well worth a visit.  Last time I stayed in Milwaukee, about six years ago, I stayed at the old dowager of a hotel, the Pfister, which was a little bit frumpy but interesting and near the lively historic Third Ward district. I see online that there’s a $259 package at the Iron Horse  that includes tickets to the fantastic Milwaukee Art Museum, inside a whimsical building  designed by Santiago Calatrava, and the new Harley-Davidson Museum. One thing I didn’t realize about the museum, which resembles a bird, is that its “wings” open at 10 a.m. daily (when the museum is open), close and reopen at noon and close at 5 p.m. (8 pm on Thursdays). Now that I’d like to see! (Below is the new building he’s designed for NYC’s World Trade Center site – didn’t realize he’s doing that.)

Path Terminal

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June 8, 2012 · 8:05 pm

Touring Iowa’s beautiful barns

The NYTimes travel section had a good story with great photos last week of barn touring in northeast Iowa around Decorah, one of my favorite Iowa cities. Here’s some tips on how/where to do it:

– The annual Iowa Barn Foundation All-State Barn Tour is scheduled this year for Sept. 22 and 23. (see: iowabarnfoundation.org)

– There’s also a barn tour in the Johnson county-Iowa City area on June 23 and 24.

– Stone-Haus Farm, a 165-year-old Norwegian farmstead in northeast iowa near Waukon, will soon be available for vacation rentals. (stonehausfarm.com) Photos below!

StoneHaus Farm

The NYTimes travel section had a good story with great photos last week of barn touring in northeast Iowa around Decorah, one of my favorite Iowa cities. Here’s some tips on how/where to do it:

– The annual Iowa Barn Foundation All-State Barn Tour is scheduled this year for Sept. 22 and 23. (see: iowabarnfoundation.org)

– There’s also a barn tour in the Johnson county-Iowa City area on June 23 and 24.

– Stone-Haus Farm, a 165-year-old Norwegian farmstead in northeast iowa near Waukon, will soon be available for vacation rentals. (stonehausfarm.com)

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June 7, 2012 · 9:26 pm

Avoiding the overpriced toll roads into Chicago from Iowa – how I avoided I-88

I used to drive from Iowa to Chicago on Interstate 88 through Illinois but not any more. The tolls (especially for drivers paying cash vs. using ipass) have gotten way too high, reaching $10.20 this year. (I used a handy online toll calculator, http://www.illinoistollway.com/tolls-and-i-pass/toll-information/trip-calculator, to confirm that it would have cost me $10.20 to use I-88 between western Illinois and Chicago.)

On the way to Chicago, I drove Interstate 80 which has no tolls (in Illinois at least) although it does have a lot of road construction. But on the way back to Iowa, I had to stop off at my sister’s in Oak Park – which is closer to I-88. So the trick was: how to get to I-80 without adding too much time to my trip or paying too many tolls en route. I’m not sure I succeeded ultimately but here’s what I did: I took I-88 a few miles (paying $1.50 for the privilege) then took 355  for a few miles, which also turned out to be a toll road so I shelled out another $1.90. Then I took 355 to Interstate 55 and then to Interstate 80. Ultimately, I did save money on tolls (about $6.80)  but I  lengthened my trip slightly (by about 20 minutes, I think) and ultimately paid a little more for gas.

This is good information to have since the tolls will continue to rise in coming years, according to recent news reports, showing that they rose by 40 percent on Jan. 1, 2012 and are scheduled to rise by 10 percent each year in 2013 and 2014. argh.

I have a built-in defensive mechanism that allows me to promptly forget how much I pay for things, so I don’t wig out about all the expenses I face. Still I knew for a fact that the tolls had risen because before I didn’t really notice them but now I do, i.e. it’s the difference between repeatedly throwing a couple of quarters and dimes into a toll booth collection net and handing over a couple of bucks each time.

 

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June 6, 2012 · 11:23 pm

Searching for a bed and breakfast in Washington DC – think I found one!

At the last minute, I needed to find one night’s accommodation in D.C. and none of my options looked very attractive – either too expensive/fancy or too inexpensive/shabby. I have a good deal for two nights at a hotel in Bethesda via Expedia – $103 a night (which I got in part by pre-paying way in advance) but a third night jumped up to $240. So I started looking for bed and breakfasts and I think I’ve found a good option: The Intown Uptown Inn in Upper Northwest D.C. (and their prices are even going DOWN in July.) Another attractive, albeit pricier option, was the The Woodley Park Guest House but I had trouble getting a room for just night.

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June 6, 2012 · 2:18 am

New Orleans restaurant to try

The back story on this restaurant is a bit disturbing but Boucherie sounds like a good place to eat in New Orleans.  The chef was shot three times during an attempted robbery, managed to survive and locals rallied to support him and his restaurant which is in the Carrollton neighborhood, where we’re staying.

According to a recent NYTimes story, Boucherie serves “moderately priced, beautifully plated food in a converted wooden house in the Carrollton District” with specialties including ” boudin balls, luscious pork belly served with sweet potato latkes and crème fraîche flavored with Vietnamese 5 spice powder,  blackened shrimp with grit toast, Intense smoked Wagyu beef brisket and mild, subtly sweet local redfish. Think I’d skip the  Krispy Kreme bread pudding.

Boucherie, 8115 Jeannette Street, New Orleans; (504) 862-5514; boucherie-nola.com. Dinner for two, without drinks, is about $50. Open lunch and dinner, Tuesday to Saturday.

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June 4, 2012 · 8:28 pm

Good gourmet sandwich shop in Chicago – Grahamwich

Maybe this isn’t a new restaurant category – but lately I’ve noticed a lot of what I’d call, for lack of a better term, overpriced ($10 or thereabouts) gourmet sandwich shops popping up in cities large and small (say, Chicago and Des Moines.) They’re often started by ambitious big-name chefs who are experimenting with offering lighter, less expensive fare. And while the sandwiches cost less than the entrees you’d find in their full service restaurants, they’re still a lot more then you’d pay at your more everyday pedestrian sandwich shop. So it better be worth the price and in my experience, these overpriced sandwiches aren’t always. But I’m going to go out on a limb here and proclaim the sandwiches at Grahamwich – on State between Ohio and Ontario in Chicago, opened by celeb chef Graham Elliott – worth the price.  The two I shared with my stepdaughter (who wanted me to try this place) were each something special: one-of-a-kind concoctions with delicious ingrediants. We had the roast beef with baby arugala, red onion, shoe string potatoes and grainy mustard on a pretzel roll; and the particularly impressive grilled shrimp with black beans, mango salsa, “blistered” corn, guacamole puree on a chipotle tortilla. Also had homemade chips – salt/vinegar and bacon/ranch. This is the second place I’ve been to recently offering a gourmet popcorn as a side dish.

This experience has wet my appetite for Graham Elliott’s other fancier Chicago restaurants, perhaps as intended.

Grahamwich, by the way, is part of a row of attractive old world shops (one is even called “haberdash”) and restaurants on this particular block including P.O.S.H. which has a nice selection of Paris-London-Chicago related kitchen and home goods including lots of pretty vintage-looking china, and Pop, a champagne bar. From the Grahamwich website, which is worth a visit, I see that the building is a Chicago landmark and on the national historic register, built in 1894 as an artist colony, wiht a ground level cast iron arcade. Other things to try at Grahamwich: grilled cheese, homemade sodas on tap, seasonal soft serve, truffled popcorn. okey doke.

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