August 4, 2010: Washington - Reading for Free, Reading for Money, Caramelization Inspiration

A quiet morning at home reading. I wanted to get through Connie Willis' 'Lincoln's Dreams' soon, immersing myself in details of the Civil War before visiting Arlington Cemetery. I also couldn't resist flipping through the new books I'd picked up at the library the day before, particularly the one about green roofs.

By early afternoon I was feeling a bit guilty for not going out - after all, I could just as easily be reading at home in Toronto, but I really was enjoying the change of pace. Just then an email came in that justified the day - a request for a freelance proofreading job. I could stay home and keep reading - for money! An hour and a half later I'd found some nicely obscure mistakes and felt like I'd earned my keep.

While working I had the notion to caramelize some onions. I'm not sure where this inspiration came from, although I've been watching Jamie Oliver and Roger Mooking's shows on the Cooking Channel most evenings. Wherever it came from, it was genius. I looked up a recipe from Cook's Illustrated, took out the two slightly sad onions in the fridge that were left over from our first grocery shopping trip to Safeway, and an hour later I had amazing caramelized onions.

August 3, 2010: Washington - The Building Museum, A Mexican Siesta, The Library

I had been debating whether it would be worth a visit to the Building Museum, but I'm glad I went. It had a combination of architectural and urban planning exhibits, which were really good. The building itself was great too; originally the pension office, it was designed with a huge central atrium to promote natural light and airflow for all the offices. At the time it was built it was the largest brick building in the world. There was another exhibit of architectural wonders of the world, recreated in Lego, but it had an entry fee of five dollars, and was sold out until the 4pm time slot - might have been fun, but not really worth sticking around that long for.

As I left the museum to visit the library, I realized I was passing by the restaurant where we had our great Mexican dinner on Saturday night. So I stopped in for a little siesta - or at least a break and a snack. I tried another item from the squash blossom menu (which ends this Saturday) - a quesadilla. I also had the taco of confit of baby pig that I had been eyeing before. Both were delicious, and with the free order of chips and salsa that came with them, it was a pretty reasonably priced mid-afternoon mini-meal.

I picked up a number of books at the library on urban farming, backyard chickens and green roofs and living walls - all things to daydream about for when we're established back at home again.

Photos: exterior of the Building Museum; interior (note how massive the pillars are - but they aren't really stone); the incredibly high ceiling with a line of busts as decoration (not all unique - the same handful of busts repeats numerous times)

August 2, 2010: Washington - Monuments, The Kennedy Center

The Kennedy Center is one of those monumental buildings that seem attainable, but the closer you get the harder they are to reach. All the streets that headed toward it curved away, or dead-ended, or turned into speeding expressways. So my first attempt to reach it failed, and I ended up down at the Mall, close to some of the major monuments. I've been wanting to see them, but it's just been too hot to make the long walk (they aren't near any subway stops).

So, I visited the Lincoln Memorial (which had an astounding number of people sitting on its steps) and enjoyed the symmetry of the reflecting pool with the Washington Monument obelisk. Then I walked through the Vietnam War Memorial. It's a subtle experience - at first you don't quite notice that the wall that has started to appear from within the earth has names carved on it - and you feel a little guilty for not reading the names. But the numbers of them soon becomes overwhelming, so you stroll along until the walkway has sloped down deep enough that you can't see over the wall, although there are still some leaves of grass silhouetted from the top edge against the sky reminding you that you are, in a sense, buried below the ground. In softer light, with fewer people, it would probably be quite eerie. But in daylight, amidst the crowds, it didn't quite measure up to my expectations. Still, it's a good deal more interesting and relevant to what it commemorates than the latter-day Greek temple of the Lincoln memorial.

The Kennedy Center turns out to be a memorial too, as well as a performing arts center. I got there on my second try, checking the map more carefully for a viable route. It had a surprising international presence, as various countries from around the world have given gifts (works of art, chandeliers, marble cladding, etc). Our tour took us into each of the three main performance spaces, which were impressive. We also saw a few of the lounges, each one decorated by a country. The tour ended on the roof, with a great view across the city. The tour wasn't as fantastic as the behind-the-scenes tour I'd gone on at the National Cathedral, but it was thorough. The only annoying statement was the claim that Robert Berks, the sculptor of the 8-foot high bronze bust of JFK, is America's Michelangelo because he too 'sculpted famous people'. Hello? Could Robert Berks paint a Sistine Chapel ceiling? Design the architecture of Saint Peter's Basilica?

Photos: the Lincoln Memorial; view down the Mall to the Washington Monument; the Vietnam War Memorial (note the grass along the top edge); Grand Foyer of the Kennedy Center; Tim Yip's "China Red: Light Dances of the Paper Cut"; Opera House chandelier - a gift from Austria; missing crystal from the Irish chandelier (now this room is off limits unless security is present); the bust of JFK by Robert Berks; Willy Weber's "Apollo X", 1971; the view from the roof terrace

August 1, 2010: Washington - Sighting at the Farmer's Market, Hirshorn Museum

We spotted our new friend from Ripple at the Dupont Circle farmer's market (it was never entirely clear if he was the owner/chef/sommelier - he came by with our bottle of wine and chatted about where it was from, talked about shopping for green beans at the farmer's market, but he was definitely more than a waiter). We got a dozen eggs, some corn (which turned out to not be great - didn't seem that fresh), green beans, blueberries, peaches, and some fancy cheese. Happily it wasn't that hot, so we were able to enjoy strolling about and trying samples a bit more. We even tacked on a trip to the Whole Foods on P Street.

In the afternoon I went down to the Hirshorn Museum. It's a great building - a huge, formidable-looking cylinder that suddenly looks quite airy and light when you walk underneath into the central courtyard. The main exhibit was a retrospective of Yves Klein, who I only vaguely knew about from his signature use of ultramarine blue. He turned out to be quite fascinating: monochromatic paintings, development of and patenting of his particular shade of ultramarine blue, a fascinating with pattern-making both by imprints from human bodies and natural objects like sponges, flame paintings made by using gas torches and water leaving ephemeral markings on board, and selling 'experiences' with a payment made in gold, then throwing away half the earnings as part of the experience. And all by the age of 34, when he died of a heart attack.

The Hirshorn also had a good contemporary exhibit of Hiroshi Sugimoto photographs of the sea. I'd seen them before installed at the ROM in Toronto, where the annoying tendency of the tightly focused lights to vibrate with the passage of the subway underground (I blame this on the questionable construction of the new Crystal addition) was exceedingly distracting. Happily, the Hirshorn is more solidly constructed, and the long-exposure photographs of the ocean's surface were mesmerizing, glowing in the dark room. The photographs were paired with a video by Guido Van der Werve, a 24-hour time-lapse shot of him standing at the North Pole, rotating to the whole time to face his shadow ('The Day I Didn't Turn With The World' - great title).

Photos: View of the Mall from the Hirshorn viewing gallery; Kenneth Snelson's "Needle Tower" dismantled for repair; a view up "Needle Tower" not otherwise available; an eerily dark installation of Hiroshi Sugimoto photographs, all precisely lit to be glowing against the black walls

July 31, 2010: Washington - A Walk In The Park, Zoo Surprise, Mexican Firsts

Saturday started out sunny but temperate - a projected high of only 30 degrees. So I packed us a light lunch and we headed down into Rock Creek Park. The section we're closest to seems to be a bit of a greenbelt that simply parallels the parkway, so it was a bit noisy with the nearby traffic. But there were some spots where the trail broke away into quieter valleys along the water, and we even had a bit of a challenging hike up some rocks at one point. As we walked along we passed by the backside of the zoo, and noticed a large 'Amazonia' building that we hadn't yet visited. We got as far into the park as Peirce Mill, then turned back and exited early so that we could walk through the zoo on our way home.

Since we had spotted Amazonia, we made a point of finding it when we passed through the zoo. It turned out to be great - one of the nicest simulated rain forest environments I've been to, greater underwater viewing of the fish and turtle tanks, and a large research/learning environment with lots of specimens to handle and books to read. In spite of it being a weekend it wasn't too busy at all - I could definitely see myself going back to this building on a weekday and enjoying some sketching.

In the evening we headed downtown to Oyamal Cocina Mexicana, a restaurant I'd read about in the newspaper, which was featuring squash blossoms (currently in season, and which we have plenty of at home but haven't tried cooking with yet). It was a dinner of firsts: first squash blossoms (mostly undetectable, sliced up thinly in two salad type dishes), first ceviche (I've been avoiding fish due to childhood allergies, but recent trips to an allergy specialist have encouraged me to experiment more; looks like red snapper is OK to eat!), first chicken in mole sauce (I've also been avoiding mole sauce, since it typically has nuts in it - but again, the allergy specialist has encouraged me to experiment with eating nuts, since I haven't had any serious reactions in my tests with him). I'd still like to go back to try at few more things: squash blossoms stuffed with cheese (in which it looks like the blossoms are a more prominent ingredient), plus the wide variety of tacos, with unusual fillings like confit of baby pig with green tomatillo sauce.

Photos: Pierce Mill, built on Rock Creek about 1820, operational grain mill until 1897; tangled vines on Rock Creek; a fish in Amazonia; a dusky Titi monkey; the frog pond at the zoo (the flower was not in bloom the week before when we were there)

July 30, 2010: Washington - Old Time Canal Tour, Old Style Theatre Outing

After a morning spent on my French lessons, and trying to absorb French comprehension by osmosis (or at least by listening to French radio for a long while), I headed out to Georgetown for a tour on the C & O Canal. There isn't a convenient subway station in Georgetown, but since the temperature has dropped (only 31 degrees!) I felt up to walking over from Dupont Circle. It only took 30 minutes, and took me through some quaint, historic residential streets with wonky brick sidwalks (being pushed up by tree roots).

The tour was in an historic canal boat. We boarded at the bottom of a lock, were raised up to the next level (about 8 feet and 40,000 gallons of water in 10 minutes or so) then were towed up the canal by a pair of mules. Our tour guide had lots of information to share about the history of the canal (only turned a profit 3 times in almost 100 years of operation; expensive and dangerous to dig but cheap to operate the boats - mules towed 140-ton boats for 6 hours at a time, then traded off with another pair of mules housed onboard; the canal was finally put out of operation by the railroad - trains were more expensive to run but the tracks were alot faster and cheaper to lay down). And more than anything I was excited to be sitting outside, voluntarily, not oppressed by the heat.

Afterwards I stopped in at the Barnes & Noble in Georgetown and read part of a book about the neuroscience of vision: 'The Vision Revolution' by Mark Changzi - I'll have to return to read more. The chapter I read: binocular vision evolved not to detect depth, but to better enable tracking objects through the visual clutter of intervening leaves, branches and grasses. Interesting theory and convincing experiments.

In the evening we walked up the street to the Uptown Theatre, a classic Art Deco theatre with a huge screen; we got seats near the front of the fabulous balcony, and watched the movie 'Inception'. Interesting ideas, not entirely convincing film. Maybe would be better filled out with enough depth of detail to be a mini-series. I could imagine a good DVD binge of 8 hours or so of it. Still, fun to go out to a local institution, and a nice night for being out for a walk.

Photos: Our boat and period-actor tour guide; at the bottom of the lock; at the top of the lock; pulled along the canal by our donkeys (off in the distance)

July 29, 2010: Washington - World Without End - Ended, Homesteading, Architecture of the Americas, A Pre-Ordained Book Purchase, Market Surprise

After a three-day marathon I finished reading Ken Follett's 'World Without End'. I was prompted by my visit to the National Cathedral last week to read it; I was hoping for the same kind of detailed insight into medieval architecture as there was in its prequel, 'Pillars of the Earth'. There were some good sections on bridge construction and foundation failure, but overall it wasn't as satisfying as the first book. But it was good enough for 1014 pages to fly by in short order!

I started the afternoon off with a lecture at the Department of the Interior, on the history of homesteading in America. It was a long, hot walk from the nearest subway station, so it was a treat to sit in a cool auditorium for an hour afterward. It was a grand old room, with classic velvet-covered wooden folding seats, like a classic cinema. The lecture was quite good too - the speaker obviously loved the topic, and probably could have talked for twice as long. Part ways through his talk there were two loud noises from outside - just about everyone in the auditorium seemed convinced that there had been an explosion. But it was just thunder - rain was beginning to fall as I exited the building.

Luckily the Art Museum of the Americas was just around the corner. They had an exhibition about the design of the House of the Americas building for the Organization of American States (a Pan-American association) by Paul Philippe Cret, celebrating its 100th anniversary. Not a very big exhibition, but a welcome respite from the rain that started to pour down not long after I arrived.

When it started to let up I headed over to the historic Decatur House, as the rain started to come down harder again. And there I had what might well be a pre-ordained encounter with a book. In undergrad my friend Lisa visited me in Mississauga, and we drove out to the nearby movie Chapters bookstore. While we were there a torrential downpour started, so we were stuck waiting for it to end. I spent the time reading Anna Pavord's book on Tulips, which was gorgeously illustrated and fascinating to read - I purchased it when we left. And today, while waiting out the rain in the Decatur House bookstore, there was a copy of a new book by Anna Pavord, on the history of botanical naming, reduced to a fraction of its original cost. I bought the book, and had a nice conversation with the women at the cash register (who had also read and enjoyed 'Tulips').

I didn't get to see much else of Decatur House, as you have to take a guided tour Friday, Saturday or Sunday, but there was some information about the history of it, particularly as it related to the stories of the slaves who had lived in the home.

On my way back to the bus I ran into a farmer's market. And not just any market - this one had chefs cooking up free samples for us! There were three tents, and everything was delicious: a pork shoulder with pasta dish, a vegetable and meat terrine, and a panna cotta with peach desert and ice peach drink. The best surprises really are the delicious ones.

Photos: Photo across the courtyard from the House of the Americas; close-up of showing the Central American influence on the architectural decoration; model of Philippe Cret's design (isn't there always something wonderful about photographs of miniature models?)