Entry tags:
Things to do in D.C. when you're not dead
So last Friday afternoon I drove down to Silver Spring for Con.TXT. It's been a year since I was down in the DC area, and I was pleased to make the trip in only 2.5 hours, despite a gaper delay on 95-S in Delaware and the fact that the entire Eastern seaboard is under construction (or at least, I'm prepared to vouch for DC to New York, and to bet on New York to Boston; can anyone speak about Boston to the border, or parts south of DC?). Yes, this does mean I drove above 75mph for most of the trip; I made the Gay Steampunk Sherlock Holmes panel, which is the important thing.
Con.TXT was awesome. After my Star Trek panel was finished and![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
melannen and I stealthily deposited our unwanted Trek books on the swap table I drove into the District to park my car at my friend M's house; we had Korean food in her neighborhood and then went to U Street to see The Golden Filter play and DJ a bar/dancefloor set at some litttle bar with our college friend J and a bunch of other people our age they both know in the city. The Golden Filter were pretty good, and I had a lot of fun dancing despite the fact that I had only gotten five hours of sleep the previous night.
On Saturday I got up and went with M to get coffee at Dos Gringos, which is a really great little cafe in Columbia Heights with good coffee. Then I hopped on the Metro to Silver Spring and made it back to the con in time for the Sinister Ducks panel, which was awesome. After the panels were over I made my way back to M's house to drop off my laptop and we had dinner at Busboys & Poets, which was delicious and awesome (and the leftist bookstore attached is great too. They had Nnedi Okorafor's books for sale!). Then we went to see Toy Story 3 at the theater in Chinatown in 3D. The movie was pretty great; also I am amused by all the chain stores in the area having signs in Mandarin as well as English.
Sunday M went to church and I went back to Dos Gringos for more coffee and then got some work done for another project (I always have another project). When M got back we struck out for Georgetown and Dumbarton Oaks, which is an amazing museum and gardens run by Harvard University as a research facility, with extensive collections in Byzantine and pre-Columbian art and artifacts, both of which are sort of hard to find in North America (and the Byzantine stuff is rare in this hemisphere, period). The museum is free, and if you get a chance you should totally go, because the collections are amazing and beautifully presented, particularly the pre-Columbian wing. The gardens are amazing too, and they're only $5 to wander around one of the most epically gorgeous houses I've seen in a while. We kept expecting Jay Gatsby to pop up around the corner at any minute, which seemed fitting for a house that hosted the discussions that led to the foundation of the United Nations.
We walked down into Georgetown and had gelato at Dolcezza, which was delicious and awesome, though their freezer cases could have been turned up a bit higher given how hot it was. After wandering around the shops some more we went to Farmers & Fishers, which is an awesome restaurant owned by the North Dakota Farm Cooperative and which has all sorts of fresh, local ingredients in its menus, YUM. Our server was clearly new at his job, but we had such a great time anyway (they have Intelligentsia coffee, OMG) that we didn't realize time was getting away from us; we didn't get back to M's house until ten to nine, which is why I did not get back to my house in Jersey until midnight. I did take 50 to 301 through the Eastern Shore--no one lives there, it was like being back in the Midwest, and I could totally have gone at least 75, which is part of why it took me so long to get back. But honestly given the construction on 95 I think there probably wasn't much difference in travel time. And I got to see the cool suspension bridge in Delaware again too.
Con.TXT was awesome. After my Star Trek panel was finished and
melannen and I stealthily deposited our unwanted Trek books on the swap table I drove into the District to park my car at my friend M's house; we had Korean food in her neighborhood and then went to U Street to see The Golden Filter play and DJ a bar/dancefloor set at some litttle bar with our college friend J and a bunch of other people our age they both know in the city. The Golden Filter were pretty good, and I had a lot of fun dancing despite the fact that I had only gotten five hours of sleep the previous night. On Saturday I got up and went with M to get coffee at Dos Gringos, which is a really great little cafe in Columbia Heights with good coffee. Then I hopped on the Metro to Silver Spring and made it back to the con in time for the Sinister Ducks panel, which was awesome. After the panels were over I made my way back to M's house to drop off my laptop and we had dinner at Busboys & Poets, which was delicious and awesome (and the leftist bookstore attached is great too. They had Nnedi Okorafor's books for sale!). Then we went to see Toy Story 3 at the theater in Chinatown in 3D. The movie was pretty great; also I am amused by all the chain stores in the area having signs in Mandarin as well as English.
Sunday M went to church and I went back to Dos Gringos for more coffee and then got some work done for another project (I always have another project). When M got back we struck out for Georgetown and Dumbarton Oaks, which is an amazing museum and gardens run by Harvard University as a research facility, with extensive collections in Byzantine and pre-Columbian art and artifacts, both of which are sort of hard to find in North America (and the Byzantine stuff is rare in this hemisphere, period). The museum is free, and if you get a chance you should totally go, because the collections are amazing and beautifully presented, particularly the pre-Columbian wing. The gardens are amazing too, and they're only $5 to wander around one of the most epically gorgeous houses I've seen in a while. We kept expecting Jay Gatsby to pop up around the corner at any minute, which seemed fitting for a house that hosted the discussions that led to the foundation of the United Nations.
We walked down into Georgetown and had gelato at Dolcezza, which was delicious and awesome, though their freezer cases could have been turned up a bit higher given how hot it was. After wandering around the shops some more we went to Farmers & Fishers, which is an awesome restaurant owned by the North Dakota Farm Cooperative and which has all sorts of fresh, local ingredients in its menus, YUM. Our server was clearly new at his job, but we had such a great time anyway (they have Intelligentsia coffee, OMG) that we didn't realize time was getting away from us; we didn't get back to M's house until ten to nine, which is why I did not get back to my house in Jersey until midnight. I did take 50 to 301 through the Eastern Shore--no one lives there, it was like being back in the Midwest, and I could totally have gone at least 75, which is part of why it took me so long to get back. But honestly given the construction on 95 I think there probably wasn't much difference in travel time. And I got to see the cool suspension bridge in Delaware again too.