In the absence of a travel log, my memories of being a tourist in Washington DC are a little hazy. The photos help.
I do recall really noticing the change of temperature. DC was really quite warm still in late November, whereas the East Coast was having a rare severely cold snap, not least the white Thanksgiving I enjoyed:
I think I started my touring with the Smithsonian Institution, which I explored quite thoroughly.
I particularly recall being bowled over by the National Air and Space Museum. I remember Michael Mainelli talking it up as one of the things I really shouldn’t miss and I also remember suspecting that I would be less enamoured of such a place than he was. But when I saw the actual spacecraft and actual relics from the space missions, it was truly awe-inspiring.
I was also enamoured of the Hirshhorn sculpture garden…
…although why they are commemorating the gentlemen who first brought McDonalds to France I cannot imagine.
I cannot remember when I had dinner with Katherine Toulmin, but I think it was on that inbetween evening, after spending most of the day around the Smithsonian.
Katherine lived in Fairfax Virginia and very kindly drove in and out of Washington DC to collect me and take me home after dinner. I think we ate in Alexandria rather than Fairfax; the former having a good choice of restaurants in its old town.
I especially remember the journeys, as Katherine explained that you couldn’t avoid driving through some pretty edgy neighbourhoods. She gave me some very explicit instructions on what I should and should not do in certain circumstances. She used her central locking for a good part of the journey.
Other than that, I simply remember a very good meal and charming Virginian company.
I also remember asking Katherine to advise me on where and how I should try grits. Basically her advice was to avoid the eating of grits. But then the hotel offered grits at breakfast the next morning, so I couldn’t resist the opportunity to try them.
The next time I tried them was in 2016, when Janie (who had never tried grits before) and I were in transit in the Delta lounge at Atlanta Airport:
If you cannot be bothered to click through, we concluded that cheese grits was “perhaps the blandest savoury dish in the world.”
But returning to Washington in 1989 – I think the scene below was taken very near my hotel, early the next day.
That day, I did some more touring around Capitol Hill and the like.
Proper tourist stuff, this. The usual stuff.
I have a feeling I might have taken a late afternoon flight that day to Boston; I think I only stayed a couple of nights in DC.
The above photos and more (including the Boston Plus ones) can be seen in the Flickr album which you can click through the picture link below:
