Kayaking on the Potomac

The William & Mary D.C. office has been organizing great events for students and alumni this summer, and one of my favorites by far was kayaking on the Potomac River.  One evening after work earlier in June, I made my way over to the Keybridge Boathouse in Georgetown.  The boathouse is located almost directly under Key Bridge, and also rents out canoes and paddleboards, plus they have grills and picnic tables (it would be a great place for a party!).

After a quick tutorial (I've been canoeing a few times but I'd never been in a kayak before), I settled into my bright green kayak. Though my first stroke was incredibly wobbly, I got the hang of it fairly quickly and set out to explore! It was very cool to see Georgetown, Rosslyn, and glimpses of the monuments from the middle of the river.

~All the kayaks piled up at the side of the river~

~View of Rosslyn from the kayak~

~Glimpse of the Kennedy Center and Roosevelt Island on the right~

~Pretty much the only way to get this view of Key Bridge~

~New way to watch a sunset!~

Getting to Know Capitol Hill

Though I've lived in D.C. my entire life, I'd never been to Capitol Hill until I started commuting there for my internship at the Library of Congress. Beyond the library's doors, I'm discovering that it's a really charming area with its own personality. I'm working on exploring all the restaurants and cafes in the area (I'll post my suggested food guide soon!), and I've also started wandering the residential streets that emanate from the Hill in every direction.

I found lots of shady streets, cute row houses, and great architecture:

~Residential houses just off Pennsylvania~

~St. Peter's on Capitol Hill~

~The blue, red, and orange doors remind me of the Doors of Dublin~

There are also a lot of parks and flowers in the area:

   

~Purple spring flowers~

Also, because I can't help myself, yet more perspectives of the Capitol:

~Looking at the Capitol from the south~

~Quite a to do the day the NSA hearings started~

And lastly, some views from the LOC:

~The dome of the Jefferson Building on a gorgeous day~

~View from the 6th floor of the Madison Building~

DC Tour: Lincoln's Assassination

Earlier this week I had the chance to participate in a walking tour of Lincoln's assassination in downtown DC. I met up with several students from my New Media class to do the tour as an assignment, but it was certainly not a typical class activity! The tour was offered by Free Tours By Foot, which operates in several cities and offers a variety of activities (here's the link to the Lincoln Assassination tour).

~Tour began at Lafayette Park, across from the White House~

The tour began by the White House, with the tour guide walking us through the night of the assassination as we progressed to Ford's Theater. It included a ton of great information that I hadn't learned before. For instance, the tour guide explained that John Wilkes Booth was part of a group called the Confederate Secret Service whose mission was to cause havoc in the Union. Through this group, Booth planned to have Lincoln, the Vice President, and the Secretary of State killed on the same night (though they only succeeded in killing Lincoln).

~Tour guide outside of Ford's Theater~

The tour guide did a great job of telling the story, and the tour's two hours passed by quickly. At the end of the evening, the tour ended with the guide reciting a stanza of "O Captain! My Captain!" written by Walt Whitman after witnessing Lincoln's funeral procession. It was an appropriate and moving end to the tour.

I highly recommend this tour to anyone interested in history in DC! I plan to investigate some of the group's other tours in DC, too.

~Glimpse of the Capitol at the end of the night~

Mexican Taco Pie

Last weekend I decided to switch things up and a) make dinner for a change, and b) try a new recipe. The dish I chose was Mexican Taco Pie, and it was delicious: like a Mexican casserole filled with veggies, beans, and cheese topped with crumbled tortilla chips and served in a tortilla crust.

The original recipe is below. I made several changes when I tried it out, which I've indicated in italics. During dinner, I also served additional tortilla chips, cheese, and sour cream (in case it was too spicy!), as well as a side dish of refried beans with melted cheese.

 ~Pie fresh out of the oven~

~Garnish ingredients: lettuce, cheese, tomato, sour cream, tortilla chips~

~Recipe below from cooking.com (link here)~

INGREDIENTS For Pie: Pastry for Single-Crust Pie (I used a layer of corn tortillas laid out across a glass pie dish) 1/2 cup finely crushed corn chips 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper For Filling: 1 pound ground beef (I used black beans instead of meat) 1/2 cup chopped onion 2 cloves garlic, minced 2 teaspoons chili powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin one 16-ounce can tomatoes, cut up (undrained) one 4-ounce can diced green chiles, drained (I used a canned pepper in adobe sauce instead of green chiles) one 4-ounce package cream cheese, cubed one 8-ounce can kidney beans, rinsed, drained (I used corn instead of kidney beans; fresh corn or canned corn both work!) 1 beaten egg For Garnish: 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese 1 medium tomato, chopped 1/3 cup sour cream 1/4 cup coarsely crushed corn chips

DIRECTIONS FOR PIE: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Prepare pastry (you can use this recipe, or instead use a layer of corn tortillas like I did), except stir in 1/2 cup crushed corn chips and, if desired, the crushed red pepper with the flour and salt. Roll out and line a 9-inch pie plate with pastry. Trim and crimp edge of pastry. In a 10-inch skillet cook beef, onion, and garlic till meat is brown and onion is tender. Drain off fat. Stir in chili powder, salt, and cumin. Stir in undrained tomatoes, chili peppers, cream cheese, and kidney beans. Stir until cheese melts. Stir about 1 cup of the meat mixture into egg. Return all to skillet and mix well. Transfer filling to pie shell. To prevent overbrowning, cover edge of pie with foil. Bake 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake until crust is golden. Let stand 10 minutes. FOR GARNISH: Top pie with lettuce, cheese, tomato, sour cream, and 1/4 cup corn chips.

Friday Night Show

This Friday my sister and I went to Crystal City to see a friend's band perform at Tortoise and Hare. Tortoise and Hare turned out to be a pretty nice bar (it was my first time there), with good food and a relaxed vibe. The band, The Greensides, is a cover band with a lot of 90s songs in their sets, so you can bet I was loving the nostalgia of the night. A bunch of friends came out to see the performance, and since most of us are in our 20s, there was definitely some middle/high school reminiscing.

The bar had a nice stage space, and the four-man band played a great show. Every time I see live music, I want to be a musician a little bit--it's easy to get caught up in the glamor of it all. Sadly, the single semester of drums I took in college is not enough to support a career, so I'll have to settle for being a frequent audience member.

Below are some photos and a video of the night. Get ready for a Green Day/Blink 182 type of mood!

~Stage in between sets~

~Fun lights on the floor~

~The Greensides playing~

~Intro to 'I Guess This is Growing Up'~

Break in Perspective

Today is hump day, and as such most people aren’t thinking beyond the fact that we’re still stuck in the middle of the workweek.

So to shake things up a little bit, here are four things that upset the expectations of The Hump Day. First: the beach.  My mom and I drove to Savannah, Georgia for a family wedding at the end of May, and managed to make it to the beach during our visit. Being on the beach for even an hour is incredibly relaxing and peaceful, a feeling that these pictures can help to recapture.

 

       ~Boiled peanuts~         ~Sandy beach shoes and towel~

~Beach on Tybee Island, GA~

Second: Georgetown.  I was in Georgetown this Sunday, and it was the perfect summer day to take some lazy photos by the river.  I loved sitting by the Potomac in this Georgetown park—it didn’t provide the typical city view of tourists and monuments, and it was pleasant to sit back, people watch, and enjoy the sun.

~Key Bridge~ 

~Rosslyn across the Potomac~

Third: Metro. No, really.  During my evening commute yesterday, I noticed these views from the top floor of a parking garage. I loved the huge view of the highway, townhouses, metro station, and trees framing the scene. It gave me, literally, a new perspective, one that I’m glad I stopped to notice.

 

 ~Highway and Metro views~

~Sunset from the garage roof~

Fourth: My dogs. Because when the beach and perspective shifts don’t relieve the stress of the workweek, adorable canines will do the trick.

*No captions needed*

Art After Hours

~Painting at the Phillips Collection~

Last week I had the chance to attend two “behind the scenes” events at art galleries: one at the Phillips Collection and one at the Library of Congress.  The library has several exhibition spaces, and once a week a Gallery Talk is held in one of them.  Last week the topic was the influence of the artist Charles Dana Gibson, whose artwork was popular in the 1890s and early 1900s. Charles Gibson’s sketches in newspapers and magazines often depicted a similar woman who came to be known as “the Gibson Girl.” The Gibson Girl became the ideal for women at the time: she was educated, athletic, and independent.  The Gallery Talk speakers (two women who work in the same division where I’m interning!) discussed the role of changing media in disseminating the image of the Gibson Girl so widely.  It was a topic I had never encountered before, and one I found very interesting, plus the sketches are really neat:

~Sketch of an athletic Gibson Girl~

~Depiction of a socialite Gibson Girl~

Later in the week, I met up with a group from William & Mary to attend the Phillips After Five program at the Phillips Collection.  This event is held the first Thursday of every month at 5 pm and includes food, music, and special tours of the collection.  This month the program was advertised as a collaboration with the simultaneous DC Jazz Festival.  When we walked into the gallery we were greeted by a live jazz duo (David Schulman), which was pretty great. However, the link to the Jazz Festival ended there—the rest of the event consisted of after-hours access to the regular Phillips collection, with a short presentation about several of the Impressionist paintings.  While the information about Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party was especially interesting, I was disappointed that the event didn’t relate more specifically to jazz as advertised. Still, for anyone who hasn’t been to the Phillips Gallery, it’s certainly worth a visit (but go during regular hours!).

 ~More art from the Phillips~

 ~Cezanne!~

~Presentation about Luncheon of the Boating Party~

Summer Internship

 

~Outside and inside views of the Library of Congress, Jefferson Building~

A few weeks ago, I started my summer internship at the Library of Congress. For the next few months I’ll be in the Foreign Newspaper division, working with French language papers from the 19^th and 20^th centuries. I was a little nervous on the first day; walking into the Library of Congress is a little intimidating! But I found the correct reading room without any trouble, and when I met my supervisor she was friendly and welcoming. I jumped right in the first day, and even discovered a newspaper from 1802—the oldest one I’ve found so far!

~Close up of the 1802 paper I found~

~Feeling welcome my first day on my supervisor's 'to do' list~

I started out working with European newspapers, mostly from Belgium and France. I then moved on to Francophone Africa, spending much of this past week organizing periodicals from Benin. I know very little about French Africa beyond the northernmost countries and so I’m learning a lot from perusing the African newspaper collection!

  

~Inside the newspaper storage room~

Working at the Library of Congress provides a lot of opportunities in addition to the actual work of my internship.  For instance, the library offers an extensive lecture and workshop series, and I’ve already been able to attend one of these events (see a later post to hear more about this!).  I also had the opportunity to sit down with the other interns in the newspaper division and meet with Deborah Thomas, the coordinator for the library’s Chronicling America project.  Chronicling America involves the digitization of newspapers from all over the country, which are then made available online.  She walked us through the Chronicling America website, which includes features like “today in history” and a list of proposed topics to browse.

~Hallway in Library of Congress~

There are also a lot of benefits beyond the doors of the Library of Congress.  Though I’ve lived in the DC area for 22 years, I’ve spent virtually no time in Capitol Hill, and I’m fast discovering that it’s a great neighborhood. There are lots of things to do, see, and of course eat! I’m already smitten with a small French restaurant across the street from the Madison Building, Le Bon Café. If you go, I highly recommend the chicken breast panini.

~Lunch from Le Bon Cafe~

~View of the Capitol from outside the Library~

Ballet and a Movie

This weekend I met up with Lori for some Saturday adventuring that included visits to the National Gallery and the movies (with a necessary break for Chipotle in between).  At the museum, we went to an exhibit about Russian ballet called “Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, 1909-1929: When Art Danced with Music.” It was a really great exhibit, displaying costumes, set designs, photos, advertisement posters, and even footage of the different ballet shows. I know very little about ballet and virtually nothing about Russian ballet, and this exhibit made me wish I could have seen some of Diahilev’s productions.  The costumes were beautiful, the sets were fantastical, the music was beautiful and the choreography was dramatic and energetic. I would highly recommend this exhibit to anyone in D.C. looking for an inspiring art experience!

  

~Entrance to the exhibit in the National Gallery East Wing~

  

~I couldn't take pictures in the exhibit, so I drew a few sketches and then took

some photographs from the exhibit catalogue~

~Beautiful dress!~

   

~Sketch and a [different] costume from "Sadko"~

After a morning of artsy culture, we had a different but just as fun afternoon at the movies, opting to see “Star Trek: Into Darkness.” I saw the 2009 Star Trek and loved it, and I’ll admit that I’ve seen an episode or two of some of the series (what can I say, I’m a sci-fi fan). Lori isn’t as into sci-fi, but the great thing about the newest Star Trek franchise is that it's completely accessible to an extremely wide audience. Star Trek: Into Darkness becomes one of many superhero-type movies to come out this summer, with the same sense of adventure and attracting the same large crowds as the traditional summer blockbusters. Needless to say, I thought the movie was fantastic.  Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto are great as always, Benedict Cumberbatch is brilliant (no surprises there), and Leonard Nimoy even returns to make another cameo. I actually thought the story of the second movie was better than the plot of the 2009 film! I may very likely end up seeing it a second time.

~Spock in a still from the movie, photo from imdb~