Today I submitted our "intent to vacate" the Arlington townhouse that has been our home the past two years. The lease expires October 5, and that's the day we're handing over the keys and garage door openers and electronic entry fobs. It's back to Denver.
Colorado is home, but we have an affection for our nation's capital having lived here five years out of the last ten. I am eager to be back among friends and family out west, but the truth is there's a long list of things I will miss. Here's a start of my list in no particular order:
The humidity. No, my brain is not soggy from the swampy climate. DC is several canisters of deodorant stickier than Denver. And that's it's appeal, up to a point. My skin thanks me every time I step off the plane into air as moist as an alligator's breath. No more cracked hands and feet, scaly elbows and knees. If I miss a day applying Aveeno moisturizer after my shower, I don't look like a dried lake bed by noontime. What I won't miss: air conditioning set at arctic temperatures.
The Smithsonians. Have a free morning or afternoon? The nation's attic invites you over for a leisurely poke-around -- no admission charge and something new guaranteed every visit. Like most visitors, the first time I came to DC in 1988 I thought the Smithsonian was a red gothic brick building on the National Mall. Actually, 19 museums and the National Zoo all fall under the Smithsonian label. Some aren't even in DC (The National Design Museum is in New York City, and the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum is a 45-minute drive to Chantilly, Virginia). I've been lucky enough to visit some so many times that I roam the floorplans in my sleep. My most frequented haunts: Natural History, American History, National Gallery.
The memorials and monuments. Hard to pick a favorite. Of the biggies, the Lincoln memorial looms large, as does the Jefferson. The Vietnam War Memorial grabs me every time I walk by the dark angular wall of names -- the color of the stone, the way the wall carves deeper into the ground and slowly reemerges at the other end, the letters and photos and mementos still left daily, the veterans and surviving families weeping while fingers trace a reminder of the loved one lost. I am moved by all the monuments, but I spend the most time wandering through the Roosevelt memorial, 7.5 acres of stone and water with memorable quotes from our longest serving president. Among my favorites: "The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little." and "I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed. I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war." Are you listening, you economists and generals, power brokers and decision makers?
New memorials. In August of 2010, on the morning that the construction barriers came down, I walked through the new MLK Memorial a week before its scheduled dedication (postponed until October because of Hurricane Irene). I returned to photograph and enjoy it many times in the first few months. Seeing the crowds of African-American families and school groups drawn to the memorial and overhearing their conversations made me realize how important this monument is to our country and its promise of equality for all. Grandparents and parents explaining Dr. King's life to their children, talking about the civil rights movement, reminding the young that not so many years ago whites and blacks used separate bathrooms and water fountains -- hearing these stories firsthand was a privilege and something I will take with me wherever I live or travel in America.
Hobnobbing with the great and near great. Power is the drug that fuels DC. My wife's work takes her to the White House, to embassies, to legislative and executive office buildings around the city. She attends functions at which the President or First Lady, congressional leaders or cabinet officers appear. Her office makes decisions that ultimately affect the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. But it's the happenstance encounters that make living here a frequent high. One night dining at the Bombay Club she enjoyed the hearty laughter of Hillary Clinton and guests one table over. On a visit to Costco last month I skirted a crowd waiting to have books autographed by Colin Powell, who was signing away at the end of the kitchenware aisle! Only inside the beltway. Then there are the celebrity sightings, Hollywood folks who appear so often to advocate for their particular cause that the Post has coined the term celebvocacy. Catch Owen Wilson at Oyamel, Alec Baldwin at Zaytinia, Sharon Stone at Bistro Bis. Or, more likely, you could run into Joe Biden at Ray's Hell Burger.
More to come . . .
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