so i’ve been busy. lots of things on my mind, overstressed at work, end of the year coming and too much vacation time unused. so i took a couple of weeks off.
i did manage to plan it so i got to the casita del pueblos’ dia de los muertos art and car show uptown to do some shooting. saw this bunch of cars first, as we walked uptown. this chevy is always beautiful and polished to a high gloss.
i giggled a bit when i noticed @tudys56 in the background there. only shot one pic of his car this time, and it isn’t that great, so i’ll skip posting it. sorry about that. catch it next time at the cigar bar.
for a week after the show, i was mostly away from my computer, down at my mom’s house, then the following weekend off to lax. usually i’ve packed my suitcase a day or two ahead of a trip, but i’ve been so busy, i didn’t get to it until almost midnight the night before. waffled on whether i wanted to take a camera, then threw one and batteries into the bag in the morning before heading out the door. barely remembered to bring a charger for the batteries too. not so great.
took an early early flight out to dulles, to visit my younger bro, who’d just moved out there. he’s having a tough time with his health and family life, so i thought i’d spend some time with him, and get him out and about. museums are mostly free in d.c., which is his favorite price.
spent a week with them, and considered going to a hotel several times. very stressful in that house, but stayed to be supportive. it is a nice house they are renting for the time being. three floors plus a full basement. leaves were just starting to turn, so i timed that right. neighborhood was halloween ready. weather was cool, and actually got some rain on a couple of days. love that gloom.
over the week that i was there, i got him and his wife out to mount vernon, for only a very short time, working around their kid’s drop off and pick up schedule from school. wasn’t enough time to see everything, and neither of them are really readers for the displays, and mostly rushed through the main house, and took pictures on the lawn between the porch and the potomac river.
another day, just my bro and i went to the marine corps museum, my brother made some phone calls to some of our cousins, but was only able to get hold of the one who works nearby, so she just came over to the museum to have lunch in the restaurant inside. i don’t think i’ve actually seen her since i was in sixth grade. a bit awkward for me, but my bro seems to keep in contact with other family members, so plenty of easy chatting.
other days, i ditched them, and caught the metro into the city a couple of days, and then further out via an uber on another day, to visit places i hadn’t been to since first or third grade. old houses that in my mind and memory seemed so big, but seeing them again, were really just average to oversized homes with out-buildings and lots of land. and very few tourists…got a private tour of one home and a very small group tour at another.
my one day in the city didn’t go to plan either:
was killing time until my bro could meet me after an appointment, so i headed towards the library of congress, then changed my mind and headed to the newseum. heard it was shutting down in december, and becoming an extension for johns hopkins or something. nothing new to see i hadn’t seen before.
then, across the mall to the national museum of the american indian to have lunch in their cafeteria, mitsitam cafe. unfortunately, they’d changed the menus up, and the cedar plank salmon i’d craved was no more. happy to not be carrying a lot to scan through security everywhere i was going, btw.
resigned myself to getting mickey d at the air & space museum next door, cuz i was hungry af, but before even getting to the entrance, could see it was no longer the home of that ass clown, but simply a cafe in the terarium where it used to be.
decided i’d wait to see if my bro wanted to join me for lunch, so headed towards the natural history museum, but it had the usual hordes of students for field trips, and headed behind it to the archives instead.
long line at archives, and my bro finally called and said he was tired and going home, so out of line i go. effing ended up at a jimmy johns, cuz i didn’t feel like doing a sit down meal. ate standing up outside at a table with no chairs. people watching is just as entertaining, with added self-importance of government worker bees so close to the hive.
decided to walk over to the washington monument, but that late in the day, the tickets to ride to the top were gone, as expected.
chose to go to see the holocaust museum, and would catch the afro-american one if there was time after—had not been to either before. both are impossible to get tickets for in the summer, but no waiting at either one in october. holocaust was basically, meh, after all the hype. interesting, meaningful, but a lot of wasted space. maybe i just had the wrong frame of mind. they have a glass roof or atrium, and while inside could see that it had finally started raining. worried about covering my camera, since i hadn’t brought an umbrella. waterproof coat with a hood was good enough.
skipped the afro-american museum, since i would have had less than an hour inside.
rain fell heavier, so didn’t want to walk the several govt building blocks to the national portrait gallery, which stays open later than the other museums, and just headed to the smithsonian metro.
switched to the red line, and exited at woodley, near the national zoo. not for the animals, but to get some pizza and creme brulee at a little hole in the wall place i used to go with my better half. just as i was about to go in, my bro calls and says his famous/infamous son has come home from college and they are going to some restaurant in bethesda. so i hop back on the metro for a few more stops. need i mention how deep underground the woodley park station is? very long steep escalators to the bottom. don’t look down. hated scooting suitcases on those things back in the day we’d stay out there. elevator always seemed out of commission when we needed it
mexican food in maryland. not quite true to form, but was ok, considering it wasn’t california
end of the week, i had to get back home for a blood test for an annual physical a week later. waffled about for a bit, but i’d washed my clothes on the east coast, so hopped in the car later in the afternoon, and drove up over the grapevine. cali was on fire while i was gone, and new fires seemed to be starting near freeways, so didn’t take the coast up.
had my mom come along, and/or had my daughter been ready to go, i’d have gone up to monterey. instead, cut across a dark highway over the mountains out to san simeon, and went to hearst castle the next day. took a small group tour, which allowed us to get off the tourist carpet and be able walk around the rooms and get close up to everything. was pretty cool, actually.
after that, got in the car, and drove down to solvang. usually, i’d stay in a cottage with a private jacuzzi and relax, but they weren’t available on saturday night, so i took a regular room for one night and headed home to whittier the next day.
one night there, then picked up my kid, who had her bag packed this time, and caught a train to san diego for a two-day stay. took her to a weird, modern “ballet”at the old spreckles theatre, then out to balboa park the next day. she dressed up for dia de los muertos, even if she was a couple of days late, and kept telling people she was filming a music video. there was some dia de los muertos thing going on, but we got there too late.
sat and watched the spreckles organ concert, where the kid got to go up on stage and join a group blowing whistles accompanying the organ playing addams family. after the show, the public is invited to go up on stage and check out the pipes inside the building, look at the piano organ, and meet and greet the organist. interesting.
spent the rest of the afternoon videoing the kid, watching her pat passing dogs — she missed her own — and briefly watching a group of hippy belly dancers.
back home on the train the next day, and vacay was over.
mid-week doctor’s appointment, found nothing surprising. i did chuckle at her notes after, using her fancy word for i’m getting fatter — hyperlipidemia — without stating the obvious to my face. what’s up doc?
