On Saturday, it was 40 degrees F, drizzling and windy. It was pretty effin' miserable. The metro parking lot had cars from as far as Ohio and Florida, people who traveled hundreds of miles to see the famous imports along the Potomac River. I feel bad for the families with little kids that came all this way to experience the festival, only to be greeted with dismal weather. I guess they could go to the museums, but seriously, between picnicking on the mall on a sunny day reveling in spring, and walking for hours learning history... If I were a kid I'd be wailing.
First on the itinerary, by request, is dim sum in Chinatown. Most of the restaurants are pretty seedy-looking, except for Tony Cheng's. It was a Mongolian restaurant on the first floor and a Chinese/seafood place on the second, built in the style of an authentic Cantonese restaurant. I thought the food was okay; for not having had chee cheong fun in forever, anything goes, but I did wish they had more of a variety. I tried not to think that the food was shipped from NYC and zapped in a microwave oven. E enjoyed it, though M merely poked around the food on her plate. (M is Jewish. I took her to dim sum. Oops!) Fortunately they had some kosher food (like chicken dumplings), but I was still pretty embarrassed. Thanks for being a good sport!
We braved the wind and rain and trekked from Gallery Place to Federal Triangle. There were about three blocks of tents set up, and it wasn't nearly as packed as last year. Still a decent turnout, some even in cosplay gear (from the Katsucon?). The arts and crafts booths were predictable (bonsai, dolls, origami, bamboo furniture), but there were some really neat displays. Origami sugar creations attracted a fair crowd - there were sugar cranes, butterflies, business card-sized edible Hokusai prints that looked like stained glass... Cool beans! Even though I was stuffed from brunch, I couldn't resist getting a box of warabimochi from a food stand. Then it seemed like a good idea, naturally, to wash it down with real sake - for a pretty penny, we each got 4 oz. of Kuromatsu-Hakushika (a Junmai Ginjo brewed by Taatsuma-Honke). Not bad... far better than the domestic Gekkeikan, to say the least. We bounced from booth to booth in the remaining time before they closed up early because of the weather. By the end of the street festival we were popsicles, but happy popsicles.
As we approached the Washington Monument, we realized that we weren't going to see cherry blossoms. We had missed the bloom's peak by about 10 days, we later found out, so all we saw were bare branches and scattered sprigs of green.
Sparse cherry blossoms against the backdrop of Washington Monument and grey skies
K's birthday party was that evening - it was the second instalment of 'The Great Gatsby' parties. Her parents got a folksy bluegrass band; there was gin punch, wine, finger food, and great company. Friends we haven't seen in ages were there, and my how we've grown. Some cake and trick candles later, around midnight, the ten of us were still lounging around K's living room even though K and her family had retired for the night.
On Sunday we spent most of the day at the International Spy Museum. Cool place! The museum shop was stocked with Nancy Drew novels, Pink Panther plush, James Bond paraphernalia, spy board games... everything from shot glasses and survival handbooks to $450 gadgets. It took us 3 hours to wander through the museum, which was well laid out for a small-ish building. I have to admit it was quite educational. We stopped at Gordon Biersch, the microbrewery across the street, before going on our merry way back to Pittsburgh.
It was a good trip. No good photos, just a lousy T-shirt. :)
1 comment:
Yeah, I missed the Cherry Blossom period too... Only realized it when my friend told me about it!
At least you caught some remnants of those blooms. =)
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