All posts by betty.belanus@gmail.com

There’s More to Baltimore

Baltimore…so close to DC but a whole other experience. A couple of weeks ago, my sister was visiting from South Carolina, and we took a brief but action-packed journey to Charm City. She had some Marriot points, so we stayed “in style” right on the Inner Harbor near Pier 5. A room with a view from the 14th floor, no less.

The first things we did, after checking into our hotel, was to walk around the harbor to the Visitor Center. Here we met an amiable older gent named Sonny, who took us under his wing and gave us excellent suggestions on sites and how to get there. Handing us a map of the bus routes, he explained the free circulator bus that would get us just about anywhere worth going.

We ignored his first suggestion of visiting Fort McHenry, as we wanted to stay closer to the harbor. Instead, we took the short walk over to Cross Street Market in the Federal Hill neighborhood, and had a delicious Haitian vegetarian meal from one of the stands. Next, a visit to the incomparable American Visionary Arts Museum, also in the neighborhood. A brief but free water taxi ride later, we were back at our hotel to rest up before dinner. We picked Sonny’s choice, one of the oldest restaurants in nearby Little Italy, Chiapparelli‘s. Even though I thought there was no way to fit more food into my stomach, we then walked to Fell’s Point for gelato.

Our second day, we set out on the Circulator bus to the Johns Hopkins University campus, where the Baltimore Museum of Art is located. (First, we had to fortify ourselves by walking a few blocks east to a commercial strip of neighborhood for some coffee and bagels.) I was especially impressed by the Cone Sisters collection, which includes a lot of Impressionists and things that the rich sisters had bought from Gertrude Stein when she needed money.

Next, we set off for Lexington Market. You can’t take a free circulator bus there directly, so we had to do some map-reading to figure it out, but it was only about four blocks from the purple line route. The last time I visited Lexington Market, it was in the “old building” which is right next door to the “new building” which most businesses have moved to. Except Faidley’s, the quintessential destination for what is touted as the best crab cake in Baltimore, which we had to experience. Indeed, it is a masterpiece, especially eaten standing up at a wooden table. The patina of their of the old location, open since 1886, will never be matched if/when they move to the new building.

After a visit to the nearby graveyard where Edgar Allen Poe’s mortal remains reside, we realized that the “arts crawl” in the Bromo District that we had signed up for was – horrors – actually the next week (duh!), but that gave us a good excuse to go back to our hotel and chill for awhile before seeking a light dinner, and then indulging in a marathon Food Channel watching spree.

The next morning, we awoke to the golden light bouncing off the harborscape, packed up and took ourselves to the iconic (but perhaps overrated) Miss Shirley’s Cafe‘s downtown location, and drove back home. Only the fact that we had walked many miles both days kept us from having gained five pounds.

Left: View from the “Bird’s Nest” at the American Visionary Art Museum, looking toward main building and downtown. Below: Baltimore painted screen exhibition at the museum.

Despite its many good points, trying to get from one point to another within the Baltimore Museum of Art is not intuitive in the least. We must have gone through the Jon Waters Rotunda, where this curious piece of art resides, at least four times to reach other exhibitions!
Now, that’s what I call a crab cake! It’s at least the size of a softball, maybe bigger.
Golden morning light on the harbor, looking west.
Chapel of the Virgin de Guadalupe with central image of Virgin and worshippers flanking either side, fashioned of multi-colored glass mosaics.

Mosaic Moments

How patient are you? Imagine facing a two-year project that involves arranging fourteen million tiny pieces of Venetian glass into an 18,299 square foot mosaic. Then imagine a whole huge basilica full of wall and ceiling mosaics.

On a recent visit to the Bascilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in the Brookland/Catholic University neighborhood of Washington, DC, I was simultaneously craning my neck and exercising my sense of wonder. The main part of the massive church, and every nook and cranny, it seemed, was covered with millions upon millions of these tiny glass squares arranged into massive, yet intricate, art works.

Having, during the pandemic, gotten into collaging, putting mere dozens of small pieces of cut up magazines together into something approximating art, I just could not get my head around the creation of these mosaics. Luckily, a little research lead me to this short but very informative video which gives a behind the scenes view of the artists and craftspeople at the Travisanutto Mosaic Studio in Spilimbergo, Italy creating the most recent dome mosaic for the basilica. Thence to the Travisanutto Studios web site with more information.

This is the sort of rabbit hole that us folklorists love going down. And while I don’t have time to pursue learning more about the tradition of mosaic art right now, I am still marveling at the basilica’s examples, and urge anyone living in or visiting Washington, DC to check them out. If you are Catholic (which I’m not) they will have more spiritual significance. But, even if you just like art or want to spend a couple of hours pondering human creativity, this is some special stuff.

Exercise your patience and don’t rush through. Think about how every tiny piece of glass contributes to the whole, and make it your own metaphor.

Long view of the main portion of the church showing domes. Think not only of creating this art in a studio, but then installing it hundreds of feet in the air. Crazy!
My favorite chapel was the one devoted to the Virgin de Guadalupe. Not sure about the authenticity of the clothing of the worshippers that flank both sides of the image of the Virgin, but the multicultural variety was interesting. The range of colors used overall, and the expressive nature of the faces of the people is quite amazing.
Even the “minor” domes in the chapels are dazzling. This one had a lot of sparkly gold. (Who doesn’t like sparkly gold?) and I liked the incorporation of the stained glass as well.
Down the street in downtown Brookland, there is an Arts Walk, also worth checking out, although most of the artist’s studios and shops are only open on the Saturdays. We found this mural across the street from the Arts Walk, but as the mosaics put me in a state of wonder, I liked the sentiment “to all who wonder” and its subtle double entendre.

California, Part III: Around Los Angeles

We completed our recent California trip in and around L.A. We took the Coastal Highway (AKA Rte. 1) most of the way up from San Diego, with many beautiful views of the ocean. They remained “from afar” because it was so chilly with almost gale force winds all the way. Finally reached L.A. just in time to get caught in rush hour. (Which is not hard to do since it lasts, like, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. most days.) But we were treated to the spectacle of the snow-capped mountains flanking downtown L.A. so it wasn’t so bad.

We’ve housed a number of Smithsonian interns over the years, and kept close some of them. Madeeha Ahmed and her family have adopted us. We stayed with Madeeha at her cozy apartment near Echo Park several days, and visited her mom’s for a delicious Pakistani-American feast one night, and had fun playing with her niece and nephew and visiting with her sisters and brother in law. Another former intern, and 2022 Festival assistant, Andrea Mayorga, invited us to Santa Clarita for an outstanding Guatemalan-American feast with her family. Needless to say, we did not lose any weight on this trip!

Along with visiting friends, eating lots of good food, and taking some walks around Echo Park and Silver Lake, we visited the new(ish) Academy of Motion Pictures Museum. The museum is located next to the Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art (LACMA) and not far from the La Brea Tar Pits. It’s quite large, with rotating exhibits focusing on different films which illustrate the complex business, and magic, of movie-making. (Something that I have been long fascinated by, but then who isn’t?) The Godfather exhibition brought back a lot of memories – not all good. Spoiler alert – remember the horse head in the bed?

Our trip to California all seems like a dream (a chilly and often damp one) now. Isn’t that the way with vacations?

Madeeha and Steve live the good life, sipping coffee at Woodcat on Sunset Boulevard.
Swan boat on Echo Park Lake. Note snow-capped mountains in the distance.

One of my favorite things on display at the Academy museum was this set of facial hair. A mustache for all occasions!
Of course, many more famous things are on display, like these Jack Skellington heads showing various emotions.
More hipster action from Steve and Madeeha, this time brunch at Sqirl.
Sidewalk wisdom near Silver Lake.

California Part II: San Diego Delights

The second portion of our recent California trip took place in San Diego. The trip down there from our rental car pick-up spot near LAX was pretty grueling, as it got dark and started raining (during rush hour on the I-5) which was no fun at all for Steve the Driver. But we made it to the pleasantly retro Old Town Inn, and found a yummy kabab joint open later than nine p.m. near downtown before crashing.

The choice of San Diego as a destination spurred from a wish to visit my old high school buddy, Linda and her significant other, Tom, who spend the winters there. They drive across country from Western Massachusetts in their well-appointed RV, before the snow threatens to fly, jeep in tow. They park their home on wheels on Mission Bay, situated perfectly to view both sunsets and fireworks at Sea World. Nice!

Since they are semi-locals, they suggested an itinerary for the day which began with breakfast in Pacific Beach at an iconic restaurant, World Famous, steps from the beach. There’s a porch with heaters, which is good because despite our hope that San Diego would be warmer than San Francisco, it wasn’t much and the wind was wicked. (Still, some intrepid surfers were out there on the waves.)

We planned to spend the rest of the day, which you can do easily, at Balboa Park. Most people seem to know the park because the world-class San Diego Zoo is there, but, covering 1,200 acres, there a lot more to keep you amused. We stayed within the ample confines of a section of the park which once housed the 1915-17 Panama-California Exposition. (Why Panama you ask? Celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal, is the short answer.)

Today, the several-blocks-square cluster of buildings and other grandiose features left from the exposition (which, according to historic record, was not a really big success) house museums, displays, and theaters, and flank gardens, fountains and open arched arcades which, with some imagination, can transport you to — hmm, not sure where exactly, but a sort of part European, part Disneyland place with international flare.

A visit to the Visitor Center in the complex is suggested to get a map to keep you on the right path(s). We started at the Mingei International Museum (which it being a Tuesday was one of the only attractions in the park open), which features, naturally, international folk art and craft. There were two current exhibitions, one on piñatas and one on beads, both really well done.

Next, we descended into the charming Japanese Friendship Garden complete with koi ponds and a flowing stream, a bonsai display, and well-groomed paths lined with flowers, trees and statuary. Next, a tour around the House of Pacific Relations International Cottages, offering a sampling of cultures from around the world. (Only three of the 34 were open by three p.m. Most are only open on the weekends, and those open on weekdays seem to close early in the afternoon.)

After a bit more wandering around, we took a brief walk through a garden full of strange and wonderful succulents, and then contemplated an early dinner. Where could we see the sunset over the ocean and eat local seafood at a reasonable price? Back where we started from, it turns out! So, we backtracked to World Famous, enjoying a symmetrical ending to a great day.

Breezy and chilly Pacific Beach, the starting point.
This is a piñata, believe it or not. The exhibition showed how artists are “pushing the envelope” of piñata making with very small and very large iterations as well as artwork using piñata materials, making political and social statements, etc.
Overlooking the Japanese Friendship Garden from above.
An example of the splendiferous architectural wonders left over from the California-Panama Exposition.
Otherworldly cacti in one of the many Balboa Park gardens.
And… back where we started from. We enjoyed the sunset from the comforts of our table since the wind and chill never let up. (The World Famous might think about cleaning their porch windows.)
Long view of Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco

California, Part I: San Francisco Sojourn

A nice, warm, sunny escape from Northern Virginia to California seemed like just the ticket for late February/early March. The only part of that to come true, however, was the “escape” part as it was hardly warm and all too often not sunny during our whole trip. Especially in San Francisco, our first stop on the journey.

Still, we had fun visiting and hanging out with daughter M.E. and other friends, and seeing some of the sites. Since she’s lived there for a number of years, there is not much that we haven’t already visited at least once, but we found a few new diversions.

A visit to the Disney Family Museum in the Presidio was one of the first stops. Why is this museum in SF you ask? According to a helpful museum guide, it is because Walt’s daughter Diane lived in SF and wanted it close to home. No matter, it is interesting and more expansive than meets the eye at first (it just keeps going and going, chronicling Walt’s life from birth to death, and covering the evolution of the creative output we all know and most of us grew up with). Okay, so it may white-wash some of the not so great aspects of Walt’s personality and politics (see for instance this list of the not-so-nice). But, still, a good diversion for a couple of hours, and well done exhibitions, interactives and video clips that bring back memories.

Nearby, the new Tunnel Tops Park offers a spectacular view of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Bay and downtown SF. That view will never get old. We also caught a sunset at the ocean – at that point is was so cold and windy that we jumped out of the car only long enough to snap the sunset and ran back in – no lingering on the beach watching the few crazy surfers.

My birthday having been earlier in February, I had requested a mother-daughter birthday celebration at a Tiki Bar, of which there are many in SF including the original Trader Vic’s. We chose the Tonga Room in the basement of the Fairmont Hotel, downtown. (You could take a cable car part of the way there but we took the bus.) Totally over the top, and one tall $20 drink, which includes at least five types of liquor, will serve to set the mood.

The SF visit also included a performance of M.E.’s improv class, a visit to her high school friend Suchana (who impressively just defended her Ph.D. at Stanford), lots of good food including a dinner with friends/colleagues Elisa and Kyle, and a walk in the mostly gloomy, occasionally sunny, Golden Gate Park Botanical Garden. All in all, despite blooming flowers, palm trees and citrus fruit growing in backyards, chilly outside but warm and comforting inside with good company all around.

Here are some snaps of the highlights.

Steve was wearing a mask more to keep warm than to ward off COVID and other germs.
This is what makes creating film a lot like doing the Festival. Behind Walt Disney there was a whole host of creative talent, many acknowledged here and many more remaining anonymous I’m sure.
It always interests me afterwards what I decided to take photos of. I was smitten with the range of colors in this display about making color animations.
I’ve never been to Disneyland (yes to Disney World though) but this scale model was fun, and also huge.
Our chilly sunset.
Behind the railing at the Tonga Room. Which is where you have to stand unless you want to eat something (not worth it) and actually get a table. But it is still fun and makes dancing to the cover band easier.
My Mai Tai. Very potent! Stole the umbrella from someone else’s abandoned drink as you don’t get one with a Mai Tai but I really wanted one.
Breakfast, bordering on lunch, at a Mexican place near our basic hotel the Geary Parkway Inn.
M.E.s half of the Improv class takes a bow after the first part of their performance. So fun!
Indian lunch with Suchana to celebrate her impending Ph.D. defense.

Photo Fun

We haven’t been anywhere more exotic than downtown DC, the suburbs, a couple of forays to Pennsylvania, and our own neighborhood lately. Travel adventures will have to wait til later in February when we will embark on a trip to California. (First post-pandemic foray to the West Coast.)

Yet, sometimes you can just take a walk in your own neighborhood and notice something photo-worthy, or just interesting and funny enough to share. A few years and many blogs back, I proposed a sort of “three photo challenge” to take a short walk and see what might surprise you. Then never followed up on that idea.

But last week I was just walking to stick something in a near-by post box, and saw a few things that jogged my memory of the “neighborhood photo challenge” so I snapped a few pix.

[Just so you know, the yak in the photo above was NOT in our neighborhood, but at the restaurant Himalayan Wild Yak near Ashburn, where we met some friends for lunch. Just to prove that we have been “getting around” a bit. And because it is sort of funny.]

Is this the world’s smallest rubber chicken? And why was it laying on the sidewalk about a block down from our house? I left it laying atop the gate post nearest its discovery, just in case its owner came back to find it. Who wants to lose the world’s smallest rubber chicken, after all?
In case you can’t read the metal sign on the gate, it says “Please Shut the Gate, Dog in Yard.” Which makes you wonder, did the dog already escape? Should I now shut the gate, or might the dog come back and want back into the yard? Or maybe there is no longer a dog to worry about, since he/she already escaped. I’ll check the next time I pass this house. I hope the dog still exists and was maybe just in the house awaiting escape. In which case maybe I should have shut the gate after all. (But I didn’t.)
A bush in a yard with small yellow flowers, near a low gray stone wall.
I don’t know what kind of bush this is, but it bravely defies the stupid groundhog’s predictions that there are six more weeks of winter. I thought it was forsythia but I’m not sure. Whatever it is, it is a harbinger of hope that spring flowers are just around the corner. Unless of course we get another bout of temperatures in the teens and the flowers die. Here’s wishing that doesn’t happen!

That was Just Jan

I learned that my friend and colleague Jan Rosenberg had died from another friend and colleague, Sue Eleuterio, in a text about a week ago while I was having an otherwise happy day with my daughter who was visiting for the holidays. M.E. didn’t remember Jan too well, but here they are, in the only photo I could ever remember taking of Jan (at left, at a conference in Bloomington circa. 1992, Jan at right, long time secretary of the IU Folklore Department Velma Carmichael at the left).

When someone dies, you always immediately think of the last time you spoke to them. I called Jan around Christmas, and after playing telephone tag for awhile as we often did, we connected and chatted about her research, her book currently at the publishers, and the next thing she wanted to do. And about how hard going to dialysis a few times a week was for her but how nice the drivers who took her there were.

Lately, our conversations started as strong as usual, the same old Jan, a mixture of complaining, complimenting, laughing, and talking seriously about our work as folklorists. But I could tell that she was getting tired when she started not making as much sense, admitting to not having a lot of stamina. That final call ended abruptly when she said “she had to go.” I assumed she would call back at some point in the future when she felt up to it. Should I have tried to call her again later to make sure she was okay? Probably.

What’s the next thing you think about when someone dies? When I thought about Jan, I remembered that we had not seen each other very often, usually at American Folklore Society meetings where we’d steal away for coffee or, for her, a beer (in my memory, she rarely ate a decent meal, so lunch or dinner were usually not on the docket). She did visit us back when we lived in Olney, Maryland, staying for several days while she did research at the Library of Congress. (She had driven in her white truck with her dog, whose name I don’t recall. I don’t recall where she was living at the time, but it was a far piece. She didn’t like flying.)

I remembered the many long phone calls over the years, during which we usually hashed over the state of Folklore and Education endlessly. Why were folklorists always “reinventing the wheel” of folklore and ed? Why was something so obviously important (and with many historic antecedents, as Jan had documented over the years) still ignored by most mainstream educators? What could we do about it, if anything?

I recall one phone call, which lasted most of the way between Arlington, VA and Harrisburg, PA where I was driving to a Middle Atlantic Folklorists Association conference. So, at least two hours, which was common. I don’t recall everything we were talking about, but it certainly made the drive more fun, to have Jan there virtually in the car with me. There was no such thing as a short phone call with Jan.

I recall, when we did get together in person, she smelled like the heavy smoker she was. I remember her laugh, which was hearty and frequent, even when being expressed more in exasperation than mirth, and usually ended in her smoker’s cough. She had a deep sense of the irony in things. She cut to the chase. She was kind, curious, fiercely loyal to her friends, compassionate, and stubborn. Quirky, individualistic, and very much her own person.

Her expression in this photo is a little hard to read. A bit of amusement, a bit of tenderness, a bit of uncertainty. That was just Jan.

A Very Philly Holiday Trip

With the premise that we must see the current Matisse in the Thirties exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, even though none of us is a huge Matisse fan, I devised a mini-vacation to Philly for our little family. Christmas in Philadelphia, we were assured by tourism sites, is full of lights, vibrancy, and shopping opportunities.

We’d been to New York City at Christmastime in the past, and it was a big, crowded mess around Times Square and Rockefeller Center. Exciting, buzzing with activity, but a bit too frenetic for me. Downtown Philly had a lot of energy, but a much more relaxed and laid-back excitement. It seemed more full of locals than tourists.

It helped that everything we set out to see downtown was very compact, within an easy walking distance of the downtown hotel we picked. And, even though Philly has a sort of rough, gritty reputation for those of us from “more civilized” Washington, DC, even after dark we felt perfectly safe.

Here is our Philly travelogue in photos and captions. Thanks, Philly, for sharing your exuberant holiday spirit with our family. Here’s hoping everyone finds and keeps their own inspiration for a safe, happy and healthy holiday and carries that feeling into 2023!

We arrived in time to catch the four o’clock light and sound show at Macy’s, which is right across from City Hall. People get there early and camp out to get the best view from the first or second floor. (So go early and just wait!) It’s less than 15 minutes but they cram a lot of lights, projections and storyline (narrated by Julie Andrews no less), and of course the famous Wanamaker Organ, which is this time of year mostly behind the color-changing Christmas tree.
Next stop, since by then we were really hungry, was Chinatown. We’d scoped out a no frills noodle house with good reviews, and it didn’t disappoint. We had to take the dumplings we ordered with us, since our big bowls of noodle soup filled us up and fortified us for the next leg of the adventure.
Franklin Square, not far from Chinatown, has a brief light show and a family vibe. In addition to the lights, you can play mini-golf or sit around a fire pit enjoying hot beverages. (Note the “kite and key” theme.)
Back to the heart of downtown where City Hall is abuzz with activity, from a ferris wheel to an ice rink (where we stood, transfixed, watching the Zamboni groom the ice – what is it about that?) and lots more.
One side of City Hall has a light show with imaginative interpretations of holiday songs. (This part reminded me more of a birthday cake than the holidays, but it was festive anyhow.)
Nearby Love Park hosts sales stalls in their “authentic German Market.” (Bratwurst and sauerkraut, anyone?) It was fun to roam around checking out the holiday wares, and I especially liked the display of glass ornaments on offer.
Reading Terminal Market, still going strong after opening its doors in 1893, was also a short walk from our hotel and the perfect place to find breakfast options before our Museum visit that suited all of our tastes. I picked this crepe with egg, cheese and veggies, while Steve had a really messy but yummy and healthy-looking vegan sandwich and M.E. chose Tom Kha soup from a Thai stall. Something for everyone!
Okay, finally on to visiting Matisse. I liked these two interpretations of the Nice waterfront. (I got kind of sick of all the nudes in various iterations, large, small, and in between.) As I sat on a bench contemplating the similarities and differences of these two works, a mom and daughter (around 7 or 8) sitting next to me discussed the paintings. The mom asked the daughter which one she preferred and she had some interesting reasons for liking the one to the right, including that the green of the trees reminded her of guacamole.
After we had our fill of Matisse, we split up and headed to see other art in this vast and varied museum. You could (and should) spend hours and hours here exploring the three floors of mostly European, American and Asian art. I headed to the Impressionists, but then wandered around the American and Asian art, encountering period rooms, decorative arts such as this collection of American glass pieces, and other wonders.
I encountered several of the museum’s installations of reproduced temples, a Japanese tea house, and parts of Medieval churches, all very atmospheric. This 500 year old Chinese temple ceiling is incredibly intricate.
I somehow happened upon this contemporary installation of lights, which seemed very holiday-ish given the time of year. Apparently, several museums have iterations by this Dutch artistic group (called Drift), and no two are quite the same. (And they do a lot of other cool stuff too.) According to their web site, “DRIFT manifests the phenomena and hidden properties of nature with the use of technology in order to learn from the Earth’s underlying mechanisms and to re-establish our connection to it.” What’s not to like about that?

Cranberry Sauce Musings

The varieties of tastes, and capacity for creativity, of humans never ceases to amaze me. That’s one reason I became a folklorist. And, since it’s almost Thanksgiving, let’s take cranberry sauce as an example.

Cranberry sauce, in one or more of its many iterations, is de rigeur at most Thanksgiving tables. (But, even it’s absence would say something about the Thanksgiving meal group’s preferences.) As a native North American fruit whose side dish pedigree goes back, or so “folklore” has it, to the imaginary First Thanksgiving, it is fitting.

But what variety of cranberry sauce graces the table? For millions, apparently, it is the fast and convenient comfort of canned cranberry sauce, which was invented by a lawyer in 1912. A reported 4 million pounds of cranberries sacrifice their existence to the canned cranberry industry each year.

Fresh cranberries also have their devotees, though only a shockingly low five percentage of cranberries are sold fresh, and not all those make their way into sauce. (What this says about America is not the topic here, but does give one pause.)

Okay, I am a member of Team Fresh. And, as my Thanksgiving gift to you all, here (see below) is the recipe I use. It’s great on “day of” but also sublime mixed with mayo on turkey sandwiches, or mixed into yoghurt or oatmeal. Good with other meat meals too. As it is usually still hanging on til the rest of the holiday season, I personally find a lot of uses for it.

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving, all, despite what is going on around the world. May your table include your own traditional cranberry confection along with great memories.

Thanksgiving Fresh Cranberry and Ginger Sauce

1 pound (or slightly more) fresh cranberries

2 cups sugar

1 cup orange juice

1/2 cup water (or more orange juice if you like)

Zest from one orange

1-2 TBS fresh ginger (how much do you like ginger?)

Wash and pick over cranberries and discard any squish nasty ones. Put in a saucepan and brings to a boil. Cook until cranberries “pop” and their shape starts to deconstruct. (The original recipe said ten minutes, but I usually cook it more like 15-20.) It will look runny but sets up when cooled. Enjoy!

Yum!
Serving suggestion: with plain yoghurt and roasted pumpkin seeds.
Garden seen through a gate on either side with lone figure on right side.

Playing Tourist Around Town

Sometimes, we forget that the Washington, DC area has so much to see and do. We get complacent in our own immediate home spaces, or think we need to get far away to “get away.” This late summer and early fall, I’ve been trying to prove that theory wrong by being a tourist in my own town (or city in this case). Here’s some of the places worth a visit.

Green spaces are particularly abundant in the DC area. The National Arboretum off New York Avenue has over 400 acres and “9 miles of winding roadways” to explore by foot or by car. There’s always something blooming throughout the growing season, and even in winter you can go “forest bathing” apparently. (That is not a bath in the woods, but some sort of guided nature walk.) You can walk all the way down to the Anacostia River and sit contemplating life. If you are into growing your own food, my husband and I discovered there is also an extensive vegetable garden with educational programs.

While the Arboretum is free, to enter Dumbarton Oaks garden in Georgetown you have to pay a reasonable fee. My visiting sister and I thought it was highly worth the admission. We took a guided tour with one of the docents, who imparted interesting information, like how the vegetation, walls and lawn furnishings create “garden rooms” all around the grounds. Then we wandered up and down the multi-level property admiring the late summer blooms and hidden spaces. If we’d had more time, we could have also visited the historic house/museum, which is free.

Speaking of Georgetown, the C&O canal runs through its downtown. Its pathway makes for a pleasant walk, although until recently a lot of it was choked with weeds and not particularly picturesque. Now, for the first time in years, a new semi-accurate historic canal boat is available for tours, with a costumed guide. My “Lunch O’Clock” work buddies and I took a ride on the revamped vessel on a lovely day in late September. I’m still not sure I understand how locks work, but that’s okay. It was fun to go through one.

Historic houses also abound in the Washington, DC Metro area. My husband and friend Janette stumbled upon the Clara Barton House near Glen Echo Park one day after attending a festival at the park. Run by the National Park Service, this spacious house was built for Civil War nurse-hero and founder of the American Red Cross by the guys who built the park – sort of a long story, but anyhow, she designed it and used it for a home and headquarters. It is kind of sparsely furnished right now due to some renovations, but very atmospheric, and interesting to learn about this phase of her life.

Being a tourist in your own town/city is fun, economical, and can cause you to look at things from different angles. As we ease into the late fall and winter, we will no doubt be cocooning at home more, but I look forward to exploring more DC sites in the future. It’s a good time to start making a list!

View from a bench along the Anacostia River at the base of the Asian Garden, National Arboretum.
A tour of Dumbarton Oaks begins in the Orangerie not far from the entrance. The greenery running along the top of the walls and over the beams, we learned, is all part of one indoor tree which is over 100 years old. Crazy!
Every corner of Dumbarton Oaks has structures, walls and walkways accentuating the gardens. The fall colors were gorgeous.
This non-historically-dressed helper kept the Georgetown canal boat from hitting the sides of the canal during our ride, which was quite breezy. (Gave us the illusion of being on a very large and unwieldy gondola.)
Opening the lock gate to let in the water! Or was it let out the water? To me, this whole process still defies physics and logic. But it has worked for hundreds of years, so no matter.
Inside the Clara Barton house, looking up the levels. You couldn’t go above the first floor, so just had to sort of imagine the rooms up there.
All along the hallway on the first floor, Barton designed ingenious hidden closets. They just look like panelling from the outside, but from the inside reveal storage space for medical supplies, training materials, and office items.
I got out on the water kayaking, seeing familiar sites from new perspectives, as well. The DC boat houses sell season passes, and there are five of them along the Potomac and Anacostia. The Potomac can be a challenging paddle sometimes due to currents, and you have to watch for everyone else in (usually bigger) boats plying the waters!