Let The Food Onslaught Begin! Washington DC, April 2012

Monday 23rd April 2012 – so, Charlie and I have been planning this little jaunt of ours for quite a while. His brother lives in Washington, so it made sense that he would fly in from England to catch up with his brother and then he and I would hit the road and trip the light fantastic for a wee while, eating our way from Washington DC to Philadelphia (and Lancaster County) to New York, where he will, sadly, leave me and fly home again while my adventure continues. The last time we caught up was in September 2010, so it was high time that we meet up again! We’re both foodies so I’m guessing that this part of the trip is going to be highly calorific…!

I woke up in the morning at 7, eager to get to the showers before all the teenage girls who are on my floor hogged them at 8. I had heard one of them screeching on her phone the night before, probably to her mum or her dad: “I miss you! I HATE this place! IT’S LIKE JAAAAAAAIL!!!” Two of them had already “fallen sick” because they had actually had to WALK the day before (god forbid!) and I had overheard them making plans for the next day in the washroom, so I was VERY keen not to have to compete with them in the morning for showers and sinks. I sped in and had myself a nice hot shower; afterwards I was standing in my towel, brushing my teeth, and glimpsed the tan lines on my shoulders in the mirror, and I have to admit that I was once again back in Cuba enjoying the sunshine, at least in my mind!

I finished getting ready and headed to the second floor of the hostel where a free breakfast is served; I grabbed a bowl of Cheerios and spotted a nice lady working there who was unpacking a couple of boxes of Otis Spunkmeyer muffins. The second box was blueberry, and I mentioned that they looked good, and we struck up a little conversation about the best kind of muffins. We both came to the consensus that bran muffins are utterly pointless; I said that they were too healthy for me, and she said that only old people felt like they needed bran, just to keep them… regular! We snickered and snorted for a while, and she mentioned that sometimes they have chocolate chip muffins at the hostel, which disappear at an astonishing rate – and that she hoped I would get to try them. Nice lady!

I took my seat at one of the benches and started a ‘to do’ list while I was eating my Cheerios and yummy blueberry muffin. A couple of minutes later, a girl came to sit diagonally opposite me and my internal freak radar started beeping. I glimpsed up to her acknowledge her and smile, then went back to my list. She had white, white, hair and pale skin with glasses thicker than the bottom of a glass Coke bottle which magnified her eyes a thousand-fold, and was staring at me intensely. I guess she must have felt that I was breaking the ‘youth hostel code’ by not engaging her in conversation or something, because about 2 minutes later she shoved her chair back fiercely and snatched up her tray before flouncing to the end of the aisle, pausing only to shoot me a look that would kill lesser beings. I felt bad for a millisecond before I realised that a) she could have tried to start a conversation herself and b) she was obviously a loon anyway, so I probably dodged a bullet there! My thoughts on the situation were thankfully interrupted by the lovely lady from earlier, who was unbelieveably waving a tray of double chocolate muffins in my direction and shouting, “Heeeeeey! Look what I got you! I managed to get some for you to try! You better come get ’em quick!” I was up like a shot! 🙂

I finished my muffin-fest and then went upstairs to brush my teeth before getting a text from Charlie to say that he had arrived at the hostel! I went downstairs and there he was!!! REUNION!!! It’s always like no time has passed at all; I guess that’s what comes from 16 years of friendship. 🙂 He couldn’t check in yet because it was too early, so we said goodbye to his brother Gavin (who had come to drop him off – the first time I had ever met him!), dumped his bags in my room and grabbed our jackets before heading out in search of snacks to kick off our eating marathon.

We wandered down 11th Street and passed a few bland-looking sandwich places, but both of us simultaneously stopped dead outside Crumbs Bake Shop. We had spotted the complex-looking sweet muffins, and we were lost. More sugar with your breakfast, madam? Like kids in a candy store, we pressed ourselves up against the glass display case, salivating over all our options. There were at least 30 or 40 different types of muffins – red velvet, cookie dough, devil’s food, carrot, peanut butter cup, cherry blossom, vanilla coconut, dulce de leche… the list goes on. All were extravagantly iced and delicious-looking, so after discussing our options with the lady behind the counter, we ordered a caramel apple muffin and a mudslide muffin to share, and a couple of mint hot chocolates to round off the dairy fix. We sat at a bench in the window watching the Washingtonians in expensive suits go about their business, caught up on recent news and loosely plotted our day. The hot chocolate was really something special, but after my muffin breakfast at the hostel I only made it part of the way through the caramel apple one, and only managed a bite or two of the mudslide. Shame one me! Weakling! They were so good!

From there, we began our long, long, LONG walk around Washington. We hiked, we plodded, we teetered and we toddled. We fought against the icy wind all day, clutching our ears to keep them warm, and withstood the sprinkling rain that seemed to follow us everywhere, but we managed a hell of a lot in a shortish period of time. Thank god, at least, that it didn’t rain as heavily as it had the day before, or we might have had to give in and spend the day in the museums or risk drowning/freezing on the streets!

Look Mum, I’m at The White House!
Washington DC, April 2012

We didn’t stick to any particular route, but instead headed off in the general direction of a building we wanted to see and took any good-looking detours we spotted on the way. Our first port of call was the White House… of course. On the way, we made a detour to the Ronald Reagan Building, a dome-topped monolith, and passed through Freedom Plaza, where I remember seeing young Americans celebrating on the news on the day that Osama Bin Laden was killed. From there, we skirted up the east side of the White House, past the grey and elaborate Department of Treasury, and found ourselves basically in the back garden of the White House, separated only by a small black fence and a patch of grass. A security guard/police officer strolled nearby, but didn’t seem too concerned by our loitering around. I guess two tourists suffering from a muffin hangover don’t score highly on the ‘national security’ checklist!

We hung a left on the corner, walking south down the west side of the White House, and approached the front of it through a small slip road. I was honestly surprised at how little security there appeared to be in the area; I suppose that a lot of it must be done by surveillance, and I guess there would be a lot of security inside the gates. We stared through the poles on the fence at the Kitchen Garden, and I marvelled that I was actually there, in Washington DC, outside the White House. You see it so often on television that it didn’t actually seem very real; I had to focus very carefully to remind myself of where I was! It’s not quite as imposing as it seems on TV, but then considering the power it wields, it would be wise not to underestimate it. We snapped our touristy pictures and went on our merry way, congratulating ourselves on our awesomeness for being there.

The Washington Monument,
Washington DC, April 2012

We walked along the edge of the Ellipse, a large expanse of grass in front of the White House, and approached the Washington Monument. Phew. It’s a biggun, that’s for sure. All white stone and 555 feet high, it is the tallest stone obelisk in the world, apparently. It was surrounded by posey joggers all slowing down just enough to get into tourist photos…! We skirted around it about 270 degrees, and then went off on a tangent towards the World War Two Memorial, which was yet another ellipse, this time in tasteful grey tones and a central fountain. A diorama on the southern side showed different stages of the life of a soldier in World War Two, starting with conscription and departure, moving into different types of battle on land, on the sea and in the air, and ending with death or a passionate homecoming after the war ends (where apparently they all danced the lindy hop, I was happy to see!). Quite the display.

By this time, I was (and I’m okay with admitting this) just about peeing my pants with excitement about seeing the reflecting pool outside the Lincoln Memorial. All my life I’ve been watching footage of historic speeches in this area (most specifically Martin Luther King’s ‘I Had A Dream’ Speech), and have been captivated by footage of the entire area being filled with people and their banners, some up in the trees just so they could have a glimpse of what was going on. I wanted to walk where they had walked and try to imagine some of the excitement and hope they had felt for their changing world. So it was with some disappointment that we came over the crest of the World War Two Memorial only to see that the reflecting pool had been emptied and was in fact now a construction site; the poolside walkways had been ripped up and foot traffic was being detoured outside the edge of the area. Boo! Still, I refused to let that ruin it for me; as we walked down the detoured area I tried to imagine folks up in the trees and what the atmosphere might have been like. And besides, there was still the Lincoln Memorial – also an outstanding piece of mental imagery that I was looking forward to bringing to life!

We stopped at the Korean War Memorial… at first sight, I thought that there was a group of foolish tourists in white rain ponchos all hanging about in the general area, and I was about to laugh at them until I realised that in fact they were statues of soldiers in raincoats!!!

Me and Abraham Lincoln!
Washington DC, April 2012

As we approached the Lincoln Memorial, the sheer number of tourists increased a thousand-fold; most were being disgorged by buses at a nearby car park. Still, that didn’t stop us from pouncing up the grand staircase and peering into the face of Lincoln himself, serious but friendly-looking, the father of a nation, I suppose. There was a certain air of reverence allotted to him here, and I guess I can understand why. We managed to get some pictures of the both of us with the statue, courtesy of a kind Swede who took pity on us, and outside I tried to mimic Lincoln’s stance for a laugh but with him inside and me outside, he was difficult to see. Never mind!

We then visited the Vietnam War Memorial, which was tastefully done in black marble that reflected the trees nearby and included a statue of a trio of soldiers, looking strong and vital; so many like them, lost so young.

From there, we headed out to Independence Avenue to skirt around the edge of the tidal basin, where we stopped by the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial. It looked like a collection of large grey stones but as we came closer we found that they were all covered in brilliant quotes from King himself, all of which still had a ring of truth today. Continuing around the lake, we strolled through the FD Roosevelt Memorial, which seemed excessively large but was very earthy in tone, and then excitedly looked for the Japanese pagoda, only to find that it was only about six foot tall, just a concrete pillar really…! The cherry trees had lost all their blossoms, but the scent was still rich in the air. We breathed deeply before moving on!

We continued over the inlet bridge to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, another imposing structure with a giant dome on the top, open to the elements with a statue of Jefferson himself inside, staring out over the tidal basin and across to the Washington Monument. Quotes from him lined the walls, but as a non-American I can’t say I was much moved. I was much more entertained when Charlie tried to find the bathroom and we followed a little tunnel into the bowels of the structure, only to find no signs but a lift which could have taken him to Narnia for all we knew! He took a gamble and jumped in, and returned in one piece, no Aslan in tow; it had indeed been the way to the bathrooms.

Happy happy happy! About to tuck into a chili dog and some cheese fries at Ben’s Chili Bowl,
Washington DC, April 2012

Tired now, and a little windswept and damp, we decided to go in search of a late lunch at a place we’d both heard of called Ben’s Chilli Bowl. We walked to the nearest metro station, which was in the Smithsonian complex, and grabbed a subway to U Street, north of the city centre. The area near U Street and 14th Street is a bit of an iconic area for Washington, heavily African American in demographic and historically significant as a centre of African-American culture, predating the Civil War even. It used to be known as the ‘Black Broadway’, filled with theatres and music venues hosting local big-name acts like Duke Ellington. A lot of freed slaves came here, only moving out of the area when segregation in the rest of the city became less common. When Barack Obama was elected as the first African-American president, the whole area filled with people celebrating his victory.

Charlie loves his thickshake, Ben’s Chili Bowl,
Washington DC, April 2012

We came out of the metro station and made a beeline for Ben’s Chilli Bowl, and as we stepped off the freezing street into the warmth of the diner, we both fell in love. Not much has changed here since its opening in 1958; the booths and stools are the same, and the menu looks as retro as they come, pasted on brown plastic high on the wall. Queuing is done in an orderly manner or the staff reserve the right to shout at you (“I don’t see no single file line in here!!!”), and Motown hits were the soundtrack of the day. Singing along to Harold Melvin’s ‘Bad Luck’, the dreadlocked man in charge flitted from customer to customer issuing compliments or taunts as he saw fit. “I got you, boo!”, to one lady who requested cheese on her fries; “We ain’t serving him! This ain’t Beantown!!!” to the man who dared to enter wearing his Red Sox jersey; “Shamon, Michael Jackson, SHAMON!!!” when a good track came on. What a character. We took up residence in a booth near the entrance and ordered exactly the same thing – 2 cheese fries, 2 vanilla thickshakes and 2 chilli half-smokes (a Washington-style hot dog, more smokey and meaty than your average, topped with chilli and onion). The food arrived, and…. hoooweeee. It was freaking AWESOME. Chilli’s not even really my thing but oh my god, I fell in love with the flavour of everything we were eating. Charlie wolfed his down in apparent milliseconds, and I tried to keep up but couldn’t do as well! The milkshakes were thick and flavourful, the fries were crispy under their cheesy sauce, and everything about the half-smokes was sublime. We sat in companionable silence for a bit, digesting our ill-gotten gains. Sigh. Bliss.

A camera crew was faffing about doing something, but we didn’t take much notice; we were too busy gorging on the food. I had to use the bathroom and found the walls lined with chalkboard, with a little bowl attached to the wall filled with coloured chalk. Guests are encouraged to decorate the bathroom! Sweet! I signed my name and after sitting for a little bit to catch our breath, we headed out into the cold again. We made a pitstop at a chemist to pick up a couple of essentials, and then got the metro back to the hostel for an evening of lazing, reading and stomach recovery (and, strangely, arguing with Frederico the Argentinian about the Falkland Islands…!).

And that’s where I find myself now. We’ve decided to skip dinner; our late lunch was more than enough and Charlie had the keen foresight to bring a bag of Galaxy chocolate with him, so we’re all set! 🙂

I suppose that my biggest impression of Washington so far is that of stately building and elaborate edifices. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Thanks for stopping by,

Tara.

Tags: travel, washington dc