Seeing the Sights: By the Pricking of My Thumbs

Fulfilling a long-time dream, I finally went to Salem! And the fact that I got to go with a friend was even better! 

The day started rainy and wet and rainy and it was raining. While we wanted to hit up the Salem Witch Museum, the next available time to get in was in 6+ hours and while we had plans with other friends of ours. Thus, we met a very interesting teenager in the gift shop, and left with chocolate frogs and a witch's hat. 

We slogged our way through the streets of Salem and found the old village with a number of 17th century buildings. Not only were they really cool, they were also dry (a huge plus). And one of them had a witchery supply or two (entirely unconfirmed, since there was no description on any of the buildings or items inside). I'd definitely live in one of these, for sure.

Next up was this elderly man's house slowly developing a crowd around it. Any fan of Hocus Pocus will recognize this beauty...

After walking across seemingly-the-entirety of Salem, we found the other Hocus Pocus house, used for external shots only. They were having a free admission day, so we got to go inside and learn about the generations of women that had owned this property. The dining room was interesting in that the napkins, plates, and chair covers all had etiquette rules printed on them. 

We met up with some other friends for dinner and a ghost tour. The wind made the standing portions of the tour really cold, especially after the heatwave that has been D.C. But it was very cool to hear the stories of the ghosts spotted around tour, specifically the ones not witch related. While I'm a big witch fan, there's lot of things that have gone on in Salem that aren't about witches. We ended our tour with spiced apple cider. (Yay!) And of course, while we're standing around, ominous music starts playing behind me. So I slowly turn around and naturally there's a man with a bloody knife and a mask (super shiny eyes peeking through) staring at me. Fantastic. I absolutely loved Salem, but I could easily see that part getting old fast.

Last Frontier Honour Flight

Today, I got to witness something unique.

I have several friends who have watched Honour Flights leave for D.C., but I currently live on the receiving end of these flights. I was invited to come along to watch Alaska's Last Frontier Honor Flight lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. Roughly 30 veterans had flown down, representing World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, etc. The four oldest WWII vets participated in the actual wreath laying ceremony. One of them was even from my hometown and said he recognized me (rarely a good sign).

"We can't all be heroes, because somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by."

-Will Rogers

We did learn that the guard at the Tomb will stop what he's doing to reprimand people. Three times in the 45 minutes we were there, the guard had to stop. Rambunctious crowd, it seems. Probably didn't help that it was about 85˚. Who knew it could be this hot anywhere in October?!
There were apparently several thing happening at the Tomb today. The AK wreath didn't stay up long as they prepped for the other three honour flights laying wreaths (judged based on the wreaths chillin' on the ground off to the side). In addition, as we were leaving the entire Marine Corps band (with two sousaphones) was unloading from their bus and heading up to the Tomb. A party, and we weren't invited. And then had to return to work sweaty...

The last time I was at Arlington, I thought, "When am I ever coming back here?" I recorded the changing of the guard and took a ton of photos, because I was pretty sure I'd never be there again. And here we are... the cemetery is the same (probably some additions), but this was very cool to see and certainly distinguished the two visits. So many Alaskans, so many Alaskan veterans who fought for so much of what D.C. represents and yet live about as far away as you can get in this country, all there at once, was awesome.

Weekend... 6?

 Friday night we went out for nacho-tater tots and amazing burger sliders, and ended up at an Irish pub completely with music! Cead mile fáilte!

Saturday: 

First stop was the Scottish Rite Temple. Pretty impressive building, especially the sphinges (which I learned is the plural of sphynx). 

Second Stop: Kramerbooks. Yes.

Third Stop: Random wanderings through Embassy Row Part 2, which included stumbling across OES HQ. Check out this wicked fencing! 

Fourth Stop: Georgetown. I picked a different direction than I have the last several times I've been in Georgetown, and headed up the hill. Gelato called my name: Thai Coconut Milk and Marscapone & Berries. 

Georgetown University. There are things that have looked worse.

Sunday: 

Wandering around Alexandria was slightly more complicated, since I got off at the wrong stop (Thanks, Google Maps...) but I found the Old Town. Kinda cool, kinda of exactly what you'd expect. It'd be a cute place to window shop. 

But! I found my way to the George Washington Masonic National Memorial. I'd seen it from the Metro before, and recognized it from the pictures of my mom's visit. I didn't think it would be open on a Sunday, but it was, so I got a tour, too! There's quite the walk up to the front of the building. Not sure who designed it, but they made some... interesting choices. 

View of the walk-up from the observation deck.

I took a bunch of photos for a variety of purposes, but it was so cool to see everything they had. The entrance hall is dominated by a giant bronze statue of George Washington presiding over his lodge. It was donated by DeMolay, and then carried up all the steps to the front hall of the building. Here's a photo of it being pulled up the stairs:

Not sure DeMolay thought this all the way through....

We started with a replica of Alexandria Lodge #22, with the WM chair donated by Washington and used by him. Most of the furniture was from the Lodge room Washington knew and presided over. There were bios of some of the first WMs, their countries of origin and relationship with the Lodge, etc.

From there, it was up to an exhibition hall with information on appendant bodies. (That dress still looks better in white.) I recognized the black dress in the OES display, and couldn't quite place it. Luckily, it's labelled, and I'm pretty sure I saw the woman who donated the dress in it several times. Then we moved to a two story room donated by Scottish Rite to house displays on the various aspects of George Washington: farmer, president, general, family man, etc. Pretty cool room, though after seeing all the George Washington photos being hilariously captioned right now, I couldn't take many of them seriously.
Then it was up to Knights Templar chapel, complete with replica suit of armour and real 800 year old sword. And finally the observation deck, currently colonized by bees.

I wandered "through" the Andrew Jackson Lodge Room on my way out. There are two lodge rooms in the building, one is currently being used by a Lodge and OES Chapter. Might have to add that to my list of things to do... But the Jackson room is not currently in use. It's massive and huge and beautiful and hopefully my Lodge still has time to make alterations to their nearly-complete building. :) 

ARCHITECTURE OF AWESOME

Of course, wandering around old buildings necessitates photos of cool houses. For your viewing pleasure, I present the following:

Near the Scottish Rite Temple

 

This one had a side yard (rather than a backyard) with a selection of benches and a fountain.

Near Dumbarton Oaks

EMBASSIES!

Grenada

Congo

Eritrea

Nicaragua

Belarus

Namibia

Montenegro

Zimbabwe?

Argentina

Botswana

Jamaica

Ukraine

"I'm from Chi"

Taking advantage of the three-day weekend, I headed to Chicago to meet up with my Georgian friend from Tartu. It was so nice to be around someone who knows Tartu again; someone to reminisce with, someone who gets my "Ohooo!" references. She made this most excellent point for all the people who want to be shown around Tartu: in order to show someone Tartu you have to show them our group dinners, Tobi Tours, games of Mafia, etc. Anyway, Tartu is thousands of miles away, and we were in Chicago! 

We did plenty of wandering over the weekend, but spent Saturday evening on the river. My friend's a photographer, so I actually got pictures of me this time! In addition, I tried my own hand at some fancy shots. 

We wandered through Millenium Park and found the Red Bull Illume exhibit, showing photos of athletes around the world. We were fans of this epic photo of a cat with a cyclist reflected in its eyes when we noticed the photo was taken in Tallinn by an Estonian photographer. Eesti wins again.

We picked up some Panera Green Tea <3 <3 <3 on the way home
and snapped the evening away to the Addams Family, bonding over our love of cheese.

The morning began with the Willis (Sears) Tower and its famous Sky Deck. The elevators are packed. I'm not the biggest fan of heights, but I figured I could totally manage this. My head has 100% grasped the construction of the Sky Deck, the fact that hundreds of people go on it every day, etc. etc. I was staring down 103 floors down as the people in front of us took photos and was totally fine. But, of course, the moment my friend ushers me out there... I made it, took some photos, did some weird scooting around so I never had to look down, and moved on with my life. Then I did it again, with the two of us on different decks so we could take photos of each other. But I survived!

You might be able to spot the Sky Deck at the top of the tower.
Sticks out from the building.

We stopped by a tea shop and I managed to only walk out with three new tea flavors. I'm counting it as a win for self-control. Next up was the Cloud Gate (Bean). Here's my friend's favourite photo, and as the photographer I've deferred to her judgement: 

Followed by the Riverwalk (after passing a police protest and have a subsequent discussion),  a Chicago hot dog (her first chili dog), and parking it at a bench by the harbor.

Fish were jumping, boats were sailing, lakes were being Great.

We meandered through streets, and found our way into the line for the Hancock Tower Signature Room. After waiting around, we made our way to a table and ordered before rushing to see this amazing, not-to-be-missed bathroom. I'll admit, the view was much better than the one from our table:

Straight out of a bathroom stall.

After leaving the Signature Room, we were starving. She was threatening to kill the other L passengers for their snacks. But the goal was Giordano's Chicago-style, deep-dish pizza. There are shops all across the city, and we had to travel to find one that wasn't crowded. By this point, we haven't eaten in a very long time and anything is going to be amazing, though waiting the 45 minutes it takes to cook the pizza might kill a few folk. We downed the cheesy bread so fast it probably scared the other diners. But we received this gorgeously cheesy pizza. I even took a video of the cheese pull, as per cultural mandate. Two pieces was plenty (in addition to the cheesy bread) to completely satisfy our starving stomachs. And we were sooo ready for bed.

I've seen every episode of "Sirens" on Netflix...

Downtown Chicago from the air, heading back to D.C.

Not only was it fantastic to see my lovely Georgian friend again, since she'll head home and I'll have to find my way to Georgia to see her, but it was nice to feel comfortable again and just hang out with someone. It was a feeling I didn't notice I was missing. I don't remember the last time I felt so at ease and I miss my friend, and Chicago, already and all over again. <3

Union Market

I really only did one thing worth mentioning this week, which I'm deeming perfectly acceptable because next weekend will be busy. 

I visited Union Market! Turns out, we chose the perfect weekend to do so, because the Washington City Paper was hosting the "Crafty Bastards" arts and crafts fair. The interior of the market had lots of food, but now I know where to get my sourdough fixin'. There were coffee shops, baked goods, fish and oysters, and a cheese shop. Cheeeeeese.......

The art section had a surprising number of faux taxidermy displays, plenty of cool posters, and a lot of jewelry booths. There was even a tea shop from San Francisco with excellently punny tea names. 

I resisted the urge to spend all of the money, and instead spent some money and collected many business cards. I bought a hand pie, a giant orange macaron, ...

and a ring. And then I ate a ton of Taco Bell. How beautiful is this Taco Bell? :)