Spring Break
When my good friend Erik graduated from KU and got a job working in Washington DC, he said that I should come out and visit. It took me two years but I finally made the trip out and had an amazing time. I went out for an extended weekend, leaving on Friday morning and returning on Monday evening. I’d like to write about everything that happened, but since I don’t have the time (and I doubt you’re interested) I figured I’d do the Oscar style summary.
Best Food: This is a hard category, but it would have to be Erik’s grilled tuna steaks with sweet potatoes and caramelized onions, served with Russian River Valley Sauvignon Blanc. SO GOOD.
Kitty drinks the finest wine; uses a decanter.
Best Museum: AIR AND SPACE! AIR AND SPACE!
Spaceship One!
Natural History has never done anything for me; I’m an engineer, that’s how I roll. The Spy Museum taught me that our intelligence technology of the last decade was mostly spent making small cameras and microphones. The best was Air and Space. I spent two hours there I never even made it up to the upper floor. Note for the future: go on a Monday, when the tourists aren’t out in force.
Best Outing: Josh Lynsen were best friends through elementary school at Meadow Lake, but after he was accepted to the technology middle school we grew apart. Josh was an unashamed geek – he loved Star Wars, Transformers, GI Joe, comic book, and he didn’t hide it. I, on the other hand, was an ashamed geek, and kept my love of science fiction hidden from my peers in the hopes it would raise my popularity (guess how well that worked?). He also had the journalism bug from an early age, and was the editor of the school newspaper his senior year. After not seeing each other since high school graduation we re-connected on Facebook a few months ago, where I found out that he and his wife Annie live in Washington DC. We organized a Sunday brunch where I met them at Matchbox, a delicious (and spatially complex) restaurant in downtown DC. After two and a half hours at the restaurant and another few hours walking around DC, we had covered everything between how Annie met his parents to DC politics. It was a highlight of the trip
Josh and Annie Lynsen
Biggest Regret: Not getting a chance to go running around the capitol mall. The weekend I went was the first time all winter that DC had been pleasant, and the runners were out in force. I had brought my running gear with me but there wasn’t a good way to ride the metro 45 minutes to the mall, run for 30 minutes, and then ride the metro back. The DC residents probably appreciate that I didn’t ride back sweaty too. I did get a lot of walking in during my time down there, so much so that my calves hurt for days afterward.