Back in Madison in Sept

Back in Madison..

We came back to Madison for a few days on Sept 14th. We needed to clean the house, and check the water level in the dock. You can see the Lake Mendota (mouth of the Yahara River) high water level pictures Anne took back in August.

Ack and Anne also had to catch up on some work related items and meetings. All fun. We enjoyed being back here and noticed that there are fewer people than in DC. What an observation!

But mostly, we came back as Anne was helping to organize our first community fundraiser to establish "Margaret's Fund: A Northside Scholarship." This is named after Margaret Ackerman Sparks, Ack's sister.

Alyssa Kenney (the executive director of a Northside Madison community center) and Anne have been working to establish this fund for the past year. They've had good community support (over $6,000 raised so far towards a goal of $10,000). While it's still developing, the scholarship fund will give a minimum of one $500 scholarship to an applicant chosen by a committee. After it's well established, we will give out more. The scholarship will go to someone who is either a graduating HS senior, someone already in college, or an adult going to college later in life (like Margaret did). The person will have lived on Madison's Northside for 4 years previous and have overcome significant hardship (language, health, financial, etc). A committee of Northside business and community leaders will choose the recipient.

We are now off to Amsterdam for a meeting and a little touring.

The Neighborhood

We live in a wonderful two-story house at the junction of two Arlington neighborhoods, Cherrydale and Maywood. Both have a real sense of community and identity. Cherrydale is going to have a Neighborhood Parade on September 22, which we'll miss unfortunately. Maywood had its annual block party last Saturday, a feast of fun for dozens of little kids. Along with a potluck and desserts for a Bake-off, the featured food was kabobs from the neighborhood favorite, Tarbouch Mediterranean Grill. The kabobs were lamb or chicken with four different excellent sauces.

Cherrydale is a historic district listed with the National Register of Historic Places, filled with 19th and 20th century revivals. Historic markers dot the streets. It has a wonderful assortment of services to walk to. Closest to us is Safeway, just one block away. We're enjoying its terrific wine selection, decent assortment of organics, and a machine where you can rent a DVD overnight for $1.49. One block west is Cherrydale Hardware, an old-time hardware shop where a useful staff person asks to help you as soon as you enter. Upstairs is the Cherrydale Masonic Lodge; we're not joining. Next door is the Sun and Moon Yoga Studio where Ack now go on Wednesday morning. We roll out of bed and five minutes later we're at the studio for a 7 am class. Ask to see our pigeon pose! Next in line is a Thai restaurant we haven't tried yet, mainly because they've had the same whiteboard sign in their front window at least since we arrived: "Special Today! Soft shell crab!" No, thanks. Next is Hair Vogue Salon where I got the longest haircut I've ever had (long in time duration, not in hair length). As usual, Ack couldn't tell I'd gotten it cut but then neither could Paddy. Around the corner is Portabello's, an excellent little restaurant. I had a delicious Parmesan crusted cod dinner on Tuesday and Ack enjoyed his sauteed shrimp Provencal.

Those are the delights to the immediate west. My favorite destination to the east is three blocks away, the entrance to the Martha Custis Trail. This is a winding off-road trail that parallels major roads and highways for miles before connecting with still more paved off-road trails. Last week Ack and I biked from the house east along the trail down to the Potomac where we connected with the Mt Vernon Trail. Dodging many Saturday morning joggers, we rode south along the river, past National Airport to Washington Sailing Marina. Today I headed west on the trail, winding through parks and along a creek on a circuitous route to the public library. Some of the trails are former rail beds with consistent elevations; not the Custis Trail. The grade on some of its hills is so steep that one biker described it as "a real roller coaster." The same can be said for the streets in the neighborhood; lots of hills, some amazingly steep to walk up and down.

A treasure that I discovered while biking to the north of us one day is the Potomac Overlook Regional Park, a place that is very well funded by the look of the infrastructure and programming they offer. To the south are the nearest Metro stops, shopping areas, post office, and heaviest traffic-not my favorite part of Arlington so far.

Weather

Weather for the first two weeks of September can only be categorized as "Two shower days". If you are working outside on a weekend, then make that three. Highs have been in the upper 80s and low 90s with, what I would call, high humidity. Lows are higher than the Madison high temperatures. The area is in a drought which is bad for vegetation but better for us commuters. Anne watered some of the outside plants over the weekend as they looked wilted. I look forward to fall.

The area finally got some rain on Sept 10/11, so the weather has finally cooled down a bit and humidity is much lower.

Day 7

We took the Metro to Dupont Circle so Anne could attend Friends Meeting and then meet Ack for the Phillips Collection. At the top of the escalator, while looking for Connecticut Ave, we instead found a fabulous farmer's market. Two blocks long, it was filled with great looking produce, fish, breads, flowers and cheeses. We were delighted to learn that it runs all year round.

Because we weren't prepared to carry produce around for our day of touring, we bought only a loaf of bread. The line for this vendor, Bonaparte Breads, was dozens deep and for good reason. The "bruschetta" loaf was like "country" bread, hand-shaped, a light brown roughly textured crust, creamy off-white interior with a texture that bounced back to the touch. It tasted great at dinner.

The Friends Meeting was in a wonderful space on Florida Ave, with the simple meeting room large and airy. About 80 people were present; both the silence and the shared inspirations were meaningful.

Walking the three blocks from the meeting house to the gallery, we discovered a neighborhood filled with embassies, museums, amazing 19th century mansions, and art, such as a statue honoring Mahatmas Gandhi outside the Indian Embassy. The Phillips Collection is a block-long series of buildings with an impressive collection of modern paintings. Some pieces that I really enjoyed were Paul Klee's "Arab Song" on burlap, Jacob Lawrence's "Migration of the Negro" panels, most things by Maurice Prendergast because of the bold colors, and Childe Hassam's "Mt. Beacon at Newburgh" which was painted on the back of a cigar box and had such luminous light. The premier piece in the collection is Renoir's "Luncheon of the Boating Party."

After several hours of soaking in the visuals and rambling the Phillips' halls, we left and headed to the National Mall for a visit to the Black Family Reunion, an event I'd heard about for years and never thought I'd get to visit. There were lots of informational booths, music and dance by local performers, food and free give aways. We left with fans from the FBI, towels from Freddie Mac, and shuttle pins from NASA. We ran into folklorist Jim Deutsch, who will be curating the NASA program at the 2008 Smithsonian Folklife Festival. (The photo is an example of what won't be in the Smithsonian's NASA program.)

We ended the day with watching "Volver," an odd but charming film starring Penelope Cruz, and enjoying a glass of Ferreira 10 year-old tawny porto.

Day 5 - A commute

Being new to the Washington DC area, I used the DC Metro trip planner to make my way to work. The plan was simple. Leave home at 8:02 to catch the 3B Bus at 8:08. Take the bus approximately 2.5 miles to arrive at the Rosslyn Metro station at 8:18 am. This would give me 8 minutes to catch the Blue Line so I could arrive at L'Enfant Plaza at 8:37. From there, I'd catch the Green line at 8:44 and arrive at Branch Ave at 9:03. One hour door to door. Well, the 3B never showed up, but the 15L did at 8:18. But since the 3B was apparently not running, the 15L was very crowded. Each stop brought on a new batch of passengers with driver requests to those already on-board to "move back", which drew responses of "We're all the way back!" By 8:35, the time I should be finishing my first train ride, the bus was stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, occasionally pulling over in attempt to take on more passengers.

At about 8:45 I gave up on the bus, got off at a stop and proceeded to walk the last 1/2 mile to the train station at a pace faster than the bus. I arrived before the bus, cleared the turnstiles and could see from the rider board that the next Blue train would arrive in 5 minutes. I boarded the Blue to get to L'Enfant Plaza to change trains to the Green line towards Branch Ave. The next train was a Yellow due to arrive in 1 minute, followed by a Green in 7 minutes, followed by a Green in 9 minutes, and yet another Green in 9 minutes. While an inexperienced rider, I suspected that three Greens in a row with two at the same time could not be good. A loud speaker voiced, in a sound that echoed in the tunnels making it difficult to hear, but distinct enough to know that there were delays along the Green line. At 9:25, 22 minutes after I thought I'd be leaving a train, I boarded the Green line. By the time I was sitting on the green line, a fellow passenger commented "Running a bit slow today."

I arrived at 10:11.

Days 3 & 4

Ack went to his first day of work. Took the bus to the metro, total door to door time was about 70 minutes. The office NOAA originally had for me was changed; the new one is more private and a nice south-east view. Unfortunately, that meant no computer and no phone. At night we went to another restaurant within walking distance. Pasha Cafe on Lee Highway, a Persian cafe that was very good. We both had eggplant, since we had a bad eggplant year in our Wisconsin garden. Ack's eggplant was covered with a ground lamb sauce and Anne's was in a delicious moussaka layered with zucchini.

Wednesday Sept 5: Ack worked at home in the morning - catching up on emails - and then went to Silver Spring to meet with a NOAA group working on the Satellite Capitalization plan. We ate dinner at Cassatt's - A Kiwi Cafe, a recommendation of friend Paddy Bowman's and a very short drive from the house up Lee Highway. Ack had a nice house salad, the dressing was tasty but I could not tell you want it was! The lamb as in general good, although a piece or two of the kabob were a bit dry. The kiwi and mango sauce that went with the lamb was very tasty. The potatoes were good and vegetable delicious. The cafe was decorated with art work from local artists in the Arlington Artists Alliance, which were varied, nice and for sale.

Days 1 & 2

We arrived in Arlington on 9/2. An affable Tony the Cat greeted us. We settled in quickly and spent the next day, Labor Day, relaxing with daughter Alana who's been living in DC for almost a year.

A highlight on Monday was shopping at the huge Unique Thrift Store in Falls Church where Ack got ties and handkerchiefs, Anne got fabric for her quilt, and Alana found two great coats. Back at the house, Alana pulled out the DVD "Big Trouble in Little Chinatown," a movie that started out serious then joined the rest of us in laughing at itself. Two of several memorable lines: "We really shook the pillars of heaven" and "I was born ready."

After dropping Alana and her new treasures at her home off 16th Street, Ack and Anne enjoyed a great meal at Zed's, an Ethiopian restaurant on 28th Street in Georgetown. (DC is a major locale for Ethiopians in the US.) Ack had the Spinach and Rice with Chicken Infillay and Anne had the vegetarian sampler, which included 1) Cauliflower, string beans and carrots in stewed tomatoes, 2) a DELICIOUS puree of yellow split peas mixed with onions, green peppers and garlic, 3) Red Lentil Miser Watt with a spicy red pepper sauce, 4) chopped sauteed collard greens mixed with onion and garlic, and 5) cabbage with carrots in a nice sauce. We shared a bottle of Hakim stout, a dark sweet Ethiopian beer. If you're familiar with Ethiopian food, you'll know that we ate the entrees with injera, a spongy round flat bread, slightly sour due to the fermenting of the teff flour used in making it. We appreciated the hand-wipes our waitress brought us at the end of the meal! Sitting outside on the clear warm night, we enjoyed watching the busyness of M Street at dusk.