Karen's Visit and National Arboretum

On Sunday, March 11, Karen came to visit me and I was so excited to have my first guest! I meet Karen at Reagan and then we made our way back to my new apartment. I showed Karen around and what she liked most was all the amazing seating on my rooftop.

On Sunday evening Karen and I went a church and then we went to Old Town to have dinner with my friends Gina and Mike, to celebrate Mike's birthday at Mai Thai. 

On Monday, Karen and I had a lazy morning and then used the Capitol Bike Share to bike the 3 miles to the National Arboretum.

Neither Karen nor I had been to the Arboretum so it was a perfect adventure. The Arboretum is huge and while most everything is still dormant it was so much fun exploring and finding the few flowers that have bloomed. 

This tree branches look like camouflage

Seeing columns in the middle of the Arboretum was unexpected. Kind of looks like you would find in some ancient city. The columns are not part of a ruin but are rather 22 of 24 original US Capitol columns.

At the Arboretum is a beautiful section called the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum. The flowers in here smelled amazing and the Bonsai are so spectacular.

The most amazing smell, ever! Love it!

For dinner Karen and I had dinner at Matchbox in Chinatown and then we decided since we biked 6 miles and walked a few miles that we deserved a sugar attack and had our one and only Shamrock shake of the year. I have to have at least one Shamrock shake a year - it reminds me of something my grandma and I would do.

I wanted to show Karen the rooftop at night where you can see the Capitol Dome and the Washington Monument - it is beautiful! Karen figured out the fire pits. When the weather warms up a bit the rooftop is going to be amazing!

And true to what we do together we played Phase 10 and also Karen played a few games of Backgammon with me (where she won every single time!).

Normally I would stay with Karen at her hotel but I don't have anyone to watch Princess and give her insulin and for the first time ever I was actually closer to work by staying at my place. Karen and I were able to meet up for dinner on Tuesday night at Shake Shack and on Thursday night at Matchbook. 

It was so amazing to hang out with Karen, it is always such a joy to spend time with someone who knows me better than myself.

DuPont Underground

Another bucket list item checked off the list - DuPont Underground.

DuPont Underground info taken from here. "The DuPont Underground comprises 15,000 sq.ft. of repurposed infrastructural space less than a mile from the White House. It lies beneath the city’s iconic DuPont Circle, a nexus of Washington’s cultural, civic, and commercial life. There is no other space like it in the District. ​

Opened in 1949 as a trolley station, 15,000 sq.ft. of underground platforms and tunnels were closed off in 1962, when the city’s streetcar system shut down. Other than designation as fallout shelter in the late 1960s and hosting a short-lived food court on the west platform in the mid-1990s, the space has remained empty."
 

As I mentioned in a previous post, Stephanie and I have a bucket list of items we want to do in DC. Our first was the Blind Whino and our second was DuPont Underground. Most of the events at DuPont Underground are out of my budget, but Stephanie found this event for only $10 :) The catch - it was at 10pm at night. I'm old. But I need to be more adventurous so I said I would go and I am so glad that a I did! It was such a unique experience. Only in DC would you attend a party in an abandoned street car tunnel with graffiti on the walls.  

New and old fiends.

The event was a mashup of a DJ and the Washington Chorus. It was so much fun!!! I wish the Washington Chorus would have preformed more, but what they did preform was beautiful!

Loving this DC Bucket List adventure!