Notes from the East Coast

The mission was simple: 2 weeks on the east coast visiting friends and cruisin around Washington DC, Philly, Providence, and New York. James and I flew out to DC, rented a car, and drove all over the place. In two super fun weeks, we crossed into 10 states. And you east coasters will have to pardon my Californian surprise, but let me say it again: We drove through one fifth of the states in this country in two weeks. And we weren’t driving 10 hours a day. We were chillin.

Besides being hilariously disoriented by the size of states there, one of the biggest and most glorious surprises was the diversity of climate and culture between the places we went. We got a taste of the south in DC and Virginia with sweet tea and confederate flags and a flavor of New England munching on fried shrimp and clam stuffies on Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island.

DC :

I had forgotten that Washington DC feels like the South- sticky warm and dripping with sweet tea, broad avenues with lush and proud trees. It was James’s first time in Our Nation’s Capital…And within half an hour, his mouth was dropped at the buildings we were passing by: Department of the Treasury, United States Department of Agriculture, Federal Reserve, the Capitol. THE buildings you hear about all the time, but rarely get to be in front of.

James and the Capitol finally meet Fresh off a red-eye, we took a nap outside of the White House (and peeked in at the organic garden that is growing on the White House lawn!). Of course, I had to jump up groggily (yet not without an excess of enthusiasm) and wave at “Obama” as a motorcade went into the presidential manor’s gates.

In the two days we were there, we crisscrossed the National Mall to take in as much as we could. Capitol Hill, Nancy Pelosi’s office, the gallery of the House of Reps, the Smithsonian Air and Space museum, the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials at night, the National Gallery of Art’s sculpture garden for some jazz, and more. After hanging out for a few days, we both came away with a few impressions, minding you that we were mainly downtown, which is full of tourists and government workers, ie:  not where people live.

east coast 044

Both James and I were surprised by the lack of government workers on the street at 9am, which in SF’s Financial District is a busy time. From talking to a friend of ours who lives in DC, we figured out that people tend towards workaholic in DC and probably get to work earlier than that. We also noticed, but were not too surprised, that life in DC is absolutely drenched in politics. Conversations we heard, politically savvy taxi drivers, every radio station, tuned into the business of running the country.

It’s pretty insane to be in a Disneyland-like-in-its-cleanliness-and-beauty city and imagine that it is from there, that the broad, sweeping federal policies for 50 states are administered. Refreshingly, standing next to those Big Buildings made them seem small to me- touchable. The people walking into the doors of those Buildings were just people.

All in all, James and I walked many miles each day and couldn’t help but talk about politics and bringing our country closer to the ideals it was founded upon. When you’re standing at the foot of a fifty-foot-tall white marble Lincoln, its kind of hard not to.

Next week: Philly

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