A visit to Washington, DC.

We promised to add to our last post on this Blog but never did it…our apologies.  Very briefly, we spent a wonderful week in London last March after house sitting in Coltishall for 6 weeks (but still haven’t made it to Belgium), then returned home to Asheville and continued to work on our house and yard.  We are especially interested in getting the water to flow AWAY from the house, which obviously hadn’t been a priority for the people who have lived here in the past.

And, here’s a report on some more recent activities . . .

Susan subscribes to 2 house sitting sites:  MindMyHouse.com and Housecarers.com and gets emails from them every day.  Because of allergies we don’t even look at the house sitting situations that require pet care so our options are much reduced.  But every now and then…..

On August 27^th we left Asheville for Washington, DC…and another house sitting gig.  A really neat woman who owns a condo in Falls Church, VA – a short walk from the DC metro – left for a hiking trip in  Ireland and Spain and we moved in to care for her home.  We were there until Sept 30 when we returned to Asheville for a couple of weeks. 

We thought being so close to Washington would give us a really good opportunity to get to know the city and nearby, something we never did in all our years in NJ and NY.  And it did and we had a blast especially in the city – we were on the go most every day.  The most amazing thing about this city (among many) are the Smithsonian museums – they are all free, open every day except Christmas and are filled to the rafters.  Their collections are surprisingly well presented.  And we are very impressed with the employees – all knowledgeable, kind and pleasant. We were not back a week when they all closed down as did much of DC – our niece tells us that restaurants are offering discounts to federal employees and are charging congress people extra!

The Washington Monument is still being repaired from the earthquake damage.

Here’s a list of some of the things we managed to do…..all of which we would highly recommend if you get to visit for a time –

• Lunch at the beautiful Kennedy Center on the Potomac, dinner too and several performances both free and not…including a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, a dance performance by Teshigawaro and his Japanese dance troupe Kaaras AND the Gospel Awards where Congressman John Lewis was honored – he is the last living person who spoke at the 1963 march on Washington – he captured our hearts with his brief remarks.
• Smithsonian Castle – surprisingly there is not much in this building but a good place for snacks, to rest your feet and to people watch – everyone comes into this building it seems.  Susan thinks they are missing a huge opportunity as the gift shop here is not very exciting, but some of the other shops in the other museums are wonderful.
• Renwick Museum – a great collection especially a wonderful sculpture of a clock that looks covered in fabric but is all wood!
• Museum of American History – including a great exhibit on the 50^th anniversary of the march on Washington and an interesting special exhibit of the gowns First Ladies have worn to Inauguration Balls … how many of these past presidents have you lived through?
• Natural History Museum – saw a 3D iMax film of butterflies that just blew us away…also a super interesting exhibit on the human Genome – and took another quick look at the Hope Diamond.
• Toured the Capitol and the fantastic Thomas Jefferson building at the Library of Congress and walked in the Eastern Market/Capitol Hill ‘hood.
• Went to the Phillips Collection, to KramerBooks in the Dupont Circle area, and to the street festival in the Adams - Morgan ‘hood.
• Went out on Rt. 66, to one of several wine trails in Virginia, and tasted at 4 delightful wineries.
• Sackler Gallery and the Freer Gallery both have wonderful collections.
• The Udvar-Hazy Air & Space Museum in Chantilly, VA – a sister museum to the one on the Mall.  The one in DC has a super 3D iMax of the Hubble telescope and its pictures of deep space – try and find a place to see this, it’s just breathtaking.  It also has the front end of a DC-7 – the plane Susan flew between NYC and Flint Michigan when she was working in the retail business – here’s a photo of the inside where she and her associates used to work on the 5+ hour, hugely noisy flight that shook the fillings out of your teeth - she doesn’t remember taking a typewriter, but they did carry heavy “unit control” books.     
  
  
  
  
• Spent a day at Mount Vernon (George’s house) – and ‘Old Town’ Alexandria which is a quaint shopping, restaurant, gallery place…they have converted a torpedo factory into an artist space for working and selling – a great idea and a very fun place.
• Saw a visiting Jamaican Boys Choir and small orchestra on the plaza at the African Art Museum – the exhibits here are just beautiful.
• Saw a day of performances at the American Indian Museum and loved the unusual building and the exhibits –the café with many yummy choices of food from the Americas is pretty special.
  
• Couldn’t get enough of the Hirschhorn – and its sculpture garden…love that place!
• Had brunch in Georgetown, walked the streets and watched the kids play in the fountain at water’s edge; drove under the amazing Chinatown Archway.
• Couldn’t miss the Smithsonian zoo and the pandas!
• Spent a day in Annapolis and took a trolley tour.
• Went to the new Arena Stage building and saw “The Velocity of Autumn” with our niece then had a fantastic dinner at a nuevo Indian restaurant – Rasika.
• Walked around the monuments that fill the Potomac Park/ Tidal Basin area – monuments to ML King, Abe, FDR, Jefferson and the amazing and very moving Korean War Memorial.
• National Gallery, both the East and West Galleries – The Ballets Russes film and exhibit are really amazing and if this comes to any area near you GO!!!  There are other exhibits that are out of sight as well, but the Ballets Russes takes the cake.
  

When we weren’t running off to the next “attraction” we managed –

• Dinner with niece Patricia, a real mover and shaker in DC, and her beau Andrew, at Estadio, we had fabulous tapas and a stunning bottle of wine from an Italian winery owned by a friend of theirs.
• More meals – a couple of brunches and tea – with niece Patty at some of her other great favorites.
• Even did some cooking and shopping (especially at Costco since there is not one in Asheville).

We spent the last few days poking around some more (we still have a pretty long ‘to do’ list – a month is just not enough time!!), sweeping the large terrace, dusting and running the vacuum around the house before packing up and driving back to Asheville.  We’ll only be at home for a couple of weeks – we’re going to drive up to Connecticut for David’s 55^th high school reunion.  It is fun for Susan, too, as she was only 2 years behind him and knows most of the folks pretty well.  On this trip we’ll stop in Raleigh to see Kendra & Jim Golden, go up to Cape Cod to say hello for a couple of days to Bev and Bruce Nightingale, stop for a night at Susan’s brother’s in CT, spend a couple of nights with Payson & Chris in NYC and enjoy seeing a bunch of folks at a reunion of sorts at the Ridgewood Unitarian Society.  Then home - until the next adventure ….

Hoping you are all well and happy and are enjoying the crispiness in the air that greets the morning sun with a feeling of anticipation, a new season has begun.  Harvest days are ending, winter is drawing near, yet in between is surely the most special time of (fill in the blank)....

Two Chapters: 2012 Move- Jan 2013 in the UK

Two Chapters follow:  One about the house (very brief except for some photos) and the other about our current house sitting adventures (a few photos) we will post more about this trip to the UK later

We moved into the house at 14 Cedarcliff Circle, Asheville, NC 28803 a few days before Thanksgiving and had a wonderful “Gratitude” party on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  We painted and painted those strange colored walls,  George and his helpers got our "Big Dig" filled in, a new deck built and the land regraded...

  and we worked with the contractors on getting the ‘popcorn’ ceilings smooth, the bathrooms done, the stairs rebuilt, the floors done, etc - we are ready for guests and have had it tested out by our kids at Christmas time and the Goldens for New Years....reports are that it's comfy, so come and try for yourself!!

 – and we just got all the windows and some of the doors replaced finishing the day before we left for England and our 6 week house sitting gig!  (Having covered some furniture with sheets.)

But. the current news is about our house sitting task - this time is to mind a 300 year old B&B in the very East of England while the owners visit family in Australia.  There will only be one guest, who comes and goes as he pleases and takes no meals.  A cleaning person will see to his room, so for all intents and purposes, the B&B is closed until the owners return on March 1.

This part of England is new to us, and we are quickly finding that it is full of unique and interesting cities, towns, geographical features and human artifacts.  We are in the county of Norfolk (pronounced “Norfook” here) - an unusual feature of the area is the Norfolk Broads (not to be confused with the women who lived in Susan’s hometown in Norfolk, CT).  These are lake-like bodies of water that were created when people in the middle ages dug peat for fuel and then these areas filled with water.   They, along with the many canals and rivers are now enjoyed for recreation often in the form of canoeing and water cruising.  Who knew?  

Our B&B is in the village of Coltishall, on the river Bure, which connects with the Broads in several places.  It is a lovely little river, and the property here adjoins it.  

Coltishall is about 8 miles north of Norwich (pronounced “Norridge”), where we arrived by train from London on 14 January.  We wandered around the periphery of the city of about 110,000 wondering where we were since there are zero road signs.  By sheer luck we found our way to a mid-city shopping center and a phone store where we activated a five year old British cell phone.  Now we can order Indian takeaway from the shop down the street and loan the phone to Bev & Bruce Nightingale who will be visiting the UK in May.

When we left the phone store it was dark, and snow began to fall.  We found the right road, got to our destination and met the owners of The Bridge House.  We took them for really good food to the Recruiting Sergeant gastropub, a 6 – 7 minute walk from the B&B.  More snow fell the next morning, and movement on the roads began to slow.  The road through this wee village rises to cross the river, and a long line of vehicles formed as one lorry couldn’t get up the grade.  As we watched the action from the front windows, villagers emerged to throw sand on the road and push cars to get things moving again. 

Our hosts left two days later, after teaching us as much as they could about the house, the associated buildings and the supporting systems.  You can see it all on their web site at www.BridgeHouse-Coltishall.co.uk  Most of the space is not insulated and it has been COLD here –we’re told this is the worse that’s been seen in at least 10 years.  We are mindful of heating costs so are keeping the heating off in most of the house but comfy in a small area – the “Snug” – that is equipped with a great wood/coal stove.  We are learning how to manage this, and we’ve been left a substantial supply of coal and wood cut to just the right size.

In spite of the snow, we’ve been to a couple of grocery stores several miles away and to the laundry as the drain pipe for the washer froze creating a mess.  The plumber was in Brazil and the electrician on a skiing trip, so we contacted the heating contractor who came that evening. The washer drains to a long, bent and inadequately supported outside PVC line and it froze in the low spot.  They shored it up with an upside down flower pot found nearby and proclaimed it a very professional fix.  We await warmer weather so we can do laundry without the drive to the unheated laundromat.

We’ve done some other driving around especially along the shore from Gt. Yarmouth (a funky summer resort town with a really interesting church), up to Cromer (where the crabs are legendary but out of season).  The countryside is beautiful, very rural with lots of windmills, lighthouses, beautiful old churches and ruins.  Many of the houses are “flinted” – covered with small, flat stones placed one at a time in the mortar covering the entire exterior.

We promise more in a few weeks - the owners of Bridge House return on 1 March and we don't fly back until 9 March so are considering a whole host of possibilities before returning to the States....London is high on the list, but so is Belgium where Susan's grandmother was born - we don't know anything about the "Timper" family except that they were from Belgium where we have never been.  Hugs all and merry winter!