Filmfest DC Turns 30!

Hello friends, I invite you to join me at Filmfest DC — Washington’s only international film festival — celebrating 30 years! The festival opens Thursday, April 14 and closes Sunday, April 24. This year’s anchor venues are Mazza Gallerie and Landmark E Street Theater, with special screenings at the Embassy of France. Tickets are on … Continue reading →

Renwick’s WONDER

The Renwick Gallery is often overlooked in the kaleidoscope of DC’s free museums. The historic building, the first in the United States designed expressly to be an art museum, usually hosts crafts and decorative art collections for the Smithsonian American Art Museum. I must admit that I made it here a grand total of once or twice in … Continue reading →

Travel Theme: Pink

It is almost time. It may snow next week, but — no matter. The trees are waking up, the earth sighs with its first blooms, the birds are looking for mates. Spring is about to burst. And in DC, spring means Pink, like Ailsa’s Travel Theme this week, the pink of the cherry blossoms. My … Continue reading →

Visiting the Library of Congress Reading Room

Twice a year–usually on Presidents’ Day (February) and Columbus Day (October)–the Main Reading Room of the Library of Congress Jefferson Building opens to the public. The Jefferson Building is impressive on any day (here is what it’s like to visit), but, unless you have a Reader Registration Card, the Main Reading Room is accessible only … Continue reading →

Travel Theme: Dance

Dance is this week’s travel theme from Where’s My  Backpack? So, here we go, a collection of colorful frolicking from the months past. A king and the Maypole at the Maryland’s Renaissance Festival: Montresor and Fortunato, doomed by Poe long ago, stumbling over the bones at the Westminster Hall & Burying Ground: Performers practicing backstage at the DC Turkish … Continue reading →

Dumbarton Oaks: That “Chambered Nautilus of Gardens”

Dumbarton Oaks is one of Georgetown’s crown jewels, a grand home, a museum of Pre-Colombian and Byzantine art, and a symphony of gardens perched atop the old neighborhood’s highest point. This spring, I came to see the wisterias. The gardens are spectacular in any season, but mid-spring, I think, is my favorite. The aromas are tantalizing, but not yet … Continue reading →

Farewell, Cherry Blossoms

They budded, they bloomed, they floated to the ground. Here’s what the Tidal Basin looks like covered in a snowfall of petals, a charming farewell. More about cherry blossoms:  Waiting for Cherry Blossoms The Cherry Blossoms in DC Wisteria season (late April): Dumbarton Oaks: That “Chambered Nautilus of Gardens” Waterlilies and lotus blooms (June/July): Water … Continue reading →

The Cherry Blossoms in DC

Life is short like the three-day glory of the cherry blossom  These are the glory days. There are over 3,700 cherry trees around DC’s Tidal Basin. Most of them are Yoshino cherries (Prunus x yedoensis), renown for their tangles of single, white flowers, each one a simple star of five petals. On peak bloom dates, … Continue reading →

Waiting for Cherry Blossoms

Thwarted! Our excellent Sunday plan was to wake up early and greet the sunrise at the Tidal Basin, followed by a “walk in the clouds,” an early-bird stroll among DC’s famous Yoshino cherry trees, all abloom. We came, the Sun lazily obliged–but the cherry trees? After days of delay, they are still taking a rain … Continue reading →

Orchid Magic

I’ve been aching for some aliveness, something bright, and fragrant, and growing, so this Washington Post love letter to Orchids of Latin America, an exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History, cemented my weekend plans. A stroll through a tropical rainforest abloom–a fleeting visit to “the jungles of Costa Rica, the vanilla farms of Mexico, the conservation forests of … Continue reading →

A President’s Sanctuary: Lincoln’s Cottage

Three miles north of the White House and the Capitol stands the 19th-century equivalent to Camp David. Housed on the stately grounds of the Soldiers’ Home, a refuge for veterans since the 1850s, this 34-room Gothic Revival cottage offered summer respite to Presidents Buchanan, Hayes, Garfield, and Arthur. Its heyday, though, was in the 1860s, when … Continue reading →

“Obama Color”: The National Mall Prepares for the Inauguration

It is almost the inauguration. I wanted to see DC prepare for this grand happening, so we went to the National Mall. It was all dressed up–Obama, Obama, Obama EVERYwhere. We first headed to the National Museum of the American Indian for the “Out of Many”: A Multicultural Festival of Music, Dance, and Story, a three-day … Continue reading →

The DC Rollergirls: DemonCats, Bombshells, and Girl-Power Fun

I enjoyed Whip It, Drew Barrymore’s movie about a Texas teen (Ellen Page!) who ran away to join the roller derby. The soundtrack is one of my favorite “get up NOW!” aides. So when my friend suggested we see the championship games of the DC Rollergirls, the Federal City’s “all-female, amateur, flat-track roller derby league,” we went. … Continue reading →

Farewell, Year of the Dragon: DC’s Lunar New Year Parade

Growing up so close to China, I was inevitably exposed to the intricacies of its lunar zodiac, with 12 bird and animal signs, each one influencing the personality and fortunes of a person born under its care and setting the tone for the year. Ever since I moved to the US, I missed this part of … Continue reading →

“Igniting my Natitude” at the Washington Nationals Park

Washington Nationals, our baseball team, is in MLB’s postseason this year for the first time since 1933. Excitement is in the air, and it’s fun, even if I don’t fully comprehend what it all means. While my partner grew up watching baseball with dad, my brush with the Beautiful Game has been peripheral at best: … Continue reading →