This is a different kind of DC alley. . . . When I was in the Forest Hills neighborhood of DC on Monday, I glanced down an alley and was amazed at how un-alleylike it looked—more like a country lane than the DC alleys I am familiar with. So when I had to make a…
So there this acrophobic stood, gulping at the top of the stairs where a priest was filmed falling to his death in the final scene of the movie The Exorcist. In one hand, I clutched the railing; in the other, my iPhone camera. Georgetown University students, male and female with calves the size of baseballs,…
225 New Places seen in 225 consecutive days, since the start of 2018! I’m almost 2/3 of the way through the year and towards my goal!! Today I was introduced to the Forest Hills neighborhood, in what I call the “deep Northwest” of DC. This neighborhood is tucked just between two main streets that I travel…
Wow, I had to overcome serious resistance to go out and see today’s New Place. I spent most of the morning and a good part of the early afternoon out with friends at non-new places, so when I came home, and then the rain started in the late afternoon (busting my plans to go to…
Crossed the river into Virginia this evening to meet friends at this restaurant in Old Town Alexandria for dinner. Old friends and a New Place: Can’t beat that for a winning combination! I travelled lots of new streets to get here too! This place actually was the old fire station in turn-of-the-century Alexandria, with the…
Today was a very special One New Place! I splurged and treated myself to this insider’s tour of Washington Nationals Park. Now, Nationals Park and I are no strangers. I have sat my butt in almost every section of that park, including right behind home plate, thank you very much! But this tour promised a…
I have a dream that recurs occasionally: I am in a familiar building. All of a sudden, something opens up, a door, a hallway, and I become aware of a room or rooms in the building that I never knew about before. I love this dream—it reminds me that the world is always bigger than…
“Big as can be;” “Right in front of my face;” “As plain as the nose on my face” —all these and other clichés about being unobservant apply to today’s New Place, a large school right across the street from where I frequently visit a friend. All these years, I’ve only had the vague sense that…
You gotta love Mimi’s, where Yoohoo chocolate soda and Teavana sit side-by-side in the refrigerator. Yeah, Mimi’s creates a whole new space: Yoohoo-vana—a mash-up of traditional naughty convenience (ice cream sandwiches, Fritos, Yoohoo) and New Age, wholesome convenience (seaweed snacks, gluten-free cookies, dried fruit). It’s a mash-up of cultures too—Japanese rice cracker party mix,…
And sometimes, you just feel like a complete idiot. . . For example, when you discover that this amazing little museum has existed for 20 years (That’s two decades. . . or one score in Gettysburg Address language!) only half a mile from your house, and you didn’t even know about it! I only stumbled…