Hello Everyone! It’s been a quiet and lazy week here in Washington D.C. I had hoped it would be more productive, but it’s been nice to get some rest and not worry about anything too much. It’s always great to be home, to spend time with friends and family, to work out at my local gym and to know where I’m going to sleep every night. Those things aren’t as sweet when they are your everyday normal, but after six months on the road they are a welcome respite. I’ve been trying to clear most of my stuff out of Shadow Catcher this week as I plan on bringing much less with me when I depart in January. I definitely brought too many things I didn’t need and didn’t use with me in June and I plan on cutting it down by half over the next few weeks. I’ve also been catching up on my photo editing and I think I’m just about done with my Minnesota photos. This week I hope to get those photos into my existing galleries and into state-specific ones as well. I also started taking a look at the road ahead – at some of the places I want to visit in Arizona and New Mexico and also at where I will be working next summer (as by then it will be time to refill my coffers). The weather has been pretty good this week as well, but again that is less noticeable and less consequential when I’m off the road. I have gotten out to see and do some cool things this week, though, so let me share some of that with you here.
Last Wednesday I went with my friend Carolina to see the Garden of Lights at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton. This is a wonderful holiday light display in an outdoor, walk-through setting. It was much bigger than we imagined it would be and we really enjoyed it. It definitely put me in the Christmas mood and it wasn’t so cold out that we had to rush through it.
On Thursday I headed down to see Bob Dylan perform at Anthem, one of Washington’s newer music venues and one which I’d never been to before. Before the show, I went to check out another new-to-me spot, the TNT Tiki Bar at The Wharf right down the block from the venue. As far as tiki bars go, it wasn’t great, but it was a nice enough place to stop in before the show. I got some happy hour snacks which were tasty but really tiny and one cocktail which was pretty ordinary. The bartenders were friendly and attentive, though, the atmosphere was pleasant enough and the beers were cheaper than most of the other bars in that neighborhood. Anthem did a great job of getting people in the door, but it was far bigger than I imagined it would be. Washington D.C. is a great place to see live music because we have some awesome mid-sized venues that accommodate between one and two thousand people – enough to attract bigger names, but small enough to still feel like an intimate setting. Anthem seats up to 6,000 and with the standing-room ticket I had, it was anything but intimate. They also had a small army of security staff who moved me along from any spot I found where I could actually see the stage. If it had been a bigger band, it probably still would have been alright, but Dylan just seemed to get lost in such a big place. He put on a good show for an 80 year-old, but it would have been much better in a significantly smaller venue. I’m glad I saw him, but I would really hesitate to go back to Anthem. Give me the 9:30 Club any day of the week. Having spent some time in Dylan’s childhood town of Hibbing, Minnesota this fall, it was great to tie up my summer/fall travels with this show.
Friday evening, my folks and I went to a holiday celebration at Dumbarton House in Georgetown, one of Washington D.C.’s oldest homes. Now owned by the National Society of The Colonial Dames of America, the house has been restored to its early 1800s appearance when the first Register of the Treasury, Joseph Nourse, lived there. That evening they were offering a really wonderful evening tour of the property which was decorated for the holidays in the style of the Federalist Period (which is to say sparingly). The tour was great and very informative though and afterwards we enjoyed wassail and hors d'oeuvres on the lower level, accompanied by a wonderful two-piece band. Afterwards we went for dinner at Clyde’s of Georgetown, one of my favorite restaurants in the neighborhood. It was nice to find Clyde’s going strong with excellent food and service as I remember it. The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet, but we did manage to have a nice outdoor fire in my folks’ fire pit on Saturday night. On Sunday I went over to my friends, Sandy and Tom’s house for dinner. Sandy is one of my oldest friends, and the girl I took to my senior prom in high school, and it’s always great to see her and catch up. They made me a delicious dinner and it was great to see the work they’ve been doing on their house and to catch up on what they’ve been up to since I saw them in May.
The start to this week has been pretty low-key as well. I did whip up a delicious wild hog and shrimp gumbo for dinner last night which was fun. It’s always nice to be able to cook in my mom’s kitchen since she has everything I need within reach. I love my van’s kitchen and wouldn’t trade it, but it’s not a place for cooking anything but basic meals. I also went for my annual physical yesterday which was quick and to the point. I was really hoping for better results from my blood work since I’ve been losing weight and getting some good exercise all year. There was some improvement, but nothing to write home about. I’m hoping that I can continue living a healthy lifestyle in 2022 and hopefully by this time next year I can get all of my levels where I want them to be.
And that’s really all I’ve been up to this week, y’all. Tomorrow we are headed down to see A Christmas Carol at Ford’s Theatre which has been a family holiday tradition for many years (although we had to watch it online last year due to the pandemic, we did see it!). Then on Friday we are off to Rockville to see The Nutcracker performed by the Rockville Civic Ballet. It should be a fun way to really kick off the holidays and I am looking forward to these two shows and several more before the end of the year. Beyond that, I’m going to keep plugging away at my van and my projects and preparing for the next leg of my journey. I hope you’re all having a wonderful December so far and are staying warm and healthy wherever you are. That’s all for this week, but I hope to see you all right back here, same time next week. Thanks for reading.
-Mike