Istanbul Turkey Photos to Share

Too many photos and too little email space!  This post made especially for our families.  Enjoy!

Our first day there! Strolling by the river

Hagia Sophia

Antes de morir quiero _________

Good morning!  Something fun from last night-  While walking home from a delicious dinner I ran into a group of people pondering this renovation wall that had recently gone up.  As I got closer I realized that someone had put up a “Before I die _______” and “Antes de morir quiero _______” mural and left chalk for people to fill in the blanks!  I called Alec and had him join me on the corner (Q and 14^th).  We spent the next half hour reading others’ answers and adding our own.  Answers ranged from the most ridiculous (Before I die I want to own taxidermy…) to very personal (Before I die I want to see my children grow up.)  As you will note, the board was almost completely filled.  Alec put me on his shoulders so that I could get a top spot!  You’ll see ours below:

A: Visit Middle Earth

$2 Tickets and $1 Hotdogs

Our view- Go Nats!

Yesterday a group of us went to the $2 tickets Nationals game.  If you haven’t been to a game yet, I highly suggest making the trip whether you are a baseball fan or not.  Weather was perfect and what better way to spend a Tuesday than with friends outside.  The game is an added perk. 

Another perk is the Bull Pen, an open beer gardenish area outside the park.  Live bands play before the game and you can usually find a few corn hole games going.  The Bull Pen looks out over the metro so after the game it’s a great place to hang out and watch the crowds thin.  

Since I haven’t focused on food in a while, I thought I would mention my love of hotdogs.  I am not a huge meat eater, but the nostalgia of being at the game, eating a dog, gets me every time.  While looking for a photo to exemplify this dog love (with ketchup, mustard and chopped onions) I found this article.  Sigh.  I hope that drinking DC water has upped my stomach immunity!  Props to the Nats for being name dropped as a healthy food stadium!  Do you think my hotdog is included?    

An overall great evening.  Tonight is $1 hot dogs if you’re interested.

Ps: Part 2 of the OC Guide is on it’s way sometime this week 

Music and The Veranda

On your walk home you may see:

NASA

Did you see the space shuttle yesterday on it's flight to Dulles?  Dan and my dad did.  Check out their amazing pictures taken from the Mall and DC WASA (hence the construction!).  

The Space Program's been a talked about topic in my office thanks to Dan, our space program aficionado and resident history graduate student.  Hard to believe that the era of space travel is (only temporarily I hope!) over for the US...  

Do you have fond space memories?  My favorite dates back to our Florida vacation.  Staying in Cocoa Beach on Disney World trips, waking up at sunrise to catch the space shuttle launch.  As a ten year old it was pretty awesome...  Actually, as a 26 year old that would still be pretty awesome...  Other perks of that trip?  The armadillos!  "Space" dots ice cream!  Signing space junk (or this big wall thing??) that was going up in space!  

Don't forget to match your stache

Movember's transcended November! (What is it? Moustaches worn during the month of November to raise awareness of prostate cancer)  I decided to post these funny photos from a friend's birthday this weekend.  For some reason whenever posing with the moustache I had the need to go for the serious/silly face?!  Hmmm...  Anyways, thanks Mich for providing us all with outfit matching staches!

It's a Bird... It's a Plane...!

I was actually going to post on something totally different when my colleague sent me this article about flying cars!  Supposedly they are meant for businessmen who don’t want to worry about airport hassles.  That’s one way to solve the problem.  Next up: Ruby Slippers that teleport you to work (baggage fees included). 

 

While up in New York visiting Alec’s family last fall we ran into an Amphicar out on the Hudson.  Instead of air travel, they swim.  Who knew they had been around since the 60’s?!      

My preferred mode of transportation?  My feet.  I am a diehard, stubborn walker.  Unfortunately, it limits my radius a bit…

Amphicar in Paris

German Amphicar Club

A Perfect Date Day

Following up on my first post, I had a chance to visit the Harry Warnecke exhibit yesterday after pancakes and coffee.  It was fun/funny to see some far out characters...  Can anyone explain why women used to wear the nets over the faces???  That was a big theme.

Little did I remember that The Art of Video Games was also there!  I loved seeing old school games exhibited.  WOW technology has come really far... Alec loved the show and had been waiting for it to come to DC so it made for a great day.   For those gamers out there, there is A LOT on Mass Effect.  They also have cool phones that you can listen to the bios/interviews on and you can play some of the games.

We rounded out our visit with The Black List, a series of photographs of prominent black artists, politicians and role-models, among others.  Artist, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, writes that the art and documentary that he produced is "of twenty prominent African Americans of various professions, disciplines and backgrounds who offer their own stories and insights on the struggles, triumphs and joys of black life in this country and manages to re-define “blacklist” for a new century in the process. The film is presented as a series of vignettes – a kind of living portraiture – in which the subjects address the camera directly as they tell their stories."  I dug his meaning and stylistic approach.  Read more on his project here and the other art that he does. 

Off to Miami tomorrow! 

Peace House

Yesterday something unique happened.  I was invited into the Peace House for a talk that an international author/saxophonist was giving on peace.  Lured in by the promise of music and the quirky peace pole and friendly people greeting me outside I thought I’d give the talk a shot and went in. How did I find myself here? I just happened to change up my usual walk home.  

When entering the house, you feel history... as well as a bit of controversy.  The raw brick walls and wooden staircases of old DC are still there, among brochure tables and a corner for speakers to perform.  Little did I know until this morning while googling away that the home was actually owned by Thomas Hallenback, aka permanent White House fixture and professional activist.  If you’ve been by the White House, you know this guy.  Currently, the Peace House is home to a few Occupiers (and Concepción- Hallenback’s old friend) who run workshops and talks out of the home on peaceful protesting.  

On this day, the room was full of young occupiers and a large number of “middle-classish”, middle agers who had come to here what the author had to say.  Was that a reporter I saw in the corner too??  Not what I expected.  The talk ran long and alas, I didn’t get to hear the music.  I did leave content with my decision to stop and listen.  Did I agree with all of the ideals and lifestyles there?  No.  Did I agree with some of them?  Yes.  Would I stop by again?  Maybe. 

I wanted to include a picture of the "stage", as I'll call it, where the events are held.  Alas, my usb chord hasn’t come in yet!  This picture is from occupypeacehouse.org.

Nick at Nite

My first post!  I thought I'd break ground with a few old memories that have compelled me to walk downtown to catch some art soon. 

My priorities circa 1995: Food, Friends and Sleepovers.  To elaborate, I mean TGIF, Nick at Nite, living room late night fort construction, “vegging out”, prank calling, knock and run, fla-vor-ice…  You know, the good things in life.

For the sake of this post, let’s focus on #2 from the short list, Nick at Nite.  After TGIF, this was our late night go to.  It was "cool" to watch these strange black and white shows and let’s face it, Nickelodeon was a daytime fav, so why not stick with a good thing at night too?

Whatever the age, there is a certain allure to black and white and the first color television shows to come out.  Either you lived though it and came to idealize the times or can’t imagine what it would have been like to have ONLY black and white, three tv channels and no internet...  Yes kids... No internet...

The Portrait Gallery snagged a few of these first pictures.  Check out the famed Harry Warnecke’s perspectives on the transition from black and white to color:

photos by www.dailymail.co.uk

Read more on Harry here.