Day Five: Are They Still Alive???? (By Kim)

Okay... between cranky internet and a busy end of tour, I got a little behind on the blog posting! Here is a recap of Day Five:

My life in luggage... Of course, this doesn't include the rest of the musical gear, which was in the car!


This is the outside of Kramer Books/Afterwords Cafe, which we checked out when we arrived in D.C. We found parking at a lot a block away that was only $16 for the entire day. Woo-hoo! We left the car and took the Metro to see the monuments.


Here is the view down the escalator into the Metro. Up until this point the steepest escalator I'd encountered was at the Porter Square T stop in Somerville, MA. This one was like being at Porter Square and the Museum of Science's Omni Theater all at the same time. I had a hard time deciding where to look so I wouldn't feel nauseous and trip down 9000 escalator stairs.


I was feeling a little artsy as a train passed ours while we were waiting to leave. Snapping this shot made a woman sitting near us scoff, "Newbies!" LOL.


The Lincoln Memorial as we approached.



Naturally I had to zoom in on Massachusetts!


Even though it was 9000 degrees out, we were not alone in visiting Linc.


The famous spot where MLK stood.


View of the Monument and reflecting pool from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.


I hate taking a bunch of pictures of inanimate objects and no people, so I made sure I had Becks grab a shot of me--also for scale!


Approaching the Vietnam Wall. It's massive.


Self-explanatory.


The theme of the day seemed to be "reflections." Here's a self-portrait in the shiny surface of the Wall.


Far too many names.

The Vietnam Wall is impressive. I've wanted to see it for a long time. I have to admit it loses a touch of its impact when you're crammed in amidst a bunch of school kids and whatnot, but it's an impressive design nonetheless. I'd always thought it was a free-standing wall, but it's not. It's built into the earth on a slope (like a grave, as Rebecca pointed out), and you walk into it, with the names reaching higher and higher until they are over your head and you're just surrounded by them. It's heart-breaking.


The Atlantic side of the WWII Memorial.


And the Pacific side.





The Monument from across the WWII memorial.




I have to say, no disrespect to the memorial or its honorees intended, but it was HARD to be surrounded by so much water on a day SO hot and sunny and not be able to touch it at all. We did sit for a few minutes and catch some spray when the wind blew the right way.


Here's one of the two of us... taken by the two of us! (We used a trick my sister has employed for years now.)


Aren't we cute? :)


This guy had a lot of balls... LMAO.


I took this picture so I'd remember what the building was, because I knew I'd never remember otherwise...


...it was the Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building.


Not the best picture, but I wanted to document my first encounter with magnolia blossoms.


The pink arrow is pointing to the security guy on the roof, who could probably see me taking his picture. Luckily he didn't shoot me!


I was prepared for a deluge of protesters all around the White House, but there was only this one woman, quietly holding a peace vigil.


I was humming "The West Wing" theme the whole time I was snapping pics. I just couldn't help myself!


It's kind of hard to see, but there are a whole bunch of birds and squirrels huddled around this tree doing their thing. I couldn't help but think that the only thing missing was Snow White or someone, chatting it up with them.


Hm... where have I seen this guy before? Oh, yeah...


Ha!

So we had a long, hot, interesting day in the sun, and I was thrilled to see the monuments up close for the first time. We took a cab from the monuments back to where the Metro was because I was just SPENT. Then we took the Metro back up to Kramer Books, walked our stuff around the block, and loaded in.

Interesting venue. It's a bookstore downstairs, with a cafe on one side. UPSTAIRS overlooking the book store is a small seating area, which adjoins an even smaller performance area, overhanging the book store. It was kind of like playing the crow's nest of a ship.


View of the store from above, where we were playing.



The best part was that between the seating area and the performance area was a railing that separated the two. The only way into the performance area was to step over the railing (which you couldn't really do when people were sitting at the tables alongside it) or to slide under it.


I initially had to go with the slide-under option, and once I landed ever so gracefully, Rebecca just had to capture the moment. I would have done the same thing.



View of the performance area from the upper seating area. The speaker with our merch info on it to the right delineates the end of the performance area. So basically it was just big enough for the two of us and our instruments.


Rebecca getting into a song.






Love the way this blurred!


Becks and I are with John Campbell, from Independents Uncovered on WGMU--the station that had interviewed us on Monday night. What a sweetie he was to show up and support us live! We rewarded him with a t-shirt.



Aw...


The photo we never knew was taken... John snapped this as we walked away with our hostess for the evening, Rebecca's friend Amy, and her boyfriend Mark.

After the show we grabbed some grub at a nearby restaurant, and then Mark and I drove to Amy's, while Rebecca and Amy caught up in a taxi. (Mark and Amy had taken the Metro to the show, and with all our gear we couldn't fit the two of them in the car). We were jokingly racing each other across town, until about two blocks into the journey, when I realized we were right behind Rebecca and Amy's cab! We followed behind for most of the way, and then a red light spoiled all the fun. I watched the cab zip away and Mark navigated the rest of the way to Capitol Hill.

When we got settled in Amy's apartment, we noticed she had left gifts for each of us. Sweet, crazy girl! She was the one putting us up, letting us take over half her apartment, and she was buying us gifts.



And what a fabulous gift indeed! I love giant mugs--they are so good for so many things. And the bonus was that I had told myself I couldn't buy any souvenirs because it wasn't in the budget, and so it was extra perfect that Amy provided me with one! Amy, you rock!

P.S. Thanks to both Amy and John for taking pics of the show! :)