T Minus 89 Days: The Sunday Drizzle

Not too much to report for Sunday. We decided to bail on going in to New York for the afternoon before heading to Washington D.C. because it was raining pretty hard and we figured once we checked out of our hotel, we would end up soaked if we walked around the city and we wouldn't have any way of changing clothes before the drive (ok, Barb figured that out, I just agreed with her perfectly logical reasoning ;-)

The drive to D.C. was uneventful, save for the first really rude person we have encountered on our trip, that being a discourteous young toll-taker at the Delaware Memorial Bridge who was yacking on her cell phone while I tried to ask her for a receipt. After having to ask her three times to get her attention (the third time in a not so polite manner), she turned to me and barked "You could ask nicely!" (which of course I had twice, but she was too occupied to notice, sigh).

We pulled into Jessup, Maryland, about 25 minutes from D.C. and checked in to the La Quinta Inn. Not anywhere near as nice as the Radisson (and for the same price!) but way cheaper than staying directly in D.C. (pretty much the same story as NYC) and more than acceptable.

Since we had slept late, we were pretty rested and decided to see if there was any theater we could take in on Sunday evening. Turns out there was plenty, and we decided to see The Heidi Chronicles at Arena Stage. If you've never been to the Arena, it is a terrific professional theater in the heart of SW Washington (near the Jefferson Memorial). They have two stages, the main one being the completely in-the-round Fichandler Stage. I saw a wonderful production of Animal Crackers (the Marx Brothers musical that the movie came from) here about 9 years ago and this production of Heidi Chronicles was easily as good (albeit somewhat sad at the end). Great theater at a great price (rush tickets were $28 each for row C). I love in-the-round theater when it is well-done and the director of this show did a fantastic job making sure that everyone in the theater (and it is big, over 450 seats) had a great and fairly equal share of the downstage action.

We ate at the theater's cafe, but I wouldn't recommend that if you go. The food was fairly expensive and while it was pretty good, it was served fast food style. If I am going to pay $20 or more for a meal, I'd prefer to not have it served in plastic trays with plastic utensils and wine in plastic glasses. There are plenty of restaurants in D.C., go there and then go to the theater.

That's about it. We have been out of Internet contact in D.C. (the hotel had wireless but it was down the entire weekend!) so I am catching up on blog posts. Look for more in the next few days. (Meantime, we are already in Hatfield and this morning, which is actually Wednesday, we are headed to Nina's to start looking through the archives! We can't wait!)

Peace,

Jon