Here’s my friend Elizabeth’s recomendations for Must-Visit DC:
Peregrine Espresso
http://peregrineespresso.com/
Their coffee is amazing! and they individually brew each cup. When you walk in you don’t feel like you’re in DC at all. And it’s right by Eastern Market which is really fun.2 Amys Pizza
http://www.2amyspizza.com/
Their pizza is very authentic and so, so delicious.Pitango Gelato
http://www.pitangogelato.com/
Their gelato is extremely tasty and it’s made from grass-fed organic milk.Teaism
http://www.teaism.com/
I love their Palak Paneer and their salty oat cookies are famous for a good reason. And their star of Africa rooibus tea is amazing!!
I’ll add more stops when I get a chance.
And here’s my iPhone photo slide-show with commentary in captions:
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- Motorcade went by, for the third time. Busy guy.
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- Huge cool puffy clouds of chandeliers.
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- Most of the materials in the restaurant are reused.
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- My sweet aunty Liz, with the LEED symbol behind her. We waited for 1.5 hours so we could get a big nice table so that the Guayaki gents and Congressman Polis could connect. I crashed, falling half asleep wedged between bench and wall. Fun. Still, it was great to catch up with Aunt Liz a bit!
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- I went to Founding Farmers, a greenish restaurant, which I’d mentioned in blog a few months ago. http://www.elephantjournal.com/2009/08/green-restaurant-101/
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- Everywhere. We don’t hate ’em, tho, not anymore: http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS118464+03-Jul-2009+PRN20090703
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- Starbucks everywhere. One of the only cool indie cafes, Tryst, I didn’t get a chance to get to this time ’round (only in town for two nights).
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- Parking is expensive…for cars. For bikes, and bike share participants, it’s free or nearly so!
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- The President and I. He didn’t say much, frankly was a lot more, well, shallow than I expected. That said, he was patient and a great listener to all my problems. A real honor!
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- A lot of the cabs were various kinds of hybrids. All that idling? It’s now way greener.
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- The last name at the Vietnam Memorial.
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- A family etches the name of a loved one.
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- Reading this, I nearly cried. Our country, our patriotism, isn’t about blind devotion but rather individual freedom.
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- Everyone always standing, posing.
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- My first view of The Man himself.
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- MLK Jr.’s view, that day.
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- Amazing.
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- Lincoln’s stony-eyed view.
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- The old monuments so much more beautiful and inspiring, in general, than the new ones.
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- The only memorial I really had time to see was the Lincoln Memorial, my favorite. It’s heartbreakingly noble, sad, proud.
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- Not just the monuments, but the trees and greenery and so on are gorgeous. Photos don’t capture well.
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- A lone seagull. My name means seagull in some Celtic language.
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- Amazing thinking of all the stuff that’s happened here.
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- The new WWII monument that Tom Hanks helped get in on the Mall. Features all the states.
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- Rain, rain.
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- Me trying to look as tough as the Washington Monument.
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- Adam Shake of twilightearth.com and I. Like meeting a longlost brother-in-green-arms.
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- My aunt Liz and I! It was a cold, rainy day but she trouped through all the sites with me.
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- It’s one place where those horrible touristy photos are excusable—the whole city feels like a secular shrine, a political pilgrimage.
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- My first view of the Washington Monument.
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- The motorcade. It’s so fast, hard to photo.
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- Leaving the lunch, I went for a walk on the Mall with my Aunt Liz, who had come up from Richmond, and Adam Shake. We saw the President’s motorcade for first of three times.
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- The Founders. Notice the elephant sticker!
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- Alex looking at their biodegradable packaging.
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- The founders, making their special Ache mate for us. It’s made by an indigenous tribe in Paraguay, took six years to get first crop to market. Now that’s mindful, slow growth.
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- Green New Media unite!
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- TIME Magazine recently did a feature on Guayaki’s work.
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- The Paraguaian ambassador talking about Guayaki and what they’ve done for his country and people.
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- If you can read these photos of their slides, it’s well worth doing so.
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- Alex, one of the founders of Guayaki, flew up from Argentina to help David, at left, with the presentation.
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- I got to hang with Treehugger, Twilight Earth, and learn much more about a company I’d known for years but hadn’t realized was walking its talk in a way few green companies are inspired to do.
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- The Guayaki presentation begins over a delish lunch.
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- Waylon and the Gipper.
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- Views of the Capitol pop up at you all the time, whether you expect it or no.
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- Beautiful quotes everywhere on the building that make you stop, look up, pause and read.
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- Woodrow Wilson gets a plaza. Behind, Reagan gets the whole building.
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- They need help—protecting our beautiful land and air and seas is a tough job.
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- This photo fails to capture how vast this four way subway entrance is…it looks like something out of Bladerunner.
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- Jared at our dinner. He’s amazingly accessible, answered his phone every time even when didn’t know the number calling.
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- the tweet re my “appearance” on House Floor.
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- Walking into the gallery above the House floor, Jared Polis was speaking, he said “…as my constituent Waylon Lewis, owner of an online publishing company…” as a part of his discussion of healthcare. It went out on CSpan, and my name was uttered in that historic hall where the State of the Union occurs, and so many decisions have been made over past hundred two hundred years. I felt like a 12 year old boy in Yankee stadium for the first time, only moreso. I’m a big West Wing fan, and political nerd, I nearly ran for Boulder City Council, and I love the USA—our vision, ideals—even as I treasure my right to criticize our people’s government. Afterward, we went to the Democratic Club, a private club with really awful vegetarian options. It was an honor and pleasure to get so much time with Jared.
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- Got in a photo of the amazing floor before the guards confiscated my iPhone. Strange that you can’t take photos in the “People’s Capitol.”
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- A rather nuttily enthusiastic gent at the Capitol showing me poems he’d written.
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- My first sight ever of the Capitol.
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- We went through the metro, on the way to meet my friend and Congressman, Jared Polis, who’d invited me to the Capitol!
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- I was met at the airport by ex military man, now big green journalist, Adam Shake of @twilightearth. Great guy. Bad photo, my bad.
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- In DC for first time! At age of 35. The Reagan airport, named after a man that used to send shivers down the spines of Boulderites, but now is remembered more and more fondly with each passing year.
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- Ran into Deva Premal and Miten in the airport, they’d just advertised their concernt in Boulder on elephantjournal.com, I’ve interviewed them once before. Invited them to appear on Walk the Talk Show, they were enthusiastic about connecting with a big green-minded audience.
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- Barely got this shot with my iPhone…fields of solar panels.
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- The next morning, Miss Cash drove me to DIA airport. Fields of pumpkins signaled that is was, indeed, Fall.
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- The marquee at Fox Theatre.
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- The night before I hopped on the plane to DC last week, New Era Colorado and elephantjournal.com co-hosted a forum for the Boulder City Council candidates. Afterward, the Dovekins (our Walk the Talk Show house band, we’re honored to say) and Ryan Van Duzer and our own Lindsey Cash, and others, got pizza (reminiscent of high school). It was a late night.
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- From one of elephantjournal.com’s talk shows a year back—Congressman Jared Polis, then running for office for first time, connects with our crowd at the historic Boulder Theater.
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