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U.S. Tour Issue #5, March 12, 2003

Greetings from the Northeast, land of a million potholes, some big enough to hold a few car tires hostage.

You can tell how bad this winter has been around here by the quantity and size of the potholes, I believe. I feel like I'm driving an obstacle course when I'm out in my car. There is also still some snow on the ground here, and dirty mounds of it piled up against curbs and in parking lots.

I enjoyed the last stop of my journey, the Washington, D.C. area, though I really was beginning to miss the warm Bay Area weather. It got quite chilly in D.C., with one of those knife-like wind chills whistling through any cracks in one's winter clothing, shortly after my arrival. This was a dramatic change from the spring-like weather I had just left in Chesapeake, Virginia -- it was feeling downright tropical on the morning I drove out of there. But alas, the further north I went, the colder it got. Arctic fronts and all that.

I was able to spend time catching up with Amy, a college friend whom I had last seen at her wedding six years ago. Her husband, Steve, was off on a mountain climbing expedition in the Adirondacks with some friends, but returned on Monday evening, so I also got to see him as well. I spent Monday traipsing around downtown D.C., seeing sights I hadn't seen in prior visits to the area.

The best by far was the Library of Congress, where Amy gets to go everyday to conduct research for a fellowship. The entire building had been restored in 1997, so everything appeared shiny and new. It was quite a spectacular building (the Jefferson building, there are several others that also house materials for the Library nowadays), done in a high Renaissance style, with marble, mosaics, paintings, statuary and stone carvings galore. There were even putti (stone cherubs) along the main staircase, against the railings. Beautiful.

I next wandered to the Botanical Gardens, also recently renovated and reopened. Nice and warm in there, with lots of orchids and even some other flowers in bloom. A very relaxing place, with different areas for different types of plants, ranging from jungle to desert.

Although tired, I next braved the cold to walk to the other end of the Mall to go to the Freer Gallery, just next to the Smithsonian, and see some Venetian pastels by an American ex-pat, J. Whistler, done in the late 1890s to early 1900s.

All in all, a full day of culture.

The final drive to my Mom's house in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, was very unexciting. Snow flurries accompanied me for the first few hours out of D.C. and into Maryland and Delaware, but were gone by the time I reached the New Jersey Turnpike, very familiar territory for me from childhood summer vacations in Virginia Beach or Ocean City, Maryland. Lots more cars, with more wacky drivers than I had encountered during most of my drive across country.

I'll be here in New York until March 23rd, when my plane takes off for Italy -- assuming neither weather nor war interfere. I've got finances to get into shape, magazines to read, Italian to practice, and some time to spend visiting family and friends in the area.

My next missive will be coming from Italy. Maybe by then I will have a framework for an updated web site and can begin posting letters and photos there.

Until then, on this page are a couple of photos from Washington, D.C. for you to enjoy.

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