As much “culture” and “history” as I got yesterday, today was a totally different story. We got our next Ethiopian taxi driver to shuttle us to M and Wisconsin Sts. The mecca of shopping in the DC area. I was excited just because I had never been to Georgetown. When I was in college that was at the top of my list (though my father limited my choices to colleges in surrounding states -- hindsight, he gave good advice).
After seeing my old friend (at Banana Republic) we strolled down to Dean and Deluca (on of my favorite places) for a quick breakfast. The organic fruit was excellent -- hadn’t had pineapple that fresh since Hawaii - tasty. It was a tad bit cold. The store was super cozy. But the coffee shop outside was a lean-to building. It was a steel structure with those windows that roll up when the weather is good. The weather was not so good and it was chilly out.
Though the atmosphere was cold due to the temperature, it was also very cosmopolitan because stylishly dressed people were sitting around enjoying their coffee with their dogs. I miss the city life sometimes.
We left our breakfast and found our way into the labyrinth of the magical shops of Georgetown. It took me two tries to find the Anthropolgie store -- my new favorite store -- in Houston I bought the slinkiest long purple dress and here I found a great little Frenchie sweater. (And some great Paris books -- I broke my book boycott, but technically they are travel books and don’t count as “reading” books.)
In the line I made fast friends with a very nice local lady, who had a great purple fringe purse, purple coat and purple boots -- I had my purple wool coat and LSU shirt. She gave me bunches of tips as to where to go in Georgetown - shops and restaurants.
We wandered down to Cady’s Alley - there was a cute little European-ish cafe at the bottom of the stairs. This was the end of the street with the contemporary home decor and furnishing shops. Though I am very traditional/ antique person, I would love a place with modern chic furniture -- maybe a small flat in Paris with a silver sofa and technicolor pillows. And check out this wicked bathtub -- it does look difficult to get in and out of though.
On our continued journey through the streets of Georgetown, we had to watch our steps because there were cobblestones in the streets and alleyways. Some of the buildings had historic markers -- George Washington slept here, ate here, took his boots off here.....
There were lots of trendy students out and it had warmed up when we were on the sunny side of the street. A few streets had beautiful autumn colored trees, with very expensive cars parked along the sides.
Our next big stop was a vintage shop -- one of my friends had to be dragged in. We stayed the longest here and found a few treasures -- a wallet to match my purse and my sister a very stylish Christmas present (sorry Princess I am not telling you what it is). They had some wicked red cowboy boots that I controlled myself and didn’t buy -- but they would have gone over perfectly at Whisky River Landing. My friend, Angel, bought some beautiful black knee high boots -- got a deal on them too. The one we dragged in found a great cashmere sweater for $20.
Found a great new shoe line -- Camper from Spain. They had these amazing light purple and gray boots - but they were scuffed. So I was good. (Looked online and couldn’t find them.)
We continued up to Wisconsin Street to the Apple Store -- of course on iPhone 4Gs and for them to check out the iPad is 4 hours - not happening. So many cute shops and I found a cool motorcycle too.
Finally we got to rest our feet at Cafe Milano -- a Georgetown take on an Italian cafe - they even had a reproduction of a Milan subway map on the ceiling. I love a place that has Ernest Hemingway quotes on it’s wine menu (but didn’t he like beer and liquor better than wine?). Going with my theme of the trip -- I tried something not on my normal repertoire, squash ravioli. It was very good, I am getting used to this trying new menu items. The food here was great, the service... um... maybe not so much.
my friend's plate.
We manned up and decided to at least walk by all the rest of the stores. And I gave my first panhandler money in 15 years -- he deserved it with this outfit -- I should have gotten picture with him.
he had a great smile too and witty.
Snap :)
We flagged down a taxi - surprisingly one of my talents and I am only 5 foot 2. On our ride back I thought we were passing the Watergate apartment complex-- and the taxi driver confirmed it for me. I guess reading all my Margaret Truman books pays off when you are in her city. (Those are one of my favorite mystery series.)
We hit the room and had to recuperate -- carrying all those bags was tiring. We really needed to bring some men with us to help us schlep our bags.....
My friends had a big invitation only party. Bright adventurer that I am, took my life into my hands and walked up to Union Station by myself (yes mom). I had to get dinner and their stores were open until 9:00 p.m. Found a few bargains (how were we going to get all this stuff home?).
The way there wasn’t bad but I walked swiftly back to the hotel through our seedy neighborhood --- I put on my LSU shirt and piled up in the room for the big game. As LSU kept messing up, I flipped channels between the game and the Closer. I saw the last few plays and then just threw the remote to the other bed. I could handle watching the end. Thank goodness I wasn’t in a sports bar with a bunch of strangers watching this. Nailbiter to the end. Less than a minute after the field was filled with purple, my friends walked in from their swanky party.
Here I was expounding on the slow but tense game and they had stories to tell me about an elegant evening at the Supreme Court. All in all it was a good day.
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