#43 Boston - The Big Move April 1 2006

It is done! I am moved and Oscar and I have comfortably settled in our new abode in Cambridge, Mass. I know this sounds like a world away, but it is a mere 1.4 miles from my old place, and I will start my future workdays with a nice morning stroll. The big event took place this Wednesday - I got to drive a big-ass ten-foot truck and even Oscar chirped wildly during the ride. The condo docs got signed on Tuesday, not though before a slightly crazed 24 hours where it was not clear if the monetas would get wired in time. Someone from the real estate posse surrounding me forgot to say that I needed a certified bank check for the process, so when I finally learned about it, panic set in. After a great deal of confusion accompanied by gesturing and some not-so-nice words, I finally tracked down my financial planner at the Philadelphia airport and the right wheels got set in motion. We made it with a whopping 45 minutes to spare and I was handed the keys to my kingdom. Who says buying a house was easy!

Moving Day went smooth, thanks to the expert help of my friend Rick, who managed to pack my entire "estate" plus bike in one truckload and a minivan. Later in the day my fabulous friends from the Running Partners arrived, armed with beer, pizza and their unpacking skills. Bubble wrap was flying, boxes were flattened and in no time the place looked as if I actually lived there. I have already explored the neighborhood a bit, made friends with Diego, the neighbor's dog, the lovely Mrs Irene Lopez next door and of course, Luigi, the owner of the convenience store on the corner.

Two days later I find myself on the road again, this time in Washington, DC for the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. I arrived here Friday dog-tired with a whopper of a cold, sore throat and all, and it did not help that some stupid drunk set off the fire alarm in the hotel at 2:45 AM and we all had to traipse down 8 floors to evacuate. Of course the minute we hit the lobby, we were told all was well and we could go back up. Figures.

I am staying at the historic Churchill Hotel (www.thechurchillhotel.com ) near Dupont Circle, a lovely old place - it was built in 1906 in the Beaux Arts Style and boasted " every convenience of a high-grade modern hotel in conjunction with the restful quietude and exclusiveness of a private residence". Across the street is the Washington Hilton, famous for being the site where John Hinckley Jr attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan in 1981. (BTW, did you know that Ronald Reagan was originally offered Humphrey Bogart's role in Casablanca?]




Considering that I felt like crap when I arrived yesterday I decided to do things the easy way and join the Old Town Trolley Tour and learn a little more about our capitol city. The tour was phantastic, it was a balmy 75 degrees, the cherry blossoms were out in full force (www.nationalcherryblossomfestival.org ) and our tour guide managed to rattle down at least 60 embassy names over the course of three city blocks for which he received a standing ovation by his very enthusiastic trolley audience.

Our journey through DC started in the Kalorama neighborhood and took us across the Taft Bridge (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Howard_Taft_Bridge) named in honor of the twenty-seventh US president Howard Tuft (www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/wt27 ) (who apparently was quite a rotund fella at times, and at one point ballooned up to 350 pounds). On the way we passed the Chinese Embassy, which in its former lifetime was a hotel where rat pack members Frank Sinatra was one of the regulars. The Omni Shoreham around the corner, where I had the pleasure of staying last August is yet another one of DC's historic hotels and its Blue Room apparently the place to see and be seen. During the last "British Invasion" aka the arrival of the Beatles in the US, the Omni was their hotel of choice. JFK and Jackie used to hang around as well during their romantic days.

Next was Cleveland Circle, named after former US President Grover Cleveland (www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/cg2224 ), who was the only prez to ever get married in the White House. Apparently he wed a gal 21 years of age (Francis Folsom, in June of 1886), who was his protege or foster child or something like that.

The National Cathedral (www.cathedral.org/cathedral/discover/gallery/shtml) is the 6th largest cathedral in the wolrd and it took 83 years to build, which in church building terms is not a huge amount of time, we were told. It is flanked by three of the nations most prestigious educational institutions, the St. Alban School of Boys - www.stalbansschool.org/home - (Al Gore went there), the National Cathedral School for Girls (the Roosevelt daughter went there) and the place where it all begins, Beauvoir Elementary. For a mere 25,000$ a year you can send your young ones to this elite venue. The Cathedral is also the place where Woodrow Wilson is buried, the only president to have been laid to rest in Washington.

After zipping down Embassy Row (170 embassies in DC, with Russia and the UK being the largest) and learning from Tom the Tour Guide that a Belgian beer recently won a wine contest, the highlights just kept on coming: the US National Observatory (www.unsno.navy.mil) with its 50 atomic clocks, the Dumbarton Bridge with its giant buffalo statues, the Church of the Pilgrim (a site for the film "The Wedding Crashers") and finally DC's jewel, Georgetown (www.georgetowndc.com ).
Founded in 1751, almost 40 years prior to the emergence of Washington, it is wonderfully quaint, with its brick building, cobblestones, old tram tracks and postage-stamp-size buildings. We learned that the reason many of the houses were so narrow was that homeowners were taxed by the are of the house facing the street, so less was better. Many celebs housed here in Georgetown, including Liz Taylor, the Kennedys, John Kerry, John Edwards and even our own Alexander Graham Bell, who for obvious reasons needed to be near the US Patent Office. The Georgetown Fine Arts Commission makes sure that the quality and character of Georgetown is preserved and imposes strict rules as the exterior of residences in the area. Georgetown University is the Alma Mater of Bill Clinton, who BTW was the only prez to go to college in DC.

Heading past the Watergate Towers, which are now synonymous with the word scandal but still considered prime real estate and count Condalezza Rice, Bob and Elizabeth Dole and Placido Domingo among its tenants, our travels continued on Pennsylvania Avenue past the World Bank and the IMF and within a block or so of the White House. Since the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing access by car is restricted in the area and you have to hoof it if you want to see the facility up close and personal.

Also impressive is George Washington University who after the federal government is the largest landholder in DC. When Ronald Reagan got shot he was taken to the George Washington Medical Center for treatment. He addressed his attending surgeon (Dr. Joseph Giordano who was a liberal) saying "I hope you are all Republicans" to which the doc replied "Today, we are all Republicans."

We saw the place where Lincoln got shot and the J Edgar Hoover FBI Building, which apparently will re-open its doors for tourists again in 2007. The FBI used to have tours in the old days, and most of the guides were actually FBI agents in training, and on two occasions they actually caught felons from the FBI's Most Wanted List. How stupid do you have to be to go on a tour of the FBI when you are on the Most Wanted List, huh??

We rounded out the day with the Walk of Fame, the Warner Theater, the National Museum for Women in the Arts (Did you know that many of DC's museums are free?), Farragut Square (David Farragut, the first soldier to ever have bestowed the title of admiral to him and famous for the quote "Damn the Torpedos, Full Speed Ahead." the Mayflower Hotel (where J. Edgar Hoover ate the same lunch for 40-some years, every day) and back to Dupont Circle.

What has always confused me in DC is the street naming conventions, but Tom tells us that there is a certain logic to it. Apparently the higher up in the alphabet, the further away from the Capitol you are. All avenues are named after US states, except for California and Ohio, who have a couple dinky streets somewhere around here. There is no J Street, and to avoid confusion with 1st Street, I Street is spelled "Eye" Street. Makes sense, right?

As to the final DC tidbit - there are more than 50 churches on 16th Street including the 19th Street Church, who apparently did some moving around, but decided to keep its name.

So that was my guided tour to DC for you - back to the conference, where I am perking up thanks to a massive amount of Tylenol and cough suppressants.

Have a good weekend and see you back in Boston.

Petra