Angelina M. Lopez
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Contemporary Romance Author, Hyperromantic
Restaurant Review: Rural Society
Right now, with kids at home and college saving plans needing attention, wrangling a reservation at the “it” restaurant isn’t a huge priority for me. But when I read the words “Argentinean steak house” in connection with Jose Garces’ new restaurant Rural Society, it quickly became a priority. There was nothing about the description that didn’t appeal: Argentinean – sexy; steak – yum; house – comfort.
Right now, with kids at home and college saving plans needing attention, wrangling a reservation at the “it” restaurant isn’t a huge priority for me. But when I read the words “Argentinean steak house” in connection with Jose Garces’ new restaurant Rural Society, it quickly became a priority. There was nothing about the description that didn’t appeal: Argentinean – sexy; steak – yum; house – comfort.
I was able to nab an 8:45 reservation on Saturday, and the long, sexy restaurant in the Loews Madison Hotel in Logan Circle was worth the hype.
Friends in our semi-private dining nook at Rural Society
The dining room offers a variety of atmospheres: You can sit in the hustle and bustle of it all near the front at wooden tables with a view of the grill fire, or go for a more intimate seat in the back surrounded by long, white curtains. Our party of four was shown to an enclosed, semi-private nook a few steps above the main dining room, equipped with our own bar (you can access that liquor with a word with your waiter. They’ll even bring you Manhattan fixings.) The nook was fantastic, like having our own comfy dining room in the middle of a posh restaurant.
Rural Society is filled with gentleman waiters who put on a show for you. Our waiter was a handsome Uruguayan with 18 years of experience working at French and Italian restaurants in D.C. He introduced us to the story of Rural Society when he came to our table – a summation of Argentinean food, recommendations from the menu, suggestions of how much to order. Different servers brought food to our table throughout the night, and each did it with charm and flourish. One of my favorite moments was when I asked for directions to the ladies room. A waiter offered his arm and strolled me in the right direction.
The menu offers a mélange of charcuteries, pastas, pizzas and sausages. And steak. Delicious, delicious steak. We took our waiter’s recommendation and ordered family style -- four starters, two steaks and a few sides. Of the starters, the Provoleta and the Sorrentino were my favorite. The Provoleta was aged provolone, served bubbling in its own tiny cast iron skillet, which you scoop up and serve over arugula. The salty, salty cheese with the peppery bite of arugula was fantastic. The ham-and-cheese ravioli of the Sorrentino were light pillows served in a Reggianito cream sauce.
The Sorrentino, ham-and-cheese ravioli in a Reggianito cream
The Washington Post’s Tom Sietsma said to order the ribeye, so we ordered the ribeye (Bife de Chorizo), and we enjoyed the ribeye. But oh, the rump. The Pichana, or domestic Snake River Wagyu rump, had a charred, flavor-filled crust and a melt-in-your-mouth interior. We had knife fights over that rump.
The delicious Pichana, domestic Snake River Wagyu rump, at Rural Society
It would be easy to break the bank at Rural Society, which is one of the biggest compaints I’ve noticed on Yelp. We didn’t order cocktails or dessert. But we ordered a good $50 bottle of Malbec and more than enough food, and left the Rural Society completely satisfied at about $80 per person.
Rural Society
1177 15th Street NW, Washington, DC 20005
Clockwise from top left: Chorizo Gaucho, beef and pork sausage; Choclo, corn cream, crab, roasted peppers and asiago; Esparragos, charred asparagus, bagna caudal; Bife de Chorizo, Uruguayan ribeye
A Day at DC's Creepiest Museum
On a beautiful summer day, I walked through the National Museum of Crime and Punishment and stared at some of the creepiest stuff on display in Washington, D.C. And it was fascinating. The National Museum of Crime and Punishment has done a great job of balancing our gruesome, pause-at-a-car-accident curiosity with the true curation, historical research and interactivity that makes for an enriching museum experience.
Update: I'm super sad to report that the National Museum of Crime and Punishment closed in September, 2015. AND YEt This blog Still gets so many hits!! some other quirky museums I recommend:
And feel free to download my free Book!
A "cadaver" laid out on an autopsy table. Medieval torture instruments that punctured and crushed fingers. The bullet-riddled car that once held the bodies of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow.
On a beautiful summer day, I walked through the National Museum of Crime and Punishment and stared at some of the creepiest stuff on display in Washington, D.C. And it was fascinating. The National Museum of Crime and Punishment has done a great job of balancing our gruesome, pause-at-a-car-accident curiosity with the true curation, historical research and interactivity that makes for an enriching museum experience.
Located in the densely packed museum-and-restaurant area of the Penn Quarter, the Crime Museum seems to get overlooked for the more popular International Spy Museum down the street. It shouldn’t. Although a bit smaller, the Crime Museum offers plenty of bang for your 22 bucks.
The Crime Museum has three tales to tell as visitors wind through it: The first section focuses on crimes and criminals through the ages; the second focuses on punishment – the booking process, jails and law enforcement; and the final section focuses on case solving and modern forensic technologies. CSI fans will love this place.
Through each section is woven interactive elements for all ages. Young ones can test their cyber safety skills with hand-operated multiple-choice quizzes or they can tunnel out of a jail cell. Us older ones can gain more knowledge from the museum’s many interactive screens, participate in a lineup or we can try out our pursuit skills in a driving simulator.
What I like most about the museum – in all its creepiness – is its restraint. The boards soaked with Jesse James’ blood, John Dillinger’s death mask and the wall chunk from the St. Valentine's Day Massacre are all paired with careful, intelligent text that honors the items' place in our country’s history and minimizes the sensational. The section that I find the hardest to walk through, the one about modern-day mass murderers, is small and succinct, acknowledging the horrors we’ve witnessed without aggrandizing the killers. (Tucked into a corner, it’s also easily skipped if – like me – you want to keep the youngsters away from it.)
A Tour of the National Museum of Crime and Punishment
Crime Museum, 575 7th St. NW, Washington, DC 20004
In-Between Tip: After your dark trip through our nation's underbelly, refresh your spirits with a margarita at Jose Andres' light-filled Mexican restaurant Oyamel, which is just down the block on 7th St., NW. It's much easier to get a table at this festive restaurant with an inventive take on Mexican food during the day. And did I mention the margaritas?
Map to In-Between Fun in the DMV
I've added a new map feature to the site. Pinterest allows me to track the locations where I've had fun in the DMV, and will help you loyal In-Between readers find fun and adventure close to where you live. I will continue to update the map as I discover new places, so make sure to check back often (the link will always be to the right in the sidebar).
I've decided to mark today's 20th blog post (YEAH!!) by adding a new map feature to the site. Pinterest allows me to track the locations where I've had fun in the DMV, and will help you loyal In-Between readers find fun and adventure close to where you live. I will continue to update the map as I discover new places, so make sure to check back often (the link will always be to the right in the sidebar).
Click photo to find fun, In Between activities close to home.
Thank you to everyone who has commented on this site, emailed or interacted with me on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. I love knowing that I've inspired some of you or helped you discover a new piece of this great community we live in. Please keep sending me your In-Between suggestions or pointing me toward museums, restaurants or activities you'd like me to investigate. Here's to aging gracefully and having a great time while we do it!
Have a fun place you'd like to recommend for an In Between in D.C. blog post? Please tell me about it in the comments below.
Taking Tea at Historic Rosemont Manor
Going to a tea at the Historic Rosemont Manor in Berryville, Va., is everything little girls imagine tea parties are like when they put on their mothers' floppy hats and drink fruit punch out of tiny cups. As full-grown women, my girlfriend and I got to wear our pretty summer dresses and enter the elegant Southern-style manor where American royalty like the Kennedys once stayed. We got to drink tea from delicate rose-painted cups and eat peach scones topped with Devonshire cream.
Going to a tea at the Historic Rosemont Manor in Berryville, Va., is everything little girls imagine tea parties are like when they put on their mothers' floppy hats and drink fruit punch out of tiny cups. As full-grown women, my girlfriend and I got to wear our pretty summer dresses and enter the elegant Southern-style manor where American royalty like the Kennedys once stayed. We got to drink tea from delicate rose-painted cups and eat peach scones topped with Devonshire cream.
Downton Abbey is a hit for a reason. That show about a noble family and its servants living in an esteemed English manor encourages a certain amount of adult pretend. But for the two hours of the tour-and-tea luncheon at Historic Rosemont Manor, you can live that elegant lifestyle.
Like Downton Abbey, the history of Rosemont Manor is long and rich (I’m referring to the fictional history of the show, which I know, versus the actual history of Highclere Castle, which I don’t know). Originally built in 1811 as a merchant groom’s gift to his landed gentry bride, the manor has been home to a Union hospital, has been sold for a $1 and has been considered as a site for 90 luxury homes. Most notably, the home was owned by Virginia governor and U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd, Sr. The names of the many luminaries who visited him there – Charles Lindbergh, Albert Einstein, FDR, Eisenhower, Nixon, Johnson – are used to designate the manor’s twelve suites and four cottages.
We owe the fact that we simple folk can visit the place to the daughter of current owner William "Biff" Genda. When she saw its perfect location, at the top of a slope that overlooks beautiful park grounds and the Shenandoah Valley, she commented that she’d love to be married there. That lightbulb transformed the 200-year-old private residence into an elegant B&B and wedding venue that opened in 2010. The manor has hosted 64 weddings this year and already has 20 booked for 2015.
But back to the tea. On occasional Saturdays and Wednesdays, the Rosemont Manor hosts a three-course tea service for $44 a person. The event begins in the wedding reception hall with a champagne glass of fruit juice. We women in attendance looked like butterflies, and the staff treated us like honored guests. Director of Weddings Michael Haymaker led us into the home and explained its history and Manor House Chef Tona Bays talked excitedly about the three-courses she’d chosen.
Bays focuses on seasonal, local offerings and apologized for what she felt was a diminished peachiness to the peach offerings of the summer menu. Our area’s unending winter, she explained, hit the local peach hard. She had nothing to apologize for. The peach scone with peach preserves was rich with summer sweetness. I originally thought we’d be hitting a rib stand on the one-and-a-half-hour drive home, but the one-bite sandwiches, scones and desserts were substantive in flavor and surprisingly filling. I don’t know teas well, but these were delicious.
My girlfriend and I are already looking forward to the spring menu, when the area is exploding with azalea flowers, or the Christmas menu, when the house is done up for the holidays. There's no reason we have to limit our elegant make-believe to once a year.
Taking a Tour of the Historic Rosemont Manor
Refining Your Going-Out Palate at Capital Wine School
The Capital Wine School provides the chance for an engaging night out with classes that allow you to meet interesting people, learn something new and taste fabulous wines.
As I've gotten older, my enthusiasm for going out hasn't waned, but my enjoyment of the passive entertainment of a bar, a restaurant or a movie certainly has. Repetition breeds boredom. I want to engage, to do something, to even possibly learn something while I’m spending my pennies out and about in the world.
Wine expert Michael Franz chats with students after class
The Capital Wine School provides the chance for an engaging night out with classes that allow you to meet interesting people, learn something new and taste fabulous wines.
In Northwest D.C., throwing distance from Bethesda near the Mazza Gallerie, the Capital Wine School offers a variety of two-hour evening classes that explore all facets of wine knowledge. You can learn about Pinot Noirs from different parts of the world or you can explore the characteristics that make the wines of Bordeaux, Tuscany or Washington great. You can even take an introductory class that helps you understand wine better and eases the panic when you’re handed the wine list at a restaurant.
Jay Youmans
The Capital Wine School was started by Jay Youmans who is A) Washington, D.C.’s only Master of Wine and one of only 30 in the U.S., and B) one of the nicest guys you could ever meet. Well known in the wine world, Jay helps to train professionals in the wine industry at Capital Wine School with wine business classes and master classes for sommeliers.
He also taught two beginner classes that I took: Introduction to Wine Basics and the three-part Wine Basics: Comparing Grapes, Regions and Styles. As a newbie, getting instruction from someone with his depth of knowledge was a real honor. But neither he nor my "Secret Spain" wine class instructor, Michael Franz (editor of Wine Review Online and wine writer for the Washington Post until 2005) made me feel like I’d better be glad I was receiving such an honor.
What I’ve appreciated most about the Capital Wine School experience (besides incredible 1 oz-ish tastings of wine) is the lack of the pretension that you can run into in the wine world. Sommeliers, tasting room hosts and – the worst of them all – wine drinkers who fashion themselves "experts" can sometimes be complete butts. But the Wine School’s experienced instructors work hard to engage new wine drinkers, draw out honest opinions and share what they know for the benefit of the student.
The classes are held in a room above a dance studio, so the muted rhythms of salsa or hip hop will sometimes accompany your wine tasting class. Long tables face the instructor and clean glasses are arranged in front of each seat, ready for a pour. These are tasting classes, and while I seldom want to waste the incredible eight or more pours we get, I generally drive there and must get home. Small buckets are available for spitting or dumping your glass, and you’re encouraged to use them, if you’d like. Or you could metro and plan on a nice dinner after.
The classes aren’t cheap at $65-$85 per person for the two-hour tasting courses. But I paid that much for a concert ticket last week, and I certainly walk away from the wine class with more than a t-shirt. The class schedule is limited in the summer, but picks up again in September. I have my eye on two upcoming classes: Comparative Tasting of Pinot Noirs from Around the World on Nov. 29 and Michael Franz’s Eight Favorite Champagnes on Dec. 6.
I’m emailing my husband right now to let him know I’ve got a perfect night out all ready for us.
Capital Wine School
5207 Wisconsin Ave., Washington, DC 20015
In-Between Tip: Take advantage of the Capital Wine School's location just a couple of blocks south of Friendship Heights Metro station and take the Metro there. Then after your class, try one of the multitude of restaurants this area on the border between Washington, D.C., and Bethesda, Md., has to offer.
Want to discover more interesting and fun going-out activities in the DMV? Make sure to subscribe to In Between in D.C., where I post twice a week about fun things to do for us 40-55-year-old In-Betweeners.
Hands in the Air at Merriweather Post Pavilion
“We’re here to drink, dance, party and have a good time,” Queens of the Stone Age lead singer and guitarist Josh Homme told the crowd. “There ain’t no time for anything else.”
I thought my blog about my visit to the Merriweather Post Pavilion was going to be about spots to eat, drink and grab some shade at the outdoor music venue north of the Beltway in Columbia, Md.
But as I stood in the dark of the crowded amphitheater last night, the light-show spectacle of the band Queens of the Stone Age exploding in front of my eyes, their bass drum thumping against my chest and making me sway and shimmy and shuffle my feet in the 1-by-1 foot space in front my seat, I realized that this blog needed to more than a "tips" article. It needed to be a call to action. This visceral jolt of an eye-dazzling light show, music beating against your body, the summer heat against your skin, and the undeniable urge to dance in public is something we as middle-aged, responsible parents and partners don’t experience very often anymore.
So do this. This summer. Claim your 1-by-1 foot of space and dance.
“We’re here to drink, dance, party and have a good time,” Queens lead singer and guitarist Josh Homme told the crowd. “There ain’t no time for anything else.”
Homme is a big, broad-shouldered red-head who swivels his hips like Elvis and smokes while he plays guitar. He’s the hottest Agent Brody ever. If there is any man to inspire a crowd to embrace a good time and the inherent sensuality of a concert on a summer night, it is this man. I saw grown men air-guitaring along with him. A middle-aged woman waved her hands like an orchestra director while he sat at a piano and sang about vampires.
But say intense, alt-metal isn’t your thing. Every flavor of band -- from Beck to Phish to Huey Lewis and the News -- is playing at area outdoor venues this summer. Columbia, Md., feels too far to drive? You’ve got Wolftrap just outside the Beltway in Vienna, Va., and Jiffy Lube Live in the far-out Northern Virginia 'burb of Bristow, Va.
So go. Dance. Move. Clap along. Air drum along with the drummer (the Queens drummer was hottie and Baltimore native Jon Theodore). But claim that space and enjoy it.
This outdoor music venue set among 40 acres of trees in Columbia, Md., has a quirky, natural charm with lots of tongue-in-cheek statues, barns used as restrooms and food shacks, and a small deck at the top of the sloping lawn selling $5 beers. It also has incredible acoustics, famed architect Frank Gehry as its designer and a stage that saw Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead on its boards. For eats, head to the Jerry's Crisp and Toasty Grilled Cheese stand in the northwest corner for a cheddar, applewood bacon and tomato sandwich on honey wheat. For drinks, go to the 9:32 Club on the west side, a mini-9:30 Club with a full bar, table and stools, fans, and TVs streaming the show. You may never leave.
Click to see Merriweather Post Pavilion's summer schedule.
So Many Choices at Capital Fringe Festival 2014
Trying to choose which performance we were going to see of the over 150 acts taking part in the Capital Fringe Festival 2014 was like trying to choose one chocolate out of the world’s biggest box. In its ninth year, the Capital Fringe Festival has every amalgam of drama, comedy, dance, solo performance, interactive theater you could hope for playing at 23 venues through July 27.
Trying to choose which performance we were going to see of the over 150 acts taking part in the Capital Fringe Festival 2014 was like trying to choose one chocolate out of the world’s biggest box.
Were we going to enjoy the nutty delight of a ballet that mixed the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" with Twitter? Or the dark chocolate-y goodness of an interactive whodunit featuring Edgar Allan Poe? Maybe we’d go for the blatant, chocolate-covered cherry of a comedy called “Giant Box of Porn”? Or take a lick of the mystery chocolate, a tour of the National Mall where the secrets of the Freemasons are revealed?
In its ninth year, the Capital Fringe Festival has every amalgam of drama, comedy, dance, solo performance, interactive theater you could hope for playing at 23 venues through July 27. The constraints of a busy summer schedule meant that we could only see one show. Which sucks. With a $17 ticket price (after a one-time purchase of a $7 Fringe button), and performance start times that stretch from early afternoon into late night, there’s no reason you couldn’t see multiple shows in one night.
What delicacy did we decide to enjoy? A dance murder-mystery called “Intrigue, a mystery on marley…” Below are others that tickled our fancy.
For more insight into shows, check out the DC Metro Theater Arts reviews.
In-Between Tip: Hang onto your Fringe button even if you're lame like me and can only make it to one show. It will qualify you for a bunch of discounts all year long. Many restaurants on H Street, including Granville Moore's, Sticky Rice, H Street Country Club, and Biergarten Haus, are giving discounts to button holders through July 27.
Out-of-the-Box Date Night at the Mosaic District
Chock-full of distinctive restaurants, interesting retail stores and opportunities for fun – a piano on the sidewalk, a giant chessboard, an outdoor movie screen – the Mosaic District makes sure that once you’ve parked your car in their multi-story lot for your dinner-and-a-movie date, you won’t need it again until you’ve thoroughly enjoyed yourself.
There are times when going out for dinner and a movie with your significant other can be as depressing as spending a Saturday night at home. It’s the predictability of the event, entering a boxy restaurant for food, then a boxy theater for entertainment. A late night yawn, a tired drive home, then bed.
Dinner and a movie at the Mosaic District in Fairfax, Virginia is a wide-open, exploratory event with lots of opportunities for surprise, whimsy and fun. One of the biggest surprises is its location: this vibrant, architecturally interesting, walkable “urban district” is just outside the Beltway off Lee Highway, among one-story industrial parks and retail centers that need a facelift. The developers -- who also developed Union Market in D.C. -- had a vision when they pictured this place here.
Chock-full of distinctive restaurants, interesting retail stores and opportunities for fun – a piano on the sidewalk, a giant chessboard, an outdoor movie screen – the Mosaic District makes sure that once you’ve parked your car in their multi-story lot for your dinner-and-a-movie date, you won’t need it again until you’ve thoroughly enjoyed yourself.
Dinner
Romantic dining – Put on your fancy clothes and head to Four Sisters Vietnamese Restaurant or Sea Pearl for an elegant meal with a nice bottle of wine. Call for a reservation at Four Sisters if you intend to be on time for the movie; its 23 years in business and move from Seven Corners hasn’t detracted from its popularity. With ocean-blue walls and lovely seafood presentations, Sea Pearl is a pretty date spot.
A cocktail at Matchbox
Fun dining – Matchbox and Cyclone Anaya’s Mexican Kitchen offer a meal that’s a little more raucous and booze-oriented. While Matchbox restaurants are proliferating like bunnies all over the DMV, I have yet to find one that disappoints with their inventive cocktails, great beer selection, re-interpreted bar food and super-cool interiors. Cyclone Anaya’s have margaritas as big as your head.
Casual dining – The Mosaic offers lots of quick bites that are easy on the wallet: Cava Mezze Grill (referred to as the “Chipotle” of Mediterranean food on Yelp), Sweetgreen (salads), and Taylor Gourmet (subs) are all interesting grab, eat and go food options right across the street from the movie theater. If you want to go even more casual, have an impromptu picnic on the green in front of the theater. Go to Red Apron Butcher for truly astonishing sandwiches or to Le Pain Quotidien for a baguette and other picnic fixings.
Movie
Indoors – The Angelika Film Center throws the tired idea of a boxy movie theater with sticky floors and insolent teen employees into the trash. A three-tiered cinema temple of glass and gleaming wood, the Angelika honors the fact that adults are shelling out big bucks to see a movie these days and makes it a true experience. The theater offers a coffee bar and pastries downstairs, beer and gourmet hotdogs on the theater level, and a bar – yes, a bar – on the top floor. You can buy an entire bottle of wine at the bar and take it into the theater with you. You select your seats ahead of time and take your time getting there, rather than fighting to snatch a seat like animals. And when you amble into your movie with your bottle of wine and your gourmet hot dog, the theater – generally filled with adults – is as quiet as a tomb. My love for this place knows no bounds.
Outdoors – Or maybe you’re not as crotchety as I am and would enjoy a little people watching and children laughing and summer breezing as you enjoy your movie. The Mosiac hosts summer movies every Friday night on its ginormous outdoor screen at Strawberry Park, the wide green space just outside the Angelika Film Center. Apollo 13 is playing tonight.
After the Movie
The fact that the Mosaic District has provided so many incentives to stroll, relax and wander is my favorite aspect of the place. Don't head to your car after the movie. Take a second to enjoy this area and the amazing partner at your side.
- Have a delicious drip coffee at the glass-enclosed coffee shop, Dolcezza in the Park.
- Stroll the wide sidewalks and window shop at stores like Anthropologie, South Moon Under and Paper Source.
- Get you feet wet in the rainbow-colored fountain in Strawberry Park.
- Enjoy post-movie gelato at Dolcezza.
- Play the piano on District Avenue.
- Indulge in the cocktail you didn't have before the movie at Matchbox or Sea Pearl.
- Play a game of chess on the giant chessboard in Strawberry Park.
- Dance to the bands playing in Glass Alley every Saturday evening from 7/26-8/23 at the Summer Block Party, with food and drink provided by Red Apron Butcher.
Take this handy map with you to explore all the fun of the MOSAIC DISTRICT
In-Between Tip: If you’re approaching the Mosiac District from the East, you’ll be tempted to turn left at Gallows Road and then right to enter the shopping area. Don’t! You’ll be snarled in pedestrian traffic that makes everyone testy. Instead, stay on Lee Highway until you hit the next light at Eskridge Road. This left and the next two lefts into the Market Garage are effortless and will prevent you from starting your night out in a bad mood.
Have favorite dinner-and-a-movie places? I would love to explore places that make this tired date night fun. Tell me about them on my Facebook page or in the comments below.
A Stroll Through the Hirshhorn Museum
We in the DMV are spoiled rotten. Why? Because we can wander down to the National Mall and take a gander at the only Leonardo da Vinci painting in the United States, the Declaration of Independence, Dorothy's ruby slippers. For free. The Hirshhorn Museum has always been a favorite museum at the Mall because of its contemporary art, its outdoor sculpture garden and its general lack of crowds. It feels like the museum you can breathe in.
This is the first time I've said this in this blog, but it won't be the last: We in the DMV are spoiled rotten. Why? Because, should we have the urge, we can wander down to the National Mall and take a gander at ... I don't know ... the only Leonardo da Vinci painting in the United States, the Declaration of Independence, Dorothy's ruby slippers. For free.
On a recent Saturday, I did just that: Drove down to the Mall, found a two-hour parking spot on 7th St. SW, and took a slow walk through the second floor of the circular Hirshhorn Museum, through the "Speculative Forms" exhibit. The Hirshhorn has always been a favorite museum at the Mall because of its contemporary art, its outdoor sculpture garden and its general lack of crowds. It feels like the museum you can breathe in.
Reading the placard of the "Speculative Forms" exhibit, I was completely confused about the objective: "The exhibition highlights the importance of installation and the viewer's eye and body in relation to the object." And then I saw this:
The exhibit is about the interaction between a sculpture, the space that it's exhibited in and the way the viewer views it. This metal sculpture, "6-68" by David Lee Brown, reflects the light and arc of the Hirshhorn hallway. And I could only see that by standing at a certain perspective.
The Hirshhorn Museum made me smarter. In about an hour's time. For free. See, I told you we were spoiled rotten.
Speculative Forms at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
At the corner of 7th Street and Independence Ave. SW, Washington D.C.
In-Between Tip: Avoid the overpriced and unimpressive Smithsonian museum cafes and enjoy a quick, interesting bite al fresco at the many food trucks that gather on 7th Street SW. During the weekdays, you will find them south of Independence Ave at 7th and D Streets SW. On the weekends, the trucks line 7th on the Mall.
Terror-Filled Fun in the Trees at Adventure Park
This was my family’s fifth or sixth trip to the tree-climbing and zip-lining adventure land in Montgomery County, and we’d ended every trip covered in sweat, showing off some impressive scrapes and bruises, and seriously psyched about our ability to look a leaf-strewn death in the face. Visiting The Adventure Park at Sandy Spring is like being in labor – the end result is so cool you forget about the screaming and crying that preceded it.
The Adventure Park at Sandy Spring
I was about 20-feet high in the trees at The Adventure Park at Sandy Spring, barely balancing on a wood board shivering beneath my feet, when I remembered, “Oh yeah, I’m terrified of heights.”
This was my family’s fifth or sixth trip to the tree-climbing and zip-lining adventure land in Montgomery County, and we’d ended every trip covered in sweat, showing off some impressive scrapes and bruises, and seriously psyched about our ability to look a leaf-strewn death in the face. Visiting The Adventure Park at Sandy Spring is like being in labor – the end result is so cool you forget about the screaming and crying that preceded it.
The Adventure Park is an elaborate, up-in-the-trees obstacle course. You choose one of the 13 courses (the level of difficulty is marked like ski runs from purple to double-black diamond), and then you work your way along the course by teetering from tree to tree across different challenges or “elements.”
A view of the "elements" at The Adventure Park
Sometimes you’re walking across sturdy boards with a tight, steady rope you can grip for balance. Sometimes you’re on logs swinging beneath you while the grip line sticks out at an awkward angle. Sometimes you zip line across. Sometimes you rope swing across. Sometimes you climb down an endless rope ladder that has you swearing, when you’ve kissed the platform at the bottom, that you will never again skip the arms when you’re at the gym.
None of these elements, the young and impossibly cute staff assures you, will result in your leaf-strewn death. Cinching you into your harness, walking you through a detailed training, and being readily available for the cries of “Staff help!” are all ways this young and impossibly cute (as well as friendly, patient and competent) staff insure your safety.
A staff member demonstrates safety equipment
They also help you believe in the “tweezle.” The safety of this park is dependant on the two locking carabiners on your harness, a “life line” that runs through every course, and the tweezle. The tweezle is a locking mechanism – you lock one of your carabineers onto a course’s life line at the beginning, and you are unable to unlock until the end. This way, should you slip off the insane tightrope that you’re supposed to be walking across, your harness will catch on the life line. Boosting yourself back onto the element is easier with the adrenaline-surge of your heart pounding.
If I can do it, you can do it
So why am I recommending this place so obviously meant for the young and fearless to In-Betweeners? Because, at our age, it’s easy to get too damn comfortable. I’m not presented with many risks anymore. And with two kids and a husband, I’m not interested in truly looking death in the face – ie. skydiving, mountain climbing, jogging. Staring at my feet (never the ground!) at Adventure Park, realizing that I’m actually balancing myself on that tightrope, and conquering an element that I was sure would defeat me leave me feeling exhilarated, powerful and capable.
And the view is fricking gorgeous.
Cost: $49 for ages 12+
Twilight tickets: $29, Mon-Thurs.; $39, Fri-Sun. (Available 3 hours before closing.)
In Between Tip: The park -- strewn with twinkling white Christmas lights -- is open for night climbing until 8 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays and until 10 p.m. Friday and Saturdays. I imagine it would be really fun with a group of adult friends. I can feel another blog coming on...
Angelina M. Lopez,
contemporary romance Author
Writing ferocious love stories
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