Space Shuttles, Famous Actresses & Bubble Tea: DC Weekends

Some dear Latvian friends were in the DC area on a recent weekend. While Roberts had "Latvian business" to take care of, Liene invited me to play tour guide to her and their three children. Given that the kids are quite young and the forecast called for rain, I chose the Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia as our destination. The Center, opened in 2003, is a part of the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum, and - in my opinion - is more impressive than the museum on the Mall with which most people are familiar. The Udvar-Hazy Center is an enormous building comprised of two hangars which contain an incredible amount of flight-related artifacts, most notably many airplanes, including a Concorde, and the space shuttle Discovery.

Photo credit: Liene

It so happened that the Saturday on which we visited was Family Day, and a variety of tables throughout the center offered activities and information geared towards young visitors. Our visit lasted longer than I had anticipated because the oldest two children had enough to keep them interested for quite a while. Given the weather and time of year, the Center was full of people, but the size of the building makes it seem less crowded than many of the popular museums on the Mall. That being said, as the afternoon progressed at times it did become more difficult to navigate with a baby stroller and keep an eye on the older two boys, although they behaved very well!

Credit: Liene

Other than its location far from the city and the toll road which leads one there, two other slight drawbacks to the Center are paid parking and the on-site restaurant. As at all Smithsonian museums, entrance to the Center is free of charge, but there is a $15 fee for parking in the large lot adjacent to the museum, which - honestly - does not bother me because few other museums in the world are free, and typically one's car contains more than just one person. The only dining option at the Udvar-Hazy Center is a McDonald's, which - other than being horrible fast food - becomes very crowded on weekends. However, due to its wealth of exhibits, the Udvar-Hazy Center is certainly worth a visit! I do think the visitors enjoyed it, as did I, particularly seeing that this was only my second visit.

Credit: Liene

Because I managed to forget my camera at home, liels paldies to Liene for the photographs!

On another Saturday, after sitting behind a Tibetan monk (in his long saffron robe and interestingly wearing a fluorescent orange knit hat on his head) on the Metro and running into a Latvian friend and his mother in the theater's lobby, I met friends at the National Theatre for a performance of Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit." The star, playing the medium and clairvoyant Madame Arcati, was Angela Lansbury. She originally starred in the role on Broadway in 2009, and won a Tony for it. Seeing her perform, one would never guess that Lansbury is 89 years old! The entire cast was wonderful, and the play itself entertaining and amusing. 

(From thenationaldc.org)

Afterwards my friends and I ate dinner and drank tea (bubble tea for me, thanks!) at Teasim, which is a DC institution, with three locations in the city, and one in Alexandria, Virginia. If you are playing tourist in Washington, I highly recommend it: the Penn Quarter restaurant on 8th Street NW is conveniently close to the Mall, while the Lafayette Park locations is practically next to the White House. Not only does the restaurant serve all manners of tea, but it has a full menu and their Salty Oat Cookies are legendary.

 

Life Interfering with Life: Spring Plans

Does it sometimes seem that living life interferes with enjoying life? The daily requirements of work, errands, and chores often overshadow the memorable and truly enjoyable moments, particularly in the long dark winter months. Now that daylight saving time has begun, and the spring thaw has finally arrived in  Washington, I am greatly looking forward to the coming months and various events, trips, and happenings planned for this season of renewal.

Gerbera daisies for sale at market in Brussels

Groningen, the Netherlands

A grand European trip (such as my trip to Latvia and Lithuania in May 2014, or my journey to Belgium and the Netherlands in March 2012) is not something I can afford every year, so this year I am making a concerted effort to attend more cultural events. In addition to the play "The Widow Lincoln", which I saw recently, next week I will see another play - this one with a big name actress. Next month I will travel out of town to attend a concert, and also welcome friends and family visiting DC. May means European Union Open House Day (scheduled for Saturday the 9th), and also the Eurovision Song Contest viewing party, plus hopefully a trip or two.

In the Eurovision Song Contest, Latvia will be represented by a woman with the unlikely name of Aminata Savadogo, whose background is representative of the international and multi-cultural times in which we live: her mother is of Latvian and Russian descent, and her father is from Burkina Faso. In case the video below does not appear on your screen, this is the link.

On a more traditional note, this commercial is currently airing on Latvian television. The three women are from a folk music ensemble called Suitu Sievas, and they are trying to convince - via folk song - the slightly surprised man that he can take care of many tasks online instead of waiting in line at various state agencies.

Hope you have fun plans for the spring!

The Indignity of Winter, Mary Todd Lincoln, & Two Chocolate Cakes

This month is one of ridiculously freezing temperatures, too much snow and ice, too much stress at work, but fortunately it is also a month of celebrations.

A sheet of ice: great if you are ice skating or bobsledding, but if you are driving a car, then it is less than ideal. On a recent Saturday night I had taken Metro into downtown DC to see the play "The Widow Lincoln" at Ford's Theater. The theater is best known as the location of President Abraham Lincoln's assassination in 1865, which was 150 years ago. To mark the occasion, Ford's Theater and museum are organizing a variety of special events, one of which was commissioning the play about Pres. Lincoln's widow in the aftermath of his murder.

While my friend and I were relishing this new work and the superb acting by the all-female cast, a short but intense snow squall moved through the area - followed by arctic temperatures. When I returned to my car parked at the Metro station and proceeded to drive home, I was unpleasantly surprised to find roads in terrible condition - some were pure ice. Many smaller cars or those with older tires were having trouble - tires spinning, rear ends fishtailing (I particularly had to chuckle at the expensive sporty BMW convertible which might be fun on a sunny summer's day, but was clearly outmatched by the conditions), and I, too, had a few scary moments.

That experience led me to avoid driving on Sunday morning, when I should have traveled to my favorite bakery to pick up a chocolate cake. Having spent a few too many moments deciding which cake to order, then finally choosing the luscious sounding 'Chocolate Decadence' torte (five layers of flourless chocolate cake and four layers of chocolate mousse with a chocolate ganache glaze!), I was quite upset that my investment might go to waste. However, I did not think it was a wise idea to risk life and limb just to retrieve a small cake! Instead I stopped at a grocery store for a replacement dessert -- also chocolate cake, of course -- and then met seven girlfriends for a lovely birthday brunch at a wonderful restaurant, Mon Ami Gabi. After brunch we enjoyed cake and coffee at a friend's apartment. Luckily I'd been able to contact yet another friend who lives close to said bakery, and she was kind enough to run over to pick up my cake before the store closed. I then drove to her home, where she, her husband, and I enjoyed some of the torte, which indeed was decadent.

Thus ends the tale of two cakes, although the indignity of winter just continues... However, many areas (hello, Boston!) are even harder hit than the DC area, but thoughts of moving to San Diego definitely surface in my consciousness with some regularity.

Another weekend consisted of more celebrating (again interrupted by weather, so plans had to be altered somewhat) at a cabin in Virginia wine country thanks to another friend whose birthday is this month. The weekend consisted of much food, wine, mimosas, laughter, games, music, and watching the Academy Awards.

Apologies for the text-heavy post--clearly photographing hasn't been high on my list of priorities!

Riga: A Busy Week in the Big City

The week in Riga was very busy and full, but much of it involved meeting friends and relatives, so I will not write up a day-by-day account. Instead here I will mention a few of those meetings and events, and will write a couple of separate posts about touristy thing.

To visit some old friends from North America who have lived in Latvia for several years now, Bryan and I ventured a bit outside of Riga to the lovely area near Babites ezers, and enjoyed a fun cook-out and bonfire at their home at the edge of a peaceful forest.

Dinner with K & D (adorable son A barely visible in the right corner)

One evening I met former co-workers from the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. I spent the summer of 2005 there, doing English language editing and translation. Only one of the three women still works at the Museum, and due to her travels to the United States to record interviews with older Latvians about their life experiences, I've kept in closer touch with her. She was able to corral the other two, and we had a very enjoyable dinner in a good restaurant called Cidonija in Berga Bazars. The waitress we had was amazingly friendly and chipper - very American in many ways - but she will not win any photography awards.

Dinner with I, D, and L

That same night I visited a couple of old Latvian-American friends who moved to Riga about seven years ago; we spent a long time chatting and catching up. They had many interesting stories to share.

Another afternoon I met some diplomat friends for coffee; they are the ones who lived in Cairo when I visited. We even managed to catch an important art exhibit: in conjunction with Riga being Culture Capital for the year, an exhibit of the works of Vija Celmins, the best known Latvian-American and one of the most successful living female artists, was being shown. She is best known for her sea and starry sky paintings, both of which I had seen in Washington and New York. The exhibit was interesting in its range, as included were much older works that were quite different. We did not have time to watch the documentary film about her, which is too bad, as afterward I heard from at least two people that it was well done and quite moving. The exhibit closed in June, thus I am happy I was in Riga to see it. I recently read that 20,000 people - or 1% of Latvia's population - had visited the exhibit.

Coffee with M & M

That same evening another friend and I attended a play at the National Theatre. It was a brand new play, having opened just the night before. Written by a young playwright, the play, Pieaugusie, (The Adults) was performed in the theatre's New Hall. Between the topic (30 year olds remembering their last year of high school) and the space, the experience had an off-off Broadway feel to it. I enjoyed the play, but was not keen on the fact that the space itself was very hot and seemed to lack any type of ventilation. Afterward we enjoyed drinks at the restaurant Fazenda. I forgot to ask the waitress to take our photo, so I have no documentation of having met up with M, but I can assure you it happened and we had lots of fun. We walked back to our respective apartments together, and then even stood on the street continuing our conversation. One of the great things about so many of my Latvian friends is that even if nine years have passed since we've seen another, we somehow manage to pick up almost where we'd left off. M and I could not remember exactly which summer it was that we met while working at Garezers, but once she got home she couldn't sleep until she unearthed that summer's camp high school yearbook. It turns out we met back in 2002!

The National Theatre

Yet another evening found me hosting three of my second cousins and their families in my rental apartment. We had fun reminiscing about previous times we've met (the first time being in 1988, when my mom, younger sis, and I took the train from West Germany to Riga and visited for a week), and comparing life in the United States and Latvia. We also discussed hockey and travel, with me sharing some photos of what real waterfalls look like.

Just the cousins

All of the photos from the evening feature someone with eyes closed or looking the other way!

Either there is a bird overhead or I found something to be quite ridiculous (hence the eye rolling).

On Friday night I helped organize a big get-together for alumni and former employees of Garezers, the Latvian summer camp and cultural center. The event was held at the Folkklubs Ala Pagrabs in Riga's Old Town, and great music was provided by the band "The Repats," of which two members, Karlis and Imanta, are graduates of the Garezers summer high school. They played many covers of rock songs that were popular at Garezers Saturday evening dances, as well as folk songs and other Latvian songs that were sung around campfires. It was a very fun walk down memory lane. The Garezers high school is in its 50th summer this year, and the occasion will be celebrated with a big party in Garezers at the end of July -- I booked my flight to Michigan for that weekend long ago to make sure I'd be part of the celebration.

Just a handful of the 30 or so attendees

Folkklubs Ala poster featuring our party on 23.05

It was wonderful to spend time with so many people in Riga, yet even with all the scheduled social time and running around, there were a number of individuals I was unable to meet. Clearly, one week is just not enough time to catch up with absolutely everyone!

Baryshnikov!

D.C. is a big theater town, but due to the cost of tickets (typically $45 or $55 and up at the better theaters), I rarely take advantage of this. Yet, when a friend let me know about Mikhail Baryshnikov performing in a play based on Anton Chekov stores, I barely hesitated in buying a ticket (although I choose one in the $45 section, not in the $85 section!). Baryshnikov is, of course, best known as a ballet dancer, but nowadays spends his time producing and performing theater, and has also popped up on television, including as Sarah Jessica Parker's love interest in the series "Sex and the City."

Latvians have a special affinity for him not only because he wisely chose to defect from the Soviet Union in 1974, but also because he was born in Riga. It was not surprising that other than the three Latvian friends with whom I attended, I was seated one row over from another Latvian-American woman.

The play was very modern and interesting, and much of the acting superb. I cannot claim I fully followed and understood all of it. The first story was funnier and more entertaining than the second, which was short and quite sad. Baryshnikov himself danced only a bit, but even from that one could tell what an excellent dancer he is.

Afterwards one of my friends asked, and we were able to meet him for several minutes. He still speaks a tiny bit of Latvian, but seemed to assume that we were all from Latvia (which was true of only one person in our group) and that we all spoke Russian - which luckily two individuals did.  Either way, he was a nice and unassuming person - he spoke fondly of growing up near the Laima chocolate factory in Riga. I'm glad I had the opportunity to see Baryshnikov perform and to meet him in person. I only wish I'd had the chance to see him dance in his younger days!

With Mikhail Baryshnikov after the play "Man in a Case" at DC's Shakespeare Theater