DC wrap up

So not only are we heading to Italy for 4 months, we also did not spend the summer at home in Pittsburgh.

When Alyssa first got her letter from Wolf Trap offering to do an internship in the DMV (“DMV” stands for DC, Maryland, Virginia. It’s the circumferential area around Washington DC where folks typically commute into the city to work and play. Technically, Wolf Trap is in Vienna, VA – there is a LOT of pride around living and working within the DC boundary so…you gotta be careful how you refer to different parts of the area 😉) we were so excited. Neither of us have lived outside of Pittsburgh before except for our college experiences and this felt like such a great distance and a city that we’ve visited as tourists so we knew it was fun. We had no idea how fun it would be and how fast this summer would go by.

Alexandria

Our apartment was in Alexandria, VA which is a very cute historic town with a TON to offer in it’s own rite. We stayed in a small one bedroom apartment that was central to the main business area on King Street and a 5 minute walk to the Metro station that offered access to the Blue and Yellow lines into DC.

King Street is about a 17 block-long shopping area with lots of great restaurants and shops. Since Alexandria is techincally older than the United States itself, there are a lot of cool antique stores and a lot of history about the area. Unfortunately, not all of it is positive – there is an effort in the city to bring to light some of the slavery and racism that was prevalent in the area. There’s a Black History Museum in Alexandria that explains the journey and struggle that black residents went through to be able to use the public library as well as picket signs you’ll find around Old Town which shed light on two lynchings that occurred nearby. The history is complex and we appreciated the efforts made to not white-wash the bad for all the cutesy stuff there is to do.

There is a lot of cutesy stuff to do though! Just walking through Old Town is like being transported into colonial America with block after block of gorgeous homes, cobblestone streets, and beautiful churches. Since we had Louis, our 8 year old dog, with us, we got to peek into the backyards of some of the oldest homes in America. We felt very privileged to be able to stay where we did and lucky we found an affordable apartment – real estate is extremely expensive with very few houses selling for under $1 million 😳.

One of our favorite spots to go to was called Chop Shop – great margarita happy hour deal and amazing food. The staff was super friendly and it didn’t hurt that it was only a 2 minute walk from our apartment. The walking taco was delish.

We also loved watching the sun set and seeing the planes land and take off on Daingerfield Island. The marina there has a small shop called Catboat that does great pizza and some craft drinks (as well as boozy slushies for those who are so inclined). But you can also bring your own food and sometimes we just packed a picnic and played cornhole – amazing views and great vibes all around.

You didn’t need to walk everywhere though if you don’t want to. It’s very flat so we walked a TON but there’s also a free bus system called the DASH that takes you all over the Alexandria area. And if you just want to bar crawl and window shop your way down King St (which is exactly what most people do here when they come to visit), there’s a free trolley that takes you the length of the business district and tells you fun historical facts along the way!

Alexandria was a perfect base hub for us and we are going to miss it. Highly recommend visiting if you’re in the area!

Wolf Trap

It was so cool to see Alyssa in her element. She was an intern for the Wolf Trap Education Department – they have a specific Arts Education Program that they use to train teaching artists around the country who then go into classrooms and implement alongside normal class arts programs. She helped by cataloguing a library of resources for teaching artists, collating data around their reviews and feedback that teachers had for them, and also worked a couple days a week with their Children’s Theater in the Woods that offers outdoor concerts and educational programs (working outside for hours in 100+ degree weather).

The internship came with some perks though too 🙂 Wolf Trap is primarily a concert venue so we got to see Brittany Howard at the Out and About Music Festival and an incredible acrobatics/dance group called Pilobilus. The space itself is the coolest concert space I’ve ever been to, it’s indoor/outdoor and has wooden features that make the sound from the stage really special.

Alyssa is basically the best intern that Wolf Trap has ever had based on the conversations I was able to overhear (Alyssa worked 3 days from home and I worked….every day….from home and the “office space” was in the hallway between the living room area and the kitchen so it was close quarters). But seriously, she did an amazing job working on (and finishing) project after project that they assigned her. Her department asked her several times if she would want to work there in the future and her supervisor had a glowing year-end review for her. We’ll see what happens when she graduates but she made a lot of really great connections and I am so proud of all the work she put in to showcase how talented, smart, and hard working she is.

Washington, DC

We. Love. The. Metro. Having taken subway systems in NYC, Chicago, Philadelphia, and…..I guess we can say Pittsburgh (the T doesn’t really count lol) the DC Metro system was by far the easiest to navigate and the cleanest we’ve experienced. We took it everywhere. The only downside is that it doesn’t go deep into all the neighborhoods so sometimes you still have to walk a bit but it was still so much fun and got us where we needed to go with less than a 10 minute walk 90% of the time.

And then what is there to say about DC?? It’s a very vibrant city with so much to do and see. There are things we experienced there that don’t feel like typical city occurences such as walking along the street and hearing people casually talk about their favorite secret service agent or what their clearance levels were, drink specials when Donald Trump was found guilty on his 34 charges, unexpected street closures as politicians drive through, and so many different languages heard everywhere you go.

We loved the culture of the city. It’s also super walkable so going for a 20 to 30 minute stroll to get somewhere isn’t something that would take years of physical training (like it would in Pittsburgh – uphill both ways is no joke). We had no idea how big DC was and how different all of the neighborhoods are. Each one has something really fun to offer.

We also find that exploring a city through restaurants is our favorite way to do it. Ivy City has Union Market where you can’t go wrong, Petworth and Columbia Heights have really cool spots like Red Derby ($1 mystery beers???) and Wonderland Ballroom (some of the best service and vibes). We spent our anniversary at a restaurant called Almeda near (maybe in?) Columbia Heights, an Afro-fusion place where we got served by the owner in a small intimate space and the food was so good. Ben’s Chili is a must on U Street – the hot dogs are delicious and the history is so fun.

The neighborhood of Adam’s Morgan had our favorite food though, Lapis – an Afghan restaurant where we got this platter that had a sampling of their dumplings and stew that was so spicy and unique. Literally drooling thinking about it right now. (Side note, if we were going to live in DC, Adam’s Morgan would probably fit us best based on what we saw. Such a fun atmosphere in that area with a ton of great bars, shops, restaurants, and living spaces.)

Outiside of food, we also got to experience a ton. Some of our favorites were seeing Jazz in the Park at the Sculpture Garden connected to the National Gallery of Art (if we went again, we’d pack a picnic instead of getting food and drinks there), seeing an outdoor movie at the Kennedy Center for F-R-E-E, and seeing the monuments at night!

We spent the 4th of July in DC in the Capitol Hill neighborhood with some of our friends from Pittsburgh. We were so happy they came to visit and they were very good sports about the weather, rats, cockroaches, and smells 🤣 The fireworks show on the Mall was super fun and something everyone should do at least once – it was super crowded but the actual fireworks were really cool to watch from there.

We’re sad to leave this area but obviously so excited for Phase 2 of the Alyssa and Matt adventure in Italy.