Washington DC

Sitting in my car, I watched umbrellas shielding LSU students from the rain and the drip of Crape Myrtle draped sidewalks. With a few minutes until my wife got off from her job in Himes Hall, I was fascinated with how the water globbed up and refracted the colors from the student apparel. Sometimes boredom just takes over, so I experimented with settings on my digital SLR.

(Click the picture for larger view)

The cell phone rang and my attention now turned to my next assignment near Richmond, VA. Since I'd never been to DC, this seemed like a good opportunity to put things into perspective to how it’s all laid out. This was probably going to be a short one and were that I would have only one weekend to explore.

Rising early one Saturday morning, I drove into Washington DC and found my way to the mall using the Washington Monument as my focusing point. Originally, my plan was to park somewhere and take a tour bus but I had arrived too early and the buses wouldn’t be running for another 1½ so I found a spot between the obelisk and the White House. My walking tour included the WWII, Korean and Viet Nam war memorials as well as the Lincoln Monument.

It was a good thing that I decided to just walk to the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue. Security was tight and only preauthorized vehicles were allowed near there and I was quite sure I wasn’t on the list. Honestly, I was expecting a bigger deal about the White House, especially the view. As I arrived at the viewing point there were lots of people there taking pictures of each other with the White House in the background. It just seemed further away and much less glamorous. After seeing news correspondents using it as a background,I thought people would be much closer than we were. It was fenced with wrought iron fencing but had hog wire attached to it. Most disappointing was the fact that there were no protesters, no Cindy Sheehans or John Kerrys throwing medals over the fence. I took my obligatory pictures and moved on back to the car, cranked up and drove myself to the Congress and Jefferson Memorials. My feet were flat, knees hurting and just a little tired from all the walking so after driving around a while, I went back south to the little burg near Richmond I was staying.

Sorry I missed you, Mr . Bush, I understand you were on a flight to Iraq at the time. Maybe next time. I'll call first.

Chicago

Reluctantly, I left St Augustine, Florida for a week in Chicago. Quite intimidated by the traffic, I took a hotel near O'Hare and plotted my course downtown then into the fringes of the infamous Southside of Chicago on State Street. Somehow, I could hear the music of Jim Croce singing about "Bad, bad, Leroy Brown, the baddest man in the whole d*mn town, badder than ole King Kong and meaner than a junk yard dog". I turned on to the Eisenhower Expressway and headed toward Lake Michigan and was captivated with the idea that I-290 would actually go through the 3rd floor of the old post office building. I guess it was easier to drive through it than to tear it down.

State Street, once you got past a few sleazy buildings headed south, is in somewhat a a reconstruction mode with new high rise condos selling for just under a half million. Hip young females walked dogs and stopped off at coffee shops where five years ago you might have witnessed a mugging.

When you visit another city, people there go out of their way to show you what they think defines their city. In this case, we were directed to what was supposed to be a really good pizza taste. I had never heard of Uno's Pizza but my partner I was working with wanted to give it a try so we headed north to downtown. Finding Uno's wasn't that big of a deal but finding a parking spot posed more of a challenge but Jon slid into one in the middle of a mud puddle. Celebrating our good fortune, we got out, waded through near ankle deep water, fed the meter and headed a couple of blocks west. Finding a seat, we split a deep crust pizza and waited a short time before being served. Personally, I just didn't see what all the fuss was about and thought the best pizza for me would have to be one of Johnny's Sweep The Kitchen special down in Monroe, Louisiana or perhaps a calzone at one of De Angelo's of Baton Rouge. Uno's crust tasted somewhat like baking powder biscuit dough.

Fortunately, our stay was short lived and honestly, I didn't find the Hyatt much of a bargain. That being said, it truly is an interesting city with the elevated trains and high rises waving at the sky.