Patsy Stone Goes to Washington

Greetings possums! As promised, this post will be about all things Washington. Patsy spent November 30-December 3 in the political junkie's mecca that is D.C. The purpose of my trip was work-related, but I managed to spend the weekend sightseeing as well.

I had a fantastic trip and enjoyed meeting my American colleagues, who were even funnier and friendlier than I had hoped.

The highlights of the trip were seeing so many familiar sights: Arlington National Cemetery, the Lincoln Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, the World War II Memorial, Washington Monument, Capitol building, White House, etc.

I also visited the National Archives to see, behind glass, the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, and one of the Smithsonian museums, the National Portrait Gallery.

Three favourite portraits of mine were one of Senator Hillary Clinton, opera soprano Denyce Graves (I actually saw her sing in Edmonton about 10 years ago when I had no idea how famous she would become, at least in the opera world), and Nobel Prize winning author Toni Morrison.

The Toni Morrison portrait was probably the most awe-inspiring; I entered a side room off one of the main corridors, and was looking at another portrait when I turned and almost jumped back at catching my first glance at the Morrison portrait: it was so unbelievably lifelike, she practically jumped off the canvas, it was like she was standing right next to me. It was eery, but awe-inspiring, I didn't want to look away.

I also explored the famous Georgetown neighbourhood on Sunday afternoon, people watching and making a trip to Sephora. (Oh, how Patsy has missed Sephora since she left Toronto!) Georgetown is trendiness at its maximum, filled with fancy boutiques (Kate Spade, Barneys, etc.) and it was also my first foray into the world of Dean and Deluca. (yuppy, high-end "grocery" store, in the vein of Whole Foods, I suppose, though even more pretentious!)

I did a tremendous amount of walking, and my poor feet were just killing me by the end of the trip, but I had a wonderful time. I've attached a few select photos for your viewing pleasure.

And, of course, I couldn't help doing a little shopping; visiting Filene's Basement (a U.S. version of Winners, in a sense) and found a hot-pink Coach wallet and Furla evening bag on sale! I couldn't leave them in their glass case, (April J. wouldn't have been able to forgive me!), so I brought them back to Canada with me.

Patsy out.