Lets Get Started - Base Camp

We'll see how long this lasts but for starters, this blog will be a public diary of exploring a new city, Washington, DC. Its not technically new, as I was born here and lived here for five years, but I was a kid and do not remember much of it so, for all intents and purposes, this is new.

I have been here for almost two months but the first month was really about moving in and getting settled, and much of February was about snopocalypse 2010. So the past couple of weeks really represents our setting out from base camp. So a little about base camp. We have a town home in Georgetown which is pretty great. I have always wanted to live in a townhome, probably my ideal residential mode. We have a small backyard meaning letting the dogs out in the morning and evening withough us having to accompany them. Hannah just scratches at the door when she is ready to come in. Electric/gas bill is decent even though the windows are ancient as we have townhomes on either side (no sounds through the walls though like living in a high rise though). We are one block off Wisconsin at the north end of Georgetown. For the unititated, living in Georgetown and walking along Wisconsin and M in particular is like living in a high end mall. We have all the great national (and some international) retail chains that we do all of our shopping at anyway, like Zara, H&M, Sisley, Club Monaco, Reiss London, Tommy Hilfaeger, Northface, etc, etc. There are also tons of restaurants and bars (I will try to review the ones we go to in more detail).

I work in Reston, VA which is not great. The job is fine but the commute is about an hour and 15 minutes each way via bus and shuttle. It would take about 35 minutes to drive so why do I take the bus? Well that was kind of the whole point of moving to a real city from Orlando. I get to read on the bus which is great becausee now I get 11 hours of reading in during the week that is basically on my own time. So when Sam is home we can do stuff together. Plus I get to do my part for the world by not owning a car (we just traded in an SUV for a Prius for Sam to commute in so we are doing better on the car front as well). The contract I have there ends in June though and hopefully I can find comething in the District or at least on the Metro next time around. Anyway, I take any of the 3# buses up Wisconsin to 3900 where there is another Fannie Mae facility, then take a corporate shuttle out to Reston.

Sam is working out in National Harbor, MD which is just south of the District on the Potamac. There is no public transport there (at least nothing practical) so she drives the Prius to work everyday. Suffice to say we are happy to be rid of the SUV which in its last days saw its Driver side door handle stop working, the batteries in the keys for the electronic locks stop working, a tire blow out, and an engine light come on indicating the need for a new thermostat. That was literally all within a couple of days. I am sure the car dealer thought he got a good deal on us for the Prius, but I think the joke is on him because our tradein was cursed.

Ok so I think that sets the stage. I will come back and start laying out the early explorations.