Walking through Washington
A year afloat: to the Caribbean and back
Sam and Alex Fortescue
Mon 20 Jun 2011 04:38
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Washington is a city of memorials. Or so it seems
after our visit on Saturday, wandering around the city's Mall area with Anna and
Barrett and Anna's mother Jo. Anna has a house in a leafy suburb called
Greenbelt, which is a co-operatrive community run by its residents. It lies
at the end of a metro line, so our trip to DC was unexpectedly accomplished by
public transport. Washington was apparently built on a swamp, so it gets very
hot and muggy. But it is a seriously impressive city of big buildings with
muscular architecture around wide open streets and parks. And the Mall, which is
stuffed with various memorials to founding fathers, political leaders and the
glorious dead. We found ourselves turning a corner into a dell lined with black
granite slabs, carved with the names of the 58,272 soldiers that died
during the Vietnam War..
It is a city of monuments, and we are planning to
return tomorrow for some more concentrated sightseeing. After all the months on
Summer Song, I'm convinced my legs have wasted away to flippers, and long walks
are hard work. We suffer for our loafing, dear reader. Alex is also planning to
swoop by the offices of her old employer, JLL, to see some ex-colleagues.
Meanwhile, Barrett raved to us about the city's space museum (he does work at
NASA) so we'll try and duck in there, as well as the impressive Capitol
Building.
Today, on the other hand, we all went for a
cruise on Summer Song. I fight shy of the word 'sail' since there was no wind,
but in idyllic summer conditions we buzzed across the water from Annapolis to
Mill Creek, where we anchored off a crab restaurant. A place of regional
celebrity, no less, this establishment sold crab cooked in many different
styles. But its mainstay is baked crab, served whole in the shell for bashing
with a special 'crab mallet' to extract the flesh. Even the vegetarians in our
group were keen to smash their way into one of these fellows, and before long
our party of six was bashing away with their mallets, inadvertently squirting
crab juice and extraneous crab body parts at one another and sucking on crab
legs. As we talked, I was aware of the sound of cheerful crab
bludgeoning from all around the terrace, as the hammers rose and fell like
a parody of a Victorian felting line. We'd seen the beasts earlier being sorted
on the jetty by the fishermen, and they fight hard with vicious pincers, so it
was hard to feel sorry for them.
In a highpoint for the skipper, a random
complement was received today about his wild hair. The barnet, accurately
described by certain parties as a 'wafro' (white afro), continues to expand and
may soon develop its own gravitational pull. NASA
is expressing interest in the possibility of faster-than-light travel powered by
the skipper's hair. Watch this space...
Weirdos on the metro...
 First views of Washington
 Capitol building (l to r: Barrett, Jo, Anna,
Biffle, Moi)
  Stunning ceiling of the Library of
Congress
 Washington Monument
 Anna and Barrett
 Chez Barack
 Vietnam Memorial
 Abe Lincoln, looking slightly scary
 Today on Summer Song... Alex hailing the bridge by
radio
 Buzzing about on Jemime before lunch
 ...and lower in the water after lunch
 Crabs on Mill Creek
 Crab mallets at the ready
 Separating the mustard (not so good) from the lump
meat (excellent)
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