So I've managed to have a bit of fun this long weekend. On Saturday I took a knife skills cooking class with Nicole and Susan. Probably 1 minute after the instructor lectured us on knife safety I cut my finger. Fail. Anyway, on Sunday I went to Taste of DC with Nicole. It was magical. I had heard of it last year but obviously didn't get a chance to go. I met up with Nicole and we made a pact to share the food we got and to try things that we hadn't before. Taste of DC has a ton of restaurants that come and give samples of their food for reasonable prices, for those who don't know. Nicole and I had gotten some deal with Living Social, where we got a free beer and coupons for $10 worth of beer.
I started out getting some Jamaican patties from the Patty Boom Boom Room, which is a bar on U St. I got a spicy beef pattie which was super yummy. We then went to get some beer at the bier garden. I got a blonde beer from C2 imports, which I had never heard of. Pretty good. Next I went to a food truck- chupacabra. I got a chicken taco which was amazing. I was quite pleased that there are no food trucks near my job. Next Nicole got poutine, which I had had once. It looks gross and the ingredients together seem gross, but is amazing. We then split samosas from Mayur Kabob house. We wanted to split an empanada but the place we went was out, which was an epic fail. Then we each got a cupcake from Cake Love. It was a pumpkin cupcake in my case. OMG so good. We still had beer coupons so we sampled some more beers. My last beer was the Virginia Lager from a place in Nelson County, in an effort to keep it local :). While we consumed our beer we watched a professional food eating competition- they were eating bens chili bowl! There was one competitor who I recognized, the black widow. So I rooted for her. Sadly she did not win. :( Overall it was a ton of fun, and we got to sample a lot of different kinds of food and beer for very little money. That's my kind of day.
On Monday I was able to tour the Frederick Douglass House in southeast DC. The house sits on top of a hill in Southeast so I was able to get an awesome view of DC. Frederick Douglass lived in the house for the last 10-15 years of his life. He bought it from the Van Horne family. Mr. Van Horne had built the house for himself and his family, and he made a restrictive covenant against the land for blacks, Irish, and other foreigners. Obviously this was bad business practice and he went bankrupt soon after. Frederick Douglass bought the house for today's equivalent of $1.3 million. At the time slavery had ended 12 years prior, and he was focusing much of his efforts on women's suffrage. I thought that was interesting because I always saw him as an abolitionist. He was very wealthy because of his books and giving speeches.
The front of the house had two parlors. One was for guests to discuss politics and the other was for family. He had 21 grandchildren! Most of the stuff was from the original house, and if it was not original it was recreated based on a photograph. He was an ambassador to Haiti, so the wallpaper in the one parlor had palm trees to reflect that. The study off the parlor had all of his books- he taught himself to read and was able to speak French and German as well. The dining room table had all of their original china, which was cool. When Frederick Douglass bought the house from the Van Horne's, he added an edition to the house, making it 21 rooms. There was a stable and other things in the back with several acres, but they were sold to pay off taxes.
The upstairs had several bedrooms. As a Victorian house, the rooms were divided by gender- one side of the hall for men and the other for women. Even if you were married you stayed in separate rooms! Both of his wives had their own room, but his first wive's room was closed off after her death. There was a beautiful bay window with a view, and apparently Frederick Douglass would put his table in front of it to work sometimes. His grandchildren also had a sleeping area in the attic, and he had a room for his trunks since he traveled so much. When he died of a heart attack he left his house to his second wife, but this caused drama and so his children eventually got it in a will dispute. His second wife worked to turn the house into a museum, and it was turned over to the National Park Service in the 1960's. They've been giving tours ever since, but they have done several restorations. The last thing I saw was Frederick Douglass' growler house. It's basically the original mancave! It was a small cottage behind the house with a table and lounge for him to work in solitude. It was kind of funny. Lastly I saw a movie about his history, which was okay but mind of cheesy :). Overall it was very educational and the people were so helpful. It was definitely worth the trip!
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| Mancave! |
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