On the road again!: A Day with Lizzy in Washington, DC, 2/4/17

Today was sunny and brisk.
We met Lizzy, former student and Stage Manager Extraordinaire, and now....good friend. We met her at Prit Khao, a Laotian restaurant in the Columbia Heights neighborhood. Miraculously, we got a parking spot right across the street and found Lizzy already there.
The food was really terrific with different use of spices than, say, Thai food. Barbara had monkfish wrapped in a banana leaf with vegetables to wrap in lettuce leaf. Mark had a sticky rice dish with Chinese sweet sausage. His other dish was crispy pork similar to chow mein. They were also lettuce wraps. We cannot remember what Lizzy had, although we all shared everything.
Lovely conversation as we expected with such a bright and interesting young woman.
Afterwards, we all drove to the grounds of the Soldiers' Home, set high on a hill on 251 acres. On the grounds is the Lincoln Cottage, a place to which Lincoln and his family often retreated. It had been used by the previous president, Buchanan, as well. During Lincoln's time the cottage had a view of the city and the Potomac, but trees and buildings have grown up since then.

View from the front of Lincoln Cottage; the photo does not do it justice.

Lincoln spent 1/4 of his presidency in residence here. The White House was too hectic and too hot. The drinking water came directly from the polluted Potomac. So, he and the family spent extended summers in this house three miles from the White House. The cottage was also a place for the quiet the family craved so soon after the death of 11-year-old Willie.

Lincoln's Cottage

When the Lincolns were there, the place was used as a hospital, a military camp, retirement home, and a national cemetery. It is still used as a retirement home for over 1,000 veterans. Because the grounds are still owned by the Soldiers' Home, visitors to the Lincoln Cottage are restricted to the cottage and the visitor center.

Mark and Lizzy in the Visitor Center

We took a tour of the modest house where Lincoln penned the Emancipation Proclamation. The house itself is bare as the furniture the Lincolns used was brought from the White House and returned every season. Plus, it was used for many purposes afterwards including being a lounge/bar for the Soldiers' Home. It was designated as a National Monument in 2000 by President Bill Clinton and opened to the public in 2008.
Then,we dropped Lizzy home. It was a lovely day and so nice that it was planned by Lizzy. Every day we have been in Washington D.C. we have gone to someplace we have never before visited and have learned a great deal.
It is so appropriate to the times how we spent our days in Washington this year during the first two weeks of the Trump Presidency. How we spent our time felt like an antidote. We appreciated the Library of Congress for its storage of accumulated wisdom. We listened to the lessons taught by both Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, two men with prodigious minds. Both were dedicated to improving our country and who left behind important words and legacies.