Continuing in our tradition of going away the weekend between our birthdays (we went to St. Louis a year ago), Sara and I went to Maryland and Washington D.C. for the weekend. We stayed in a beautiful old bed and breakfast (Longwood Bed and Breakfast in Brookeville, Md.) that was once home to the man who invented the first refrigerator. We had a wonderful time there, once we figured out that we were indeed in the right place (it was tucked away in a cul de sac of an otherwise generic housing development).
On Saturday, I got an early birthday present when we took the Metro into D.C. to go to the Newseum. The museum was great, but what was especially cool was getting to sit in on the taping of an episode of The Future of News, a program that will debut on PBS in January. The discussion for this hour-long episode was on citizen journalism with guests Jay Rosen (New York University) and Clarence Page (Chicago Tribune). The above picture is of us with the set in the background.
We followed up our Newseum visit with a quick tour of the city, including a trip to the mall where we took a look at the eco-friendly houses that were part of the Eco Decatholon. Once back at our home Thomas Jefferson was known to frequent, we ate leftover birthday cake and watched the news.
The trip ended today with a stop-over in B-more, where Sara had to endure my endless chatter about The Wire and put up with me taking pictures of the pier where the Homicide: Life on the Street production was based. We also toured an old lighthouse (shown in an episode of The Wire), ate crab cakes for the first time, saw some pirates and got to go on a Dutch naval ship before departing.
hey brother matt! Happy birthday! Excited to see yous when I get back!