Smithsonian Folklife Festival

Summer is in full swing here in DC. I always know that summer has arrived when I see the 'Folk Life Festival' signs and big white tents going up on the National Mall. Each year, the Smithsonian hosts a 2 week festival of living culture. Check out their website here.

This year the nation is Bhutan, the state is Texas and the 'other' is NASA. Michelle and I walked through some of the Bhutan exhibits today. Over the next couple of weeks I'll go back to visit the Texas and NASA exhibits.

While we were walking through the festival we decided to get some lunch. We shared Bhutan's national dish of chili peppers and cheese over rice. At one point I was convinced that the burning was never going to stop. Here's a picture of the chili peppers we didn't eat! We were also going to buy some water but because it was so hot outside they were giving the water away for free!

Food:
I was also impressed by the variety of arts that were displayed.

Embroidery:
Dancing:
Knife carving:Traditional outfit:
Weaving:

Another day at the office .. or not?

There are days when I'm reminded that I don't work in just some 'ol city in the US but that I work in Washington, DC, where so many of our political leaders, for good or for bad, are based. My office recently moved to the National Press Building (NPB) which is just one block north of Pennsylvania Ave. The NPB is where, appropriately so, many news organizations are based. It's also where the National Press Club is located.

Today we had a number of big wigs attend an event in our building. The biggest wig was Vice President Cheney. He was the guest speaker and presenter at an awards ceremony.

We knew this was going on the building because there was a calendar of events up in the elevator and we could see the long line of black SUV's outside on the street!

Michelle and I were going to lunch and decided to take the elevator to 'see what we could see'. So, we went out to the lobby and hit the elevator button. A minute later the door opened and inside the elevator were three men and a dog. No, there's no joke coming ... the special security dog with his handler, and two additional special security guys were on their way down to the main lobby. The funny part was that when the doors opened, the dog handler asked "Still want to get on?" - it really was pretty funny.

Anyway, Michelle and I did get on the elevator and went to lunch. When we came back to the building we went through the lobby again and just as we were walking toward the elevator another famous name walked by ... Henry Kissinger. He was so close to me that I could have reached out and hugged him. But, while he looked like Kissinger (duh!) I wasn't sure it was him. And no, for the record, if I had been positive it was him, I still would not have hugged him. However, I would have reached out to shake his hand.

I found this picture, and no I didn't see Greta Van Susteren, but I have to admit that it was pretty cool to see Henry Kissinger in person!

Anyway, just thought I'd share my story. All in all, a not so typical day in DC!