When last we spoke Anne Marie’s fate was up in the air. Would she get through the fence on the South Lawn? Would she get zipped by a White House sniper? Would she get to the First Lady’s garden and possibly harvest some fruit? Might she get to the Roosevelt Room or perhaps even the Oval Office? I know a lot of you people were rooting for her to get through the fence, and sadistic few hoping she got to the Oval. Well I hate to disappoint but her melon prevented her crashing of the White House. The picture to the left is as close as she got. This time.

The walk to the White House was the first thing we did when we got to DC on Wednesday night. Well, unless you count disappointing our son 28 minutes after arriving.

We hit the hotel, got situated, and began to think about dinner. Frank noticed a hot dog vendor across the street and all of a sudden would certainly die if he could not eat a hot dog from a boiling vat on wheels. So we’re going to the hot dog guy. But mommy was taking her good sweet time and Frank was getting nervous. No worries Frank, I said. He’ll still be there I said. He’s a hot dog cart guy he’s trying to make money I said.

Wrong. We finally get Mrs Frank’s Place in gear and get to the corner. All we need now is for the light to turn green so we can cross annnnnnnd hot dog guy is shutting down his cart. I know this because I was looking at Frank and his shoulders slumped all of a sudden. I look across the street and the dude is closing the shutters and prepping to vacate. I mean I’ve had vendors in ball parks throw me a hot dog from a longer distance than we were from this guy. No good. He was closed. Frank would have to wait a full 24 hours to enjoy the sweet nectar that is street vendor hot dogs. Of course I get that span of time is like a millennia to kids today but still.

Regrouping from hot dog-gate 2016, the first night in DC was a quick walk to the White House and unfulfilling quesadillas from DC Taco. Hey man nothing was going to measure up street dogs at that point but the DC Taco joint was good. Not a lot of people interaction the first night. Day two in our nation’s capital however was nothing but people interaction. Now those of you who have been around me or this blog a while know good and well people interaction is laborious at best for me. So a lot of you might be shocked by what you read in the next few paragraphs.

In the morning we walked to the tour bus pick up spot. It just happened to be across from Ford’s Theater where Lincoln was shot and next to the DC residence where he died the next morning. Attached to that DC residence was a place called Lincoln’s Waffle Shop. That’s where we met Isaiah. Now before I get to Isaiah be aware the rest of this post is not so much what we did but who we met while we did it.

Don’t get your hopes up for some tale of a life changing journey or any weak minded crap like that. Hello, it’s me. No this was just some real interesting observations of real people interaction versus what media and media types would have us believe is happening on the streets of our country. As such you will notice I not only identify people by their names but by their race or ethnicity as well. Read it to the end. It will make sense, or it won’t. Whatever. Good luck.

Isaiah – Lincoln Waffle Shop

Sitting in the waffle shop was like sitting at a bar. The stool next to me was open and a young black man sat down. He appeared to be a local because the Asian family running this joint all knew him and treated him like a son. He ordered his usual by saying Huan, I’ll take my usual. Isaiah ended up with a very large stack of pancakes and that’s it. You can’t find that on the menu. More evidence he’s a local or at least a regular to this joint. Two minutes into requesting his order he engages Anne Marie who is making the rest of the family play a spirited game of Eye Spy.

Two minutes later and Isaiah is playing Eye Spy with us. He has no clue he’s sitting with ringers in the Eye Spy arena. Take a few 15 hour drives east and you too will be able to read the mind of your kids when they spy something and you need to guess. After I explain what appears to be my Jedi like accuracy in guessing what Frank and Ann Marie are spying, Isaiah and I get down to basics. Where you from, what do you do, how did you end up here, etc…

Turns out Isaiah is not local but a regular. A Howard University business and marketing double major who works at the Hard Rock Cafe to bridge the gap between his scholarship and living expenses. Typical college kid though. When the pancakes appeared he didn’t speak until he had muckeled the entire plate. An impressive eating feat to be sure. We both go to the counter to pay and now Huan is treating me like a regular. I don’t have that effect on people. Clearly because I was talking it up with Isaiah I must be OK. And if I was OK with Isaiah I was OK with Huan. Both of my kids hugged Isaiah as we parted. Isaiah and I man-hugged. It was a weird but good start to the day.

Darin and Ajahania – Tour bus 358/Tour bus stop 1

I’m not sure I’ve mentioned this yet. We walked the 50 yards to stop one to get on the tour bus. We were sweating by the time we met Ajahania. So did I mention it was hot as balls? Cause if I didn’t, it was. I mean miserable hot and it was 9:30 in the morning. Ajahania was the person running the show for the tour bus system. A young black woman, she had been standing there for about an hour and had nine more to go. Yeah, nine hours to go. Did I mention it was hot as balls?

Yet somehow Ajahania could not have been nicer. She engaged our kids, she was pleasant, she represented her company wonderfully. Now I get she works in the tourist industry and she’s required to be nice and welcoming and all that other nonsense, but you can tell when people are sincere or just mailing it in. No mailing it in for Ajahania. Great start for our walking/riding tour of DC.

When we rode the trolley back to that spot around 4pm Ajahania was still there, still smiling. She looked at us like she recognized us. Then she said hello to Anne Marie. The kids were melted so not much cherub like demeanor from them but still. I can’t imagine how many people she must have encountered during the day. The trolleys moved from 9 to 5pm at 1/2 hour intervals. Meaning at all 16 stops on the tour a trolley will appear every 1/2 hour. So do the math. Just a very impressive woman. Did I mention it was boiling hot?

As impressive was Darin, the driver of tour bus 358. That’s the trolley we started on. We took that to the Air and Space museum. I think that was stop 7. Darin was a wealth of knowledge. His ability to drive and describe what we were seeing and not mow down people in the street with his trolley was just astounding. He fit that thing into spaces along the route I would not try with a bicycle. Obviously that’s his job, but again his happiness or joy in describing his city was apparent. I’m sure there is a way to calculate the number of people he must encounter during the day but I’m way too lazy. Sufficed to say he has no business being that happy, polite, and pleasant to us or anybody in that heat, doing that job.

Dr. Freeze – street dude selling water at Independence and 6th.

Dr. Freeze is an old black dude and might just be my most favorite person in DC. The trolley pick up spot coming from the Air and Space museum was at the corner of Independence and 6th ave. At that corner I met Dr Freeze. I guess he’s a doctor, that’s what he called himself anyway. The good Doc was selling ice cold bottled water at $2 a piece. It was cold too. Frozen actually. He made his pitch to me and then realized I had three other people with me. Hey my friend I’ll put you on the family plan. Four for five my friend, four for five!

Now my natural inclination is too wave off folk like this. I passed initially with Dr. Freeze based on this. After Tracy asked me what he wanted she rightly said, That’s a good deal. So she went over and signed us up for the family plan. Turned out to be a godsend. Five bottles of ice frozen water later we were waiting in the heat for the trolley. In case you weren’t aware it was hot as blue blazes. Anyway we get on the trolley and AM sits on the window side next to me.

Dr Freeze is now in the street as other tour bus companies are stacking up in front of the Air and Space museum. Our new driver Duchess, the older black woman who commands bus #357, has closed everyone else out thus having the best position to get in and out of the mass of buses and cars at that intersection. If I didn’t know better I’d say she learned to drive in the beach traffic around my home town.

We’ll get to Duchess in a second. But her position and the subsequent back up of other tour buses afforded Dr Freeze to make his rounds window by window of all the other tour buses. As he’s moving along he sees Anne Marie waving at him out the open window of our trolley and asks her if she’s hot. Before I can say we already bought water he just gives her one and won’t take my money. Hey man you on the family plan. Here you go sweetie take some water. He flat out refused to take my 2 dollars.

Now I’ve written a lot on a political web site about the people who stand at busy intersections and off ramps with signs that vary in some from of will work for food. Most of those folks are lying and have more money than you or me. They won’t work for food, they just want a hand out. Google it. Dr Freeze was not only hustling his ass off in heat so bad you could see the air, literally see the air molecules, he was giving away product and thus losing money, to little kids and families.

We’re not rich by any measure but certainly could afford bottled water, especially the Doc’s family plan. And I can guarantee you he was aware of that. The man just has a kind heart. With a pat on her hand and a Have a good day sweetie, Duchess pulled the bus into the battle zone that is DC traffic and we said goodbye to Dr Freeze.

My brother always jokes about being careful how you treat strangers cause they could be Jesus. I have no clue if Elvis works at the Burger King in downtown Memphis but I’m pretty sure what intersection Jesus is standing on right at this moment.  And his ice cold water is a dollar cheaper than any other water guy you’ll meet in DC.

Duchess – Tour bus #357 FDR and MLK Memorial

Duchess was a hoot. She drove that big trolley like it was a weapon on wheels. We rode with her from the Air and Space Museum all the way to the FDR and Martin Luther King Jr memorials on the opposite side of the tidal basin. So from the water’s edge we were looking across at the Smithsonian museums. Anyway, Duchess could not be more happy to be alive. Which is more than I can say for the people in cars who dared to take her on in traffic.

After a while I got the distinct feeling that Duchess took everyone in her trolley to be her children and every other vehicle on the road to be a terrorist of some kind. It was oddly reassuring. Twice I had to stifle a laugh as I could see the drivers faces we passed from my perch above them in the trolley that now felt more like the Old Lady that Lived in a Shoe nursery rhyme. Except in this case the lady knew what to do. It was the other drivers left in her wake that were clueless, and possibly slightly angry.

Vincent – Tour bus #350 FDR Memorial

Vincent was the old man of the trolley fleet. The salty old veteran who doled out sage advice and knew every nook and cranny of the city.  There was not a thing this dude did not know about DC and the memorials. Dates they were built, dates they were opened to the public, dates they were dedicated, he knew it all. We got on this bus around 3:45pm at the MLK Memorial. That was stop 9 or 10 I believe. Although if not for Vincent we may not have made it on.

His trolley was full when he pulled up and no one appeared to be getting off. But Vincent in his wealth of knowledge kept talking about the attractions at this particular stop. Low and behold four people got up. Vincent looks at me with a hand out and says let them exit and you can get on. Nice. He even jockeyed people around so Tracy and I could each sit with one of our kids. The kids were literal toast at this point so we decided to just stay on and ride back to stop 1, three blocks from our hotel.  Traffic was just crazy. And Vincent had the unenviable task of telling people at several of the next stops that the trolley was full. Two stops into our journey back three people get off but four get on.

A very large black woman was about to be odd tourist out. Vincent had one hand on the eject button. But AM crawled into Tracy’s lap and the woman gratefully sat down next to her. And just like that they were chatting up a storm about where we had all gone and what we had seen and what we should see the next time we come back. That was a prevailing theme. Any brush with a person in a museum or at a memorial and they would recommend things to see when and if we come back.

I honestly thought this part of the trip would be a hassle. But it was drama free and a lot of fun. We will betaking the kids back for sure.

As Vincent was reeling off some crazy long stats about different sights we were passing I thought about what has been going on around the country the weeks leading up to this trip. It was surprising how much of what we experienced was exactly opposite of what the media would have us believe. According to the headlines and breaking news flashes the streets of the US are running with blood from an all out race war. I must have missed it cause that just wasn’t the case. And yeah I get that we were in a tourist spot but it wasn’t Mayberry. DC used to be known as the murder capital of the world.

All the people we met: service industry, tourists, locals, college kids, Doctors 🙂  etc… they all treated me and my family with respect; the same we showed them. I never even sensed any animus or suspicion of such. I never looked at one person and thought “threat”. My kids hugged Isaiah they way they hug their Grammy. I’m not naive. I know problems exist, still to this day. The fact I even write that sentence about Isaiah tells you it’s unique and not the norm. All I’m saying is our experience, anecdotal as it may be, was not close to what the news and the media web sites and the “pundit/experts” claim is going on.

Although I identified the race or ethnicity of the people we met, that was for the purpose of this post. In actuality we were all just people. All just doing the same thing on the same day. Hanging out in the hot thick air of Washington DC. And we’d do it again tomorrow if we could.

No idea why I felt the need to include that or write this post in this fashion. I just did. Sue me.

Did I mention it was hot as balls?