Resident Tourist

Throw Back Thursday Travel: Washington DC

Full disclosure: I was born in Washington DC and raised inside its beltway, first in Maryland and then in Virginia. I left at 19 to go one state south to university, came back for a while, then left again for good at 27.

So this is really more about time travel perhaps.

Even though I was close to the Nation’s Capitol, it still felt like a privilege to visit the monuments and museums. My father was a fine artist so the National Gallery of Art became our weekend home. Apparently I had a particular affinity for Mary Cassatt at an age when I was still being liveried in a stroller. According to my mother I would launch myself out of the the stroller and run to the room housing the Cassatt paintings.

I still feel this way inside every time I travel to a new location.

I learned about history here. I got to attend inaugural parades. My local news was national news. And there was no other football team other than the Redskins. I still consider myself a Washingtonian.

Part of me misses it, the Smithsonian, the energy of politics, the seasons, but I suspect my memories are made sweeter by the distance.