Goodbye 2014 Hello 2015

I can imagine what the conversation would be between the new year 2015 and the old year 2014 if they were two of the Beatles.  The new year, 2015, would probably do the singing, and he would phrase the song as if were addressed to the departing year, 2014:

You say goodbye and I say hello

Hello hello

I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello

Hello hello

I don't know why you say goodbye, I say hello

Anyway, I'm sure that's what would happen if years were musical.  Maybe they are, or maybe they aren't, but we decided to make our New Year's musical by having a late night dinner, into midnight, at our favorite Georgetown, DC jazz club, Blues Alley.  It's had the same logo in all the maybe 20 years we've visited:

Our trip started in Fredericksburg, Virginia, where our truck and trailer are parked in a campground. We made arrangements to park our big truck in a supermarket parking lot across from the Fredericksburg train station and made tracks up to the platform to wait for the train:

Commuting into DC from Virginia is not simple. There are two methods.  One is Amtrak, which is not cheap (e.g., $52 a trip).  The other is the VRE (Virginia Regional Express) commuter train, which is cheap (e.g., $11 a trip).  The two trains use the same tracks.  In fact, many times the two systems offer rides on the same Amtrak trains.  According to the VRE website, a VRE train was available when we wanted to go into DC, so we bought the cheaper tickets.  Only Amtrak trains were available home on New Year's Day, so we bought Amtrak tickets for the return.  Can't always get the best deal.

Not so simple.

An Amtrak train pulled up when we expected the VRE train.  We asked the conductor if another VRE train was going to be along shortly.  He said, "Nope."  We said, "When's the next train?"  "Seven p.m.," he responded.  Hmmm...  "We have VRE tickets for the train that comes at this time," we pointed out.  He responded, "Those won't work on this train.  You have to buy Amtrak tickets.  It'll cost you $44 apiece."  No one bothered to tell us that VRE lists the Amtrak trains in its schedule but doesn't bother to tell you that for THOSE trains you can't use your VRE ticket.  We bought our Amtrak tickets on the train.  Now we'll have to chase down a VRE refund.  Good luck.

Nevertheless, we made it without further incident into DC, enjoying a scenic ride up the lower reaches of the Potomac River as we travelled.  We passed Quantico Marine Base and had a chance to get an idea of the facility.  Got a drive-by viewing of the various National Mall monuments.

From Union Station, we took the Metro to DuPont Circle and stopped for lunch at an Irish pub, then walked on to Georgetown, where our little inn, the Canal Inn, awaited our arrival:

It's a cute little small inn-type hotel located right on the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal.  We would recommend it to you, but the in-room, on-demand water heater had such small capacity that we couldn't even get a full shower without running out of hot water.  For some irrational reason, David was willing to overlook that small shortcoming, but it loomed large enough to Kathy that she swore, "I'm never coming back here again."  No accounting for taste.

Having settled our things in the Inn, we went out to stroll the C&O Canal and the rest of nearby Georgetown.

The Chesapeake and Ohio National Historic Park is a United States National Historical Park located in DC and the states of Maryland and West Virginia. The park was established as a National Monument in 1961 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in order to preserve the neglected remains of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal along the Potomac River along with many of the original canal structures. The canal and towpath trail extends from Georgetown, Washington, D.C. to Cumberland, Maryland.  While the park has seven visitor centers along its 184.5 mile length, the DC visitor center is in Georgetown within a few blocks of our Inn.

Just outside our Inn sits an old canalboat that once was operated on the canal:

The canal is spanned by several iron pedestrian bridges.  Here, Kathy leans out to look at the canal, and her shadow does the same on the canal wall to the right:

From our section of the canal, here is a view north (upstream) --

-- and a view south (downstream) toward the Potomac:

Most of the industrial buildings along the canal in Georgetown have been redeveloped and repurposed as residences, office and retail space.  Many are graced with compatible art and sculpture. On New Years Day morning, as we started our walk around D.C., we ran into a crowd at one stairway down to the canal from a Georgetown Street.  It was a huge group of Sierra Club hikers, perhaps 100-strong, out for a New Year's hike.  One woman invited us to join them, but we assured her that we were not allowed to hike with Sierra Club members because we are members of the competing Appalachian Mountain Club.   We're not sure she understood the joke.

We would also have loved to explore a much longer section of the canal by bicycle, but that will have to wait for another visit.  We've been to DC many times and expect we will visit again in the future, so we're pretty sure we'll have the chance.

After trolling Georgetown for a restaurant for dinner, we decided on a tapas restaurant, Bodega, just up M Street from 31st Street.  Knowing that we would be drinking and snacking our way to midnight, at Blues Alley, we kept our order small and shared three small plates which, unfortunately, got cut out of this photo because the photographer was obsessed with the 13 silver bull skulls on the opposite wall:

(Ed.: This blog entry will (for better or worse) dwell at length on the food we ate.  We try not to make this a practice, but we felt that, given the central role that music, eating and drinking played in our New Year's celebration, it is appropriate to make an exception in this case.)

We chose and HIGHLY recommend these hot tapas plates:

     Fritura de Cazón Adobado (Crispy Shark Nuggets Served with a Smoked Paprika Alioli)
     Pimientos del Piquillo Rellenos de Costilla de Buey (Piquillo Peppers Stuffed with Braised Beef Short Ribs and Served Au Jus)
     Butifarra Catalana con Judías Salteadas (Catalonian Sausage with Sautéed Kidney Beans) (Ed: It should be noted that our dish did not include kidney beans but cannellini (Spanish white) beans.  All the same, they were delicious and probably much more delicious than kidney beans anyway)

After dinner, we repaired to the Inn to rest until our 9:45 pm jazz club date.  At the appointed time, we strolled the VERY LONG one block over to Blues Alley:

The festivities started promptly at 10:00 pm.  We were surprised, however, because the jazz club used a different format for New Year's than we were used to.  Normally, dinner is served only at the early show.  The 10pm show normally only comes with drinks and light snacks.  However, unbeknownst to us, we had purchased the standard, MANDATORY New Year's package of a full dinner at the late show.  So, having already eaten dinner, we were confronted with a SECOND dinner.  We asked the waitress if she could serve us the salad and dessert (and - oh, yes - a bottle of wine), then give us the dinners in a bag to carry away.  She was very amenable to that, and we settled in to enjoy the evening.  Here's a photo of the venue in full celebration mode:

Okay, so now we include the obligatory "It's midnight and we're cheering in the New Year" photos:

The people on both sides of us were very nice.  One couple, who live locally and come to Blues Alley frequently, offered to take our photo together and we leapt at the opportunity.

Did we mention the champagne was a bottomless glass for the whole evening, in addition to the bottle of wine we purchased.  We must insist that we both behaved very well and only drank the small glasses of champagne that awaited us as we were seated, PLUS the obligatory cheer-in-the-New-Year glasses:

The featured artist was Monty Alexander.  Born in Kingston, Jamaica, he is a jazz pianist who also plays the melodica. His playing has a strong Caribbean influence and swinging feeling, but he has also been influenced by Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Wynton Kelly, and Ahmad Jamal.  The first half of his set consisted, first, of jazz interpretations of Christmas standards, including medleys of such songs as Jingle Bells and Silver Bells.  He followed up with a story about his experiences with Frank Sinatra and a traditional jazz interpretation of the Sinatra classic, "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning."  But the absolute highlight of the night was the last half of the set, when his Jamaican friends joined him on the stage to overwhelm us with a series of jazz interpretations of regae favorites.  All of his songs included phrases dropped in from songs known to all of us, and he would treat those phrases as little jokes shared with the audience.  By the time his performance was over, the house was rocking.

We were disappointed that he didn't play until midnight.  Rather, he finished around 11:30.  Another jazz trio stepped in, however, and took us into the New Year with some hot jazz.  The trio held their own and had us walking away satisfied with our celebration.

We went straight back to bed and were asleep by 1:00 am.  We got up a little after 8:00 am and suffered no ill consequences due to our very temperate behavior the night before.  We headed out to forage for breakfast and found a great repast at Martin's Tavern, up Wisconsin Street from our Inn, one of the few places open for breakfast on New Year's Day.  The entire establishment was decorated in a traditional way, adding to the warmth of the breakfast on a very cold, sunny holiday morning:

Tummies warmed, we headed back to our Inn to pack our bags and return home to our RV, ready to move south tomorrow to the coast of North Carolina.