It was another great Thanksgiving here at the Mataconis homestead. Thursday was a just a great day of fun, family, and some great food and memories. Yesterday, we spent the day out and about mostly — not shopping, but sightseeing (something we seem to do often when out-of-town relatives visit). The highlights of the day were a visit to the Washington National Cathedral, which is simply just an amazing piece of architecture. After that, we spent several hours at the Off The Record Bar at the Hay-Adams Hotel.
This was topped off by what I would ordinarily call a once-in-a-lifetime experience, except that it happened to me for the second time in a month. First a point of geography, the Hay-Adams is one of Washington’s most exclusive hotels and located literally across the street (16th Street to be precise) from the White House). Atop it’s 8th floor is a terrace ordinarily reserved for private parties.
In October, during my brief blogging hiatus, I took Kellie for her birthday dinner to the Lafayette Room, the hotel restaurant. After a fabulous dinner, the birthday girl asked the hotel concierge if we could see the roof terrace. With a security escort, we got up there and were treated to what has to be the best view in all of Washington; the White House directly in front of you, with all the monuments behind it. Truly a fabulous memory.
Well, last night, Kellie tried to see if we could do it again and take parents up to see what we had shared the month before. We did, and the view was just as amazing. Marc Fisher described it well in The Washington Post in April:
You need to find some way to get yourself invited to the Hay-Adams rooftop. The view is unparalleled. You see the White House, the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial, and beyond the glorious meeting of the Potomac and the Anacostia, and the airport and the planes descending toward the capital, and Maryland and Virginia sweeping out toward the rest of America, and when you take it all in, you see how tiny the parlors of power really are, and what a stage set we live in, and what inspiration this spot must have summoned when old GW offered to base the whole shebang here.
Those of you noticing a trend from last year’s post-Thanksgiving adventure would be correct.
