Blogs from District of Columbia, United States, North America

The Metro station around the corner from the Portrait Museum, which unfortunately didn’t open until 11:30; however, time in a new city is rarely wasted. The streets were lined with huge buildings, which were stunning, some old and some new. Few people were around, possibly because it is the start of school today or possibly because the temperature was 97F. After a few blocks, we saw the Carnegie Washington Library . The elegant 1903 building with traditional long, wide stairs was situated in in Mount Vernon Square. We gladly went into the air-conditioned lobby, marvelling at the obvious Apple presence, assuming this was sponsorship. No! It was an Apple store!! In the wings were closed research library rooms. The kind and cheerful guard told us about the current research organizations, and she agreed that we could ... read more

We are here in Washington DC. We have been here twice before for long weekends with the kids. We took an Uber from the airport to our Airbnb in the Capital Hill area. Our Airbnb is across the street from Lincoln Park. Our first order of business is finding a store to buy cereal and milk for breakfast. We find a store a short walk away. DC takes some planning, contact your representative 90 days in advance for free tickets to the Capital and White House. We only started planning 60 days in advance. We got tickets to the Capital and on the waitlist for the Whitehouse. A few weeks before we arrived we found out we got tickets to the White House. The Smithsonian Museums are free but some need reserved timed tickets. So figure ... read more

From the Points Guy: The Transportation Security Administration has seen a huge surge in the number of travelers enrolled in its expedited security checkpoint screening program — through TSA PreCheck directly and through other programs like Global Entry. There are no signs of the trend slowing, either. In fact, the agency wants more travelers to enroll. At the beginning of 2022, there were 27.4 million known travelers in the system, the TSA told TPG. That number includes travelers enrolled in all U.S. Department of Homeland Security Trusted Traveler programs, the vast majority of whom are members of a program that provides them with TSA PreCheck access. How do the current numbers compare to pre-pandemic times? In 2019, there were 18.9... read more

From the Washington Post: Across the country, pollen season is starting earlier and intensifying because of rising global temperatures and carbon dioxide concentrations. url=https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pnas.org%2Fdoi%2Fepdf%2F10.1073%2Fpnas.2013284118&data=04%7C01%7C%7Ccd8a3fe91e1c4e5843d008da157cc41d%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637845922869621352%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000&sdata=Rezk6uZgpPnzLAsEfNGprTTj1Ku%2FLyOWtMUophxe7zI%3D&reserved=0Previous research showed that pollen season lengthened by 20 days over the past three decades across North America, while pollen concentrations increased by 21 percent. The most affected places were the U.S. Southeast and Midwest. Yes, my seasonal and year around allergies are worse than ever. Lexi too! I use the f... read more

From Inside Hook: Set to be held in person in 2022, the District celebrates the blooming of our cherry trees with a month-long festival commemorating the gift from the mayor of Tokyo to Washington, DC. in 1912. The festival includes formal events all around DC, including the Blossom Kite Festival, Petalpalooza, the National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade, the Pink Tie Party and more. And, of course, lots of cherry tree peeping not only around the Tidal Basin but throughout the entire District. url=https://cherryblossomwatch.com/peak-bloom-forecast/#:~:text=T... read more