For a kind of dreary day, today was a good one. I started out by being introduced to an amazing diner in Capitol Hill called Pete's. Pete's is a traditional American diner run by a Vietnamese family. So there is a shrine in one corner next to the open grill and various more traditional food options to go with two eggs over easy. It is also quite reasonably priced for DC, so I'm sold, though a bit of a trek from where I am for breakfast! (the Eastern Market/Capitol Hill area is actually one I'd like to relocate to if I were to be here longer term. More grown up than U Street). Apparently you get a great mix of people in there when they first open in the mornings (something like 4 or 5am...). Construction workers, shift workers and interns and other folk from the Hill who have just not made it home yet. I'm not likely to try it that early but you never know.

I followed that with finally making it to the Newseum while they had their half price deal this month. I thought it was terrific. Really well thought out and sooooo much information. Since it's all about journalism and the media they are playing a lot of television and documentary footage - you could spend a whole day just going from screening room to screening room. I skip a lot of that but I was there pretty much the whole afternoon regardless. Notably for me was their exhibit on 9/11 which was beautifully done (and gave me the same gut wrenching feeling I had on the day - I actually couldn't stay in that area very long), as well as one on the Berlin Wall. It very clearly detailed what lead to it first being built and then coming down. They even had a section of wall and one of the observation towers. A really good mix of informative and interesting - the right mix of solemn when appropriate and a sense of humour at other times. Like the tiles that decorate the washrooms....

I wrote down one quote from one of the walls of the building:

"Journalism is the first rough draft of history" Philip Graham, publisher, the Washington Post

I like that.

They have a great terrace from their 6th floor that looks out on to Pennsylvania.

Located next to the Canadian Embassy! (which I still haven't been inside...) This was my arty shot for the day.

This city is obsessed with many things, among them Presidents Washington, Lincoln and Kennedy and it seems Elvis. Both the Portrait Gallery and the Newseum are having Elvis exhibits this spring (is it some sort of notable anniversary of his death or something?) and the KC sells Elvis merchandise though he never actually played there. I don't get it myself, but I guess he fits that tragic icon figure they like so much here. So Alistair, visit after March to get the full retrospective...

Weird KC tidbit. Peanut M&Ms are the biggest selling item of all restaurant/merchandise sales. I am partial to them myself I have to admit.

So much I haven't covered from this weekend - the KC Haiti benefit, some jazz etc etc but will fill in those gaps early in the week.