Fellows' skip day

Well Fellows' skip day turned in to Fellows' skip afternoon, but we did okay. We didn't make it out to Mount Vernon but instead we went to one of DC's "hidden treasures" Hillwood House. Or estate rather. This 25 acre estate was owned by the daughter of the man who started Post cereal, Marjorie Merriweather Post. Her family also owned General Foods, so, kinda rich. She herself was married 4 times, the first time to the US Ambassador to Russia in the 1930s so, as a woman interested in the arts, she basically pillaged the place for two American dollars. Her collection includes the most Faberge eggs in North America (maybe the world, I'm not sure) - they are extremely pretty and she has many of them. One of them was the very first one that Nicholas gave to his mother, Catherine the Great. So yeah, Russia should call looking for its history back because it is all in this mansion. Seriously, entire rooms of this place were filled with Russian liturgical art and items of obvious religious significance which she bought when Russians couldn't afford food.

The grounds were gorgeous. The staff and volunteers all so friendly and knowledgeable and we had the place to ourselves. We may have passed five other people the entire afternoon. Hillwood must have an extremely large endowment to keep going is what I'm thinking. If you come to DC and are here for more than a day or two, visit here. It's something else. (there will be pictures but I'm tired!!)

We then had a Fellow's birthday celebratory BBQ which was terrific. I finally went to Cowgirl Creamery and bought cheese! Lots of extremely yummy cheese (thanks Miss E - so fun to do too).

As an interesting contrast to the day, after the BBQ, I got a lift home with one of the other fellows. We dropped another fellow off in Anacostia first - on the OTHER side of the Anacostia River (where I had been told over and over never to go). It was fine. It actually looked like a perfectly nice, residential area. It is actually worse on the DC side of the bridge just in south east. Oh stereotypes.

I think tomorrow's plans are now for a pool party rather than karaoke (yay) as it's supposed to be even warmer than today. And so very humid. But again, I've hit this weird place where I'm okay with the heat. The air conditioned apartment helps, I admit that.

And tomorrow is our penultimate day in the program. How very, very strange.