Sunday

After the National Aquarium yesterday, we ate a snack at the homey Italian restaurant Luigi's,¹ located in the Farragut area of downtown DC. The appetizers we ate there were excellent, making me wish there was time to return to this restaurant before leaving the country. But there isn't. Next, our group headed down to the E Street Theater² to see Wes Anderson's new flight of surreality The Darjeeling Limited,³ which represents yet another advancement into Anderson's colorful world of combating eccentricities and which I really liked very much. After the movie, we hooked the Red Line to north Dupont Circle where we walked another couple blocks to Trio Restaurant,⁴ an odd neighborhood diner with archly lovable deco interiors and some battling eccentricities of its own. I had penne puttanesca and an Oreo milkshake. Other selections included burgers, korma, orzo, and pot pies. They have a full bar. Since 17th Street is newly happening, mostly the scenesters settle in the outdoor seating, leaving the cavernous and dank Trio interior abandoned and scary. I love it. Today was our guests' last day in DC, so we had a low-key afternoon in the unit before taking them back to the bus stop where things seemed jammed up and strange, and where there were far too many people for one five pm express bus to NYC. Eventually they got on and were off and it was yet another bittersweet goodbye added to all the others of late. We walked home tired and little sad, ate a nice Lebanese dinner at the Taverna, and then watched several episodes of Heroes on DVD instead of turning our attention to the looming next thing: the fact that we have to have everything in our possession ready to pack and ship bright and early Tuesday morning. [Cavin]