All in a Day's Walk

Spring has sprung in DC and I have put on my walking shoes. My day starts off with a walk with Josie through the Kalorama/Sheridan neighborhood across the street. The neighborhood is home to many foreign ambassadors residences. Each home is more beautiful than the next. It also was home to many former presidents (while they were not living in the White House, I suppose); as well as Madame Chiang Kai-shek, influential widow of the Chinese Nationalist Party president who died only a few years ago at 106; and child-star turned diplomat, Shirley Temple Black. I feel special just walking through the neighborhood.
My sister, Myra, and I have also taken up the healthy habit of taking afternoon power walks through the city. Myra works only a few blocks down Connecticut Avenue from me, so it is easy enough to meet up a few times a week on her lunch break, and it's a heck of a lot cheaper than our former habit of meeting up for lunch once a week. On our first walk together about a month back, we headed towards a park in the distance. Our conversation, as we walked, went a little something like this:
Emily: What a beautiful park. I wonder what park this is?
Myra: What a beautiful house over there. Say... that kind of looks like the White House, don't you think?
Emily: By golly, that IS the White House. How long has that been there?
Who knew the White House was a block away from Myra's office building? Obviously, not us. But that is the beauty of a walk: orientation. Now we kind of know where we are, at least in respect to the most famous house in the city.
Last week while Myra and I were walking, we saw something plummet from the sky, nearly missing our faces, and bounce off my shoe. What the heck was that? A "dropling", my term of the week. A dropling is a baby bird that, well, drops from the nest to the ground, to its death. Now, where this particular little guy came from is anyone's guess, as there were no trees anywhere around. It think this one fell from a cloud. We got a bit sad, said goodbye and walked on.
One more walking story for you. Yesterday, my friend Marissa visited from NYC. We decided to check out a free (for tips) walking tour of the D.C. monuments I had heard about on the Internet. After marching around the base of the Washington Monument a few times, we finally spotted a group of a few dozen people following a red-head with a baby-blue t-shirt, on which was printed "Free Tours! Follow Me!" Follow we did, for an hour and a half of historical trivia and little-known tales of the D.C. monuments and city history. For example, did you know that a cat once climbed the Washington Monument, fell off, landed on its feet (of course), walked across Constitution Ave. only to be eaten by a dog waiting on the other side? OK, so maybe that was one of the tall tales tour guide Ben made up to keep us on our toes, but I'd say 99% of the rest of the information he shared was 99% true. So impressed was I with the tour that upon its completion, I marched up to tour guide Ben and handed him my business card. I said something like, "Great tour Ben. I am a teacher, history buff, and actress. If you need any more tour guides, I can do it." And he said something like, "You're hired. Are you serious? You're hired."
So, all in a day's walk (or two), I found the White House, kicked a dropling, and got a job as a D.C. tour guide. And I'm meeting Myra in a few hours for another walk.