Asian in a Strange Land

Actual date: August 12, 2009

Part of the appeal of vacationing is seeing new and/or unusual things.  To people from Mississippi, D.C. is full of such wonders, only a few of which I had the awareness to capture in photos.  These aren’t going to be phenomenally wondrous things, but rather a collection of random and unrelated sights that I found interesting as a hick from a small town visiting D.C.

Line out the door at Greek Deli

Greek Deli is another place near Susie’s office we had penciled in as a potential place to eat.  I hesitate to call it a “restaurant” since there’s no indoor seating, and I can only guess that the outdoor seating in front of it is theirs.  We didn’t go because we didn’t think we’d be able to sit and eat, but it’s still on the list for a future visit.  The guy in the dark blue shirt and khakis is in line to order.  Yes, they are lined up outside the store, with quite a few more people lined up inside (maybe about 3 times the length of the outside line?).  That’s how good this place is.  Supposedly they also have their own version of Seinfeld’s Soup Nazi, albeit kinder and doesn’t sell soup.  You are however expected to know what you want and order quickly instead of dilly-dallying, which is understandable considering the lunch traffic they serve.

Recessions Restaurant

“Recessions” eh?  Plural?  Isn’t the one we’ve got going on right now enough?  Anyway, catchy name, and I wonder how far they take the theme.  What happens when the recession is over–do they rebrand?

Waiting... and waiting

Waiting for the Metro has become a favorite pastime for many D.C. residents.  The Red Line that Susie takes to and from work every day has been hit the hardest with the train accident they had a while back.  Apparently some old equipment that should’ve been replaced a while back is just now being replaced after the accident, so there are delays and even scheduled outages on the Metro.  The helpful pre-recorded message advises us to “add 30 to 45 minutes to your travel time” because of the repairs.

Detailed street-crossing instructions

Personally the difference between and respective meanings of an orange hand icon and a walking man symbol at a crosswalk seem pretty obvious to me, as is the number counting down to zero, but I appreciate that they’ve put forth the effort to explain what it’s all about.

Say what?

“Kiss & Ride”?  Are they allowed to put that on a street sign?

As I’m scratching my head at it, Susie informs me that it means a place where you drop somebody off (“kiss” them goodbye) to “ride” public transportation.  Ah, well then.