For the past week, we have been hosting a couple from Israel. They each have been in Washington once before, but it was a couple of decades ago and, in case you don’t know, the city has changed. I spent yesterday showing them the city, something I like to do, and don’t do as often as I used to.

We started about 9 and ended, after lunch, at around 2. We each had one rule. Theirs was that we should skip the mall, because they spent parts of the last two days there, visiting museums and monuments. Mine was that we stay within the boundaries of the District of Columbia. Oh, yes, one other thing – it was chilly and off and on again raining the entire time.

Here is our route (and what you may treat yourself to if you come to town).

We started at our house and drove them by the Israeli ambassador’s house, two blocks from ours. The house was built by Macedonian speculators six or seven years ago and sat empty with a price tag of $15,000,000. I assumed there was something untoward about the Macedonians and their investment, but I’m probably wrong. At any rate, Israel finally bought it for just over $9 million, which still seemed like a lot. Then they put a security fence around the property, and put flesh colored bars on the first floor windows. The house has escaped pro-Palestinian protestors for the most part. There is 24 hour Secret Service protection at the property; perhaps that is why the demonstrators have let it alone.

Then, I pointed out the residence of the Kuwaiti ambassador, two houses away. We then drove to Connecticut Avenue, past the condominium where (when it was a rental property) Harry Truman lived as vice president, and turned right onto Van Ness, so I could show them the embassies. Of course, we started with Israel’s, now bedecked in blue and white flags, and surrounded by signs and posters and trash and one lonely woman holding a sign saying “Israel kills babies”, or something totally different that means the same thing. The woman was wearing a keffiyeh; my friends said that women never wear a keffieyh, but we decided to let her alone in her ignorance, rather than tell her of her mistake. I can never remember all of the embassies in the area off Van Ness, but I can try: China, Singapore, Ethiopia, Ghana, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan, Morocco, Austria, Slovakia, Egypt, UAR – what did I forget. We also looked at the old Intelsat Building, a building of large and unique design – I told them that its future is very uncertain, and has been since Intelsat decided to move to Tyson’s Corner some years ago.

(Yes, I get it. If I continue at this rate, it will take me another 5 hours to write a blog you won’t have time to read anyway. We will speed up.)

From there? Wisconsin Avenue to Cleveland Park, with a loop involving Newark and Macomb Streets and a numbered cross street in order to show them Cleveland Park’s 100+ year old homes, and back to Wisconsin.

We passed (and looked at) the National Cathedral, and then I drove down Massachusetts Avenue to look at more embassies and embassy residences, at the statues of Churchill, Mandela and Ataturk, at Bill and Hillary Clinton’s Washington House and the Harvard Center for Hellenic Studies, the Kahlil Gibran park, the Mosque and more. Then again back to Wisconsin Avenue and down the Glover Park and then Georgetown, where we wound around several commercial blocks, and then several residential blocks, and then went to the Georgetown University campus, where we thought about taking a walk, but there was no obvious parking spot. We drove down to the water at the foot of Georgetown and looked around there, and I pointed out Sweden House and a sign that mysteriously points to the Embassy of Liechtenstein, and then drove on.

We went onto the Rock Creek Parkway, past the Watergate and the Kennedy Center, and then we wandered around south of the Mall and parked near the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, which they hadn’t seen. We parked the car, and spent maybe 20 minutes at this large memorial; they were duly impressed.

Digression: when we looked to park for the FDR memorial, something seemed off. First, it was that there were twenty or more police cars parked on the road. Second, the police cars all looked like they were 30 or 40 years old. It turns out that it is a police appreciation week of some sort, and these cars were driven here as part of the celebration. I was told by one of the drivers that each of the cars was privately owned – they came from New York, California, Ohio, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Illinois and I am sure elsewhere. I only took one picture, thinking I would take more but when we left the FDR, they were all gone. Like it was all a mirage.

Back in the car for more touring. SW DC – the Wharf, Arena Stage, the Mies van der Rohe apartments, Buzzard Point, Ft. McNair, Audi Stadium. SE DC – Nationals Stadium, the new Navy Yard area, the Navy Yard itself, the path on the Anacostia. Then Capitol Hill including Barracks Row and the Marine Barracks, and on up to H Street and the streetcar, Gallaudet University, and Union Market, where we had a nice, casual lunch.

After lunch, I drove up New York Avenue to 7th Street NW, and went south, showing them the Convention Center, the arena where the Wizards and Caps play, the National Portrait Gallery and Chinatown. I dropped them off at the Natural History Museum, the one Mall museum still on their to-do list. It was a little after 2 p.m.

I think they got more than they bargained for.