KarenThompkins: January 2016

When Rehena (Re), my high school friend, invited me to get away for the weekend, I said yes. We have managed to stay in contact over the years although we don’t see each other often. In high school, we both played on the volleyball team. We first came to know each other riding the after school activity bus. The bus was stationed at the middle school down the hill from the high school. Many afternoons I would run down the hill just in time to catch the bus. Per Re, it was on one of those bus rides that I suggested that she try out for the volleyball team. I was already playing on the team and she was two years behind me and in middle school.

Re owned a timeshare and wasn't sure where she wanted to get away to. It didn’t matter to me where we went as long as we went somewhere. It was in the spirit of adventure and friendship that I said yes. I love to get away – to leave the familiar and experience something new. I’ve written about this before in Sunday Get Away and Exhaling in Memphis and in other pieces.

Re selected a property in the Old Town area of Alexandria, Virginia. If you were to take a map and put a pin point at my apartment in Silver Spring and the other in Alexandria, you could draw a vertical line between the two cities that would cut right through the District. The two cities are only 12 miles away. Growing up in Maryland, I don’t remember visiting Alexandria as a child. Since relocating back to the DMV – not the Department of Motor Vehicles but the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia region – I’ve been to Alexandria quite a few times for dinner, shopping and even a meetup group at The Sacred Heart Book Store.

Could a drive over to Alexandria even qualify as a getaway? This became my preoccupation. I was hankering for the excitement that comes with doing something new. When faced with a modern-day, middle-class “dilemma” such as this, one has two options: make a big deal out of nothing or get over yourself. I went with the latter. It didn't make sense to diminish or devalue this experience because of my preconceived notions.

Now, let me describe Old Town as if I’ve never been there before. Old Town is a beautiful historic district in Alexandria – with cobble stone streets, red brick sidewalks and red brick buildings. It has cute little shops and restaurants all along the main street, AKA, King Street. King Street ends at the waterfront along the Potomac River. There’s a lot of interesting history nearby such as George Washington’s Mount Vernon and the Alexandria Black History Museum.

We parked our cars for the weekend and got around either on foot or on the King Street Trolley. It was the weekend before Christmas and holiday decorations and lights framed store windows and homes. The trees along King Street were adorned with white lights. Maybe it was just my imagination, but some lights resembled animals perched in trees.

Walking along King Street at night reminded me of a Christmas Eve several years ago in Annapolis. It was a rare occasion in which it was snowing in Maryland on Christmas Eve. It was also one of those years in which Re and I happened to connect again and went shopping at the mall. Not ready to go home and not threatened by a little snow, we drove to the harbor. We walked along similar cobblestone streets and shops with holiday decorations. Most of the shops were closed and the streets were quiet. At the pier, the boats rested on dark, rippling waters that reflected their white frames and holiday lights. We went inside one of the coffee shops and watched the snow fall. That moment was etched in my mind as it seemed rather Dickensian but Re didn’t remember it at all.

I was satisfied walking around Alexandria in a cloud of holiday nostalgia but we found other things to do. We mostly walked in and out of shops, casually shopping for ourselves and for others. There was good food – the first night we went to Joe Theismann's restaurant and the next night we went to The Chart House. The Chart House sits right along the waterfront so it offers not only an elegant menu but lovely views. We also took a water taxi from Old Town to the National Harbor. Sitting outside, it was cold but tolerable because of the bright sun and the beauty of the day. A family sat in front with us and we shared a single bench along the front of the taxi. With them, a little girl singing and dancing to a song playing from her mother’s phone. Her cuteness and joy was remarkable – from her pigtails and pink coat down to her white laced socks and black patent leather shoes. We clapped and cheered at the end of her performance. Arriving at the National Harbor, I could see that a ferris wheel had been constructed since my last visit. It loomed over the ledge of the pier. We ate at Rosa Mexicano and did a little more shopping at America!, a tourist gift shop. I purchased a Christmas ornament of Santa riding Air Force One.

Soon, we were back at the pier, waiting for our water taxi to return us to Old Town. The sun set beautifully over the water and we could see pieces of a rainbow in the sky.

As quickly as the sun set, the weekend came to a close. No, it was not my typical getaway. But does it matter when there’s friendship, good food, sweet memories and rainbows?