March 13-15, 2024
A quick, mid-week trip north: one day in DC to see the Vaccines and the Kooks perform at the Anthem and one day in NYC to see Tobias Menzies perform in The Hunt at St. Ann's Warehouse. The trip coincided with the first true tastes of spring: the days were cloudless and hovered around 75 degrees and the sunlight lingered until 7pm.
I drove up to DC on Wednesday morning and spent the afternoon in the East Building of the National Gallery of Art. I'm normally a West Building girl, but I was intrigued by the current Mark Rothko exhibit and the surrealism room, and found them both well worth the time. I've sought out more art history resources in recent months and was pleasantly surprised by how information I've retained. It's an overwhelming subject, especially for a complete amateur, but it makes for a better museum experience to understand both what I'm seeing and its context. In the evening, a friend and I met up for drinks at the Wharf and walked over to the Vaccines/Kooks show. Both bands have been around over 10 years, yet still put on energetic shows without seeming bored or uninterested in the crowd. Never have I ever seen a rock band front man dance as much as Luke Pritchard does for the Kooks.
The next morning I hopped on a bus to NYC. Since the play was in Dumbo, I decided to skip Manhattan entirely and stick to Brooklyn. I booked a cute hotel in Williamsburg a couple blocks off the L and spent the rest of the day wandering around the neighborhood: grabbing a slice at Best Pizza, buying books at McNally Jackson + cookies at Levain + Dante's Divine Comedy prints at Quimby's + dinner at Reunion. The play itself was phenomenal. I was already familiar with the movie that the play is based on, but seeing the story unfold right in front of me was a viewing experience I'll never forget. I finished my time in Brooklyn the following morning with a coffee at Partners and a bialy sandwich at Gertie before getting back on the bus to DC, picking up my car, and driving down to Raleigh.
It's been a while since I've taken a real trip (not counting a couple days in the woods in January and a weekend beach retreat in February). I've been settling down into Raleigh's mid-size city pace but craved a return to a big city, and I'm beyond happy that I was able to pull together a trip so quickly. March kicked off a spring season full of fun travel plans, and this mini-trip was a great beginning.
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