Potomac Overflows Its Banks at Georgetown, Too
• June 9, 2014

Great Falls on the Potomac River was at flood stage May 17 and looked wilder than usual. Streams on both side of the river broke their banks, and there were fatalities during the flood.

In Georgetown, the flood gates were up at Washington Harbour over the weekend.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Potomac River at K Street in Georgetown crested around midnight, May 18. On Sunday morning, the river was at 8.8 feet, which is 2.8 feet above flood levels.

In April 2011, flood gates at Washington Harbour during springtime flooding. Water from the Potomac flowed into the riverside complex, shutting down businesses for months. The complex was renovated and upgraded and is more popular than ever.

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Glover Park Waitress Says She Was Sexually Assaulted
• June 4, 2014

A woman was attacked early Saturday morning, May 24, in the 2400 block of Wisconsin Avenue, NW, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. She appears to have been uninjured.

Various media outlets, however, tell slightly different news stories of the incident, which took place across from Guy Mason Park.

ABC7 News reported: “In the Glover Park neighborhood, residents aren’t used to hearing about this kind of crime. … According to police, the incident took place at about 1 a.m. on Saturday morning. A 19-year-old waitress had just gotten off work, and she was walking in the 2400 block of Wisconsin Avenue when a man grabbed her in an alley and tried to force her to perform a sex act. Luckily, she was able to break free and run for help. … Even at that time of morning, neighbors say there is usually foot traffic here, usually made up of patrons of the bars and restaurants.”

NBC News 4 added this to the story: “Sources tell News4 the suspect was a customer at the establishment where the woman worked earlier in the evening. The customer was ‘pushy’ toward the woman while she was working, but she had ignored his advances at the time, sources say. The victim told police the suspect pulled her into an alley just before closing time and tried to get her to perform a sexual act, but she was able to run away and call 911.”

This is part of what Fox5 News reported: “According to the police report, a 19-year-old waitress tells police a man pulled her by the head and forced her to perform a sex act at about 1 a.m. Saturday morning in an alley in the 2400 block of Wisconsin Avenue of Northwest. The police report calls the incident first-degree sex abuse with force. Police aren’t releasing any real information about the case or a description of the suspect, but no arrests have been made and detectives have been seen in the area looking for evidence.”

MPD detectives were seen Memorial Day, May 26, walking along Wisconsin Avenue checking for leads and surveillance records of the incident. MPD had not issued a suspect description as of May 27.

WPA’s Bilfield Touts D.C.’s Musical Collaboration
• June 2, 2014

The first time we met Jenny Bilfield, she was just settling into her new job as the president and CEO of what was called the Washington Performing Arts Society.

Even then, we kind of figured that Bilfield, who came to Washington from her job of artistic director of Stanford Live at Stanford University, was a woman well met. She could easily fill a room with her presence, even at a small downtown coffee shop like Bourbons.

That was during late summer 2013, and she’s still filling rooms, charming and inspiring people with her intelligence, down-to-earth warmth, vision and a few other gifts. She was at it again May 22 at the George Town Club, where she appeared at the Georgetown Media Group’s Cultural Leadership Breakfast, one of a series of such talks and gatherings, sponsored by GMG—which publishes The Georgetowner and The Downtowner newspapers—featuring D.C. and Washington area cultural leaders.

Since then, there have been some changes at WPA(S), changes that involve branding—see the single logo W—and the dropping of the letter “S” and word “society.” There’s a new slogan: “We make it happen.” More than that, there’s a self-evident bounce and energy upgrade in what is and has been the area’s and the city’s largest presenting institution for decades.

“It’s been a year now since I’ve been here, and I suppose that you can go about this sort of thing several ways—make big, sweeping changes right away, make a big splash, make your mark, or share in the changes, engage the community at large and our institutional one also,” Bilfield said during her breakfast talk. “I was advised not to try to do anything about branding or the name or anything like that. But then we discovered something in the process of talking and engaging with people. They talked about the name.”

Bilfield said the changes were made to send an inclusive message to broaden Washington Performing Arts’ presence in the community, schools and on a larger scale.

It’s also a measure of Bilfield’s approach to WPA’s mission. When you hear her talk about going into the schools, the WPA gospel choir and its graduates, about pianist Simone Dinnerstein’s involvement in area schools during her last concert here, not only do you understand the importance of education in the performing arts, but you want, like Bilfield, to do something with it and about it.

“What we would like to see is our artists work with local schools and students in some fashion or another,” Bilfield said. “That’s not possible all of the time, but when it is, you have something special.”

She’s also a believer in cooperative efforts and creating partnerships among disciplines and genres, both with local groups and those that come here as part of a season.

“I spent a lot of time in Washington neighborhoods, at the resources, and see the gifts beyond the politics of things. The city is rich in talent and culture,” she said. “The people that book talent, the managers and artists, know about the opportunities here and the potential for more. We have this big international community. I think that reputation is already there with venues like the Kennedy Center and Strathmore, but we want to spread that, increase the profile of music, jazz, classical music, to encourage local groups and artists.”

“We don’t have a venue,” she said. “That’s significant, and my first reaction, honestly, was relief.” (She was instrumental in the creation of a major arts venue at Stanford). “What we can do instead is interact with the whole community, its various strands, and venues that we do have, artists, groups and bring them together. That’s exciting.”

Bilfield saw this partnership come together in April at the WPA concert, which honored the 75th anniversary of Marian Andersen’s concert at the Lincoln Memorial.

When you listen to her talk about encouraging new works by new (and veteran) composers, of highlighting more groups and of cross-pollinating you can see that she’s done her homework in the city and she’s got ideas that may well become identifiers for what we can call in the future Washington music, Washington sound, Washington art.

“She makes you want to do things,” one attendee at the breakfast said. In other words, as always, she fills a room.

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Memorial Day: the Heart of the Matter and Meaning of America
•

If you watched the news or read it in the slim holiday editions of the dailies, you might think the world was moving on with its usual mixture of tragedy, farce, shock and awe.

But weather, and time off, can be beguiling and almost make you forget that in Ukraine, there was a winner in the election, followed by an attack on an airport, and so the crisis remained. You could almost—almost—forget the terrible words of the young killer in his bitter lack-of-a-valentine to the world, before he began knifing and shooting people in the normally bucolic, essence-of-California-dreaming Santa Barbara area.

In a long weekend suffused with the joy of everyday things like sunshine, the really red readiness of tomatoes at a market stall, finding the perfect rhubarb pie, you could even almost forget the wretched excess of a let-them-eat-cake wedding of a Kardashian progeny to a rapper named West, who had named their child North and spent a couple of million on their nuptials.

In a weekend like that, you almost forgot the scandal that had reached its tipping point in the Veterans Administration and its care and the availability of care for our wounded veterans of wars going on for more than a decade now in the terrible, blasted landscapes of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Except, of course, this being Memorial Day Weekend in Washington, D.C, you couldn’t forget that—not when there was the annual presidential wreath laying at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, nor when there are so many men in old uniforms in town. These men with often fragile, thin bodies of what is left of the Greatest Generation made their way to the World War II Memorial—ten years old now—their ranks thinning, accompanied by family and accepting salutes. The tanned, often tattooed men of Viet Nam were there, roaring in with Rolling Thunder, or touching the names on the wall. None of them could quite ignore the lack of care, the careless caregiving that emerged like a reproach in the media. The president noticed, and so did we all.

In this town, on Memorial Day, we noticed them—from the wars of the last century and this one. Honors bestowed on the passed and fallen soldiers, the survivors, their families, made the weather-perfect day, not only ideal but somber and big with feeling. On the wall, at the memorial wreaths, at the white-crossed cemetery, and at the parade, it was about them—and about us, too.

The parade was quiet in some ways, not loaded with thousands of spectators, but enough to fill the hot-cement sidewalks from 7th Street to 17th Street, as high school marching bands came along, the twirlers, the trombones, the drum majors, bright in their uniforms and energy, from all over the country, playing America and patriotic themes, followed by facsimiles or the real ones from all of our wars—those fife and drum corps from the Revolutionary War, ladies in crinolines and old men in long white bears, the flags of the United States and the Confederacy marching oddly side by side. One time, everyone stopped and someone played “Taps.”

Down at the National World War II Memorial, there was a group gathered around a thin man in a brown uniform, family it was, and he was in a wheelchair and his name was Philip Adinolfi. He was there with family and his wife of 60 years, Grace. He wore corporal stripes and had served in distant Egypt in the Army Air Corps, when America’s newly minted army took on the armies of Field Marshall Erwin Rommel in North Africa. A young captain with his son walked up to him and saluted him, and the boy shook his hand, and a tanned Viet Nam vet shook his hand in respect. He had been there the year before, talking with a D-Day veteran of the Omaha Beach landing in Normandy 70 years ago.

On this day, the school bands came on in rolling notes of music, signaled by the brass. They had come from Adamsville, Tenn.; Bryan, Texas; Rayland, Ohio; Cape Coral Fla; a place called Kahoka, Mo.; Coventry, Conn.; Tarpon Springs, Fla; Gaffney, S.C.; Hazelton, Pa; China Grove, N.C.; Pomeroy, Ohio; North Platte, Neb.; Franklin Lakes, N.J.

There were all sorts of people along the way, the family of man, and their children, and grandchildren and pets. In the parade, was a band of the Hero Dogs, honoring the canines who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and had made it home, too—mostly labs and goldens who loved the attention and marched in little soft boots to protect their paws from the hot cement.

On this day, there were Miss America Nina Davuluri, other beauty and prom queens and astronauts and a veteran of the Doolittle Raid over Tokyo. Lt. Colonel Richard Cole, Jimmy Doolittle’s co-pilot in April 1942, served as the parade’s grand marshall. There were Lion Clubs and large photographs of the long-ago youthful soldiers. There was a mother and her three daughters, whose father had been killed in Afghanistan.

There we were on May 24, 2014, in the bright sun, cheering, saluting, shaking hands, giving respect, united in our awe and love for them, their respect painfully earned and deserving of the best. We stood and sat under trees or on curbs. We watched and whistled and remembered neither Kanye nor Kim nor somewhere in Ukraine nor a demented killer in California. We remembered, instead, history marching by.

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Rose Park Renovations Set to Begin in July
•

Rose Park — which runs next to Rock Creek from M Street to P Street and along 27th Street and 26th Street – is scheduled to break ground for renovations in July.

The park will receive many upgrades, including the installment of LED lights for pedestrians, resurfacing of the playground, tennis and basketball courts, new climbing wall, new picnic tables and updated landscaping. The tot lot will have a larger sandbox and new slides.

The $ 1.5-million project is set to begin in July after the Old Georgetown Board approves of the final concept plan at a meeting in June. Georgetown’s Kadcon Construction will be in charge of making renovations to the park.

Rose Park will also get new structures with a Rock Creek and farmers market theme.

“Rose Park will also continue to have its farmers market theme, and the construction will not interfere with the Georgetown Farmers Market which happens every Wednesday,” said John Stokes of the Department of Parks and Recreation.

“We are very excited for this project,” Stokes said. “As a part of the District’s PlayDC initiative, we are hoping to see more residents and kids come out and enjoy the renovations that will be made to the park,” Stokes said.

After all the renovations are completed, Rose Park will have a ribbon-cutting in October.

Weekend Round Up May 29, 2014
•

Cuban + World Graphics Art Open House + Mayan Textiles & Vintage Magazines

May 30th, 2014 at 10:00 AM | $19 to $199 | CubanPosterGallery@msn.com

You’re invited to our Open House 10 am to 4 pm on Friday and Saturday (May 30-31) at 3319 O Street NW.

200+ Cuban silk-screened movie posters plus 100+ Cuban political and solidarity posters. Most $29 to $129.

Global social cause posters. Kitschy Chinese MAO posters. Hand-woven Guatemalan Mayan textiles. Vintage Time and Foreign Service Journal magazines.

For collectors, interior designers and gift seekers: For every five items you select, you’ll get the lowest priced free. No limits.

Address

3319 O Street NW

Four Seasons: Project Gravitas Pop Up Shop

May 31st, 2014 at 11:00 AM | Aba@taapr.com | Event Website

The Four Seasons in Georgetown will be hosting Project Gravitas’s first D.C. Pop-Up shop Saturday, May 31st and Sunday, June 1st. Project Gravitas founder and CEO, Lisa Sun will be showcasing “the perfect dress” and the team will be offering personalized fittings for the dress collection that empowers through luxury tailoring made in NYC, Italian fabrics, and a hidden shape wear secret. This exclusive opportunity provides a chance to touch, feel and try on the dresses which are typically only available for purchase online. Click here for more details.

Address

Four Seasons in Georgetown; 2800 Pennsylvania Ave NW

A Toad-ally Awesome Prince – Outdoor Children’s Theatre

May 31st, 2014 at 01:00 PM | $12 Adults, $10 Children ages 2-12 | aeddington@oatlands.org | Tel: Aimee Eddington (703) 777-3174 | Event Website

Join us May 31st and June 1st at 1 pm for a ribbiting adventure in this un-frog-ettable original tale. Git-it! Git-it! Is a kiss all it takes for a real transformation to take place? Don’t be a tadpole – come to the show and find out. This is a kinder, friendlier story of “The Frog Prince”.

http://stagecoachtc.com/ for tickets and more information

Address

Oatlands Historic House and Gardens; 20850 Oatlands Plantation Lane; Leesburg, VA 20175

Tom Goss Album Release Party

May 31st, 2014 at 07:00 PM | $15-20 | info@kendrarubinfeldpr.com | Tel: 202-681-1151 | Event Website

Guitar-toting, power-pop musician Tom Goss returns home to D.C. after his recent international tour supporting his fourth album, “Wait.” Root rock band, North Country, is the opener.

Goss’s earnest, thoughtful lyrics have propelled him to a serious singer-songwriter status. Goss’s music has been featured on ABC and HBO; his videos, often in support of the LGBT community, have received millions of hits worldwide.

Address

600 I St NW, Washington, DC 20001

Survive DC

May 31st, 2014 at 07:00 PM | info@survivedc.com | Event Website

For one night, drop your family and your work, forget your responsibilities and obligations and… Run for Your Life! SurviveDC is capture the flag, tag, trivial pursuit, and Carmen Sandiego all rolled up into one. The new mission awaits players 7 p.m., May 31, starting at Stanton Park. Follow @SurviveDC for hints.

Address

Stanton Park; Washington, DC 20002

Spotlight on Design: SHoP Architects

June 4th, 2014 at 06:30 PM | $12 Member & Student; $20 Non-member | Tel: 202-272-2448 | [Event Website]

Over the past two decades, New York-based SHoP Architects has set the standard of creative innovation in the field and modeled a new way forward with its unconventional approach to design. Coren Sharples, AIA, presents the firm’s recent work, including Brooklyn’s new Barclays Center arena and the Botswana Innovation Hub in Gabarone, Botswana. Signed copies of the firm’s latest monograph SHoP: Out of Practice (Monacelli, 2012), will be available for sale in the Museums Shop. 1.5 LU HSW (AIA)

Address

National Building Museum; 401 F Street NW

The Green Festival: Your Ticket to a Cleaner, Healthier Life
•

The Green Festival, America’s largest sustainability and green living event, will run 10 a.m. to 6 p.m, May 31 and June 1 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

At the event, participants will have the opportunity to listen to speaker address ways that helps to create more sustainable community. In the panel discussion “Creating Healthy, Sustainable & Livable Communities,” scheduled 3:30 p.m., May 31, the panel will share their successes and failures that they had in accelerating sustainability and greener living through their local initiatives. They will discuss the connections that green living has with community entrepreneurship.

Under business and technology, speakers will discuss the economy and how various companies are making the way to create a greener future with various types of technology emerging. The panel discussion, “A Greener Future: A Business Perspective,” will discuss how environment-friendly businesses are thriving in their industries.

There will also be interactive sessions where participants will learn about nutrition and how to develop a sustainable diet, including “Spring Clean your Cooking” by Deboleena Dutta, a session where practical tips will be shared on how to clear out the junk from your kitchen and cook more healthfully.

Many companies that promote a sustainable environment, including Busboys and Poets, Downtown D.C. BID and Benitez Collection, will be vendors at the festival.

For more details, visit GreenFestivals.org or follow @GreenFestival.

Halcyon House to Make Public Debut With May 31 Awards Gala and As HQ for Social Innovators
• June 1, 2014

Halcyon House, which has not held a large public event since December 2011, is set to make its grand unveiling May 31 as the venue for S&R Foundation’s Washington Awards Gala — and stage for the Halcyon Incubator.

S&R Foundation’s 2013 award winners will be officially honored at the awards gala May 31 with musical performances by four of the five awardees and an imaginative pairing of their music and food by chef Eric Ziebold.

Says Kate Goodall, chief operating officer of the S&R Foundation: “We’re elated to be able to offer Washington Awards Gala guests a complete creative and sensory experience, as they listen to the music of the talented awardees, watch a performance by the Washington Ballet, and taste the courses thoughtfully paired to each performance by James Beard Award-winning chef Eric Ziebold. Eric is a master of his craft, and has been so generous with his time and energy to ensure the gala will be nothing short of spectacular.”

Another highlight is a joint performance by the Washington Ballet and the Evermay Chamber. This newly formed partnership will come to fruition in April 2015, when the Evermay Chamber Orchestra performs the musical score for the Washington Ballet’s new interpretation of “Swan Lake” at the Kennedy Center. As a special treat, Sachiko Kuno, president and CEO of S&R Foundation, says, “Guests will be treated to an exclusive first-look at the future home of S&R’s Halcyon Incubator.”

The historic 18th-century mansion at 3400 Prospect St., NW, was sold by the Dreyfuss family in March 2012 to the S&R Foundation and Ryuji Ueno and Sachiko Kuno, who are renovating the place. It will be headquarters for the foundation’s more scientific and social programs of innovation, such as the Halcyon Incubator and Illuminate.

Like the mythological halcyon birds, who lays her eggs amid days of seaside calm, Halcyon House will house a fellowship of social innovators and experimenters. The foundation has set ambitious goals.

According to S&R, “the Halcyon Incubator was founded on the principle that intrepid individuals with transformative ideas can solve 21st-century challenges. … By promoting novel approaches, and solutions to 21st-century issues and challenges, the Illuminate community provides a platform for inspiring bold thought and sparking positive change in the world.”

The Halcyon Incubator’s partners and advisory committee, according to the foundation, include “Georgetown University, Tandem Legal Group, WeWork and Sage Communications and will provide critical resources and mentorship for the development of social startups. The Halcyon Incubator program is unique in that it provides all of the elements of success for its fellows, including rent-free housing and office space, complimentary strategic, legal and public relations resources, mentorship, as well as access to a network of potential funders from all sectors, all without requiring equity in its fellows’ ventures.”

“Our dynamic group of partners and advisors represents a comprehensive organizational cross-section of the business, government, academic and philanthropic communities,” says Kuno. “Each of these individuals and organizations are trailblazers in their own right and will provide our fellows with unrivaled insight, mentorship, inspiration, and assistance to help them build a successful foundation for their social ventures.”

Restored Wisconsin Avenue Traffic Lanes Applauded
• May 29, 2014

The restoration of Wisconsin Avenue traffic lanes — between Calvert Street and Whitehaven Street — to previous patterns has gotten a thumbs-up from drivers, especially those traveling northbound, up and down the avenue in Glover Park.

Now, the lanes are back, a speed camera was installed and a new traffic light will go up at 35th Street and Wisconsin Avenue.

The District Department of Transportation reversed its 2012 decision and work that took two traffic lanes out of operation by the installation of a median. The reduction from three to two lanes, both ways, during rush hour caused major back-ups. Now, as before, during rush-hour parking restrictions, there are six traffic lanes: three, north; three, south.

“We are getting positive feedback from the community,” said Ed Solomon of the Georgetown-Burleith Advisory Neighborhood Commission, who was involved in the traffic studies, surveys and meeting.

Indeed, the Facebook page, “Glover Park Traffic Jam,” posted on May 7: “The traffic nightmare is over! Thank you to all who supported this effort. And to those who didn’t support the change back, your concerns are important and hope you will tackle them with DDOT in a way we can all be happy. This Facebook page was created last year “for Georgetown, Cleveland Park, Burleith and Glover Park residents who want the new traffic patterns on Wisconsin Avenue changed to accommodate vehicles and pedestrians.”

Pleased with the restored traffic flow, Bill Starrels of ANC 2E noted: “One of the smartest things ANC2E did was to make sure DDOT used paint instead of the cement medians that ANC 3B was asking for when the traffic ‘experiment’ was done. Thanks to councilmembers Jack Evans and Mary Cheh as well as Mayor Vincent Gray for correcting the nightmare experiment. Today, I was able to drive from Georgetown to Massachusetts Avenue in normal time. I will start shopping in Glover Park again.”

The Glover Park neighborhood also underwent a streetscape beautification that the traffic-calming plan was a part of: sidewalks were widened, and new street lights installed.

“We are going to move back to the old plan but with an important caveat,” Brian Cohen, an ANC3B commissioner once in favor of the DDOT traffic-calming plan, told WAMU a few months ago. “We are going to add traffic cameras to help slow down traffic, and the new lanes, once we go back to six lanes, are going to be a little less wide than they originally were. So, hopefully those two factors will slow down traffic a little bit.”

To continue the effort to combat speeding cars down the avenue, a new speed camera has been set up along Wisconsin Avenue, just north of Calvert Street.

Also, work has begun on the installation of a new traffic light at 35th Street and Wisconsin Avenue. In this new traffic configuration, 35th Street at Wisconsin Avenue will become a two-way street. As of today, it is a one-way street southbound. The light will calm traffic but also gave pedestrians a safer crosswalk. The light should be ready by July, said Solomon, who added that DDOT will monitor the new light and traffic flow to see that all is going according to plan.

Weekend Round Up May 22, 2014
• May 27, 2014

The Capital Wheel Opening

May 23rd, 2014 at 10:00 AM | info@thecapitalwheel.com | Tel: 1 (877) NATLHBR | Event Website

The Capital Wheel at National Harbor is poised to become a must-see destination when it opens to the public on Friday, May 23 in time for Memorial Day Weekend. Soaring 180-feet above the Potomac River, The Capital Wheel will join a roster of large-scale observation wheels around the globe.

Address

165 Waterfront St.; National Harbor, MD 20745

8th Annual Potomac River Waterfowl Festival

May 23rd, 2014 at 06:00 PM | $75 per person | gretchen@cfsomd.org | Tel: 240-670-4483 (GIVE) | Event Website

Cattails and Cocktails Reception and Dinner

Mingle with artists from the region as they show off their fine art photography, wildfowl carvings, hand carved decoys, oil paintings,jewelry, birdhouses, miscellaneous wood carvings, antique and collectible decoys and more.

Bring your decoys to get free decoy appraisals and identifications. Sportsman Pavilion. Live Auction preview. Bourbon, Rye and Wine Tastings.

Address

42455 Fairgrounds Rd; Leonardtown, MD 20650

The National Memorial Day Parade

May 24th, 2014 at 02:00 PM | Event Website

the National Memorial Day Parade will commence at the corner of Constitution Avenue and 7th Streets, NW. It will proceed west down Constitution, past the White House, ending at 17th Street. Participants will pass by the nation’s monuments, museums, and hundreds of thousands of spectators waving their flags and cheering for our country’s heroes – the men and women who wear the uniform of our armed forces.

Address

Corner of Constitution Avenue and 7th Streets, NW

ViVa! Vienna!

May 24th, 2014 at 10:00 AM | info@vivavienna.org | Event Website

a family and community oriented celebration of Memorial Day and the greater Vienna Community spirit. Amusement rides, food, crafts, vendors and entertainment – fun for all ages!

Vendors include handcraft artisans, retail vendors, professionals, political parties and candidates, and community and non-profit organizations.

100% of proceeds go to charitable, community and humanitarian organizations.

Address

245 Maple Ave W; Vienna, VA 22180

55th Annual Hunt Country Stable Tour

May 24th, 2014 at 10:00 AM | $25.00/children 12 and under free | Betsy@trinityupperville.org | Tel: (540)592-3711 | Event Website

Many of the beautiful stables and equestrian properties of Middleburg and Upperville will open their gates to the public as part of the 55th Annual Hunt Country Stable Tour. The tour is self-guided with an easy-to-follow map and booklet provided with ticket purchase.

Address

Trinity Episcopal Church; 9108 John Mosby Highway; Upperville, VA 20184

Sunset Celebration

May 24th, 2014 at 06:00 PM | $18, adults; $12, children ages 6-11; and free for five and under. | info@mountvernon.org | Tel: 7037802000 | Event Website

Mount Vernon invites visitors to an unforgettable evening experience. Sunset Celebration at Mount Vernon, an event over Memorial Day weekend, offers a rare opportunity to visit Mount Vernon after the daytime crowds have departed. Visitors may take evening tours of the Mansion, relax and enjoy wine and desserts available for purchase, and delight in 18th-century music, dancing, games, and wagon rides.

Address

George Washington’s Mount Vernon; 3200 Mount Vernon Memorial Highway; Mount Vernon, VA 22121

Memorial Day tours of Soldiers’ Home National Cemetery

May 26th, 2014 at 10:00 AM | Free | LincolnsCottage@savingplaces.org | Tel: 202-829-0436 | Event Website

Commemorate Memorial Day with guided tours of the United States Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home (USSAH) National Cemetery, the first National Cemetery created during the Civil War and the predecessor to Arlington National Cemetery.

10:00 am: Wreath-laying at the USSAH National Cemetery, with brief remarks from the Armed Forces Retirement Home and President Lincoln’s Cottage

10:45 am: Guided tour of USSAH National Cemetery

12:30 pm: Guided tour of USSAH National Cemetery

Address

President Lincoln’s Cottage; Upshur St NW at Rock Creek Church Rd NW

Memorial Day Weekend at the Navy Memorial

May 26th, 2014 at 10:00 AM | Free and open to the public | julia@lindarothpr.com | Tel: (703) 417-2709 | Event Website

Memorial Day Weekend events featuring commemorative wreath laying ceremonies with Rolling Thunder, the Fleet Reserve Association and the Navy Band and Ceremonial Guard, author presentations from the Veteran’s Writing Project, and musical performances at the United States Navy Memorial.
Saturday, May 24 and Sunday, May 26.

Address

United States Navy Memorial; Naval Heritage Center; 701 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW