Thursday, August 28, 2008

fish and wigs on h street

A few weeks ago, I visited my friend Brian in DC. The ostensible purpose of the trip was to help Brian, his brother Duncan, and his mom Rosie to move from an apartment in Germantown, Maryland (DC metro area's hinterlands, or affordable housing located at the city's fringe) to a slick, brand spankin' new condo in the up-and-coming H Street neighborhood.

And move we did. A group of us that included family friends from Cincinatti, New York City, DC, Boston and Cleveland (myself) slogged through a 10-hour day of schlepping, schlepping and more schlepping. It ended up being quite fun, though. After a few adventures getting the U-Haul truck (can anyone say, 'the evils of corporate monopoly'?) we managed to get most of their worldly possessions (including Brian and Duncan's high school yearbooks .... mmm, on second thought, maybe we should have left those behind) from G-town to H Street in 2 trips.

H Street is a fascinating neighborhood. Apparently the city has put quite a bit of effort into redeveloping this area, which is adjacent to the fancier (and more expensive) Capitol Hill community. Rosie calls it the "fish and wig district" because it's just that: a place where fish and wig shops abound. Somehow, they now coexist alongside hip and too-trendy-to-have-a-sign-that-stands-out locales such as the Argonaut (a restaurant) and the Rock and Roll Hotel (a club with an unbelievably talented DJ spinning danceable grooves on Saturday night).

Here is a link to the wikipedia article about H Street:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H_Street_(Washington,_D.C.)

And here is a link to the website for one of the gems of Washington DC that lies adjacent to the H Street neighborhood, the Eastern Market:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H_Street_(Washington,_D.C.)

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