A stroll for my native Washingtonian in through the looking glass.

Yesterday we took a long walk through the city. We strolled under the shade of the trees in Rock Creek, my toddler shouting, “Hike! Hike!” (Because in his little city boy head, the slightest bit of tree cover = hiking.) We salmoned through the busy sidewalks of Columbia Heights, took in the view from the hilltop at Cardozo High, ate tacos on a stoop, danced to the Go-go blaring from the speakers at the MetroPCS store, watched a parade of dirt bikes from a beer garden in Shaw, maneuvered carefully around the bullhorn proselyting in Chinatown, and basked in the glow of the dusk settling over the statues and fountains and monumental buildings of this Federal city.

We walked eight miles all in all. It was a glorious day. I kept looking down at my son, pushing forward against the straps of his stroller, taking it all in, and thinking, ebulliently, “This is your city! This is your city!”

Last updated October 26, 2020