An autumn tradition as popular as gridiron rivalries (142Cong.Rec.S1319)

It's nice to be living in a place that experiences autumn, especially now that my bicycle has arrived. Fall just always feels best-suited for pedaling -- and eating. After finally getting my bike in riding condition, I set my sights on Tootopia as my first outing. I wandered mostly along the Wandle Trail to get to the neighborhood food festival, being held in the courtyard behind Graveney & Meadow (left). For my mid-ride snack, I settled on a BBQ brisket sandwich and a beer from Beavertown Brewery, a tough choice made after a thorough review of all the offerings on hand (right).

Before heading home, I wandered around the area's high street, including the historical Tooting Market, which has an old-fashioned English facade (left). Truth be told, I was more taken in by the adjacent Broadway Market, which clearly caters to Britain's newer residents (right). Its eating establishments featured a wide variety of cuisines: Caribbean, Chinese, Portuguese, and Mauritanian -- from the north African country, not to be confused with Mauritian, from the Indian Ocean island -- which also was on hand among the food stalls. Based on the script on their signs, many of the non-food vendors catered to Arabic-speaking customers, including one salon that offered curtains to provide hijab-free haircuts.

If autumn means bike rides to me, it apparently means crazy costumes to many Brits (OK, OK, cycling jerseys and Lycra shorts make for amusing attire as well) -- at least judging from the get-ups at the Harvest Festival held annually at the Guildhall, London's 15th-century city hall (left). The event is hosted by the Pearly Kings and Queens, who didn't exhibit any competitive vibes as they welcomed members of another group known for its distinctive garb, the Red Hatters, among the audience (right).

I ran, not rode, to gawk at the group's suits, a tribute to the legacy of Henry Croft, an orphan who decorated his clothes with pearls that fell off Costermongers' trousers in order to attract attention to his pet charity causes. My attention was attracted by a very patriotic English couple, who also caught the eye of the festival maypole dancers (left). But I was most drawn to the Newfoundland dogs that help deliver alms to St. Mary Le Bow Church as part of the ceremony (right). I actually didn't stick around for the ceremony because after more than a half-hour of waiting in my sweaty clothes for it to start, I was in need of some shelter from the elements; sadly, no one offered me the warmth of a bejeweled blazer.

A couple of weeks later, I dressed myself a little warmer for a ride over to Borough Market for another festival hosted by folks with a funny fashion sense, the October Plenty (left). The re-creation of ancient harvest celebration customs was held in conjunction with the market's Apple Day, in which vendors pay homage to the fall fruit. Seriously, they respect apples so much that they protected rare varietals in glass cases (right).

The first outrageous outfit I spied was that of the Ancient Apple Queen, who was being interviewed by modern media (left). She politely answered the television presenter's questions, but she was clearly happier handing out apple samples as she recited a poem about herself (right). I particularly enjoyed my sliver of a Knobby Russet, an ugly but tangy apple.

The harvest festival is organized by a theatre troupe called The Lions Part, a member of which was harvesting young minds in the story orchard (left). Unfortunately, I missed the group's special play for the day, but I did catch the performance of some Morris dancers, who tossed up their tassels along with their feet as they spun some hankerchiefs (right).

But of course, I had to honor the harvest myself by having some apples in liquid and solid form. I was tempted by a barrel of mead, but in the end, I selected some hot apple juice from New Forest Cider (left). I used it to wash down a couple of fresh-from-the-fryer apple fritters from Fish! Kitchen (right).

Strangely enough, the most confusing dress code was for an outdoor showing of the Rugby World Cup (top left), where men were asked to wear blazers and women were encouraged to exhibit "glitz & glamour." Perhaps that worked for the VIPs in the party tent for Rugby on the Green (top right), but not so much for we Joe-Schmoe spectators sitting on the grounds of Fulham Palace, former home of the Bishop of London for 12 centuries (bottom left). I made an effort to step up my threads, by opting for corduroys instead of jeans, which ensured my comfort as I watched New Zealand comfortably beat Australia 34-17 under the shadow of All Saints Fulham Church (bottom right).

Taking a short trip to New York (154Cong.Rec.E546)

Earlier this year, I left TJ behind in DC as I headed off for a girls' weekend in New York City, and I don't think he ever fully forgave me. So to mend fences, I offered for us to sneak up to the Big Apple for a few days before his work obligations in DC. Last visit, I focused my efforts mostly around Midtown, but TJ was ready to branch out. The first order of business for both of us was to catch the ferry from Battery Park and cruise past the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge (left) on our way to see the Statue of Liberty (right).

With limited time in the city, we decided not to get off at Liberty Island and instead stayed on the ferry as it continued to Ellis Island (top). With all the exhibits at the national park, you could easily spend an entire day at the former immigrant-processing center. We opted to do the "immigrant experience" audio tour, which alone took much longer than the outlay of 45 minutes, perhaps because we fell into reflection as we followed in their footsteps starting from the Great Hall (bottom left). Unlike TJ, I am unaware of any ancestors that passed through Ellis Island, but nonetheless, I can imagine what it must have felt like to gaze on the Statue of Liberty from the waiting room as your fate lay in the balance (bottom right).

 

There were lots of great views as we sailed around the confluence of the Hudson and East rivers. From the bay, we spied the Brooklyn Bridge up to the east (left). The bridge, which opened a year after the Ellis Island facility, would have been another welcome sight for water-weary immigrants. But today, of course, the most striking structure on the New York skyline is One World Trade Center, built just north of where the Twin Towers once stood (right).

 

After a return trip on the ferry, we walked to the skyscraper to see the 9/11 Memorial (top left). It consists of two large pools in the footprints of the collapsed buildings, with water descending into unknown depths (top right). Around the pools are barriers engraved with the names of victims (bottom), and nearby is a museum dedicated to exploring the tragedy and the ensuing grief and recovery.

We escaped the solemnity with a subway ride to the conviviality of Coney Island, but when we arrived, its desolation made it almost as depressing. Only a lone skateboarder was enjoying the displays within the confines of the Coney Art Walls (left). Generally, the most signs of life were found at a photo shoot featuring Tom's Coney Island and Luna Park in the background (right). Despite my best efforts, I couldn't figure out what kind of photo would require fire eaters, Buddhist monks, and a trained border collie on set.

We watched the shoot set-up for a while then we walked over to another location often featured in film: Nathan's Famous, site of the annual Fourth of July hot-dog eating contest (left). TJ and I were not in a record-setting mood, so we both settled for just a single dog apiece, with some suds to wash it down (right).

In serious need of some liveliness, we headed up to the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, where we hit the first happy hour we found, at Redd's Tavern, a welcoming neighborhood bar. We stopped by one more establishment, the not-as-welcoming Canadian-themed Ontario Bar before we set out in search of grub (left). We found a great dinner deal of a green salad, four fried chicken thighs, three biscuits, and two cans of beer for less than 25 bucks at The Commodore (right). The photo doesn't do the food or bar justice, but that's the best you can expect with the lighting at a dive bar.

The night before, after getting to the Upper West Side and checking into our room at Broadway Hotel & Hostel, we visited a better-lit dive bar. Broadway Dive is a dive only in name and appearance (left). Really, it's a neighborhood pub with a great beverage selection; I ordered a blackberry cider on tap, for example. Full disclosure, on our way from bus to hotel we swung by Penn Station, so TJ could get some oysters and other seafood at Tracks Bar & Grill (right).

 

More authentic than the dive bar was the diner next door: Broadway Restaurant, where we ate the next morning before heading out of town. The wall menu and the wait staff both seemed to come from a different era (left). TJ and I ordered dueling omelets, the Mets omelet with spinach and turkey for me and the Yankees omelet with pastrami and mushrooms for him (right).

We get pretty good size crowds in Washington (S.Hrg.110-357)

When I decided to join TJ in DC for a work trip, I figured it would be easy enough to make travel plans. But for some reason, we had difficulty finding a hotel for a reasonable price. It wasn't until we arrived in the capital that we realized that was because we were competing with some big events, including the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March. Knowing that it would be packed, we avoided the Mall, but we still happened to run into participants in the Army 10-Miler (left) as we explored the new Long Bridge Park, named after the railway bridge that crosses the Potomac River toward the Washington Monument (right).

 

From the park we headed to one of the few non-Smithsonian museums in the city: the National Geographic Museum, which was featuring an Indiana Jones exhibit. We arrived there early enough to avoid most of the crowds. The next day, despite arriving just after its opening, Mount Vernon was already busy, perhaps because it was a beautiful fall day (left). I have visited the estate a few times before, so to make this a fresh experience, I picked up some glasses to view the 3-D pictures scattered throughout the grounds (right).

 

One totally new DC experience for me was a trip to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Space Center, part of the National Air and Space Museum. We headed there at 4 p.m., when parking becomes free, to squeeze in a quick visit before it closed at 5:30 p.m. We headed straight to the Observation Tower, from which we could see the beginnings of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the south (left) and the control tower of Dulles airport to the north (right). 

Even with limited time, we were able to quickly walk through the hangars to see some of the top exhibits, including the Concorde -- the first supersonic jetliner, which made its last trans-Atlantic flight in 2003 (left) -- and the Enola Gay -- the B-29 bomber used to drop the first atomic weapon, on Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II (right).

 

But by far, the highlight for me was seeing the space shuttle Discovery, the workhorse of the U.S. space program for three decades (left). Up close, I was amazed by the wear and tear on its tiles, and I was surprised that it didn't seem as big as I thought it would be (right). After all, it was small enough to be delivered to the museum on the back of a Boeing 747 jet.

 

Whenever I get back to DC, I'm on a mission to eat at new restaurants. TJ's sister was hankering for some cured Spanish meats, so we headed down the street from the National Geographic Museum to some post-brunch snacks at Boqueria (left). Later in the week, after scarfing down burgers and fries, TJ and I topped off our meal at Good Stuff Eatery with some milkshakes (right). 

Also on our trajectory was Hellbender Brewing Company, one of the newer beer outlets in DC (left). During a tour, one co-owner described the Belgian filtration system the company bought to make its brewing more environmentally friendly by reducing the amount of water use (right). Sustainability aside, the beers were good; after the tour, I tried pints of Grampus smoked nut brown ale and Compass coffee stout, while TJ had the Red, White & Gluten farmhouse ale and Red Line amber ale, then we shared a tasting sample of the Southern Torrent saison.