Mission #3: Mount Vernon Square/7th Street/DC Convention Center. April 9, 2011

Today's mission kept us a little bit closer to home. We picked the Mount Vernon Square/Convention Center Metro stop on the Green line. YAY - we never had to change trains! It was only about a 25 minute ride.

Upon arriving in the city we started wandering around the neighborhood. We were immediately attracted to a large gold domed building.

This was the House of Prayer for All People Church. According to the historical information marker on the sidewalk, it once had 3,000,000 members in 14 states.....? The best part is the church's "saint's paradise" cafeteria. Too bad we weren't hungry yet!

After our church tour (and there are alot of churches in this neighborhood), we headed back toward the Convention Center for a stroll around the 3 blocks it covers. We tried to get breakfast at Chatman's Divine Bakery & Cafe but it wasn't opening until 11:00. However, we met Debra - the owner, and promised we'd be back later! Instead we got a mediocre muffin and worse hot chocolate (but groovy atmosphere) at the First Cup Cafe on 9th Street. Maybe it should've been called the "first and only cup". It would be a great place to sit and read a book though (books are provided by the cafe). Mount Vernon Square and the Historical Society of D.C. was next. This building was once the Andrew Carnegie Library. It's FREE and at least today was not crowded at all. It had two exhibits: Cherry Blossom Art (so-so) and Choosing to Participate (an excellent exhibit about social justice). We learned all about the Little Rock Nine, Jewish Racism in Billings MT and standing up against hate crimes.

As we left Mount Vernon Square, we passed the NPR building and then a yellow sculpture caught our eye 2 blocks away so we headed towards it. It was cool, but even cooler was our first experience in an inner-city Safeway. Strangely, it looked just like a suburbian Safeway. It did not live up to our expectations.

As we left Safeway, we ran into Stan. An elderly gentleman trying to transport 4 cases of water. We decided to give him a hand by each carrying a case "just up the road" to his home. Up to road became about 8 LONG CITY blocks! With backs breaking and arms shaking, we finally made it to his apartment. He wasn't much of a talker but I think we made a friend for life! We got in a Random Act of Kindness and a workout all at once! Good times!

Leaving Stan's we spotted the Hoagie Hut and our mouths started watering but alas, it was boarded up (and graffitied). That was OK though because we had promised Debra we would come back. We made our way back to the cafe and it was DIVINE! (pulled pork, beans, potato salad and SWEET TEA! - yum)

Finally, before heading home, we had to check out the convention center (after all, that was the name of the metro stop). We looked around a bit but the place is humongous and there's really not much to do unless you're at a convention. We were jealous of all the people spending their Saturday sitting in rooms looking at powerpoints about various medical conditions and experimental biology (NOT!) Personally, we'd rather spend our Saturday together on a Mission: Metro.

THE END - see ya' next week!