Glen Echo

Here's where Ali and I would have met if we'd lived in Washington in the 1940's or 1950's. We almost met there in 2000. I was taking Swing dance lessons there at the Spanish Ballroom - hoping to meet Ali. As it turned out, Ali was just about to move to DC and didn't know anything about the Spanish Ballroom. If she did know about it, I'm sure she would have signed up for the same class I did. We ended up meeting in September 2000, shortly after I'd finished my series of Swing dance classes. I asked her to go to a Swing dance night at the America restaurant in Tysons, figuring I could impress her with my skills.

The problem was, in class we'd only practiced to pieces of the same songs over and over. And I'd grown accustomed to those little song segments. We'd never danced from start to finish and I'm a terrible dancer anyway, so after Ali I started dancing that night, I quickly realized I was in trouble. Plus, we were surrounded by all the Swing dance pros that go to all these Swing dances and make sure the amateurs know they are just amateurs and should probably get out of the way, which we did.

I don't know why it took us until today to finally visit Glen Echo park together. But they had done so much to renovate the park since I last saw it, so it was almost like we were both seeing it together for the first time.

A bit of background: Glen Echo was an amusement park at the end of a streetcar line that was pretty popular in DC from the time streetcars were in operation until the late 1960's. The National Park Service has been slowly renovating all the Art Deco-style buildings.

We had a great time today with Jake and Sadie, walking around and checking out the Spanish Ballroom, the Arcade, what's left of the Crystal Pool, riding the little train and the beautifully restored 1921 carousel.

Here's Sadie with the lights of the Carousel behind her:
And here's Jake riding the Carousel: