Feeling Kinda Shady, Kinda Awesome

The Woodrow Wilson House- a presidential museum in D.C. as its name might suggest- put together a walking tour of Embassy Row.  You can print out the map from their website and then use your cell phone to access each stop.  Cokie Roberts narrates the tour.  How great. How dorky and wonderfully D.C.  I made it through stops 1-24 today.  Stop #1 is Dupont Circle then you continue northwest on Massachusetts Ave- Embassy Row.

Most of the embassies were owned by rich D.C. movers and shakers in advance of the Great Depression.  Starting around 1930, the houses were sold off one by one to various foreign governments.  The result, Embassy Row.  At the close of Cokie's commentary on the architecture (Beaux Art!) and former owners, a spokesperson from each embassy would come and say "Hello" and plug their country.  Luxembourg and Egypt chose not to participate I suppose.  The wife of the Turkish Ambassador chimed in which I thought was lovely.  

It's a fun walk that includes embassies, museums, statutes, and traffic circles.  It did feel a little shady to be standing alone in front of the embassies with my phone up to my ear.  It could be that I got a couple of looks or it could be that I'm paranoid.  That being said, I plan to go back and do Part 2.  So far, the Croatian Embassy is my favorite.