won't you take me to...Chinatown?

this past thursday, J and i took a little trip down to Chinatown in DC on our day off. we have never been there, but i had very high expectations because i used to frequent Chinatown in New York City as a teenager with my family. i was expecting street vendors, bootleg cd's (not that i would purchase one!), various electronic stores, and lots and lots of Chinese food. mind you, it's been a while since New York's Chinatown daytripping days, i still remember those things vividly. although we were greeted with a huge and beautiful 'gate' into the area, i didn't notice any vendors, no people heckling me to buy their things, no fresh seafood, no exotic live animals (mainly little box turtles), no fake watches...not a single thing! the only thing besides the gates was a neon AT & T sign on a building, and plenty of American cuisine. i thought that this was supposed to be a little slice of China. was i at the wrong place? maybe it was because we were there in the middle of winter! could some one shed a light on this?

we did find a cool place tucked away in an alley...a bowling alley, Lucky Strike. that probably saved it for me. when we walked in, we could see the dimly lit lanes, a dining room, and a huge bar. j and i immediately got on our funky looking rented shoes and bowled to our heart's content while enjoying a cold one.

in between turns we sat down on big comfy couches and occupied ourselves with art displayed on a flat screen tv at the end of the lane.

SWANKY was the word for this place. not your typical bowling alley from our parts of town that's for sure. after a little while a group of bowlers showed up in their taylored leaque shirts and showed us off...well, just me, even our waitress (wait! a waitress? we can't even eat near our lanes, let alone give my orders to a waitress where i'm from!) said i sucked, in those exact words. we played two games and j won both. the last game was about 100 - 24. yea, that's how much i sucked. i was distracted...by the art, the brewski, the 40 something business people and their league and their cheers and their personalized shirts

...i must go back!

we left the lanes just before one of the leaguers snatched j up to play on their team and shopped a little. then we headed up towards the International Spy Museum, but was denied access since our names weren't on the list...that and we were six minutes late...i was devastated, so much so that it ended our trip. doesn't that ever happen to you, when you want to do something so bad, and when it doesn't happen, you just get so upset? i hope it's not just me!

so there you have it, our trip to Chinatown. we'll definitely have to make another trip soon. for bowling, the International Spy Museum, Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, and shopping. do you have any suggestions?