Day 83

Mt. Pleasant (June 10, 2020)

It turns out that there is a reason that only Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun. We headed back out onto the streets of Mt. Pleasant on a sweltering humid day but soon beat a hasty retreat back to the welcome confines of our air conditioned house. Here is some of what we saw during our briefer than usual walk.

Unfortunately, the Marx cafe was not open. It would have been nice to pop in for a cool drink of Lenin’s lemonade or Trotsky’s iced tea.

We walked up Mt. Pleasant Street, the neighborhood’s main shopping street.

Although Mt. Pleasant has gentrified, there is still a strong Hispanic feel to the local shops and restaurants.

We passed Bancroft Elementary School. The school is named after George Bancroft (1800-1891), an American historian and statesman who was prominent in promoting education. Among other things, he established the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis while he was Secretary of the Navy. The school is one of the more diverse in the District, being comprised of teachers and students from over 40 countries. Like every school we have passed so far, Bancroft has recently had an extensive renovation.