Top 10 Places of 2007 - (Local Edition)

It's the end of the year! Every blog needs a top 10 list. So here it is...

1. The flower garden behind the Smithsonian castle at sunset

2. Visionary Arts Museum in Baltimore, where a giant hand reaches out of the side of the building to wish you welcome

3. Rock Creek Park. One moment you're walking past Quebec House, the next you're descending into the Blair Witch Project.

4. U Street/Mt. Pleasant (hipster tie)

5. Fort Reno Park. A bit of Booeymongers, a blanket on the grass, a concert - summer Mondays after work start the week off right

6. Embassy Row, particularly the swerve-and-squint driving by to read the small lettering on the coats of arms

7. Takoma Park's old Victorian houses and Ukrainian churches

8. The Metro Yellow Line stretch across the Potomac, any time of day, any kind of weather

9. Baltimore's factories from I-695/the Mormon Temple from I-495 (cool cityscape tie)

10. Chevy Chase. Because it is where I live. Because it is pretty and convenient and comfy and it scores me points when a (ahem) *charmingly status-conscious individual* asks me "Where do you live?" And because Gucci and the fire-side conversations at Panera never disappoint for blog-fodder.