COME TO REUNION 2000 By DICK DARCY By the time this is read, most of the members who are, in the vernacular, "online" will have been saturated with the good news about the RAFINO 2000 reunion site. Once a sleepy, back-water, swamp-drained town at the confluence of two rivers, DC has metamorphosed into a modern, sophisticated city with fine restaurants; impressive public buildings surrounding a mall stretching from Ohio Drive on the Potomac to the west steps of the Capitol; awesome marble memorials; and centers of art and culture. Fine dining abounds. Attendees are alerted to bring their appetites and enjoy everything from the haute cuisine of Lespinasse (the recently opened flagship restaurant of the St. Regis Hotel), to the equally impressive (and historic) Morrison Clark Inn, a Victorian Mansion (within walking distance of the reunion hotel) whose restaurant is on the Washington Post’s top fifty list. In the case of the latter, there is the convenience of charging the bill to your reunion hotel room. Beyond these Epicurean centers of gastronomic delight, we are prepared to recommend at least six other fine restaurants, many of which are within walking distance of the Washington Plaza hotel. If your tastes tend more toward an informal and neighborhood-like setting, we have done extensive research and have found five pubs that will suite the taste of any lover of adult beverages and casual, but tasty, food. One of these, The Dubliner, on Capitol Hill, will regale you with Irish music at no greater cost than the prices on the bill of fare. We have arranged for you to buy Tourmobile tickets at a group discount so that you can visit no less than 25 popular tourist sites--from the awe inspiring Lincoln Memorial at the west end of the famous Washington mall to Union Station, a furbished railroad station that has all the beauty and grandeur of a fin-de-siecle beaux-art behemoth. And who has not heard of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts? A trip to this site will fill your cultural and artistic coffers to overflowing. This place is worth visiting even when the season is inactive. Want more? How about the majesty of the Jefferson Memorial on the Tidal Basin, the uplifting promise of the Declaration of Independence, the Washington Monument? Add to all these, the opportunity to meet your fellow Finance Corps mates and to share with them the honor of laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns. You will have a weekend of enjoyable activity that will greatly challenge future reunion committees. Come see for yourself. Don’t wait for Indianapolis in 2002 and listen to your mates tell DC reunion war-stories while you sulk. |
