Mile
Zero

On Black Friday, while the rest of Virginia storms their local retailers for loss-leader merchandise, Belle and I will pile into the car with our pets and start a week-long drive across the country to our new home in Seattle. The move is the realization of a long dream of ours: to get as far away from Washington, DC as was humanly possible.

I kid! Mostly. We won't miss the political atmosphere, the terrible public transit system, or the sweltering DC summers. But we will be far away from our family and friends, and there are some parts of DC that have grown on me. Here are a few things about the city that I will, in all honesty, miss:

• Ethiopian food: I was a late starter on the joys of intercultural cuisine because I had never grown up around good ethnic restaurants. It wasn't until I got to college that I got to sample all kinds of new restaurants and cooking styles, and that's been a joy ever since. I have a soft spot for Vietnamese food, particularly those savory bahn mi sandwiches. But what DC has that few other cities in the US can offer is a vibrant set of Ethiopian restaurants offering spicy, rich stews and vegetables with a side of spongy injera bread. It's so good, and it'll be hard to match elsewhere.
• Free museums: We don't take advantage of the many museums in DC, which is a shame. It's only when we travel that we've realized just how rare museums with free admission are--especially great ones, like the National Gallery of Art or the Smithsonian. Not to mention DC's free National Zoo! It's hard to beat seeing pandas (or not seeing pandas) for free.
• Journalism: While I'm often critical of DC political journalism, this must be said: there's a lot of it, and that means a lot of opportunities. Since high school, I'd wanted to work in the news industry, and in this city there are plenty of chances. It's a bit of a shock to realize how much thinner the media industry (and, sadly, the job market in the media industry) is outside the Beltway.