177. Thursday's Blog - A Washington Pee Break

This edition of Pee Break is brought to you by the Newseum.  I had a couple of hours to fill on Friday, and I did it at the Newseum. It was a great place.  I thoroughly enjoyed the way it's put together.  It's very thoughtfully done, and it's recommended that you work your way from the top down. There are enough well-placed benches to be able to sit down and rest frequently, a feature I find essential in a museum. I enjoyed the content and the atmosphere of the place.  And I was pleased that there weren't too many (that day) of that thing I hate most of all -- people. (Aren't I terrible?) The cafeteria was tempting to try -- it's a Wolfgang Puck establishment.  But I was between a big and lovely lunch with Wendy and dinner with Lara. I thought I should stay away from the cafeteria!

Though I took in a lot of the serious bits, I'm sure it won't surprise you to learn that my favorite parts were the comedic ones.  There was a running loop of comedy bits about the news from old Saturday Night Live skits, various other comedy shows, and of course Stephen Colbert's take on the Newseum.  I watched the entire loop at least twice.

Then I stopped in the 3rd-floor bathroom.

I was all alone!  The place is new, so it's all clean and nice.  See my nice new batik bag I got at a kiosk in Union Station?  It's just right for my BlackBerry.  Want a better look at how sweet it is? 

And it matches just about everything I own.

Sorry.  I got sidetracked.  This is supposed to be about the pee place, right?

Don't pay no never-mind to the toilet paper strewn around the floor.  (I didn't do it!) I'm sure someone was going to be in soon to neaten up a bit. The staff at this place was amazingly cheerful and helpful.

Here's what I loved about this bathroom and why I thought to make this a Pee Break feature:

(click all these photos to make them bigger)

So a private, quiet, clean pee with several chuckles.  What more can you hope for?

Comments

[carrie]

Glad you liked it! Although, did you see Lawrence Downes' article this past week in the NY Times Editorial Observer column? Still, I do love the bathroom headline gaffes. (Although, are they really gaffes? Where are my copy editors when I need them!) :)

[sandy]

YES! That place is great! You've got to love a bathroom with a sense of humor! You don't find that very often!
LOVE your bag. Great find!

[Julie]

You don't even need to bring a magazine into a bathroom like that ;-)

[Carole]

Norma, I just love that you take photos of bathrooms.

[marianne]

love love that bag! great score. Fabulous 'flubs', how funny!
Why would someone just leave toilet paper on the floor like that.... sheesh.

[jessica~]

OK, that is a totally cute picture of you... in the bathroom!! Love the bag!!

[Cathy-Cate]

That is a one-of-a-kind bathroom! Too cool!

Don't you want to go in the men's bathroom and check out their headlines?

[margene]

At least they have a great sense of humor about the news! How fun!

[Shanti]

Norma, you were about three blocks from my house - both Union Station and the Newseum are in my neighborhood. Great area isn't it? I haven't been willing to pay to visit (I prefer the free Portrait Gallery) but the bathrooms might make a visit worthwhile!

[Vicki]

LOVE IT!!

[Roxie]

I see this as a blogverse feature - my favorite bathrooms - prize-winning pee posts. You make it look so classy!

My pet peeve is the automatically flushing toilet. I know when I'm done, thank you!

[Mike]

Another interesting museum you might take in sometime -> the MOBA (museum of bad art]. They also have a cool website: http://www.museumofbadart.org/

[Marcia Cooke]

The only roadside bathroom I ever photographed was one we stopped at en route to Park City, Utah three years ago. It was almost to the end of Rt 80 in Wyoming (as I recall) and just blew us away. The stop was something called "Little America", complete with motel, restaurant and gift shop (best sandwich I've EVER had) but the bathroom was so glitzy, you'd swear you were in Las Vegas! Regrettably, I think I just deleted the photo from my files.

[Beth S.]

Snerk! ;-) Yes, this was definitely one for the archives, so to speak. ;-)

And I love your new bag!

[Cheryl S.]

Tee hee! (Or should that be Pee Hee?)

[Doris]

Thanks for posting about the Newseum. We live in Baltimore and I never knew about it. I just sent the link to my son, a journalism major at Salisbury University. Thought he might want to make a day trip of it! It looks to be right up his alley in all ways. It sounds like you had a wonderful trip to Washington.

[Cookie]

That outfit needed a little red something. ;^)

And there is nothing at all wrong with hating people. How dare you!

[Beth]

I was traveling this weekend and TOTALLY thought of you whenever I passed a rest area :-)

[Sunnyknitter]

I'd still be in there trying to figure out which was my favorite headline! Jazzy bag too, congrats on the score.

[misnomer]

I'm thrilled to find another person fascinated by public restrooms. I recently "came out" on my blog with images I have taken of public bathrooms, so a friend pointed me here. I'll be watching, and posting more on the topic too!

[AmyP]

Oh, dear, that was funny. Somehow, it seems terribly British ...

[Angie]

Now, *that's* reading material!

[ellen]

I'm well known for "grading" restrooms (a 10 has fresh flowers and an attendant, 1 may be dirty but should have flush toilets) but I never thought to take photos - I can see a new trend catching on!