The X2

This Sunday, June 24th will bring significant service changes for Metrobus and Circulator. Close to home here in Carver, the X2 and X9 buses are making midday adjustments, and for the better. From WMATA: X2 Benning Road-H Street : All weekday midday trips will operate between Minnesota Avenue Metrorail Station and Lafayette Square. To improve reliability, the time between weekday midday buses will increase from 10 minutes to 12 minutes. X9 Benning Road-H Street Limited : New weekday midday limited-stop Route X9 MetroExtra service will operate every 15 minutes between the Metro Center and Minnesota Avenue Metrorail stations. What it means: Since the X9 previously ran as a rush hour only bus, we're getting more trips downtown during the midday and lunchtime hours. This is awesome. The X9 does make several clustered stops from 19th St NE to 14th St NE, but as a limited stop bus, I generally find it much, much faster than the X2 for trips between Carver Langsto...

The retail scene at Union Station has been getting quite a makeover for the past five years, having adding major brands such as Keihl's, Walgreens, H&M, and Shake Shack. Legal Seafood is building a full service restaurant on the second level, and now signage is up for two new additions. Popular Japanese casual clothing outlet Uniqlo is set to open this fall in a rather large space on the ground level. The store will be across across from Verizon; where the Swatch watch shop and FYE music stores were located. The first Uniqlo store in the U.S. only opened in 2006, and they've already grown to 48, not including this location. Tysons Corner is home to the only other in the DC area. Uniqlo enjoys a solid following and carries clothing for children (including babies), women, and men. I have heard lots of applause for the intimates/underwear selection . Juice Press is a New York City import and is opening its first DC store in Union Station, just like Uniqlo....

Kiehl's , a skin care and cosmetics store, has opened inside of Union Station. Kiehl's is adjacent to similar stores MAC and Blue Mercury; on the first floor near H & M. This will be the second stand-alone DC location joining a Kiehl's at 3110 M St NW in Georgetown. Other area stores exist in Bethseda and Tysons. The company began as an apothecary and pharmacy in late 1800s New York. Once slated for a Modell's Sporting Goods Store , it appears that 715 7th St NW in Penn Quarter will soon be home to a "Studio Xfinity." Xfinity is the brand name for a line of telecommunications products offered by Comcast. Comcast owns NBC, Telemundo, multiple cable channels, and by revenue, is the largest media corporation in the world. Their 2015 revenues were $74,510,000,000. Whoa. Anyway, Xfinity is a brand under which they deliver cable television, internet, and telephone services. The Studio appears to be a retail center in which customers can interact w...

Keihl's will be located between Le Pain and MAC stores on the ground floor of Union Station. Union Station has turned over about half of its retail offerings over the last 5-6 years, trending towards more notable & trendy national brands. Current on-site brands include Moleskin, MAC, H&M, and food options such and Shake Shack and Le Pain Quiotidien.  Joining the retail line up is cosmetics brand Kiehl's . I was somewhat familiar with the Kiehl's name, but did not know they were over 150 years old! They have one existing DC store, in Georgetown. The new store will be on the ground floor level of Union Station next to MAC, and below the under-construction Legal Seafood, another new addition set to open in 2017.

The Holodomor sculpture is a memorial to the millions of Ukrainian victims of the man made famine-genocide of 1932-1933. This is one of the many historically and culturally significant smaller memorials that make walking DC such a rewarding experience. You could make a day out of seeing monuments and memorials that exist solely in our fantastic neighborhoods. Creation of the Holodomor memorial was the result of a collaboration between the National Park Service and the government of Ukraine. Washington, DC resident and architect Larysa Kurylas designed the memorial, including the main sculptural element, titled “Fields of Wheat.”  It specifically memorializes those that died as a result of a deliberate years-long, systematic starvation of millions of Ukrainian citizens by Joseph Stalin. The Holodomor Memorial is located at 1 Massachusetts Avenue NW, near Union Station. It's a short walk from X2 bus stop at H St and North Capitol.