Sunsets still worth seeing

We went to the National Harbor over the weekend to get away from the worries of my job search, finances, the recession and the general malaise of every day being more or less the same in the 'burbs of Loudoun County, Va. The harbor is just a few miles outside of Washington, D.C., on the Maryland side of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. It's a fairly new shopping/residential/entertainment area on the banks of the Potomac River. The massive atrium of the Gaylord Resort and Conference Center (pictured above, right) is the first thing to catch your eye as you cross the bridge. From inside, it's quite impressive. Parking is cheap, the scenery is nice and you can really stretch your legs walking along the clean streets and footpaths that wind through and beyond the harbor.

It was a fairly nice November day, with the temperatures hovering around 60 degrees. Yet, there weren't many people in the harbor. Stores were mostly empty. Some restaurants were about 50 percent full, but most had just a spattering of customers. This fairly new complex seemed to be in limbo, with many storefronts still unoccupied and parking lots barely a quarter full. Yet, what was in place and open for business was nice. The National Harbor is doable in an area of the country that is often impossible to deal with because of crowds and traffic -- far less cramped than Old Town Alexandria which lies on the other side of the bridge.

While we went to the harbor for a few hours of escape, thoughts of the recession came to mind with each empty store I saw. As I looked at the many condo buildings, I wondered how many units were unsold. I later investigated and found that as of mid-summer, 400 condos were vacant. In the D.C. area this would have been unheard of just a year or two ago.

There were billboards proclaiming Disney was coming to the harbor, but best I could tell that project is on hold, too. Apparently, Disney bought the land to build a resort right around the time the recession started.

If you look around, it's hard to not notice how much trouble our economy is in no matter where you go. Empty storefronts, undeveloped plots of land and abandoned homes are connected to real human beings who each have a story to tell. This is not some faceless catastrophe or just some problem that is a tax write-off for massive corporations like Disney. I am sure those jobs Disney would have created by breaking ground are needed in the harbor area. Yet, there are many people who prefer to live in denial about many things, including this recession and the lives that are being impacted in a very personal way.

As a side note, a small-business owner who I know recently shutdown her company for financial reasons. Not only did the recession hurt her sales, but many of her friends and acquaintances failed her in various ways through the five years she struggled to run her business. Since she announced the closing, only one friend expressed any kind of condolences. The support systems we sometimes think are in place turn out to be illusions when bad times arrive. I've certainly gotten to know more about people in my one year of unemployment than in my 29 years of working.

It was good to get away from Loudoun County for the day and to see something new, even if the harbor is only about 30 miles from where we live. We don't go far anymore as we try to save money, even on gas. Unfortunately, one can't run from the recession. You can't pretend away the afternoon.

Most of my days involve solitude and, of course, silence from most friends and former colleagues. So I have to force myself to get out now and then -- to see people and something other than the view from my den. I have to remind myself that last December was the end of a job, and perhaps a longtime journalism career, but not the end of life. I still have to continue to look for work no matter the odds or how unjust what happened to me at USA Today was by all accounts. I have to rub elbows with folks, even if in a mall or coffee shop. And while friends and former colleagues might continue to disappear, and storefronts could remain empty for a long time, there is still air to breathe and sunsets to enjoy from any vantage point.