Here's something you don't know about us: We share an address with a famous explorer.
The plaque on the front of our house.
The house where we live in Washington, D.C., was the home of Admiral Robert Peary from 1914 until his death in 1920. Robert Peary, as you may know, became famous as the first explorer to reach the North Pole, which he claimed to do in 1909. (There was a lot of dispute at the time about whether Peary or a competitor, Frederick Cook, was the first to reach the pole -- or whether either one off them actually did. It was a big debate in the newspapers at the time, until National Geographic finally "settled" the issue by declaring Peary the discoverer of the Pole. [Perhaps not incidentally, Nat Geo had help fund Peary's expedition...] Today it's widely believed that neither one of them actually reached the Pole, and that Peary especially was playing fast and loose with his own accounts of his journey. ANYWAY....)
Admiral Peary, before and after his expeditions to the North. Thank goodness he had the world's largest mustache to keep him warm.
Ever since we've lived in this house, we've wanted to throw an Arctic-themed party to celebrate the famous former resident of our place.
This year, on Feb. 20, the 94th anniversary of the day he died in our house, we finally got our act together to host our first-ever Admiral Peary Party.