Our Trip to Washington DC

Ben and I just got back from a FABULOUS trip to Washington DC. It was a little spur of the moment, in that we left for DC on Sunday morning and we hadn't even thought about going to DC until Saturday morning the day before. That being said, we DID schedule vacation time for ourselves beforehand, so it was not 100% spontaneous. But it was as spontaneous as two people with commitments to their jobs can manage. :) And, for whatever reason, that made it all just a little more fun.

We flew in Sunday afternoon, checked into our hotel, and then we found a place to grab some food -- The Thaitanic. It was a great little hole-in-the-wall near our hotel and it was delicious. Then we went to the West Lawn at the Capital for the National Memorial Day Concert. It was lovely. At least it was until they told us they were ending the concert due to inclement weather. We enjoyed a good 40 minutes of it and then we hitched a taxi ride home to get out of the rain that inevitably came. We'd complain, but the concert was free, so... it really wouldn't be right.

Ben at the concert

On Monday, we slept in and then left our hotel to find some yummy eats. This led us to what I consider to be the best eats of the trip -- Founding Farmers. If you ever go to DC, make sure you eat here. Trust me. You'll LOVE IT. After food, we took a very needed walk over to the area where they were going to be having the National Memorial Day Parade As luck would have it, that brought us by the White House, and we got to see snipers (up to 4 at at time, but usually 2) on the roof as there was a motorcade of vehicles preparing to leave the estate for some event. This ended up being pretty awesome to watch. And the parade was great fun. I would get a little emotional every time I saw an older veteran walking down the road. I also saw lots of marching bands and wondered why almost every high school thought it would be a good idea to put their students in hot, wool, mummy-coverage-style uniforms in black and march them down a road carrying heavy instruments in 90 degree weather. Anyone care to explain this?

The White House

Snipers at the White House

After the parade we disappeared into the Smithsonian Museum of American History -- fun, but I wasn't feeling so hot, so we only stayed a little while and then we tried to find dinner. Finding dinner was a bit difficult because most restaurants were actually closed on Memorial Day. But we lucked out and found The Grist Mill at one of the hotels near where we were staying. Comfort food. It was very comforting, indeed. This was our 2nd best find of the trip. And the executive chef & waiter were insistent on giving us a free piece of red velvet cake to take back with us to our hotel (we were too stuffed to eat dessert there). And, how could we refuse them?

On Tuesday, I went up to the pool (it was on the roof of the hotel), finished reading my book, King Peggy, (I highly recommend said book) and got a little bit more sun than I had been hoping for. After Ben & I both cooled off in the pool, we ventured out for lunch again, this time at a restaurant called Chop't. It's a chain there ( we don't have it here in Ohio) and it was awesome. We especially were delighted to see that they offer Boylan Soda for fountain drinks. The Cherry flavor was SO GOOD. Can you tell food is an important part of traveling for me? I think it's my favorite way of experiencing places. I know you may not guess to look at me, but it's true.

After lunch, we stumbled upon the Smithsonian National Portraits Museum. We got lost in there for a good several hours. It was awesome. While I enjoyed the American History Museum, I have to say I absolutely LOVED the Portraits Museum.

Dinner that night was ruined because I got the address for the intended restaurant mixed up and we ended up on the wrong side of town, so we went to a forgettable tapas restaurant for dinner. But the eating experience was saved when I called room service back at the hotel and ordered chocolate cake. Mmmmm. By the taste of the cake and ice cream, I would say we should have just dined in. Oh well.

We came home Wednesday morning and stopped at the outlets on our way back from the airport to do some shopping. I am now wearing a new pair of lovely steely-grey-blue capri pants that I got for 20 bucks.

Here's to great vacations that let us forget about everything at home and focus on enjoying our time and our family. It was a great way to celebrate Memorial Day. I feel quite refreshed. Thank you DC. I needed that.