For score and a weekend ago, we journeyed from Chapel Hill to Capitol Hill. But really, Hank and I spent last weekend in the District. It was a jam-packed weekend filled with a lot of great sites and tours. Upon pulling into D.C., we first spotted the Washington Monument and got up close with Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial.
We were at the Supreme Court by day, and I learned that the curators at the Supreme Court bid a ton on eBay to acquire items for their special collections. I love eBay, so I was all about that. And can you believe it, the Supreme Court actually gets outbid on items by other insanely dedicated collectors.
By night, we were at Jaleo and Barmini.
We did the chef's tasting at restaurant Jaleo which was filled with 16 small plates since Jaleo is tapas style. It was delicious, and it was a lot.
That night we had reservations at Barmini which can only be described as a cocktail lab. The decor is insanely unique - cactus couches, apple cushions, etc. The drinks are even more unique. I had the 'cedar and agave' which consisted of the mixologist lighting a cedar plank, capturing the smoke in a glass, allowing the most perfectly square ice cube to absorb the smoke and so forth. It was neat. Other drinks consisted of dry ice smoldering over beakers like an insanely trendy science lab. I loved all of it.
Saturday morning we toured the Capitol and learned about G-W and his 15 hunnies on the way to Heaven - as you'll see in the dome in the below picture. Well, that's what our guide said at least. He was hilarious.
After the Capitol we toured the insanely gorgeous Library of Congress.
And after that, we walked through an all out blizzard to get to the National Gallery of Art. We thawed out while hanging out with Da Vinci, Monet, Picasso, Renoir and Van Gogh... The gang was all there. I could have spent a ton more time at NGA. The Gallery holds the only Da Vinci in the U.S. - the entire collection was just stunning.
We saw a white out at the White House, and it was just beautiful. Probably one of my favorite moments of the trip.
Afterwards, we explored the snowy National Mall and saw Michelle Obama's Inaugural Ball dress at the National Museum of American History, the Hope Diamond at the National Museum of Natural History and the Spirit of St. Louis - the plane flown solo by Charles Lindbergh in 1927 from New York to Paris as the first non-stop flight - at the Air & Space Museum. We couldn't leave Air & Space without seeing the Wright Brothers exhibit of course.
That night we enjoyed dinner at District of Pi, and my favorite pizza was their Cubano {Cuban-style pork, sliced deli ham, dill pickles, melted Swiss cheese and yellow mustard}.
Sunday morning we woke up to our country's founding documents - the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights - at the National Archives. Our tour guide was a five-time survivor of oral cancer and was just downright inspiring. He reminded us that life is short and asked us to consider these four questions:
Who are you?
What do you want?
Why are you here?
Where are you going?
His life chat was clutch on making this a fantastic trip. I would have gone just to hear him speak.
After the archives we were off to artsy Eastern Market to brunch it out. We tried District Donut and Ted's Bulletin. At District Donut we had their maple pecan and cannoli (pictured) donuts. They were tasty, but I think our Rise is even better. We called ahead at Ted's Bulletin, and that place was delicious. I had their latte, breakfast burrito and got their homemade strawberry pop-tart (with sprinkles!) to go. The pop-tart was on point and a restaurant in Raleigh needs to hop on that concept stat.
And that's a D.C. wrap! All in all a great trip weekending in the District.
