Since we felt we needed to stay state side after Keith's surgery, we decided to spend a month in DC, enjoying all the city has to offer at the best time of year for DC. We flew there from Vegas, arriving later on our first day.
Accommodation and Neighborhood
We booked an AirBnB in the Logan Circle neighborhood at the corner of 12th and S streets. Our place was the basement of a house but was still 'above ground' so got quite a bit of light. We had a nice sized bedroom with ensuite bathroom and a nice size living room/kitchen air with a half-bath. The house was nicely decorated, comfortable and had everything we needed.
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| Living room and kitchen of our AirBnB |
We joined the local gym, Vida, which was about a 10 min walk from our place. We also got a personal trainer, Gio, who was very nice and taught us all kinds of new routines to build strength and core. He kicked our butt!
It was also fun to spend a month having a bit of a routine. Most days included coffee at 6:15/7:15am, off to the gym for two hours, a stop at Whole Foods for groceries, lunch at the house, one activity in the afternoon, and dinner either in the apartment or out, sometimes with friends. One day a week, we had a "do nothing day" and another day we would do admin catch up.
The 14th street neighborhood was the perfect place to live, with everything we needed within a few blocks. Keith had lived on 15th street ~30 years earlier and what a change in the area! And with the house only a 30 minute walk to the Mall, we were central to pretty much everything we needed by either walking or using the bus system.
Activities
While in town, we did the following activities:
National Archives Museum - This museum contains the originals of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and the Bill of Rights. While cool to see, the exhibit was not very extensive and we thought there would have been more to see.
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| National Archives Museum |
Cherry Blossoms - We walked all the way around the tidal basis to see the cherry blossoms. They were beautiful and most of the trees were in full bloom. But Shawna was surprised that they were more white and not many that were pink!
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| Cherry blossoms along Tidal Basin |
DC Improv - Went to one of the comedian showcases where four different comedians perform for about 20 minutes. A couple of them were funny but overall it was not the best.
National Zoo - Walked around the zoo for about an hour. Sadly most of the animals were not out. We did get to see the pandas and some elephants.
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| National Zoo |
Rock Creek Park - Went for a walk for about an hour after the zoo - some decent trails for a city park.
National Museum of American History - Good museum that provides high level overview of the history of the US through the lens of politics/government, food, transportation, entertainment and innovation.
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| National Museum of American History |
Phillips Collection - Went to this museum for their 'After 5' event which is held once a month. We were enticed by being able to drink wine while looking at art. The reality is that you could not bring the wine into the galleries so we walked through the art 'wineless'. Since this was formerly a residence, the rooms are choppy and we did not really like much of the art in there.
Hirshorn Museum - This is the modern art museum on the Mall. Nice layout to the building with wide open spaces. We did a one hour tour with one of the docents which was interesting and then continued to walk around to see the rest of the art. While generally not our style of art, we enjoyed this museum.
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| Exhibit at Hirshorn Museum |
Food/History Tour of U Street - Did a three hour walking tour of U Street, otherwise known as Black Broadway. We learned about the history of the area and stopped to have food in four places: Ben's Chili Bowl where we had a chili dog, Dukem Ethiopian where we had a vegetarian sampler, Colada where we had cuban pasties and Malai where we had interesting flavored ice cream. Everything was delicious and the tour was informative and fun!
National Postal Museum - Walked around this museum for about two hours showing the history of the US Postal Service. The interesting parts were seeing all of the stamp collections including some that were quite old as well as see how the Postal Service currently manages the volume of mail it processes.
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| National Postal Museum |
Aura Spa - This spa is part of our gym - we got the first massage for free through our membership and it was so good that we booked a second one.
Hillwood House and Museum - This is an estate owned by Marjorie Post - her father started the Post Cereal company. She was not only a business woman but an avid art collector so this house now showcases much of the art - mostly French and Russian - that she owned. We walked around the beautiful gardens as well as around the house. There was also a special exhibit of the Seacloud, a boat she owned that is now used to do tours - Keith's parents had been on this boat on one of their trips.
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| Hillwood House and Museum |
National Air and Space Museum - This museum was high on our list - while we both had been before, we had not gone to it since the renovation. About half of the museum is still under renovation so we only go to see some of the exhibits, most of which were quite cool to see, especially the exhibit on the Wright Brothers where we got to see the original plane. We also watched one of the videos on the planets.
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| Wright Brothers Plane |
Philly - We drove to Philly (actually northeast of Philly) to spend one night visiting with Nancy and her husband Mike. Nancy is a colleague of Shawna's from Cigna. Unfortunately, traffic getting there sucked so we got there with just enough time to have a glass of wine before heading out to dinner. The next morning, Mike made us a yummy breakfast of eggs, bacon and sausage.
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| Dinner with Nancy and Mike in Philly |
Dumbarton Oaks - This is another estate located in Georgetown with beautiful grounds. While not all of the flowers were in bloom yet, there were some beautiful wisteria, cherry blossoms, tulips and daffodils. We walked around the grounds and then went inside the museum which contains Byzantine art.
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| Dumbarton Oaks |
Natural History Museum - This museum was very crowded and overwhelming with much older exhibits. Definitely a better museum for kids! The one cool thing we did see was the Hope Diamond!
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| Hope Diamond |
Library of Congress - This was one of our favorite museums - the largest library in the world. The building is beautiful inside and the exhibits were interesting. Also helped that it was not crazy crowded. We also got to go inside the Reading Room (amazing!) which they only let tourists in during a certain time during the day so as not to disturb those doing research in there.
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| Reading Room in the Library of Congress |
National Gallery of Art - This gallery is located on the Mall but is not a Smithsonian. It has an outside sculpture garden which has a nice fountain and two buildings - one with contemporary art and the other with modern art. We breezed through it pretty quickly since art museums are not really our things. The Monets were nice along with a few Georgia O'Keefe's but we didn't really enjoy most of it.
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| Sculpture Garden at National Gallery of Art |
Museum of the Bible - Fairly large museum on the history of the Bible. Lots of samples of old bibles and while the topic is not of huge interest to us, the exhibits were well done.
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| Stain glass window in the Museum of the Bible |
Smithsonian American Art Museum - Our final art museum of the trip - we spent a little over an hour with our favorite part being the Portrait Gallery of all of the US Presidents and one Georgia O'Keefe painting.
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| Painting of the Women Justices in American Art Museum |
National Building Museum - Our final museum of the trip - we spent about an hour here. The inside of the building is quite interesting with some of the world's tallest columns. The exhibits focus on the construction industry - the most interesting was one of Capital Brutalism, speaking to the style of buildings built in the 60s. They also had a cool display of famous structures built with legos.
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| Main lobby of the National Building Museum |
Walking the Washington Mall - We skipped one gym day and instead walked from the apartment to the White House, over to Lincoln, and did a full lap of the mall. It was a gorgeous day and fantastic to see all the symbols of our country.
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| The Capital |
Meet up with Friends in DC - We met up with several friends for either lunch, dinner and/or walks including: Amit (lunch), Andy (lunch), Jim/Kerry (lunch), Keith/Kate/Kids (lunch), Jamie/Vivienne (dinner - twice), Manish/Priti (dinner), Cheryl/Irene (progressive dinner/drinks), Cheryl (lunch), Betsy (lunch and walk along the Georgetown canals), and the Mark/Alicia/Cassie (lunch). Information on the restaurants are in the section below.
Restaurants/Bars
We also dined/drank at the following places. A few times, we did progressive evenings so that we could try several places - we did this twice in our neighborhood (one time was with Cheryl and Irene) and once at The Wharf.
Oh Naan - An Indian restaurant located in Logan. We had takeout from here our first and last nights! The food is quite good.
Aslin Beer Company - Located two blocks from our rental, they have a nice outside beer garden with Adirondack chairs and a lengthy selection of beers. We stopped by a few times for a beer when the weather was nice outside.
Carlysle - Keith met up with Andy, a former colleague, for lunch.
Jane Jane - A cocktail bar in Logan, we stopped here for a drink. Cute place but we were not as impressed with the cocktail options. That said, the ones we did have were tasty.
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| Date Night at Jane Jane |
Barcelona Wine Bar - A tapas place with lots of wine options located in Logan as well as North DC. We went to the Logan location just the two of us and had a trio of cheeses and a flank steak appetizer with a glass of wine. We went back to the Logan location with Cheryl and Irene as part of our progressive dinner evening with them - we shared a cheese plate. We also went to the North DC location with Vivienne and Jamie where we shared several plates for the table. Very nice place and the food was great.
Doi Moi - A Vietnamese street food restaurant in Logan, we had dumplings and steak bite appetizers with a glass of wine - very good!
Gypsy Kitchen - A global cuisine restaurant in Logan, we had kefta and mushrooms with a glass of wine just the two of us. We went back with Cheryl and Irene and had the hummus with puffy pitas and a couple of desserts. Another cute place and food was pretty good.
Cork Wine Bar and Market - A wine bar and restaurant that also sells wine and cheese located in Logan. We had a glass of wine here a few times (including bringing Cheryl and Irene there) and also bought wine and cheese several times to have at home. Cute place and great wine options. We got to know the bartender there - he knew us by our names which I guess is not a good sign!!
Petite Cerise - Had lunch at this cute French bistro with Amit, a former Georgetown classmate of Shawna's. We shared a salad and roast pork sandwich.
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| Lunch with Amit |
Circa - We met up with Jim (Fuqua classmate) and his wife Kerry for lunch at this restaurant located near Arlington. We sat outside and shared a few appetizers for the table and then the two of us split two salads.
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| Lunch with Jim and Kerry |
Barmini - Had one cocktail at this Jose Andres bar. Place is bright and cute and cocktails were tasty but expensive!
The Tombs - Met up with Keith/Kate/Phoebe/Ruby for lunch and then separately with Mark/Alicia/Cassie - they were both in town doing college tours to see Georgetown. Had a burger both times which was great!
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| Lunch with Keith/Kate/kids at The Tombs |
Georgetown Cupcake - Stopped here with the Keith/Kate/kids and shared two cupcakes which were delicious!
Moonraker - Located on the top floor of the Pendry hotel at The Wharf, we stopped here for a drink. Views were great as were the cocktails.
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| Cocktails at Moonraker |
Gordon Ramsey's Hells Kitchen - Located at The Wharf, we had a glass of wine and a meatball appetizer at the bar. Place is nice.
Pink Tiger - Asian restaurant located at The Wharf, we sat outside and had a beer with dumplings and skewers. Wine selection was not great but the skewers were tasty.
Ilili - Great Lebanese restaurant located at The Wharf, this was our final stop and our favorite. We shared the meat platter and duck appetizer with a couple of glasses of wine. Food was very good and the place was cute.
MXDC Cocina Mexicana - Mexican restaurant located in Logan, we met up with Manish and Priti for dinner. We shared guacamole for the table and then had grilled steak with rice and beans. Food was tasty but we had expected a bit more authentic dishes.
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| Dinner with Manish and Priti at MXDC |
Le Diplomat - Margaret had mentioned that she had been to this place so we stopped to have a glass of wine. Cute place but we didn't eat anything since it's French food.
Rocco's at The Brick - Located in New Town, PA, we had dinner here with Nancy and Mike when we went to visit them. The restaurant was really nice and the food was great. We shared calamari for the table and then we split a filet with baked potato.
Mi Vida - Located in Logan, this is a great Mexican restaurant. We went here with Cheryl and Irene and shared some tacos and carne asada. The food was very good.
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| Night out with Cheryl and Irene |
1310 Kitchen and Bar - Located in Georgetown, had lunch here with Betsy. Cute place. We shared a salad and zucchini lasagna rolls. Food was OK.
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| Lunch with Betsy and then a walk along the canal |
Sequoia DC - Located in Georgetown along the Potomac, had a glass of wine here and sat outside. Nice scenery but service was slow.
Top of the Gate - Rooftop bar on top of Watergate hotel. We stopped here for a glass of wine and some appetizers. Food was pretty good and views were nice but the actual bar itself could have been improved with decorations.
The Bazaar at Waldorf Astoria Hotel - We stopped here for a drink so we can see the inside of the Waldorf Astoria which has a nice, open lobby that was decorated with cherry blossoms. We each got the Ultimate G&T which was delicious, suggested by Cheryl.
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| Drinks at The Bazaar |
Rooster and Owl - This is a one Michelin star restaurant located in north Logan. We had the four course prefix menu with choice of dishes. We each chose different dishes so we can try different things. We also go the wine pairing. The food was very good.
Jont - We had dinner at this Michelin two star restaurant located in Logan, only a few blocks from our place. The food was amazing and the vibe was also great. They only seat 16 people around a counter facing the kitchen so you can see all of the action and they play 80s rap music. We got the wine paring and everything was truly awesome!
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| One of the courses at Jont |
Rasika - We had dinner at this Indian restaurant in Dupont Circle, recommended by Rak as the best Indian in the US. While it was good, we had had better in NYC. We really like the crispy spinach and the duck. Service was a bit rushed and the restaurant was noisy. Desserts were not the best. All in all would still recommend it - just would not say it's the best in the US.
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| Rasika |
Cucina MORINI - An Italian restaurant located near the Capital, we had dinner her with Jamie and Vivienne and a friend of theirs who was visiting from out of town. We shared several dishes - the salad and pastas being quite good.
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| Dinner at Cucina MORINI |
Minibar - Another Michelin two star - this one by Jose Andres - we went here for dinner as our last fancy night out. Similar to Jont, it seats about 14 people around a counter facing the kitchen so you can watch the action. The music here was more subdued. There were many courses each expertly presented - we enjoyed most of the courses but thought the food at Jont was better. We started with a gin and tonic and also had the wine pairing.
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| Dish at Minibar |
Immigrant Food - Our last friend meet up was with Cheryl. We met her for lunch here, sharing a yummy bowl, mezze platter and dumplings.
