DC Bound

Friday night we left to DC.  We had hoped to leave on time, but due to rain, wind and low ceilings on the Eastern seaboard, our flight was very delayed.

This trip, our favorite flat to rent wasn’t available, so we booked the Capitol Hill Hotel.  We would always walk by this place on our way to our previous rental, so decided if we couldn’t have our flat, we would check this place out,plus they had a good deal going for the long weekend. We checked in close to midnight, found our room and promptly crawled into bed, in our suite.

Of course we travel with our own coffee, so before we headed down to the hotel breakfast, we made sure we had a good coffee.

After a great little breakfast at the hotel, we headed out to our first stop, getting our global entry pass.  We were a little early for the interview, so we decided to visit the White House Visitor Center, close by.  What a great museum run by the National Park Service, unfortunately we didn’t give it enough time and will have to return.

We returned to the Reagan Building for our interview with Customs and Border Patrol for our Global Entry Pass. We had a great time with the staff, including sharing a few chuckles.

After that we walked by the White House on the way to the Renwick Gallery.

We strolled over to the Renwick Gallery to see the Parallax Gap  and Nutshell Murders exhibits. The Nutshell murders were just written about in the New York Times this week, so I think the crowds were heavier due to the article.

Our next two museums were just to pop in to see some new exhibits.  We have visited DC a great deal in the last five years, so we know to only go visit the new exhibits and skip the permanent displays.

We stopped in at the American History Museum to see the TV exhibit. We saw Mr. Rogers’ sweater and Bozo the Clown outfit, both a part of our childhoods. I had fun sharing the excitement of seeing Mr. Rogers’ sweater with a complete stranger, we broke out in song “In your neighborhood….”, we had a shared moment.

After viewing this exhibit, we made our annual pilgrimage over to Julia Child’s kitchen. We do pay her homage any time we are in the museum, as she was and still is a big part of our cooking life.

Our next museum stop was the Natural History to see the Wildlife Photo exhibit. Two photos captured my heart.

I love that the museums in DC encourage you to take photos and share them with the world.

By this time is was a bit before noon, so the big decision of the day had to be made, where to have lunch. For the past few years, we keep wanting to eat at The Pig, sometimes when we headed over it was unexpectedly closed or we talked ourselves out of it, thinking the food would be two heavy.  Well today we committed to going for brunch and we loved it. I had the breakfast sammie (best breakfast sandwich I have ever eaten) and Mike enjoyed grits with shrimp and sausage. This place was phenomenal.

Of course in typical travel style, after a late lunch, we have nap time, well I do.  Back to the hotel we headed to get a nap in and freshen up before dinner with the nephew.

Dinner tonight was at The Sovereign DC.  We ate here once before and really enjoyed it. The beer menu is excellent and the food outstanding.  Tonight we splurged and enjoyed a rare beer, one from Westvleteren Brewery, the Grand Cru.  Our two waitstaff people were excellent and even comped us an after dinner drink.

Our day had ended and we grabbed an Uber to return to the hotel. We read for a while and then drifted off to sleep.

We put in a few miles on our Saturday jaunts, but had lots of fun and good eats.