Day 1
We stayed in Crystal City which is right across the river from D.C. The hotel had a shuttle to the metro station, which was about 4 blocks away. We took the metro to L'Enfant Plaza (Smithsonian would have worked too, but this was more direct from where we were coming). Our first stop was the Capitol and of course, the Supreme Court!!
Our second stop was the Natural History Museum! There was SO much to see. My favorites were the mammal exhibit and the Hope Diamond along with the other diamonds they had on display (could you expect any less?). We then made our way across the National Mall to the Washington Monument, then crossed over towards the White House for lunch at Old Ebitt Grill with Jimmy V.
Unfortunately, the restaurant was RIDICULOUSLY packed (1 and a half hour wait), so we drove across in the good ol Buick to Capitol City Brewing Company instead. They give you hot pretzels instead of bread and the Hickory Burger was SO GOOD! After lunch with Jimmy we made a brief stop at the National Gallery where we ran into another law school friend by coincidence :) In our unsophisticated opinion (Gary and I know nothing about art), the National Gallery was meh, but I'm certain it was just the exhibits that were there at the time and our unsophisticated taste. We then decided our feet were getting a little sore, so we rented some bikes at Capital Bikeshare and biked around the city.
This was quite the fabulous idea because it let us cover a lot of ground in a short period of time. We biked along the Potomac River and the Tidal Basin and saw the cherry blossom trees in full bloom! This was exactly what I wanted to go to DC to do! It was absolutely beautiful :)
At night we gathered around the Tidal Basin to watch the fireworks. Unfortunately, the fireworks weren't going off at the Tidal Basin. Stupid website I relied upon (and apparently many others, because there were a good number of people gathered there). Luckily, we were still in view, so we got to enjoy the Cherry Blossom Festival fireworks from afar. After our failed fireworks mission, we took the metro back to Crystal City to go watch the UK game. Even though we lost, at least we got to watch it at a delicious Thai restaurant, Neramita. We were still pretty full from lunch, so we just shared some papaya salad and pad curry. They used thick noodles and it was very tasty!
Day 2
Apparently walking and biking around the city on Day 1 took a toll on our bodies because we slept for 10 hours and still woke up with sore legs. Accordingly, we did a lot of sitting, relaxing and enjoying the cherry blossoms on Day 2. We went and sat by the cherry blossoms near the Washington Monument, sat by the Washington Monument and stalked down a couple that had 2 American Eskimos, sat by the Tidal Basin and enjoyed the cherry blossoms, and probably did some more sitting in other locations.
We also took a brief tour of the American History museum, which was actually pretty cool. For lunch, we revisited the Old Ebbitt Grill, this time with a reservation. It was DEEEELICIOUS! We got the Cannelloni di Casa (homemade pasta stuffed with spinach, cheese, and ham) and the Trout Parmesan (parmesan crusted trout with hollandaise sauce).
The portions were just right, which is a nice change from the usual American joint. We would definitely go there again!
Even though there was a tiny bit of rain, the weekend was a BLAST! (Albeit exhausting!) The cherry blossoms were beautiful, and we just can't wait to have our own in our yard some day so we can do some hanami right in Columbus, rather than flying to DC :)
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