Well the last post ended the weekend past, but this entry will fast forward to last Friday. Why last Friday you may be asking yourself? Well devoted fan, that is because the cousins from Nashville(well not really “from”) came to visit their favorite cousin, ME! Let me preface by saying the weekend was awesome and we did so much and ate way too much, but sometimes the latter can be a good thing when you walk as much as we did in two and a half days…
(also I apologize ahead of time for the grammar mistakes as it is midnight here as I take to my quill and e-parchment)
Brian and Lisa arrived around 9 o’clock on Friday night and I met them at the Dupont Circle Metro station and we proceeding to find a suitable place to find some dinner. We ended up eating at this place called Luna Grill which we all agreed was more than delicious. It was the first time since being in DC I had something with avocado on it. Let me just say, I miss it so. Unfortunately, DC avocado is not CA avocado, they are shaped weird and not as tasty. But the food nonetheless was yummy.
After that we headed to Brian and Lisa’s hotel, which was as Brian said it “odd.” For those who are familiar with LA, I would describe the Hotel as a The Standard Hotel wannabe. There was eardrum murdering music in the lobby, lots of people inebriated and the room its self. Let’s just say there was a sheer curtain in front of the air conditioner and leave it at that.
The next day we met, got some yummy muffins at Caribou Coffee and made our way to Eastern Market. Eastern Market is DC institution thats both a farmer’s market and a flea market. The Eastern Market flea market is basically a dangerous place in that if the vendors took credit cards and I would have maxed them out most likely as there so many cool things. One booth had really old maps another old stamps another cool leather belts. My favorite booths were the independent T-Shirt Silkscreeners and I purchased one of their shirts.
After the flea market, we went into most likely the craziest used bookstore I have ever set foot in called Capitol Hill Books. Books were stacked on top of each other, floor to ceiling. Each with their own section and witty little placard describing them. We all found some very interesting books, I got an out of print book called They Also Ran which is all about losers in presidential elections. Yes I know, I read about politics too much and there are probably only two people in the world who would find this book interesting (Kyle and Adlai Stevenson).
Follwoing that we made our way to Capitol Hill and had an amazing lunch at Good Stuff Eatery, an amazing burger place run by Spike from Top Chef. The meat itself was incredible and they have burger that was made just for Michelle Obama(a turkey burger with caramelized onions). They also have 5 different kinds of in house made mayos that you dip your fries in(my favorites were the old bay and chipotle).
After the yummy lunch we made our way around the capitol building and I gave my tour, but from the outside. I think they liked it or at least feigned interest in it. We made our way around the building and headed to the Library of Congress. Let me just say that is a big library. I mean really, really big. The building itself is immense and awe-inspiring. It makes me proud that I live in a country that believes in a national library and the pursuit of knowledge as a tenant of its founders’ spirit. Well, minus the whole 2000-2008 years.
After the LOC, Lisa expressed interesting in seeing the National Gallery of Art, specifically the East building designed by I.M Pei. They had an interesting collection of small French paintings entitled Small French Paintings. Interestingly, each painting was both small and French. They had a few cool ones, but some odd ones including the one called Mound of Butter (Ten bucks to the person who guesses what the subject of the painting was).
We walked around Penn Quarter a bit more then headed to a Chinese food place for dinner, watched Capitalism:A Love Story and collapsed from exhaustion.
The next morning we woke up, got some Squagels(Square bagels) from Cosi and made our way to Georgetown. The walk itself was nice, Georgetown is about a mile away (or a 20 minute walk) from Dupont Circle and no Metro stop there either. We walked past Rock Creek Parm and made our way down M Street. M Street is lined with lots of little shops(American Apparel and Urban Outfitters) and restaurants. The one we decided to grab lunch at was called Old Glory, a BBQ restaurant that was quite yummy. I got the pulled chicken with Memphis BBQ sauce. MMM DELISH!! After more walking we made our way to the waterfront and enjoyed the breeze from the not so pristine Potomac river. We then had some Cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcakes.
The running theme:Kyle and Cousins eat their way through DC, burn calories walking through DC, and hilarity ensues
