Washington DC

2 weeks ago, my family made a trip to Washington DC. My dad had a conference so we decided to hook a little family vaca on the end of it. It was amazing! My parents neglected me as a child and never took me to DC when I was growing up, but they major made up for it. Below is our trip:


Wednesday:
The parental units were already in DC so Brooke and I flew out ourselves Wednesday night. We took a cab to the hotel and settled in.


Thursday:
We woke up bright and early and headed to get some coffee. Luckily for the world, there was a Starbucks in the hotel... and you could charge it to the room. We got a tour on Old Town Trolly Tours for the first two days. It was such a neat way to get around the city. The guides told stories the whole time and gave you neat info about different monuments, areas, and people that you would never know.

The tour consists of two lines. It is a hop-on, hop-off type of thing and a great way to get to see the whole city. I have done tours like this in Paris and Barcelona and I love it. They are usually pretty cheap and you get to see tons. We did not stop off at the capitol or Washington Monument but just drove by and took pics.

First order of business was to get to the Smithsonian. I did not know this, but the "Smithsonian" actually consists of 19 different museums and galleries. The one you hear most about is probably the American History Museum. This is the one that houses everything from a Vietnam War helicopter, to a piece of the Twin Towers, to the original Kermit. Pics below... We spent all day there. We did a 1 1/2 tour with a guide that hit all of the highlights, ate lunch, and went back to the stuff we wanted to see in more detail.
FYI: all of the Smithsonians are free!

Thursday night we went to dinner at Zentan. The owner is a guy named Susar Lee. I first found out about him from Top Chef Masters. Town and Country also did a review of the restaurant and gave dish suggestions. Among some other stuff, we got the Singapore Slaw and Cantonese Marinated Skirt Steak per their suggestion. Delish! 

Friday:
Friday morning, after the obligatory StarBs run, we headed to Ford's Theater. This is the place where Lincoln was shot. We did a quick museum tour in the basement and then headed to the actual theater for a ranger talk. Ford's Theater is owned by the National Park Service. Little known fact: It is actually a working theater. We had to leave early because they were showing a play later that afternoon. 

We next went to lunch at Zaytinya. It was such a pretty day outside so we sat on the patio. Mike Isabella from Top Chef and Top Chef All-Stars used to be the chef here. It was another great find! The food was yummy and the waiter made great recommendations.

After some food fuel, we went to another Smithsonian museum: Natural History Museum. If you live in Houston, or another major city with a natural history museum, this would be something you could quickly run through. Houston's Museum of Natural Science has pretty much the same stuff. The one major contribution of DC's museum is the Hope Diamond! It was so pretty. The setting is temporary, and not my fave, but the diamond was gorgeous.

After heading back to the hotel for some rest, we went to Art and Soul for a happy hour and dinner. Owner Art Smith was (surprise, surprise!) on Top Chef Masters. Monday-Friday, the restaurant has a happy hour until 7PM. Since our reservation was at 7, we went for a pre-dinner drink on HH prices. The food was southern and good. The menu was not very large and it was different than the one on the website. I would definitely go there for the bar scene, but maybe not for dinner.

Saturday:
The mommy and the daddy happened to have a wedding that weekend in Virginia so they rented a car and went for the afternoon. Brooke and I took the opportunity to head to Georgetown for some shopping and cupcakes! We took the trolley I mentioned before. The drive was neat, you got to see all of the foreign embassies and parts of residential DC. Our first stop was H&M since Houston does not have one. Don't worry, I've emailed H&M about this. Next, we had some lunch and went to Georgetown Cupcake! This is the cupcake boutique seen on TLC's DC Cupcake. The line is always super long so we  pre-ordered and skipped to the front. It was a little disappointing though because we did not actually get to go inside the shop.

We went across the street to Dean and Deluca to enjoy our cupcakes with some coffee.

Next, we went to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. I thought the museum did a really great job of showing the history of the Holocaust and the rise of Hitler. However, Brooke and I did not totally love the museum. Just FYI.


For dinner on Friday, we went to fancy dinner at The Oval Room. This was delish! We also struck gold with a great waiter. Since it was close to the White House, we headed over to see it at night. Beautiful!

Sunday:
Mother's Day! Sunday morning we woke up and took a cab to the White House for some daytime pics. It was so bright that all of our pics have us with squinty eyes, yuck.

For Mother's Day brunch, we went to Bibiana. This is owned by the same people who own The Oval Room. It was so good!

At this point of the post, I am so tired of hearing myself talk. I will wrap things up by showing you what happens when you try to bring home cupcakes for friends on the airplane.