DC WEEKEND: let's get started!

hey there and happy wednesday! i hope everyone is doing great. the weather where i am is not so much. it really hasn't been that great for much of the southeastern US for most of this week. so, i hope you all are safe and continue to stay safe through the rest of these nasty storms.
soooo... i wanted to get this post out to you guys much sooner. however, i have been having major issues with my picture formatting app [picasa]. and since i am a perfectionist, not just any picture collage or setup would do. but in this battle of picasa vs. kendra, picasa won. i have only one awesome picture setup for you guys [insert huge sad face]. so that brings me to a very important question: does anyone use a really awesome/user friendly app on their computer to edit and compile pictures? oh, it also has to be free. any help would be much appreciated!

ok...onto the blog!

the vacation. we were so very excited to be on vacation. and in DC. so let's get started!!

after our very minor drama [see previous blog], we arrived to our hotel with relative ease. the washington metro is an absolute breeze to use. we checked-in and met up with the fam and quickly head out for some nourishment. we all were starving. unfortunately, i think everyone else in DC had the same idea. "it's good friday...we have the day off...let's go out day drinking and eat a late lunch/early dinner." we walked into founding farmers and had to wait 45min. during our wait we looked into other places, but the story was the same. so, we stuck it out. and ohmigosh, it was worth it. the food was so, so delicious. it is a farm-to-table restaurant. so everything is locally grown, organic, and natural. my kind of place! i would definitely go back.
after linner [see what i did there], we headed down to the national's ballpark for some baseball. and on our way there we stopped at a local brewery, blue jacket. it was mobbed! but it was really delicious and they had so many beers to choose from. any beer drinker would be able to find something they like there. i wish i had taken more pictures there because it was a neat space - very open and industrial.
now with good food and good beer in our bellies, we were off to the ball game! i do not have much for comparison, but the nationals park was beautiful. it is also the only green ballpark in MLB. the concourses were very open with lots of extra places to sit, eat, and relax. there were plenty of places to view the game. behind center field was pretty much all open. of course, there were plenty of food and beverage choices. and even a few cherry blossom trees! and this is where our night ended. after a long day of travel, we all were very tired. so after the ball game we headed back to the hotel, made plans for the next day, and called it a night.

best picture on the blog.

nationals game.

saturday started off with a quick breakfast at pret a manger, an organic coffee/lunch shop that we fell in love with. and then we were off to the races! we walked, walked, WALKED all the way to the national mall where all the smithsonians are located. on our walk we passed by the white house, the washington monument and other huge buildings that we enjoyed taking pictures of. we decided to split up and go to the museums we each wanted to and then meet up for our lunch reservation at 1:30pm. keith and i chose the national natural science museum. we thought we were going to be able to make it to another museum with the time we had. HAHAHAHA. nice joke.
we could have spent all day there. instead we only spent two hours. it probably felt like all day only because it was packed with every damn tourist that was in DC that day. we were shuttled around the museum like cattle. not being able to move around a museum how you'd like really takes the fun out of it.

by the time we meet up with the crew we were definitely ready to rest for a bit and, of course eat. on our way to oyamel we walked through the structure garden. it was beautiful.

oyamel is a mexican cantina. it is served as small plates so they encourage you to get several plates to share. we order some to share and some to not. it was delicious! and the margaritas were too! all very fresh. a few of us [i won't name names] ate grasshoppers and corn smut as part of our lunch. and there were no complaints.
after enjoying our bugs and fungus, we were off to check out some monuments and memorials. we walked back toward the national mall and over near the tidal basin. we visited the washington monument, the WWII memorial, the lincoln monument and reflecting pool, and the vietnam memorial.
whew. that is a lot of history to soak in.

my "sun in my eyes" face also looks like my "i am really pissed off at you" face.

WWII memorial.

reflecting pool and washington monument.

lincoln memorial.

at this point it was time for either rest or nourishment. keith and i chose nourishment. we walked a very long way over to capital city brewing for some more local brew and some food. the food was excellent. although, at this point in our day, mcdonalds would have been a delicacy. the beer was pretty good, some better than others. the dry stout was one of the better stouts i've ever had. it is full of flavor, yet light. so it doesn't make you full after only one. it's like a session stout [who knew!]. we sat at this place for a very long time. it was nice to sit and relax. i think our legs would have let us spend the night here.
once we finished up at CCB, it was almost 8pm. it was time to rejoin our crew. they wanted to head out for a nightcap and a snack. by the time we met up with them and they found a place it was 9pm or so. we met at a restaurant in dupont circle called circa. it was very cute. and i drank the first pilsner i have ever liked [write that down]. keith and i, of course, ordered more food. 

it was somewhere between CCB and circa that we decided to add another day to our trip. we just didn't think we could see all that we wanted to see if we left on sunday. so after much debate [yes, we went back and forth, back and forth, back and forth], we decided - what the hell, we only live once. LET'S DO IT! so we added an extra night.

excitement ensued [yay! yay! yay!]

goodnight DC, we will see you in the morning!!

stay tuned to hear about the rest of our trip [we still have 2 days left!!!!].

xoxo,

ks