Oh, DC was glorious.
We rolled on into town last Thursday, greeted by dreamy sunshine and sweet, sweet 72 degree breezes.
My crappy cell phone photos clearly can't do justice to the intensely blue blueness of the sky, or the rays of golden sunlight, or the puffy white clouds that towered in the heavens and welcomed us back to our favorite city.
We toured, of course.
(my, but I married myself a handsome fella)
(Even better looking that studly, shirtless George Washington)
(Beautiful Union Station)
We saw the National Gallery, and the American History Smithsonian, and the Natural History Smithsonian. We saw Picasso's first drawing, aged 9... the first ladies outfits and china sets... the Hope Diamond, which was so brilliantly sparkly that all of my pictures blurred.
But what we really did -- what we do so well in every city, really -- was eat.
The best Tom Yum soup I've ever had, at Duangrat's in Annandale.
(via their website, Instragram-ed)
Incredible guacamole and an air-salt margarita at Oyamel.
(via The Washingtonian review, Instagram-ed)
Amazing sushi and a bottle of wine at Tono Sushi in Woodley Park.
And the real star of the show -- Old Ebbitt Grill.
I adore this place. It's a fancy-pants atmosphere, but the menu is not too expensive and the food is just plain good. Nothing avante-garde or "deconstructed" here.
While I started the meal off with an awesome cheese plate, Kyle ordered the shrimp cocktail, and behold -- the sweetest, largest shrimp you've ever laid eyes on.
No evidence remains of our actual dinner, because truth be told, we housed it. But the birthday boy ordered the Parmesan trout, and I got the sweet potato goat cheese ravioli. I don't even normally go for sweet potato, but this dish was heaven.
Guess who got a slice of peanut-butter chocolate pie on the house...
I, on the other hand, paid good money for my blood orange creme brulee, and yes, it was worth every penny.
In the end, the general manager came over and invited us up to their rooftop deck, which is closed to the public and looks out over, oh, all of DC. No big deal.
(Except really, HUGE deal!) It was amazing.
And oh, let's talk about spring. Things were in bloom around Washington.
Daffodils swaying lazily.
(Cherry blossoms making their glorious debut)
But in spite of it all -- the gallivanting, the sun-soaking, the cultural-steeping, the massive amounts of eating -- it was so, so good to come back home last night.
There really is no place like it.
(Road warrior stopping for a much-needed Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich)
Even though we relished the days without random tufts of dog hair floating around (despite our diligent vacuuming). Even though we enjoyed sleeping in for several mornings in a row. Even though we loved going out on the town.
In the end, we really love them more.
