WASHINGTON D.C.
DAY 1
It's time for the BLAHHHG again!
My documentation that I travel.
Covid man. It's been a bummer. April 2020 was supposed to be Machu Picchu. July 2020 was supposed to be New Zealand. October 2020 was supposed to be Washington D.C. I was actually 2 days away from leaving on that one when I got COVID and had to cancel. 😭
My documentation that I travel.
Covid man. It's been a bummer. April 2020 was supposed to be Machu Picchu. July 2020 was supposed to be New Zealand. October 2020 was supposed to be Washington D.C. I was actually 2 days away from leaving on that one when I got COVID and had to cancel. 😭
BUT THIS YEAR. This year I made it to Washington D.C.
My sister lives out there. You know the one. (right mom?)
I stayed with her and she let me borrow her car for day trips while she was working. It was amazing of her. :)
I left SUNDAY morning. I went for the no layover straight-shot Delta flight because I'm bougie. Delta is doing window and aisle seats with an empty seat in between, but I heard a flight attendant say that is going to end on May 1st.
RIGHT when I arrived in D.C. my sister picked me up and we drove to the TIDAL BASIN. You know. That pool right by the Jefferson Memorial? THOMAS JEFFERSON. THE PRESIDENT? It's really hard to know if you're being hyped up or not.
It was Easter Sunday and the tail end of the cherry blossoms. So everyone was out in their nice dresses taking pics with the trees. It was heart warming. I actually didn't mind all the people.
My sister lives out there. You know the one. (right mom?)
I stayed with her and she let me borrow her car for day trips while she was working. It was amazing of her. :)
I left SUNDAY morning. I went for the no layover straight-shot Delta flight because I'm bougie. Delta is doing window and aisle seats with an empty seat in between, but I heard a flight attendant say that is going to end on May 1st.
RIGHT when I arrived in D.C. my sister picked me up and we drove to the TIDAL BASIN. You know. That pool right by the Jefferson Memorial? THOMAS JEFFERSON. THE PRESIDENT? It's really hard to know if you're being hyped up or not.
It was Easter Sunday and the tail end of the cherry blossoms. So everyone was out in their nice dresses taking pics with the trees. It was heart warming. I actually didn't mind all the people.
Look how cute we are.
But like really look.
My sister had prepared us a picnic complete with SPAGHETTI CARBONARA, strawberries, and lemonade. #shefancy
Turns out I didn't take a picture of it. So you'll just have to take my word for it.
Turns out I didn't take a picture of it. So you'll just have to take my word for it.
DAY 2
I woke up suuper early on day 2. Like 3am (Utah time). Why?? Well because Ashley's neighbors were out on the porch being noisy. WHO PARTIES UNTIL 6AM ON A MONDAY MORNING?!?! Like wut? They were noisy all night. I tried to sleep for a few hours but I eventually left at 6am D.C. time (4am Utah time) and drove to Gettysburg.
The drive was beautiful. There are a few roadways that are surrounded by trees. You definitely don't feel like you're in the middle of the city. I didn't take a pic while I was driving, but I did pull over and get the sunrise...
The drive was beautiful. There are a few roadways that are surrounded by trees. You definitely don't feel like you're in the middle of the city. I didn't take a pic while I was driving, but I did pull over and get the sunrise...
I need to practice taking videos that aren't shaky 😂
Or maybe it adds an element of reality? Suspense?
Gettysburg is about an hour and a half north of where my sister lives in D.C. When I parked in the parking lot it was like an hour before the time I had reserved for the museum. SO I TOOK A NAP.
The museum there includes the museum part, a 20 min video narrated by Morgan Freeman, and a 360° oil painting of the battle. They call it a cyclorama. After the video you walk up to this room with the painting. Then they give you a 'light show' where they imitate the sun rising on certain parts of the hills, and they have lights to show canon fire and all that jazz. Kinda cool?
Battle history has never been super interesting to me. And I feel a little guilty saying that as a history teacher. I love learning the social and political aspects of events... but military tactics don't fascinate me. I know more about the 3-day battle of Gettysburg than I ever thought I would.
You want to know what I used to think of every time I thought of Gettysburg? ⬇️
I LOVE THAT MOVIE. A weird amount.
"If we don't come together. Right now on this hallowed ground, we too will be destroyed"
GOOSE.BUMPS. kids. Goosebumps. (not the series, the bumps on your arm)
After the museum and the cyclorama and stuff I took a bus tour that goes around the actual battlefield. That was actually my favorite part. I took a lot of notes. #NERD. I also experimented with Instagram stories. Blogging feels a little old fashioned compared to the fast-paced world of the Instagram story. I didn't post the story 'til I got back to my sister's house and she coached me a little.
My first Instagram story series was educating people about the Battle of Gettysburg. 😂
Our tour guide mentioned that there is a movement to remove all of the Confederate Monuments from the battlefield. Each state who participated in the Civil War designed their own monument to go on the battlefield. Pennsylvania's is the biggest, but Virginia's is also large. I posted on my stories and asked if people thought the monuments should be taken down. I was a little surprised by the results. 30 people responded....
Then my sister told me to clarify that the battlefield is technically a National Park so it's considered a museum. She said people might feel differently about taking monuments down if they knew that. So I clarified. 29 people responded to this one....
In case you wanted to see the Instagram stories...
Now you know I love history and I love stats. Ne-herd.
AFTER Gettysburg my sister and I went to a restaurant called Ted's Bulletin. Recommended on a few 'where to eat in D.C.' blogs, so I thought we should try it. I thoroughly enjoy traveling with Ashley. For many reasons. Though in this case, she was at home she wasn't traveling. ONE of the many reasons is that we always share food. Halfsies. So we could order Mac n' Cheese, a strawberry shake, a burger, fries, and hash browns. The mac n' cheese was so deliciously creamy. The shake was good, the other stuff was just okay. I also GOOGLE REVIEWED pretty much every place we went to. When Google tells you you have 10K views on your reviews, it really strokes your ego. Fame definitely goes to my head.
Day 2 ended with Ocean's 13 🌊
DAy 3
Another reason I love eating with Ashley, is that she pushes me to try things that I probably wouldn't order on my own. There's a really good bagel shop in D.C. called 'CALL YOUR MOTHER'. We ordered a bagel sandwich with salmon and capers. IT WAS SO GOOD. And I don't like fish.
This was the day we biked around the National Mall and then down to Old Alexandria. I'll show you the day in pictures.
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Ashley had to work at 2, so we took the subway back to her house. Then I went down and wandered around the wharf. I got a couple of doughnuts to try from DISTRICT DOUGHNUT. Creme brûlée and a lemon one because Ashley loves everything lemon. 🍋
After Ashley got off of work we drove down to Pickle ball courts in Crystal City to meet....
ALLIE!!!!! AHHAHAHAHAHA I love Allie. I hope you know her because she's cool. We played a couple of rounds of pickle ball with her and a friend. I didn't get any pictures of pickle ball... but I DID get a quick picture of going to MEZEH for dinner afterwards. She brought a few friends but I didn't get them in the picture. haaaaaa.
ALLIE!!!!! AHHAHAHAHAHA I love Allie. I hope you know her because she's cool. We played a couple of rounds of pickle ball with her and a friend. I didn't get any pictures of pickle ball... but I DID get a quick picture of going to MEZEH for dinner afterwards. She brought a few friends but I didn't get them in the picture. haaaaaa.
Day 4
2 hour drive to Virginia to see Monticello. I've wanted to see Monticello for a long time. Mostly because I heard that Thomas Jefferson designed it himself. ARCHITECTURE. I mean, T.J. is cool too. Man of science. Man of philosophy. A lover of french culture (he had all of the cooks at Monticello trained in french cuisine). A Renaissance man you could say. They have a Visitor's Center and Museum shop down the hill. You can see all that without a ticket. I think you can even ride the shuttle up and walk around the grounds of the house without a ticket. But if you want to go inside (and I DID) you need a ticket.
They had QR codes in each room and you could open a webpage and read about the room. I would've preferred a tour guide, but alas. They did have a few different stations outside where you could sit and listen to a tour guide talk about specific elements of the house. I sat through a lecture on Sally Hemings and slaves at Monticello. I stayed there for the most of the day. I got a few seeds from flowers that were GROWN AT MONTICELLO. I was really excited about those.
They had QR codes in each room and you could open a webpage and read about the room. I would've preferred a tour guide, but alas. They did have a few different stations outside where you could sit and listen to a tour guide talk about specific elements of the house. I sat through a lecture on Sally Hemings and slaves at Monticello. I stayed there for the most of the day. I got a few seeds from flowers that were GROWN AT MONTICELLO. I was really excited about those.
Here's the kitchen. You have to go outside the house and through a long cellar hallway to get to it. It was right next to the slaves quarters.
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There aren't many original buildings left, but Mulberry Row is where the slaves houses and workstations were. There would have been jobs for a blacksmith, jobs in the nailery, stables, and weavers and sewers. A plantation is like a city. The slaves at Monticello weren't treated any better than on other plantations. In fact their rations were pretty meager. They had to supplement them by growing their own food. Slaves would have gotten an assignment (job) at age 10. Jefferson didn't get married until he was 29. He and his wife were married for 10 years before she died. Sally Hemings was Jefferson's slave and mistress. He never freed her. He promised to free her children though. 2 he did while he was alive and 2 he freed in his will. He didn't treat them like his children, they were treated like the other slaves. Some say Jefferson wasn't awesome because he should've freed all of his slaves in his will. Jefferson died with over $100,000 in debt. Some say he didn't free his slaves because he knew they (and his house) would have to be sold to pay his debts.
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When I got back from Monticello, Ashley and I picked up some pizza from &Pizza and some pop tarts from Ted's Bulletin. Ted's is famous for their homemade pop tarts and we had failed to get some when we went their for dinner.
We had a nice picnic on Ashley's balcony and then watched Ocean's 12 😆
We had a nice picnic on Ashley's balcony and then watched Ocean's 12 😆
DAy 5
We went to ASTRO DOUGHNUTS and Fried chicken. We got a breakfast chicken sandwich (with TOTS 😍) and some doughnuts. We took those puppies to Meridian Park and ate as we watched dogs play and stuff.
Ashley was still in the process of moving in when I came to visit, so DAY 5 we went to TARGET and got some furniture for her apartment and put it together.
Ash had to work at one, so I went to the National Mall and laid in the grass and wrote in my journal.
Thursday night was the night we had reserved a spot at a MICHELIN STAR RESTAURANT. This is what I tell people about when I tell people about D.C. Ever since that magical magical 💫 Chicago experience it seemed like a really good idea to try a Michelin star restaurant in every place Ash and I visit. I reserved Little Pearl before we got there. Because they had a fixed price menu (they decided what they're serving based on ingredients) I paid ahead of time including the tip. I had never done that before.
So we had to get all dolled up for our fancy dinner reservations!
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The MENU. So first we had radishes with a tangy (yogurty?) dipping sauce with bergamot and bottarga. When the waiter came up to the table I was Googling bottarga. He called me out and then explained what it is. Seems like a lot of work to go through just to put a little in the dipping sauce?
The second dish was mussels with fermented ramps. It was not good. So I'm not even going to put a picture up. I don't like seafood (ya the place was called Little Pearl 😅)most of the food was really good though.
The next dish we had was actually one of my faves. It sounds weird... but hear me out. English peas, hazelnuts, and egg yolk jam. Ya okay egg yolk jam sounds weird, but it wasn't. It was soo good with the peas. It wasn't like a sweet jam. It was fluffy? I don't know how to describe it. Ashley was talking about how you can cure egg yolk and wondered if they did it that way. THESE ARE THE ADVENTURES of eating at a restaurant like this guys.
The next dish we had was actually one of my faves. It sounds weird... but hear me out. English peas, hazelnuts, and egg yolk jam. Ya okay egg yolk jam sounds weird, but it wasn't. It was soo good with the peas. It wasn't like a sweet jam. It was fluffy? I don't know how to describe it. Ashley was talking about how you can cure egg yolk and wondered if they did it that way. THESE ARE THE ADVENTURES of eating at a restaurant like this guys.
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Overall impression of dinner?
We went home and we watched OCEAN'S 11. Are you seeing a pattern?
day 6
Day 6 was my last day in D.C. Day 6 was a food day. If every other day wasn't a food day. 😂
For breakfast we went to SLIPSTREAM. It was a coffee shop that didn't really have a lot of breakfast options. And their avocado toast was $10. Ten bucks for toast?! I did it though. I spent the money and we split one slice of toast. It was flippin' delicious. I'm definitely going to try and recreate that sucker.
For breakfast we went to SLIPSTREAM. It was a coffee shop that didn't really have a lot of breakfast options. And their avocado toast was $10. Ten bucks for toast?! I did it though. I spent the money and we split one slice of toast. It was flippin' delicious. I'm definitely going to try and recreate that sucker.
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For elevensies we got cookies at Captain Cookie. If a cookie place doesn't serve their cookies warm, I don't know what they're doing in the cookie business. WARM COOKIES ALL DAY.
We then went to FOUNDING FARMERS for lunch. I wasn't too impressed with the bread and cheese spread or the deviled eggs, but the bartolini pasta with a parmesan cream sauce was 😋
We then went to FOUNDING FARMERS for lunch. I wasn't too impressed with the bread and cheese spread or the deviled eggs, but the bartolini pasta with a parmesan cream sauce was 😋
And that's the whole story. Thanks for sticking with me until the end. Until next trip!