A weekend away - Part 1

Back in March I had a special weekend rendezvous with family, sans MFB. I never did share the experience here until now.

On Saturday morning March 24th I met up with my cousin Lonnie and her boyfriend Mark (they're from the Houston area) in Washington DC at the hotel we stayed at for the weekend. It was across the street from the Smithsonian. This is my cousin that I reconnected with in Arizona back in February and I had been looking forward to this weekend ever since. I'd never met Mark before and within two minutes of meeting him I knew that this weekend was going to be even more fun than I had imagined.

My drive down from PA was a little stressful just because #1 I don't have a GPS and #2 for some reason I am unable to comprehend the written word. Even so, the last thing I wanted to do was relax so we headed out for some fun.

First stop was a hotel across The Mall to park the car for the day. We went to the International Spy Museum and purchased our admission tickets for the afternoon, from there it was a short walk to Ford 's Theater where John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln and Petersen's Boarding House where Lincoln was taken and quickly succumbed to the fatal shot. Ford's Theater is still used today for performances and I hadn't realized that both buildings are run by the National Park Service. I love going to historical places and having my limited memory of school lessons refreshed.

While wandering the streets I noticed Cowgirl Creamery which turned out to be a cheese shop and had to check it out. The shop had that special tangy smell that tells you this is going to be good. Wish I had brought a cooler to take some cheese home. We thought it was time for a "refreshing beverage" and I remembered that we had walked by a restaurant and I think it was the District Chophouse so we thought we'd give it a go. When we walked in we smelled GARLIC. We sat at the bar and they set us up with a sampling of their (I think) lagers. That's a great way to decide on a beer, I was happy with my choice. Oh the garlic? It ended up being garlic french fries. Yummmeee.

After lunch it was time to go back to the International Spy Museum. This was totally fun. An interactive history lesson on the craft of espionage. They give you some time to decide what your "cover" is for the afternoon. As you wander through the museum there are computer "stations" where you play out your "assignment". I wish we had been able to take the time to do this, but the lines were long at the stations and so we passed. At the end of the museum there's a "border crossing" where the computer interviews you to see if your cover still passes to get out of the country the assignment has taken you to. I've just recently been released from a foreign country - I failed. I really enjoyed the museum displays and history, we must have been there for three hours and could have been there another three. We left there with the knowledge that "Things are not always as they seem."

It was then time for a break and so we headed out for something to drink. A cup of coffee for me followed up by an Oatmeal Cookie, not the kind you eat but the kind you drink. Never had one before but someone twisted my arm. It was good. Refreshed, we headed back out to explore. After awhile we decided we needed to get some dinner and after some discussion and wandering we headed over to Oceanaire a restaurant that Mark and Lonnie knew of. No we didn't have reservations, yes we'd spent the day in jeans with backpacks wandering the city streets and being tourists. Can you find a table for us? The inside of the restaurant looked like what I imagine a well appointed state room on a yacht would look. Highly polished warm wood and most people were wearing suits and dressed for a nice evening out on the town. We had excellent service, although we thought we were going to have to offer the server a chair as every time he came to the table he started a conversation about a watch or flying or fishing. Also the food was fantastic, I had my first ever sashimi and it was unforgettable. One of the interesting server upsell occurrences happened when I asked the server about the root beer float and then I realized they had the little soft ice cream in a dixie cup with the flat wooden spoon that I remember from my school lunch cafeteria days. I had to have the dixie cup ice cream. He brought me a root beer float! I told him no I wanted the dixie cup and then he set that in front of me and he said he thought I wanted both! Hunh??? This was a true dining experience. We left there absolutely stuffed and it must have been 10:00pm.

We walked the six or so blocks to where my car was parked and headed back to our hotel. We drove past the capital and it was all lit up. Just beautiful...do you think I thought to take any pictures that day? No. I'm just a dolt. It sounds like we spent most of our time eating, but really it was time spent talking, getting to know my cousin and her guy better and laughing so much my face hurt. When we got back to the hotel we collapsed.

Next time..day two in Baltimore where Lonnie, Mark and I meet up with our cousin Jan.