washington dc day 2

We went to the Smithsonian Freer and Sackler Galleries in the morning. The Peacock Room is a must-see, as well as the Asian art. We had tickets for the US Holocaust Memorial Museum at 12noon. What a very powerful and moving exhibit! It was very emotional and educational experience. I will always remember this. As my co-worker said, "Everyone should visit this museum."

Without realizing it, we had spent the whole afternoon in the museum. Afterwards, we decided to go to Georgetown for a late afternoon walk looking at the shops and some fab looking homes.

In front of the Freer & Sackler Galleries

Georgetown

Brownstone house on the corner

We had dinner at Pesce, a seafood restaurant in the Dupont Circle area. The food was really good and attentive service but we felt something was lacking. It might have been due to the fact that the restaurant was empty and that added to our slight disappointing experience. To appease ourselves, we decided to have after-dinner martinis at 14K Lounge. We got there just in time and the bartender was really friendly and gave us extra pours.

washington dc day 1

Emmanuel and I went to Washington DC over the Labor Day holiday. We left Thursday night red-eye and arrived in DC early Friday a.m. Neither of us had been there and we didn't have any expectations nor plans. We stayed in the downtown area and the hotel allowed us to check in when we showed up at 9:45 am. We were quite close to the White House.

We got tickets to visit the Washington Monument in the afternoon where we met this really nice man, Cal (whom I will forever call 'the lady with the red umbrella') who spent the entire afternoon walking and showing us around. We walked the western part of the National Mall starting from the Washington Monument. We visited the WWII Memorial, Reflecting Pool, Lincoln Memorial, Korean Memorial and FDR Memorial. (That was a lot of walking in hot, humid weather.) Cal said he wanted to show us his favorite DC landmark. We drove across the Potomac River and saw The Awakening sculpture. What an amazing sculpture - quite shocking and scary close-up! Thanks Cal for the lovely afternoon.

lady with the red umbrella

the awakening

We had dinner at Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian churrascaria. I thought it would be fun since Emmanuel has never been to a churrascaria. It was somewhat spendy but the food was good and we both had a good time.

it's september

Emmanuel and I went out for a post-birthday dinner last Saturday with some friends. we went to Ristorante Milano in the Russian Hill area. parking was a bitch, we circled around for 15 minutes until we chanced upon a parking lot that charges $10 (what a deal!). the attendant asked us if we were headed to a particular restaurant and we told him, he said it would only cost us $7 (an even better deal!). when we got to the restaurant, our four friends were already seated but where we were to seat, our section was not ready.

we shared the sardines as starters - worth every bite. for our entrees, emmanuel ordered the lamb chops and I ordered the pork medallions with soft polenta. the others ordered pasta dishes. food was good overall but the portions were on the small side: emmanuel had two chops with one polenta triangle, two cubes of roasted potato and some other vegetable; the pasta in cream sauce looked gooey but good; the vegetarian pasta dish was somewhat lackluster. the rosemary focaccia that they serve with olive oil was excellent. service was good though a little harried. as each person finished their meal, the plate was whisked off the table. I like to take my time eating so this kind of service was a somewhat disconcerting. I tried to hold on to my fork afraid that if I set it down, my plate would disappear. the place is small and they were quite busy and they obviously want to turn their tables quickly, but service like that was a major turn-off to patronize them again. I would recommend but I won't be back.