DC Vacation

The enormous Lincoln Memorial -- Picture by blogSpotter

by blogSpotter
Following is a short diary of my 4-day vacation to Washington D.C. over the July 4th weekend. I went with my friend Eric and my brother Bryan who flew in from Seattle and met us there. The city is incredible and we had a good time. Following are all the details. Enjoy!

THURSDAY JULY 3RD

Eric and I caught an early 8:20 flight (had to get up at 4:45, egad) to DC. We checked into the Hotel Rouge near Dupont Circle at @ 2PM. Hotel Rouge is a gray brick 1950's building that's been completely gutted and remodeled in a contemporary style (all furniture in shades of orange, pink and red). It's a great location, close to Union metro, fashionable clubs and restaurants. We visited Kramer Books on Dupont Circle. Kramer’s is college-oriented and very trendy -- it also has a historical footnote as the bookstore subpoenaed by Ken Starr for Monica Lewinsky's purchase history. Eric and I had a late lunch at Kramer's sidewalk cafe called Afterwords. We were served by a flaky aging hippy but the quesadillas were excellent.

We then took the metro to the National Mall where I was overwhelmed by the huge proportions of it all. The mall must be a minimum of 2 miles in length and you can easily wear down walking the whole perimeter. We just took in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and returned to our hotel for 'disco' naps. Bryan arrived shortly after that and we met up at Jack's Cafe on 17th Street. Bryan was served a beer he didn't like; it was comped. Then, the waiter spilled a glass of tea on Eric. As we left, we remarked that the beer was on the waiter and the tea was on Eric.

We went to some nearby clubs on 17th street right after this; I must say I like the ambience of DC. The clean cut J Crew look is still popular -- we saw very few people with the extreme tattoo look we see in Dallas. Pleasant change in the scenery to say the least. We went to one club later in the evening that was horribly overcrowded with a very young crowd. The Fire Marshall should be after that place; I left and went back to my room after @ 10 minutes of that. Stopped by the all-nite CVS for mandatory junk food and called it a day.


The Korean War Memorial -- Picture by blogSpotter

FRIDAY JULY 4TH

We had waffles and eggs at a great "greasy spoon" place, Luna Grille, recommended by the hotel desk clerk. We then walked down to the National Mall and toured the WWII, Korean and Viet Nam memorials. We saw the Lincoln Memorial which is huger than huge -- easily 200 feet high. We stopped and noshed on greasy, over-priced hot dogs and then looked at the beautiful American Indian Museum (completed in 2004). This one is worth seeing for the building as well as the artifacts. Rain started falling, so we caught a cab back to Hotel Rouge.

Timely interjection: Washington is very temperate; it has pleasant weather and frequent rainfall -- very green and verdurant. There were towering trees the whole way from Dulles to DC. I remarked to Eric that they have more trees on a random square acre than we have in a square mile of Dallas. We were rained on 3 times but they were quick summer showers that came and went.

That afternoon we attended the Hotel happy hour. Bryan had red wine; Eric and I had Izze pomegranate soda which tastes kind of like champagne -- very good. That night we had a sampler plate dinner at Meze Turkish Cafe in Adams-Morgan, also good. It was pricey, but DC is pricey as a rule -- have to be ready for that. After eating, we went back to the 17th street clubs. The clubs were crowded and fun again. We did stop by one sleazy joint that I tolerated for only a few minutes before calling it a night and returning to the hotel.

SATURDAY JULY 5TH

I had coffee and newspaper at Caribou Coffee, before Bryan and Eric even awakened. Caribou is a trendy coffee place a la Starbucks but less expensive. Very nice crowd and the coffee was good. After joining up with Eric and Bryan we got on the Hop-On Hop-Off bus tour at Union Station. For much of the ride we rode on the open upper deck and enjoyed the cool air rushing over us. We stopped at National Cathedral and then in Georgetown. Georgetown is an upscale district where we went to Martin's Tavern -- place where JFK proposed to Jackie. We got back on the bus and debarked at Arlington National Cemetery. This cemetery was Robert E Lee's plantation prior to the Civil War -- amazing in its size and grandeur. The Lee mansion still sits impressively on a high hilltop. Here we saw, JFK's grave and the Tomb of the Unknown soldier among other things. The cemetery was the last part of our tour, and we returned to the hotel for a much needed rest. A bit later we met up again for dinner. We had light meals (walnut salad for me) at the 17th Street cafe and went back to the nightspots. The crowd was less good, or maybe I was tired. We took a cab over to a club across town but I couldn't get in wearing flip-flops. I took a cab back to the hotel and took the nightclub's rejection as a sign that I should call it a night and relax in the hotel room.


Bryan sympathizing with the cheetahs -- Picture by blogSpotter

SUNDAY JULY 6TH

We had a repeat breakfast at Luna Grille; this might be a habit if I lived there. Luna Grille is near Dupont Circle, gets a fun crowd and has good food at reasonable prices. From here, we took the metro to the Holocaust Museum where we spent a good 2.5 hours. I've seen much of the subject matter before on PBS specials and such, but this was pretty overwhelming. One exhibit showed a huge pile of victims' shoes recovered from the ovens (they were sooty but still recognizable as shoes). After this thought provoking albeit disturbing museum, we took the metro all the way up to Woodley-Park where we saw the National Zoo -- one of the best in the nation. By the way, did I mention that all these exhibits are FREE? In DC, most of the museums have permanent endowment funds that allow tourists free access.

The National Zoo was gorgeous -- we spent lots of time at the panda exhibit since that's one of the main attractions. It started to pour rain so we grabbed a cab and went back to Hotel Rouge. We regrouped and later went out to dinner at La Tomate. La Tomate is a pricey, fashionable Italian bistro on Dupont Circle where Chelsea Clinton went on her first date. These tidbits of history made everything more interesting. The food (seafood fettuccine for me) was good but you get small portions for the grand price. We went back to our same clubs this night and we figure it was just an off night -- everything was kind of dead. Called it an evening pretty early since the next day was a travel day.

MONDAY JULY 7TH

Bryan wanted to experience Kramer's Cafe so we went back there. The service was slow again, but the food and crowd made it worth the wait. Alas, Bryan checked out and departed the Hotel at 10:30 to return to Seattle. Eric and I still had a whole day to kill prior to our 8:30PM flight. We went to see the White House -- turns out you can't just buy a ticket anymore. Since 9/11, you must get a letter from your Congressman, six months in advance. In place of that, you can go to the White House Visitors' center (cattycorner to the real deal) and see exhibits of everything. From here, we walked over to the Smithsonian Museum of Flight and Aerospace. This museum oddly had the biggest crowd of all. Apparently a lot of people are excited by planes, missiles and rockets. They also had rides and simulators that appeal a lot to kids.

From here we went back to Hotel Rouge and the Hotel provided us a Lincoln Town Car limousine as our return vehicle. (No extra charge for the limo). Eric and I enjoyed the luxury. Our plane was delayed an hour due to weather, but we finally got back to Dallas @ 1AM central time.

OVERALL

DC is a beautiful city; it is fitting that the most powerful nation on earth should have at least one city with such grandeur and such impressive architecture. In places it reminds me of the grand boulevards you might see in Prague, Paris or Berlin. It turns out that much of the original city was designed by a French-born architect (and urban planning pioneer) Pierre L'Enfant. Everything is larger, grander in scope than I ever imagined just from postcards and history books. I figure that a city like this would be very livable. We all enjoyed our trip and would easily go back to catch the hundred things we missed on this one.

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