Alli's apartment is in the perfect location. A short walk to the Metro, or a short drive to the beautiful suburbs, Potomac, and Mount Vernon. We hopped in the car, and soon were standing in front of George Washington's house. Alli has the absolute perfect timing, soon after starting the house tour, we turned around and the line had grown significantly! Whew, glad we beat the rush!
Standing in front of the house, I knew something looked odd...can you tell what it is?
The tour was great, I vaguely remember visiting here as a kid, so it was nice to hear all the facts again. I tried to soak up all the historical goodness like a sponge!
They do not allow pictures when touring the inside of the house, but I got some great shots of the grounds. It is a gorgeous piece of property, wow.
Trying to decide where to go next...
Tending to the garden
The road less traveled :)
My husband will appreciate this!
After exploring the grounds we decided to leave. But, Alli has an annual pass now, so I suspect she will be back, and they allow dogs on the grounds! So maybe even Ruby will tag along!
We drove back to Alexandria and stopped to visit the Torpedo Factory. Alli kept mentioning stopping in, but I did not know what to expect, such a strange name. It was an awesome assortment of art studios, and people working, displaying, and selling their creations. http://www.torpedofactory.org/about_us.htm But, it does have historical roots as a torpedo factory.
By afternoon I was definitely hitting an energy low (probably compounded by the lack of caffeine with lunch). I begged Alli to stop at a store on the way home so I could get my Diet Coke fix...of course she obliged. But, not before we experienced the second random act on the trip.
*The three of us were walking back to the parked car, which was adjacent to a nice park. A man was jogging down the path, and stopped us. He was really friendly, very outgoing, and blurted out, "excuse me, how tall are you?" Hmmmm....we all blurted out our heights, and he called me out on my 5'6"! Geez....ok, maybe I am really 5' 5.5". Apparently he was doing a random poll, as he compared me to the height of a gal he had just asked down the path. And then he jogged off....? It was very strange. We giggled, jumped in the car, and started to guess what he was doing- practice to be an expert height guesser? Informal research project? Attempt to pick up women? Who knows....but we did get a good laugh!
After another quick nap, we decided to explore Georgetown. We jumped on the Metro and were soon walking towards the bustling streets of shops. On our way we passed Alli's friends and b-day party organizer, we chatted briefly and asked for dinner recommendations. As we walked closer to downtown, we tried to cross a busy street and noticed that the road was being blocked by at least 5-6 black SUV's. Men (and a woman) in black suits were holding back the crowd and staring at everyone with serious, blank faces. After scanning the govt tags on the vehicles, and reading the hanging tag from the suit people (US Secret Service), we realized someone very important was meeting/dining at this location in Georgetown. Could it be the President? With all the commotion and secrecy we knew it must be someone really important. We had important shopping and eating on the agenda, so we decided to continue on, and look for a story in the news on Sunday to learn which VIP was in the area.
(and sure enough....it was the Prez on a date with his wife: http://obamafoodorama.blogspot.com/2009/05/cnns-headline-news-as-obama-foodie-tv.html)
After much shopping and walking we tried to narrow down the dinner options, and come to a consensus. Priya suggested Tacklebox, and we went in to check out the menu. It was very "southern" food, and was reasonably priced. I had a yummy dinner of grilled trout, yummm...it was good and fast. Definitely a reminder of home- it made me want to go fishing on the flats!
Before dinner, we were on a mission to purchase Georgetown cupcakes. Alli had been raving about how world-famous they are....and we just had to put them to the test. Thursday we had Red Velvet, tonight we were taste tasting Georgetown cupcakes. If the line out the door of the shop was any indication, we were in for a treat.
Alli guarding our treat on the Metro.
They had a 3 for 4 deal...can you guess which one I ate?
And the winner is....GT cupcakes! They were amazing- perfect cake density, frosting was delicious. Yum.
After sleeping off our sugar induced coma, we woke Sunday to extremely wet, cold, and dreary conditions. But, we decided to make the best of it and do some more sightseeing in the city. We hitched a ride to the Metro from Alli's roommate and explored up near Washington's monument.
We are tough FL gals, but seriously, it felt like the rain was coming from the ground. Up, under my umbrella, to hit me in the face. We gave up, decided to stare at the Lincoln Memorial from a distance, and then went exploring in the American History Museum (they have a great exhibit of Julia Child's kitchen!). After a quick lunch at Ollie's Trolley, we walked past a few more sights and then took the Metro home.
After packing and watching a few episodes of Law & Order, it was time to leave. Alli was kind enough to drop us at the airport, and we were back in Tampa by 10pm. It was a great trip, and I can't wait to go back and see more of the many sights we did not get a chance to visit- this a warning Alli...I will be back! Thanks so much for putting up with us, hope your birthday weekend was extra special.
The Power of 3...dominated in DC
The End
(And if you made it through that incredibly long post, congrats!)
1 comment:
Girl, the term "grown significantly" for describing the line at Mount Vernon doesn't even come close to describing what happened. Think 3 charter buses worth of people.
And the height-guessing-jogging guy was carrying a novel too! Soooo random. Reading while jogging and guessing strangers' heights?
And really? That picture of me pointing at the Navy Memorial? Thanks a lot. Seriously, that's awful.
Other than that, great post. You were always better at documenting trips than me. ;)
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