Vacation

You know what they say about needing a vacation from your vacation? Yeah. Not that we didn't have a great time, but we're tired. We got into DC on Wednesday and only had time to find dinner. Thursday we got up and went for a run. We ran past the Capitol, and through part of the National Mall. It was around 5 miles all together. Yay! Then we got ready and headed back to the Mall.

We hit the Smithsonian Air and Space museum first. It was much better than I was expecting. Space ships, airplanes, and a whole exhibit on the planets with photos taken from satellites. It's amazing how beautiful the planets actually are.

We ate lunch at this fancy seafood place, The Occidental Grill. It was amazing. I had the jumbo sea scallops.

Then we walked over to the Smithsonian American Art Museum where they had a Norman Rockwell exhibit from the personal collections of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. I don't remember the name of the place we ate dinner at that night, but we got dessert at a little bakery and took it back to the motel.

Friday J went on his own run through the Mall, all the way to the Lincoln Monument at the other end. Then we went to the National Gallery of Art. It was wonderful! Some of our favorite artists there, including lots of Degas, one of my faves. We ate lunch at a little cafe set up in the rotunda of the museum, fancy french food. We headed back to our motel early so that Misty could pick us up.

She took us into North Beach, MD where she lives. We met her guy and his folks, and some of their friends. Had a little halloween party, but dang it was cold out! We had breakfast with Misty and Tony (her guy) the next morning and they drove us back into DC.

We cleaned up and headed out to a little bar called Asylum. We were supposed to meet my college friend there, but she couldn't even make it into DC because of the traffic. The Rally to Restore Sanity was going on at that time. We were half an hour late getting there as well. The Asylum does brunch on weekends and they have a regular menu and vegan menu. It was super tasty. Although I didn't get to see my friend, it was great food.

From there we went to the National Archives. We didn't do the whole tour thing, but just saw the good stuff. The Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, you know, the good stuff. We walked over to the Lincoln Monument so I could see it. Everything was still very crowded from the Rally crowd. For dinner, we had trouble finding a place that was still open, seems the rally crowd ate up all the food. We found this tavern place that had fancy cigars and private humidors. You could literally rent a humidor to keep your cigars in. I don't remember the name of that one, either.

Sunday was race day. We got up early and headed to the Pentagon Metro station (we used the Metro rail to get everywhere expect MD). Once J took off, I walked back over to Lincoln and found some breakfast. I hung out a the 16 mile marker and actually did manage to find J as he passed me. I got a couple pics of him in action. Then I headed back over to the finish line. It was crazy! So many people. And the "finish festival" seemed so far from the finish line! The runners had to walk so far just to reach the "family link up" area. But we did find each other.

After the run, we went back to the National Gallery and found the Rembrandt paintings. I got a few pics. Rembrandt is one of J's absolute favorite painters, hence our dog's name. For dinner we found a nice brewery and had some amazing food and amazing beer. I had crab cakes and J had filet mignon. We stopped at the Red Velvet Cupcakery on our way home. Awesome!

Of course that meant Monday was fly home day. We still got up early and headed to the Mall yet again for the Vietnam Memorial. It was so cold that morning! But we still enjoyed it. We packed up and headed home after that.

So yes, DC was fun and successful, but my feet hurt and I'm tired. Now we're trying to get back into our routines. I'm running my first 8k Saturday night. Looking forward to a long weekend after that to actually rest a little!

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