"A Tale of Two Cities" DC/Florida September 2016 - Day 2 (Georgetown & National Mall)

[soraia]

Day 1 is here.

"A Tale of Two Cities" DC/Florida
Day 2 - Sunday 4th September 2016

I originally woke up at 02:40 but managed to fall back asleep and woke up again at 05:00 which is good for me as I'm such an early bird.

This is where a weird incident happened. I got out of bed and went to the bathroom but the door was stuck! It would not open at all. I tried every way humanly possible, but nothing! I had to call reception who sent someone up to come and help. Hilariously, originally he tried to convince me that the door to my bathroom was not the door to the bathroom, it was the connecting room door. I kept trying to explain to him that it definitely wasn't and he finally believed me when he did a sweep of the room and didn't find the so called bathroom he was looking for! Initially he couldn't open the door either but eventually he managed to unjam it (thank goodness as by this point I was desperate for the loo...! ) and promised to send an engineer up later in the day when I would be out. I made a note not to close the door again just in case!

(the offending door!)

I met up with Bernie & Tig in the lobby at 08:40 and we got our first uber of the trip. We had booked to do a walking tour of Georgetown this morning. The meeting place for this was outside a bakery called baked & wired at 10:00 so we thought we would go there early and grab some breakfast beforehand. This ended up being a great decision as the cupcakes here are AMAZING! I had a chocolate hazelnut cupcake, Tig went for red velvet and Bernie had a blueberry lemon cupcake.

We were all glad to have the walking tour after this so we could walk off some of the calories...

At 10:00 we met up with our walking tour host Stevi and a couple with their 2 children who were also on the tour. The tour was super interesting and I would recommend it to anyone. I would go so far as saying it was my favourite thing of the whole DC part of the trip. The tour was a 2 mile circuit but you don't feel tired as it is really well paced. Georgetown has such a nice peaceful feel to it. Lovely houses! Here are a few from the tour:

The tour ended by the waterfront at 12:30 so we walked to the main river front area which was lovely.

We had lunch at a place called Bangkok Joe's. We had some dim sum to start which was really good but sadly I made a mistake and ordered an entree that was way too spicy unfortunately I'm really not good with spice – I don't tolerate it at all so had to leave most of it.

The boys really enjoyed their meals though. I would definitely still go back, I'd just order something else next time!

We then decided to hit the National Mall and got an uber to the Lincoln Memorial. Great view to the Washington Monument from here!

We then went over to the Korean War Memorial and up the National Mall to the World War II Memorial and eventually the Washington Monument.

We decided to visit the Smithsonian Museum of American History and saw Julia Child's Kitchen. Bernie was disappointed as there was supposed to be a Muppets Exhibit but when we got there it was being refurbed until summer 2018. By now it was 17:00 and we were all tired so we headed back to the hotel to rest our feet and agreed to meet up at 18:40 for dinner. Unbeknownst to me, Tig had to go out to buy a pair of trousers as he realised he had forgotten to pack them. Oops!

We had a 19:00 reservation at The Hamilton and it was only a short walk from the hotel. When we got there we were seated more or less immediately. Bernie & I got some cocktails (they were very strong!) and Tig ordered himself some wine.

Apologies in advance for the grainy pictures but it was quite dark in here and I didn't want to use the flash!

I ordered the grilled cheese cornbread to start which was a hit. No pictures of this – sorry! I think we were all really hungry at this point! For entrees we all went for different burgers – I had the Hamilton Burger (basically a cheeseburger with bacon and a fried egg), Tig had a salmon burger and Bernie had a fried chicken burger. They were all delish and my chips were AMAZING!

Unfortunately service tonight was really slow and it took AGES for dessert to arrive. By the time it did come we were so tired – I had ricotta donuts and just picked at them. The boys had milkshakes (no pictures I'm afraid) and then it took ages for the bill to arrive as well. I ended up only leaving a 10% tip because of this. The food was good but I'm not sure I would recommend this restaurant because of the service. We sat down at 19:00 and only left at 21:30 and that is really too long.

We were still not quite on US time yet and feeling really tired so headed straight back to the hotel and to bed.

It was a great first day!

In honour of my last trip report and having Kieren's selfie of the day at the end of every post - I thought I would kick that off in this post with a bit of a twist. I am bad at taking selfies. Hilariously bad. Throughout the course of this trip everyone tried to help me but I just am not gifted in the art of the selfie. SO, I thought I would end my posts with Soraia's hilariously bad selfie of the day. Here is today's instalment!

(yes, that is me laughing at how bad I am at taking selfies and how I can't seem to get anyone else in...)

Step count: 19,080

Day 3 is here.

[EJSakaAnna]

Those cupcakes look delicious! I'm always up for having cake for breakfast, good choice.
The Georgetown tour and waterfront area look lovely, sounds like a good first full day. Dinner looks tasty too, shame about the service x

[soraia]

Originally Posted by EJSakaAnna

Those cupcakes look delicious! I'm always up for having cake for breakfast, good choice.
The Georgetown tour and waterfront area look lovely, sounds like a good first full day. Dinner looks tasty too, shame about the service x

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Thanks - the cupcakes were absolutely amazing - if only I could go back in time and eat them all over again