After a busy few days of residency interviews, Elizabeth and I continued on to our nation's Capital to see the sites and visit our good friend, Becky. Neither Elizabeth nor I had been to DC since the "all 8th graders in America go to DC and their parent's freak out" trip, so we were excited to be able to appreciate a lot of the things that we probably didn't at a time when we cared more about “who was sitting in the back of the bus with our former best friend” than if our congressman wanted to eat lunch with us.
On Thursday, Becky picked us up at Reagan National and we headed out for a day of site-seeing. First to fuel our tanks, we ate lunch at President Clinton’s favorite restaurant, Lauriol Plaza. We decided to tackle some Smithsonians. After viewing the finest work of America's taxidermists at the Museum of Natural History, we continued over to the Museum of American History. Here Elizabeth was able to delve into the life of Julia Childs and stare with googly eyes at her kitchen pictured below.
We checked into the Capitol Hilton (courtesy of Sam Parnell, Jr and his Hilton Honors Points) and then went to Becky’s apartment on a beautiful street pictured below.
From there we partook in Becky’s favorite frozen yogurt shop, Mr. Yogato. Noticed my stamped forehead in the picture below, rightfully earning 10% off my order.
Friday morning, we conquered the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and saw more money than we will ever have in our entire lives. We then headed to the White House to keep our lunch appointment with Barack, Michelle and the girls. They cancelled because they heard we were Republicans so we settled for a tour of the East Wing. After lunch at Potbelly’s, we visited the Holocaust Museum before going to meet Becky at the Capitol. SIDENOTE: Below you will see the view from Becky's office window. Somehow I was jealous that when I turn around while being blown away by a day's work, I see people vomiting and soiled linens. Becky, well, she sees this.
Since the good Senator from Kentucky had stepped away from his desk, I took the opportunity to help him catch up on some paperwork about the Healthcare bills.
Our nighttime activities included a delicious dinner at Faccia Luna in Arlington, VA followed by a tour of the Lincoln and World War II Memorials.
Afterwards, we checked into the most bizarre nice hotel I’ve ever stayed at – the Liaison Capitol Hill. Just think of a martini bar and combine it with an upscale hotel. Boom. Liaison Capitol Hill. Thank you Hotwire for your great hotel location, low price, and nice accommodations. No thank you Hotwire for the weirdness.On Saturday, we decided to start the day with an early lunch at Ben’s Chili Bowl – an absolute gem. After consuming a few chili dogs, chili cheese fries, and bowl of chili we were feeling less than healthy. In fact, I’m not sure we felt good at all afterwards – but it was certainly some unique eating that I would highly recommend.
After Ben’s Chili Bowl we had to go to Walter Reed Medical Center – not to have our stomach’s evacuated or for a heart attack, but because I drug the crew to the National Museum of Health and Medicine. I found several of the exhibits interesting, and I think the others were pleasantly surprised. My favorite exhibit was a mock trauma bay tent from Iraq – no doubt, I’m an emergency medicine nerd. See a favorite quote from it below.
Saturday afternoon, we visited the Library of Congress where we bailed on the most boring tour ever. Later we went to Georgetown, where we met our friend Claire who goes to George Washington for dinner at Clyde’s. Becky’s suggestions continued not to disappoint. We enjoyed seeing Claire and catching up.
Afterwards we met some of Becky’s friends and then turned in for the night.
Wow!! That is a lot. We are hoping to take Micah up there in the Spring. We have only been on National holidays so pretty much every thing was closed.
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