Coloring The City

I’m sure it doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone that Georgetown Cupcakes, star of TLC’s DC Cupcakes,  was at the top of my sightseeing list in DC. Right up there with the Oval Office…word to the wise, you aren’t allowed to see that. Even if you wear your “Barack Da House” shirt to the White House. I know, I was surprised too.

Apparently, you aren’t allowed to see Georgetown Cupcakes either. Unless, of course you want to wait in a line that wraps around what looked like the majority of our nation’s capital. Americans know what’s really important. We were just finishing a 7 hour bike ride, (yes. seven. hours.) which obviously ended with a hill the size of Mt Everest, so standing in line for a cupcake made me want to laugh and cry and pass out all at the same time. Which probably would not have gone over well with Mom. But she did humor me long enough to let me sneak a peak in the window of the bakery before she hightailed it, laughing/crying/passing out daughter in tow, to the Chocolatier across the street who was “getting overlooked by the cupcake craziness, and needed some customers.” And I needed an iced latte and a massage.

But before you start feeling really bad for me, and before you get on 1-800-flowers.com to pick out a big, beautiful I’m-sorry-you-didn’t-get-a-cupcake bouquet, and definitely before you decide to wait in the cupcake line on my behalf, you should probably know that it all worked out. There was anything but a shortage of cupcake shops in DC.

Red Velvet happen to be right across from our hotel. Did I know it was there when I booked the hotel….quite possibly, but I’m taking that one to the grave. I booked the hotel because it is right across the street from the Smithsonian Portrait Museum. Obviously.

But we did slip into the Red Velvet one particularly rainy afternoon in between stops on our Smithsonian crawl. We ordered a Devil’s Food and a Key West.

The Key West is a lime cake with white chocolate buttercream frosting. So yummy, I loved it. The devils food, on the other hand, was very…chocolately. Honestly, I needed a (big) glass of red wine to eat it. It’s never a good sign when my mom says something is too chocolately. Just kidding, she didn’t say that. She would never. But I will…It was way too much chocolate. If I had to do it over again, I think I would have picked the Key West and the Chocolate Mint at Red Velvet.

We also tried a cupcake in the middle of our bike ride in Alexandria. I was blessed with the gift of being able to sniff out any cupcake shop within  a 3 mile radius. Now you want to be friends, don’t you? This one is called Lavender Moon Cupcakery. After a lunch of unspeakable amounts of pasta and seafood (7 mile bike right, remember?) it was almost hard to find room for a chocolate coconut cupcake. Some how I managed. And, I’m going to say it, I think this was the best cupcake out of all of the cupcakes we tried on this trip. So if you are in Alexandria, and you need something sweet to munch on while you trip down the cobble stone streets, marveling at the 18th century architecture, Lavender Moon is your place.

kjn

Last weekend, we stayed at the Hotel Monaco in Washington D.C., which had a really great restaurant – Poste. We went straight to Poste when we checked into the hotel because we were absolutely starving after 3 hours on Amtrak. I mean, we did have breakfast in NYC before we left, but my mom and I are cut from the the same cloth and cannot go 3 hours without food.

I loved Poste for several reasons. One. We sat down and the waiter offered us shots of tequlia straight off the bat to celebrate my mom’s birthday. At one in the afternoon. Even I’m not that crazy…but I appreciated the gesture. Second, the hotel, and consquently, Poste inhabit a very old building that looks like it was probably a government building or musuem at some point. The interior architect did an amazing job of creating a modern atmosphere incorporated perfectly into the original stone details of the building.

And finally, and I think we can all agree most importantly, the food. Our meal started as so many do. With a big, warm bread basket and the most beautiful slice of butter that I have ever seen. You know your food obsession has gone to far when you are taking photos of “beautiful butter.”

For our meals, I guess we were in a soup kind of mood. Mom ordered the French onion soup, made with aged Comta cheese that was absolutely beautiful. I ordered the seasonal asparagus soup. The presentation of my soup amazing me much more than the taste, although it was still delicious. The waiter brought me a bowl filled with a poached egg, a few chopped asparagus spears, dried morels and a parmesan chip. The liquid came in a glass, which he poured into the bowl at the table. It all happened so fast, I was a little upset that I didn’t get a photo of it before it was poured.

On the side, we had truffle fries, which were the best decision ever, or a huge mistake…let’s just say these weren’t the only truffle fries we consumed last weekend.

I’m sure there are better, more popular lunch spots in D.C., but I feel like we lucked out having Poste right in our hotel.

After almost 3 years of living on the East Coast, I FINALLY made it down to Washington D.C. last weekend. It was fabulous. First, it’s at least 15 degrees warmer in D.C. I’m so happy to report that I came home with a tiny sunburn and a few more freckles on my nose. Second, I’ve never seen a cleaner, more beautiful city (tax payer dollars at work? :) ) in my life. We had a great time wandering the pristine streets, lined with giant government buildings and exploring the monuments. If you are planning a trip to Washington, make sure you check out the FDR Monument. It is the newest of the presidential tributes and by far our favorite one. We also  toured the Capitol and the White house, which were both incredible, but I think our favorite part of the trip was our bike ride out to historic Alexandria in Virginia. We rode on the Mt. Vernon trail along the Potomac river where we had a great view of the DC skyline, the Pentagon, and Arlington Cemetery, and spent a long time in a park right next to the runway at Washington National watching the planes land. So creepy! It looks almost like you could reach up and touch them, they were so close. Here are a few of my favorite pics from the trip:

Washington Monument, surrounded by a ring of American flags. I don’t think I’ve been this patriotic since I packed only red, white and blue for a 3-day Fourth of July trip to the shore.

There is something about seeing the name of my state carved into rock in D.C. that made my heart skip a beat. It’s like I was scared for a second that maybe they forgot about us. Yay for Oregon!

I loved the Vietnam Memorial and the FDR Monument. Both are so simple, with such powerful messages.

Julia Child’s Kitchen and Michelle Obama’s Inauguration gown; my two absolute favorite things at the Smithsonian American History Museum. The original Dumbo cart from the Dumbo ride at Disney World was a close third.

I apologize for such a brief, photo heavy post. This week has been so crazy and hectic already, and it’s only Tuesday! Hopefully I’ll have some good posts on the important part of my D.C. trip for you soon: The food.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend!