Friday, Nov 17, 2017

Sure doesn’t feel like we’ve been gone 3 weeks but I am ready for a “day off”. Didn’t sleep real well last night and all the walking yesterday left its mark - no shoes for a month and my toes did not like being confined to shoes all day yesterday. Only 3 minor blisters but achy and tired for sure.

We wandered out for coffee, the Pleasant Pop. I had to try the gluten free, coconut, banana, corn, chocolate chip muffin and Jim had a pretty decent croissant. We then gave up and went back to the room to veg.

Finally headed out for the Smithsonian around noon and wandered through the American History building. Why is so much of American history centered on war? But. We did see Lincoln’s Hat,

heard more about him; saw amazing displays, videos, posters, newspapers and everyday household artifacts. The First Ladies gowns were fun as were the other uniforms and the original Star Spangled Banner.

A word on our accommodations here: We are in a corporate apartment, in a condo building, a block or two from the White House, 15^th St NW and H St. There are none of the usual hotel amenities like newspaper or breakfast but the room is an actual apartment with living, dining, kitchen, hallway, bedroom and bath, fully furnished, right down to the can opener. It’s really nice and comfortable, lots of room.

And then there are the little things; the bathroom door won’t stay closed, the sink and the tub have no stoppers, there’s no rod in the holder on which to hang the toilet paper. The bed is small, maybe a full size, and the linens are excellent. In the living room is a little walled in corner. There is a constant running water noise coming from it. Maybe it’s an air conditioner drain? It reminds me of those noise machines, the ones which make the babbling brook sound, but not as peaceful. Funny-weird.  The street noise is booming-loud at street level, horns, sirens, cars, people-people-people and still very audible up at the sixth floor. Still, I’d stay here again. The concierge is incredibly helpful and literally everything one could want is within walking distance.   

We had dinner at Johnny Van’s – lobster curled up in its shell, in an ice filled bowl with two sauces, Cesar salad, French onion soup, calamari in Thai sauce and a chopped house salad, with tomatoes, which Jim actually liked! Our bar tab almost exceeded the food tab with 2 glasses of wine for each of us equaling $56.00.

Side note; while food is more expensive here than anywhere else we’ve been, the cocktail tab is really impressive. Two Irish coffees ran $26; a screwdriver is $12.50. Forget about a bottle of wine, per glass is pricy enough.