tuesday, 22 januarylet's see... tuesday was the day i ventured out on my own. i didn't really know what to do. i had dinner plans with terrence that night. i'd been to dc multiple times before. i used to date someone briefly who lived out there. so as far as being a tourist, i'd already been there and done that. it was so cold out that i didn't care to see much. but i had to do something. so i did what i do anywhere and anytime i need to kill time, i went shopping.
the problem was, i didn't know where to go. i went to the mall at pentagon city and the mall next to it. i had lunch at the nordstrom there. i don't know how i ended up at the smithsonian metro stop. i think i figured, if i can't find any shops, i'll go to the museums. i took a quick look at the national monument and took a picture identical to the one i took the last time i was there, over 3 years ago. after walking around a bit, it started to rain. it made sense to take shelter in a museum for a couple of hours but i wanted to shop. from a distance, i could see the very familiar red italicized h & m sign just a few blocks away. yay! to my surprise, zara was next door. i found a cute wool blend dress from zara on sale. i got my shopping fix and started to head back afterwards.
terrence and i went to zaytinya for dinner. apparently, they are the "mezze specialist." mezze are basically middle eastern and eastern mediterranean tapas. to top it off, restaurant week in dc was extended to this week. so there was a prix fixe menu. 4 mezze and dessert for only $30 per person. we had 8 plates between two people and two desserts. needless to say, we were happily stuffed.
wednesday, 23 january
my last full day in dc came at last and as with most vacations coming to an end, the 5 or so days i was there felt so short. the end came so suddenly. i wished i had more time there. i had to remind myself that my vacation wasn't coming to an end, i was leaving for nyc the next day. i spent most of wednesday doing laundry and packing up. and making plans with bernie. when you sleep in until noon or so and then do laundry for a few hours, 4pm comes up really quickly. i met up with yung-mei after (her) work at oya for happy hour. oya is a japanese restaurant/lounge. very cool inside. i guess it's usually packed but turns out, wednesdays are the days to go because it wasn't too bad. i was on my second drink when yung-mei showed up. i decided to have some sushi rolls to soak up the alcohol. the first drink i had was pineapple goodness. the other two where soju cocktails. the last one was this cucumber and lime soju drink, it was refreshing and quite delightful.
after we were done with our rolls and drinks, we headed over to matchbox for vintage pizza and miniburgers (aka sliders, very popular on the east coast). it's a lot of fun hanging out with yung-mei. she's so much more friendly and talkative than me. so you make lots of friends when she's around. i left to use the restroom and came back to yung-mei talking to two guys at the bar. and after we sat down, we made friends with the guy sitting next to us. poor thing, he ordered the crab cakes and failed to notice the pizza and miniburgers piled high surrounding him. i guess the waitress is to blame too. we teased her and gave her a hard time about it. and shared our miniburgers and pizza with him. he bought us drinks. what a sweetie.
that was a fantastic end to my dc trip. i was a bit sad that it was over. i'm hoping to head over to the east coast again sometime in april or may. after my last body scan, i'd go to celebrate... in addition to having a huge bash here, of course. yay!
