Day 8: Caught my second Amtrak of the trip and it was a LONG one. Charleston –> Alexandria, Virginia. Approixmately 10 hours on the train and this one was delayed by 30 minutes getting from Charleston. It was the opposite of my Savannah train ride. This one was crowded! Although, it makes sense given where we were headed. To pass the time on the train, I worked a lovely 8 hours. The Wi-Fi was manageable on the train! I will say nothing is more draining than taking a 10 hour train with your mask on and only 1 bathroom break. I never felt comfortable leaving my stuff by itself, but I’m sure I would’ve been okay. My first night was lowkey given how late I had gotten in and was just so tired. I’m just glad my friend Melissa picked me up from the train station. Saved $$$ from getting an Uber and a place to stay.
Day 9: When I messaged my friend in April about my trip in June, she asked if there was anything I wanted to do. I mentioned that a winery would be fun and of course all the touristy things in DC. So, on my 9th day, we all went to a winery in Virginia. Let’s just say I was not ready for the heat that was coming our way. As a born and raised Texan, you would think I would be used to this BUT heat anywhere is no fun! My friend made us a lovely bagel breakfast and y’all the key to a bagel sandwich is to use a Laughing Cow Pepperjack wedge. I’m obsessed with these now. Anyway, we were off to the winery. Our first stop was to my friend and her fiance’s new land outside of the city.
After checking out their land, we headed towards Bluemont Vineyard. This heat wave came at an unfortunate time for us as our reservation was on the patio with no umbrella. However, we made the most of it and enjoyed the view. We started with a bottle of the Farm Table White. It seemed like the most refreshing thing to get, especially when it’s like 95 degrees outside. Being that we were typically red fans, we did end up ordering a bottle of the Farm Table Red. Delicious, but not quite the weather for it. The winery was nice enough to offer bottles of water. I would definitely come back if I’m ever in the area… seems like the fall would be fun.
After we finished up at the winery, we decided to venture to the brewery nearby. There was plenty of outdoor seating at Dirt Farm Brewing and some food trucks! I cannot remember what I ate and there isn’t even a video or photo for proof (surprised!). I feel like I had something BBQ-like. Anyway, it was another picturesque view from the patio. Since it was just so hot outside, we opted to head back to Arlington to rest up before we headed to my friend’s in laws to have some home cooked food. After a week of eating out, it was nice to finally get some food that was not from a restaurant.
Day 10: On my 3rd day, we finally made our way across the river to DC! In all my travels, I had never been to DC before this trip. It’s crazy to me all the things that have happened in the past year or even throughout our history. We parked by the river near the monuments and started at the Washington Monument. Given everything that has happened this year, things seemed more barricaded than normal? From there, we walked to the Lincoln Memorial. Let me just preface it’s about 93 degrees that day and I wish I had worn a hat and more sunscreen. Anyway, the Lincoln Memorial was somewhat crowded by Abe Lincoln, but we managed to find some nice strangers to take a photo. Shoutout to Mel for going along with me… as a local, I’m sure this isn’t the most fun one could have 🙂
The last thing on my list to see was the White House. So, we decided to walk all the way down… Let’s just say we thought we were headed to the White House, but instead it was another white building… aka the Capitol. Too many steps wasted to realize it was not the white building we were looking for… Apologies to any real government buffs, we definitely should’ve known what we were walking towards.
Since it was a scorcher of a day and my legs were hating me, we decided to look for a bar near us to grab a drink. What we learned is that we would need to walk a bit away from everything to find one. We ended up at the W, that was right next to the White House. We grabbed one cocktail and sat on the patio. It kinda smelt like garbage.. I’m sure there was a sewer nearby. After a nice little refresher, we finally made it to the White House. A little anti-climatic with all the barricades surrounding it, but still kinda cool to see. As a side note, if you wanted to tour the White House, you would need to reach out to your congressman. It wasn’t on my list to do, but good to note if I ever wanted to tour.
Since it’s Sunday and I’m a huge proponent of Sunday Funday, we decided to check out some of the neighborhoods of DC. First up, Adams Morgan Neighborhood for drinks at Tiki on 18th. This was my first experience with the new sidewalk seating much of the bigger cities had implemented during COVID. It was so cute and nice to have less cars on the road.
Our next stop of the afternoon needed to involve food, so we headed to this place call El Techo. This place was defiitely a vibe and as you would expect played some techno music. A very instagrammable place on a rooftop in DC’s Shaw neighborhood. We ordered a couple of margs, the ceviche, and the birria tacos. All of it was very good! I do love a good ceviche. Unfortunately, no photos during this time.. probably because I didn’t want to be that person. If you’re looking for a hip place to be, this definitely fits the description!
And just like that, we’re off to our next place. Following along the recommendations of a blogger we both followed, we ventured over to Hook Hall. This place had a great outdoor area with lots of seating. We ordered a couple of margaritas here and pondered our next stop.
As a huge advocate and lover of Espresso Martinis, we headed to the Line Hotel! We were now back in the Adams Morgan neighborhood. So, we could’ve stopped here earlier! It was relatively dark inside, but a cute little hotel bar. A nice little pick me up before we picked a place for dinner. For dinner, we decided to try Le Diplomate. My huge love affair with Paris made this french restaurant even more enticing. They served us some bread as we ordered a couple of cocktails. Then, we decided to split a plate of the Pasta Primavera. It was a fine dish, but not up to the hype. I think we would’ve liked it more had we ordered something different. Anyway, the ambience was pretty fun for a Sunday!
Day 11: It’s Monday and an actual work day. Luckily, for Melissa and me, we both work from home. So, it was a relatively uneventful day. Although, for lunch, we did step out and walked to Ballston Quarter to grab food. Then, we headed back to the condo to finish up work. Once we were both finished, we decided to look for a happy hour spot. We found a spot in Arlington that had a flatbread and possibly 50% bottles?? I can’t remember the name and didn’t tag it anywhere. 😦 We closed out after we finished and headed back to the condo to watch the Bachelorette premiere! The premiere is my favorite episode, even if the series is no longer as much fun to watch. && that is my last night in the Arlington/DC area! Day 12 brings another travel day.
Where In The World Was Lisa? 