travel: day 1 in washington, d.c.

I'm in the city from part of my youth in the Mid Atlantic states. The international airport is so close to the city. I only remember Dulles National Airport in Virginia from my childhood. From the taxi, I could see the iconic sites of the National Monument and the Capitol.

 

I was especially excited to drive by the National Gallery of Art. I think tomorrow is going to be devoted just to the National Gallery of Art or what has been renamed the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.

 

And then I arrived at my hotel, weirdly reminiscent of my stay in Japantown in Los Angeles this past February. I asked the hotel clerk if the bar was really serving raw oysters. She said that it was not the season but that she of knew of a great place with water views. Really Chinatown in D.C. is just a street

  

Even the view from my microtel room was similar to my visit to L.A. of a Chinese restaurant.

 

Even though I was jet lagged after flying into Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, I dragged my ass as much as I could walk from my hotel in Chinatown past most of the Smithsonian museums to the National Mall before finally pooping out at the Jefferson Memorial, where I called a Lyft. And I could not stop taking photos as I was walking. I saw a Spanish tapas place called Boqueria that I debated stopping in for lunch, but just kept walking and happened upon Jose Andres' mezze/Mediterranean restaurant.

                                  

I thrilled again at running into the National Art Gallery, and up close and not from the backseat of a taxi, it's much more expansive.

 

I love that there are so many museums to visit in this city.

There was a Roy Lichtenstein sculpture (the same one?) as the one I saw at the High Museum in Atlantic, but I thrilled to this giant eraser, the kind of which I'd had as a kid...I remember that brush for getting rid of all the rubber leavings.

And why is this Art Nouveau metalwork (the entrance to an underground train station?) in the sculpture garden?

 

....and oh my, the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

 

Yeah I didn't expect to walk as far as the National Mall....and maybe the Bureau of Engraving and Printing would be interesting, but it's about the making of currency.

 

I ended up walking all the way to the Jefferson Memorial in Potomac Park, thinking with each mile that I was going to be that much closer to the Wharf.

I finally called a Lyft to take me to the Wharf where I ate lunch at Hank's Oyster Bar. Not pictured is the oyster po'boy, which were 4 delectable fried oysters nestled into a toasted butter split roll with creamy spinach. Really it was like Oysters Rockefeller.

 

I kinda want to return to the Wharf and eat raw oysters and an oyster po'boy at the Rappahannock Oyster Bar and take pictures later of the actual seafood market. I took the $2 metro bus back to my hotel on the advice of my Lyft driver, and I was so tired that I took a 2-hour nap back in my hotel room. I wasn't hungry when I woke, but knew I would be later and decided to eat Chinese for dinner. I'd read a review of Reren's in Eater DC months ago, and it was a total hole-in-the-wall, but I was glad to have chosen it. I was torn between the spicy eggplant and the signature noodle dish. I probably will return just to try their Dan Dan noodles.

And omigosh, my wine pour was so big! A lot more Chardonnay than the Sauvignon Blanc I sipped with my oysters meal. I ended up choosing the eggplant. Coulda used more chilies, but I got my vitamin C in the red bell peppers. I liked the few bamboo shoots and wood ear mushrooms in the dish.

 

When I return for dinner again, maybe the "lamen" though I find it odd for a Chinese restaurant to serve edamame and noodle soup bowls that are Japanese. I ear hustled all the conversations in the restaurant of white and immigrant or African American patrons dining together.