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Last week, I lucked out and saw the Cherry Blossoms at their peak in DC. A few years back, I told my mom I would take her to DC to see them. It is not so easy to see them though. It takes alot of luck and timing. All you need is one good rain or windy storm and they are all gone. I had bought the tickets via Jetblue at a great price $129 RT back in January. All these months I had my fingers crossed hoping I would be lucky.
I had tried in prior years but would just miss seeing then, but truth be told I was not trying hard enough.
Though the forecast had rain in it, plus cool temps we still did well. Last Friday we strolled the Tidal Basin for 3 hours (9-12pm), despite the cold temps we had a blast. My mom was all smiles. This alone was worth it for me! The gods were kind and I am thankful!
We landed on Thursday morning at DCA and it was cloudy and looked drizzly. Laila was kind enough to pick us up and take us to Georgetown for lunch. We had crab cakes and soup with crab as well. Then off to the Smithsonians-Sackler/Freer for the Asian art though the Whistler Peacock room was sadly closed. Then we hit up the Natural History Museum---Cyprus exhibit/Hope Diamond/Exotic Orchids. by this time we did take many breaks. (I was going on only 2 hours of sleep because I was at work til midnight the prior night.)
After parting ways, we headed to Alexandria and took the free shuttle and ate at Mai Thai on King Street (last stop of the free shuttle). The food was good. On Friday after my friend had to go to work, we took the Blue Line in and walked over from the Smithsonian stop to the Tidal Basin. We did do some detours through the Jefferson Memorial and the FDR Memorial too. By the end, my mom wanted to go to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. At the time it was 12:20 and we were told next tickets were 5:45pm. Unless we did not mind not going in together, we could go in at 1:15 and 1:30 respectively for the 40 minute tour.
Luckily the ticket person told us the nearest place for lunch is the FDA cafeteria WING 2 (a bit of a walk) and we just had some sandwiches and soup to tide us over. We made the tour and my mom had to take a pic by the 1 million dollar stack made up of $10 bills! Wow it was huge! Seeing the rules and how every 10 years they do different thing to change our money to avoid it being counterfeited is cool. Did you know all the bills over $10 the ink (colored) in one corner will change color at different angels? (I did not know that one!)
Then off to American History to show Julia Child's kitchen, President Lincoln's life, Burden of being President, First Lady's gowns including First Lady Michelle Obama's gown designed by Jason Wu. It was cool. The "Sweet and Sour" exhibit on the history of Chinese food was one small display and not well advertised either. Then we decided to go to Teaism for a bite to eat. Later we got back and my hostess took me over to her brother's home to play with her now 3 year old niece Isabella (who is a cutie patootie). Her mom is expecting another girl in May. Isabella is so honest and her expressions engaged all of us! Her father was relieved she got alot of attention and that he could take a breather too.
Saturday we went along with our hosts to the Japan Freedom Walk. We did have a moment of silence for the March 11th Japanese Earthquake & Tsunami. The ambassador of Japan was kind enough to come by and say a few words. Afterwords we took some pics at the Capitol Building. Then we went to the National Gallery to see the Gaugin and Cannoletto exhibits. Got to catchup with my friend 妹妹 and her cutie son Sebastian who is now 4! William was there too and we caught dimsum in DC Chinatown. (Now I know why I NEVER ate in DC Chinatown. There are only two places and we went to Tony Cheng (within walking distance of the metro). Later we went to the book signing and short speech by Cheryl Tan of her memoir growing up in Singapore and there are 10 recipes that are included as well. (It was at Cafe Asia in Rosslyn but that metro stop was very steep. Even my knees got a little weak going up on it.)
Afterwards, my good buddy JH and I (now the sun is coming out) hung out and went to Tenelytown and Bethesda (stones throw away) with his lovely partner MP to Zen Tara Tea (Bethesda Avenue). I tried the seasonal Cherry Blossom tea ($4.50 for a pot) and it was fragrant/herbal and delicious.This tony neighborhood is swanky but hopping on a Saturday night. (We had a hard time getting a place to seat us at 7pm.) In the end we went to Murasaki (their neighborhood go to Japanese place). Sure enough we were lucky to be seated upon arrival still on a busy Saturday night. I introduced my fave ankimo アンキモ to them. (Yummy!) He even kindly drove me back to Northern VA a good 40 minutes out of his way to make sure I got back to my friend's place. Such a gentleman and I am grateful for such good friends!
Sunday was my last day and total lazy day. Pancakes, spam and eggs for breakfast. Then we chatted and I got a belated present. A mini version of my big sis' wedding album (where I was the maid of honor 2 years ago in upstate NY). Such an awesome gift! Then while chatting my mom wants to teach them how to make wontons! So we go to buy the stuff (took us an hour roundtrip) to Great Wall. Then we found out our flight was delayed. So thanks to the delay we were able to have some samples before departing. Cilantro, shrimp, mushrooms (fragrant), chives, waterchestnuts (so sweet!), pork, green onions (or scallions) as well as good rice wine, oyster sauce, salt, water, cornstarch were a few things mentioned.
Despite a delayed flight, we got back home to take the transportation and made it home by 12:20am. I was happy to finish #5 and #6 幸福喫茶3丁目 행복카페 3번가. Always puts a smile on my face! ^^
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