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| Washington Monument |
Of all the places I've traveled and lived around the world, it's hard to believe that it took me until last weekend to visit our country's capital. Yes, I'm ashamed of that fact... but at least I finally went! And I loved it. After a late night flight, we went to the historic restaurant
Old Ebbitt Grill for some delicious seafood and drinks. The next morning, we took a nice long stroll from our quirky boutique hotel
Helix to see the monuments and
The White House. It was amazing to see such iconic monuments such as the
Lincoln Memorial and
Washington Monument at the
National Mall.
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| Lincoln Memorial |
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| Lincoln |
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| Korean War Memorial |
We worked up an appetite walking downtown, so we headed to the adorable neighborhood of
Georgetown to eat brunch at the very popular Viennese restaurant
Kafé Leopold. Since we were traveling with a friend from Vienna, she was beyond excited to eat here because it's the sister to the original Kafe Leopold in Austria. The food was delicious- I had moules frites, and as we sat al fresco in the sun, I almost believed I was back in Europe! There was a long wait to be seated, so we had the chance to walk through the enchanting streets of historical Georgetown, and pop into some of the great fashion and home decor shops. I wish I could have spent all weekend in Georgetown, I just love it there!
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| Streets of Georgetown |
After brunch and brews, we headed to the artsy town of
Alexandria to check out the
Torpedo Factory Art Center, a massive three level art space and gallery shops. Alexandria is such a cute waterfront town, with a nice grassy park, a steamboat, and harbor to check out. King Street, the main street off of the Torpedo Factory is full of fashion and home decor shops, as well as some restaurants. It made for a great afternoon shopping, strolling, and looking at a variety of types of art.
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| steamboat in Alexandria |
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| King Street Alexandria |
Next, we headed to the eclectic neighborhood
Adams Morgan, where the hipsters play, and you can find about any ethnic restaurant under the sun. We checked out a few rooftop bars for an afternoon beverage. There's a chill atmosphere in this part of town, with artistic graffiti all over the walls, and endless restaurants in brownstone buildings. This was another of my favorite areas to spend some time in D.C. For dinner, we went to the trendy and popular Greek and Turkish meze restaurant
Zaytinya, which is backed by the fabulous restauranteur José Andrés. It's one of those places to see and be seen, for a late night dinner.
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| Adams Morgan |
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| Adams Morgan |
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| Adams Morgan |
The following morning, we ate at the very popular brunch joint
Founding Farmers. Well worth the hour plus wait. We frittered the last few hours in D.C. at the
Smithsonian. You could spend days popping in and out of all the museums, but since we only had less than two hours to spare, we checked out the most iconic museum, the American History Museum. The exhibit that most caught my eye was
The First Ladies. What an exquisite display of fashion from the 18th century to today, including many of the First Ladies' Inaugural Ball gowns. I could have spent a whole afternoon here soaking up inspiration and drooling over the amazing vintage dresses and accessories. Find photos and descriptions of the whole collection
here. See some of my favorite dresses below.
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| Grace Coolidge's dresses 1920's |
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| Nancy Reagan 1981 |
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| Betty Ford 1975 & Rosalynn Carter 1977 |
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| Pat Nixon 1969 |
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| Grace Coolidge flapper style 1920s |
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| Smithsonian |
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