Honeymoon - Day 10 - September 29, 2010

It was raining when we woke up so we decided to do something indoors and visit the Smithsonian American History Museum.  Before though, we stopped for a little breakfast/lunch at Old Ebbitt Grill.  This place is apparently a hot spot for politicians, though if we had seen any, I wouldn't have known one way or the other.  That's bad isn't it?  I had the Gnocci which was done is almost a carbonara style with bacon but with the addition of mushrooms.  It was by far one of the best thing I had during the trip.  It's a shame we didn't get a picture.  It was amazing.  I think Jesse ended up eating half of mine along with what he ordered.  I'm pretty sure he had the crab cake sandwich.  Whatever it was, it was also really good.  And you should have seen the surprised look on their face when Jesse had finished his first drink and when he asked for another they wanted to know if it was a Arnold Palmer (1/2 tea, 1/2 lemonade) and he said, "No, a Bloody Mary" at 11:00 in the morning.  Ha!

We walked through the United States Navy Memorial and the National Sculpture Garden on our way to the museum.  Once in the museum, that had a lot of really great exhibits going on.  The Julia Child one was pretty neat-o and seeing the actual Star-Spangled Banner was incredible.

We were staying at a Radisson outside of the city in Delaware, so before our dinner reservations at Sei, we went back to the room to get ready in anticipation of our long awaited special sushi meal of the trip.  We had done weeks (literally) of research in our decision to find a great sushi place to go while on the Honeymoon.  We decided on this place because of its inventive rolls and since we were doing Le Bernardin while in the city.

We arrived and were seated immediately in the ultra modern dining room which is partitioned away from the bar area.  We ordered a couple of cocktails and began mulling over the menu.  We started with the sea bass sliders and pork buns.  The sliders were crispy and sweet and tangy and perfect.  I could eat those every day.  The pork buns were also tasty.  Not a typical style of pork bun, it was almost a cake-like bun, spongy in texture and the pork was more like pulled pork.  Sweet and tangy as well, the textures, melded together well.  For our entree we chose the Fish and Chips (flounder, malt vinegar, potato crisps, wasabi tartar), Kobe Tataki (spicy crunch, watercress oil, red wine ponzu) and Surf n' Turf (kobe, lobster, yuzu horseradish aioli) rolls.  All were good, but not amazing.  Not as satisfying as the starters for sure but decent rolls.  We've found that despite being in Louisville, Sapporo is really difficult to beat in quality, flavor and value.

Looks like a mess, but was good.  Obviously too much aioli.

Still hungry but not wanting to bust the budget for the night we headed to Gordon Biersch Brewery Restaurant for a drink and an appetizer.  Keeping with the fish theme, we had the seared ahi tuna appetizer and a couple of drinks.  The waitress was incredibly rude, but the food was good so it's a wash.

We returned to the hotel and headed for the hotel bar.  We are apparently friendly-looking folk so a few people began to talk with us.  So friendly in fact, that I'm about 95% sure that I was rufee'd by someone sitting next to me.  I supposed he thought that when Jesse went to the bathroom that he wasn't coming back and he had an opening.  Boy was he surprised we he wasted that pill on a girl he couldn't take advantage of.  *eyeroll*  What an asshole.  What is it they say, "It isn't a honeymoon until you get drugged by and dirty man at a hotel bar in Delaware?"  No, I don't think they say that.

Honeymoon - Day 9 - September 28, 2010

We jetted out of Atlantic City and wanted to stop and have lunch in Philadelphia since we have never been there.  The place we originally planned on eating ended up being closed so we pulled out our handy dandy smart phones and found a place close by called, Honey's Sit 'n' Eat.  Ok, so let's have a conversation about Honey's.  It's awesome with a really comfortable menu.  What I mean by that is that it's things you're familiar with, but done well or done differently, but not in such a dramatic way you would be uncomfortable ordering something.

I had the Spicy Avocado Tuna on wheat.  It had pico de gallo, sour cream, mayo, lettuce, tomato, onion
and came with french fries.  The fries were better than the sandwich, which could have been a little spicier, but there were plenty of hot sauces on the table to remedy that.

Spicy Avocado Tuna on Wheat with those amazing fries, which surely had truffle oil or something.

Decent selection of hot sauce.

Jesse had the Brisket Soft Tacos which were topped with red onion and avocado sour cream and served with beans, lettuce, and pico de gallo.  They were really good.  Like really, really good.  The brisket was well cooked and well seasoned.  This is something he plans on replicating in our own kitchen eventually.

I mean, seriously, how good do these things look?

We also ordered two sides, the asparagus casserole and the mac and cheese.  The mac and cheese was creamy and rich and delicious, and the asparagus casserole would have been too had it not been actually cold when we got it.  It was even topped with onion rings!  We could have sent it back, but as everyone knows, that's kind of a crap shoot so we just picked through it.

The casserole and mac and cheese.

Oh, and while we were waiting to eat, this ad was on the place mat.  I mean, I get it, but really?  I wonder if this works...

Anyway, we finally made it to Washington D.C. where we met up with our friends Robert and Yenny Rivers.  We were staying at their place this night and they were nice enough to escort us not only out to dinner but also on a late night tour of the most popular monuments.  We went to dinner at Rosemary's Thyme.  Get it?  Rosemary's Thyme.  You know, because they're both spices but it also sounds like a name and/or phrase, right?  Get it?  Let's keep moving.  We planned or Peruvian, but it was closed to this menu looked decent.  The food wasn't terrible, just not quite there.  I had the Seafood Ravioli, which was black ravioli stuffed with crab and shrimp in a vodka cream sauce.  Like, I said, edible, but for $16 there should have been at least less shell if there weren't going to be more ravioli's.  Just saying.

We visited the Washington Monument, World War II Memorial, Reflecting Pool and Lincoln Memorial and of course got glimpses of the White House and Capital, Jefferson Memorial, etc.

The escalator from the Metro.

Yenny and I on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

We had such a great time with Robert and Yenny and a big thanks for staying out so late with us on a 'school night!"  Mwah!