We got up, packed up, cleaned up and headed for the front desk of the hotel to check out. Our plan was to have the hotel watch our bags while we enjoyed one last day in DC. Breakfast was actually going to be brunch, and brunch was at the Old Ebbitt Grill, right in the thick of downtown DC. We had scoped the place out earlier after our Segway tour guide told us it was where you could get the true DC experience. He may have been on to something, too, We walked in- and back out of the Old Ebbitt Grill after our Segway tour, in fact, because it was so crowded at lunchtime that we felt it may be best to come back later. Today was that later time, and brunch was the best moment to visit. They make an omelette with crab and corn, and I know it sounds a bit unconventional to anyone who wasn’t raised five feet from Maryland, but go eat that as soon as you can.
Oh. My. Gosh. Omnomnomnom.
Fun fact- the Old Ebbitt Grill is (technically) the oldest bar in DC. Sure, it’s been open in a bunch of different places- like one spot close to the gate near Chinatown, one in a former haberdashery, and the current (former-theater) spot- but the continued operation is (according to their website) well documented.
The restaurant and bar are large, and we were in the corner bar portion, which featured carved decoy ducks and statues of hunting dogs. The bar in the main part of the restaurant had a bizarre collection of taxidermies. There were heads, including a walrus and a beast that Cas and I both supposed was a warthog. It was absolutely bizarre.
From there we needed to find our refrigerator magnet, so it was time for a souvenir shop. We headed to the White House gift shop- the one we skipped after our official tour on day one of the trip. We got the perfect magnet, of course, and we spent a few moments shopping for T shirts. Apparently, when you go to the White House gift shop, you are offered the opportunity to head around the corner and take some pretty great photos of presidential scenes. We posed behind the fake Resolute Desk in the the fake Oval Office just before we posed behind the fake podium in the fake press briefing room. We posed for the photos and selected the one we wanted them to print for free. This was the winner: 
After that, we headed to the sculpture garden that was part of the National Gallery of Art. We checked out a few sculptures until the rain got ugly, at which point, we went inside the museum. Nothing like checking out Monet and Rodin to kill time while the storm clouds pass. We enjoyed the art museum, but at a certain point, you can actually achieve a condition I call being “museum-ed out” and reach maximum art or culture.
That’s when you need to call it quits and go back to the house. We’re at that point. We saw some great art, but when we left, we marched through the rest of the sculptures and made our way back to the Metro station so we could retrieve our luggage. Cas said we had to make a call- a closer station with a transfer, or a farther-away station with one last view of the monuments. We walked one last time through the space between the Washington Monument and the Capitol building. Certainly, there’s a chance we’ll return to DC, but there’s no telling when, so I guess the order of the day is soak it in!
Back to the Metro and back to retrieve our bags, we headed for the airport. We made our way through security and found seats at the very long bar in the center of the terminal where we shared wine, pizza and a lovely chat with a young couple who had a 14-month-old child. Turns out, babies love Cas. Every time. Hey- I get it- he’s pretty neat.
But the impromptu double-date had to end. The couple (we didn’t get their names, but the baby was named Eleanor) are headed to their destination, while Cas and I are in mid-flight as I am typing this. I’ll post it when we get to the house, where I can switch everything off of airplane mode. That’s it for DC, and that’s it for the big summer trip of 2023.
When Cas and I decided to go to DC this year, we were pumped. Our peers and colleagues asked where we were headed, expecting something on the same scale as Spain or Italy, and both of us found that, when we said DC, our cherished friends seemed disappointed on our behalf. Allay your fears, folks- this was one for the books. We did our DC trip correctly. We left without regrets, and without a single thing leftover on our must-see list. Also, that was the best Independence Day I’ve ever heard of. Just sayin’.
So, that’s it for this summer. We’re done and out. We have a few teeny tiny things to do before school starts back up, but nothing on the scale where we feel the need to write about it all. As always, it’s been a blasty-blast. I love to travel with this guy, and he loves that I write everything down, so the blog rides on. Please read about all of our adventures. We had a great time doing the things worthy of writing down. And for one final time, here are the photos from this trip: https://photos.app.goo.gl/i5YWxcScDLHgbJqLA
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