DC: Day One

Hello from Washington, D.C. It may take me two hours to write this post – I’m on Brandon’s mini netbook and typing is pretty challenging.

We are having so much fun in DC. This is my first trip and so far I am totally loving the city! We’ve crammed a ton in since we arrived last night. Here’s a photo-heavy recap of the last day.

Yesterday I made a green monster to drink on the way to the airport.

Almond milk, ice, half of a frozen banana, frozen blueberries, one scoop of vanilla protein powder and spinach.

On the way to the airport we received an update from US Airways that our flight had been delayed (again, it was already delayed an hour). When we arrived at the airport we spoke with a booking agent and she was able to get us on an earlier flight into the city. THANK YOU US AIRWAYS! Great customer service experience.

I had a Peanut Butter and Jelly Larabar on the plane. We landed at Dulles around 5 p.m. and navigated our way into the city using the bus and the metro. Brandon used Starwood Preferred Guest points to get a room at the W last night. It was awesome. The location was amazing – 240 feet from the White House!

Our room was small but awesome. The bed was super comfortable, iPod docking station, fabulous showers, awesome rooftop bar with a view of the White House and hotel service was right on. We loved this hotel and will definitely be returning – it was so worth the million points we had to use!

I sent out a Twitter request for restaurant recommendations and received several for Jaleo – Spanish tapas. We enjoyed a long walk to the restaurant – it was such a nice night.

Once we arrived at the restaurant we were quickly seated (thankfully we had reservations – it was slammed at 9:30 on a Thursday night). The first order of business was wine.

At our server’s suggestion, we ordered a bottle of Can Blau. It was a Spanish red blend.

Our server brought fresh bread out the table.

It was served with a really yummy olive oil with a crushed garlic clove and fresh rosemary.

We went a little crazy with the tapas. Get ready for this. We started with a meat/cheese plate.

And then had a pepper stuffed with goat cheese.

And then the onslaught came…

Grilled calamari, fried eggplant drizzled with honey (so good), chorizo and quail. We decided that the eggplant and quail were our favorites of the night.

We ended the night enjoying the views from the W roof top bar.

I was up and in my running clothes this morning. I recruited Brandon to come for a site seeing run around the Mall.

A run was the perfect way to take in all of the monuments and memorials on the Mall.

I kind of wanted to kill Brandon when he suggested sprinting up the steps to the Lincoln Memorial.

Love my running partner! So glad he came with me this morning. We only covered 3.5 miles but it was totally fun!

After our run we headed to Corner Bakery to grab breakfast and coffee.

They had cold oatmeal! I was in heaven!!! Perfect post-run meal. In the bowl – oats, milk, apples, bananas, blueberries, strawberries and toasted almonds. I ate about 3/4 of this. It was so much food but tasty. I am definitely going to try adding apples and bananas to my overnight oats at home.

We showered, checked out of the W, stored our luggage and headed to the Museum of Natural History.

Where I immediately realized that I had forgotten everything I learned in science class at school.

Our visit was rather lengthy (so much to see) and we realized at 2 p.m. that we should just eat lunch at the cafe there. Thankfully, they had a great vegetarian sandwich option.

Tomato, basil, fresh mozz and olive tapenade on ciabatta. We asked to have ours heated up a bit and that resulted in melty mozzarella cheese and warm bread.

We made a quick stop at the Museum of American History to see Julia Child’s kitchen.

Julia Child donated her kitchen to the Smithsonian in 2001. It was so cool to see!

We’ve now relocated to our second hotel – we’re here for a wedding and this hotel is where all the festivities are taking place. We’re meeting friends for dinner tonight at an upscale Indian restaurant. I love all of the ethnic food in DC!

I’m hoping to get another run in tomorrow morning – maybe 6-8 miles. I’m stressing about not getting my long run done but it’s just not going to happen here.

Have a great weekend everyone! Can’t wait to share the rest of our DC weekend with you!