Boozing + eating - DC style.

For our last full day in DC (check out our Sunday and Monday), we did less sight-seeing and more eating and drinking.  It was pretty cold coming off some 80-degree weather on Tuesday morning.  It was 37 at 9-something in the morning.  Our friend dropped us off at the metro, so we didn't have to deal with parking in the city.  We decided to start our day in a few museums until the weather warmed a bit.

We started off at the Holocaust Memorial Museum.  Since you can spend forever in a museum and the lines were insane (because for some weird reason you have to physically get tickets, even though they're free, for the permanent exhibits), we opted to just check out some of the stuff we could get into without tickets.  It was still really impactful, and I learned more new stuff about Hitler.

D then wanted to check out the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.  I could have taken that one or left it.  We did watch the Hubble 3D IMAX show there which was pretty interesting.

[Fun fact: The Wright Brothers experimented on their gliders and created their first plane in Kitty Hawk, NC where I ran my first half marathon!]

The museum is actually really cool, but it's huge.  We mostly got through the space portion before we realized it was almost 2.  I need food by that time in the day.

After a lot of walking and some failed attempts at restaurants that were closed, we finally made it over to Pizza Paradiso in Georgetown.

 [Quality Kolsch after a lot of walking and going way too long without beer for a vacation]

[Crostini with goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, basil, and proscuitto]

D and I had a few beers a piece, and we also noshed on some pizza.  Oh and remember that my vegetarian rules allow for me to eat meat if I'm on vacation.  I promise this (and a cuban that D made a spur of the moment decision for) was the only meat I ate.  I try not to limit D too much if we're splitting something on a vacation.  And it was worth it.  That appetizer was amazing!

We fueled up with espressos and chai lattes, and headed back to the closed spots we missed out on earlier.  Thank goodness we did.

First we hit up The Black Squirrel for beers.  D made lots of beer conversation with the owners and met a guy from South Carolina.  The Squirrel was cool; lots of craft beer selection as well.

But Smoke and Barrel is where it's at!

 [In fitting form, D started his order with beer + bourbon]

 [After a beer or two, I just had to order the chai spice Manhattan!]

[And if you think their beer and bourbon is good, their food is even better just as good!]

I swoon over a restaurant that has good vegetarian options, so a BBQ restaurant that has vegetarian options?!  I'm sold. It was fucking delicious too!  I got the smoked BBQ tofu tacos (um $5 for three tacos and a side on Tuesdays?!  We hit the jackpot!) and jalapeño grits.  D got the brisket tacos with a side of the garlic and cream cheese mashed potatoes.  It was just amazing.  You can order the tacos traditional with salsa and sour cream or the way we ordered them with slaw, pickles and BBQ sauce.  The atmosphere there was really chill too.  I will be visiting Smoke and Barrel on every future trip to DC!

We made a boozy walk back to the metro where our friend graciously picked us up.  Overall, I was happy with what all we were able to fit in seeing in two days in DC.  I'm definitely looking forward to going back.  Next time, I'm going to see if I can convince Whitney to meet up with her new stalker me since I'm pretty confident she can show me a good time in DC.