We recently had the pleasure of venturing back to our old stomping grounds, Washington DC, for Jennifer’s birthday. It has been a little over a year since we packed up the U-Haul and drove three days to our new home in Texas, so we were excited to return to sample both old and new sights and tastes.

Hank’s Oyster Bar – Dupont Circle Location

Oddly enough, after several years in the District we never had the chance to tour the Capitol. The tour was very informative and the spaces we visited were awesome, but be warned that you do not get to see the current working chambers. We are assuming that is due to security concerns and it isn’t like you could have hundreds of people walking through on days where actual proceedings were taking place.

At the conclusion of the tour, we were told we could take an underground walkway directly to the Library of Congress and avoid security lines. The Library was one of our favorite places on prior visits so we took the opportunity to visit again. Typically, it is one of the most crowded spots but for whatever reason on that day it was fairly sparse. Additionally, the Library had a small display of rarely seen inaugural treasures that took your breath away. For instance, actual hand written notes by George Washington prior to his inauguration and the bible first used by Lincoln and several since, including Trump merely days prior. We were told a story of the origin of the bible that was remarkable in that the bible and it’s story is not remarkable in any way. If told today, it would be something like, “well, we needed an English language version of the bible, so we ordered the first one we saw online using our Amazon Prime membership”.

The cap on a wonderful birthday weekend was a night out for a spectacular dinner and a little real nightlife. We have had some spectacular dinners both here in the States and abroad, but the one that night ranks right with the best of them. We thoroughly enjoyed the tasting menu and wine pairings at Metiér by Chef Eric Ziebold and highly, highly, highly suggest anyone visiting DC to indulge.

To sum it up, we had a great trip back and realized we do miss a lot about the District (food, nightlife, shopping, the buzz), but other things not so much (cold, sketchy taxi drivers, traffic, cost of virtually everything), so for now the Texas is still our home.