Hit the Ground Runnin'

So, in typical Mary-Katherine style, I crammed our first week in D.C. with excursions all over the city. On Sunday and Monday, our day mostly consisted of ripping off duct tape and unpacking boxes. However, in between unpacking sprees, we did try some great food.

Sunday, for dinner, we had Zorba's. It's a wonderful little Greek restaurant that I had read about, but didn't realize how close we were to it until we moved in (literally a block away). We were starving by the point that we ate. So, the food was already excellent but was that much better thanks to our growling stomachs. John and I went 50/50 on two entrees, the falafel pita (falafel=ground chickpeas with spices for those of you who were wondering) and chicken souvlaki pita, (marinated chicken breast charbroiled, topped w/tomato, lettuce, Feta, onion & tzatziki)  and shared skordalia dip (whipped potato & fresh garlic base, flavored with olive oil & wine vinegar, served w/pita).

The next day, we walked down our street to the local bakery, Firehook Bakery & Coffeehouse. Since we had yet to unpack our pantry, we chose to get a loaf of freshly baked pumpkin cranberry bread and house coffee. The aroma in the store was enough to make anyone's mouth water.

That evening, we celebrated Cinco de Mayo with John's dad at Cafe Oaxaca. John and his dad had met the chef by chance earlier in the day during a trip to the hardware store down our street. The chef insisted that we come to dinner at his restaurant that evening. So, we kept our word and showed up just in time for a Cinco de Mayo celebration. I'm not lying when I say that they had some of the best margaritas that I've ever had. They were reasonably priced and served in a pint size class. The food was very vibrant and full of flavors that I had never tasted. Since it's authentic southern Mexican cuisine, their specialty was molés (a generic name for a number of sauces originally used in Mexican cuisine). John and I went 50/50 yet again and split the pork tacos and molé negro which had chicken with a chocolate sauce. It was so good and so authentic.

The next day John and I dropped his dad off at the airport and then started our day of D.C. adventures. Our first stop was Trader Joe's. Since we are carless, grocery shopping was very different. We took lots of reusable bags, loaded up for the week, and walked home. It was actually a lot of fun and made me really self aware of what I was buying. Plus, we got to walk through our picturesque neighborhood on the way home. 

After we stocked our small pantry and fridge, we hit the streets again. The week before, I contacted the Historical Society of Washington and set up an appointment at the Kiplinger Research Library in order to look into the history of our row house. The librarian who helped us out was so helpful and had everything set up from microfilms to information regarding the first resident. It turns out that our home was built in 1905 and the first resident was an architect. How cool is that?

We then made our way back to our place to cook dinner. Since the weather was nice, we enjoyed our first home cooked meal on our rooftop. It's one of my favorite things about our new home and I can't wait to enjoy using it throughout the summer.

After we finished up our meal, we made the trek to the John F. Kennedy Performing Arts Center. The center offers a plethora of free events and updates their calendar on a regular basis. Lucky for us, the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra was performing on Tuesday evening and we jumped at the chance to attend. They performed on the Millennium Stage which is a sight to see itself. The musicians were all very well trained but still had a laid back sense of character during the show. The setting was beautiful with the setting sun filtering through the wispy curtains that hung from the top of the impressive 100 foot high ceiling all the way down to the floor.

As soon as the concert ended, we took the Kennedy Center shuttle to the closest  metro stop and made our way to the Jam Cellar for free swing dance classes. Since my dad is a championship ballroom dancer, I was raised around dance and while I know just enough to get by, there's still so much that I want to learn. Thankfully, John was up for some free swing and agreed to tag along. The group offers free classes for first timers and invites all attendees to a dance party that happens immediately after the class. John and I loved dancing around the room, but funny enough- we never were paired with one another. It was still a blast and it was all free of charge. Afterwards, we decided to skip out on the dance party and make our way back home. 

To reward ourselves for walking around the city and for surviving swing dancing classes, we made a pit-stop by Larry's Ice Cream on our way home. It was so good and the flavors were all so unique. Larry himself scooped us up our cinnamon cookie cookie dough with chocolate chunks and Cleopatra (coconut ice cream with dates)ice cream. We honestly could have gotten away with splitting a scoop because it was so decadent. However, this weekend we start Whole Life Challenge again (clean eating at its finest) which means we are splurging on sugar while we can.

The next day, we had another jam packed day. We started off by attending a free lunch time hour play at Sidney Harman Hall, a part of the Shakespeare Theatre Company. The free show that we saw  (Pinocchio) was a part of a larger series entitled Happenings at the Harman that occur on certain weekdays during lunch time and/or after work hours. I always love live theatre. So, even though the show was geared towards a younger audience, I still thoroughly enjoyed it. It made it even more interesting that there was a group from D.C.'s Gallaudet University, a university for the education of people who are deaf or hard of hearing. So, the whole time the play was going on, there was a lively interpreter on stage signing everything!

When we left the theatre, the rain had picked up. So, we ducked in just down the street for an inprompto visit to the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. I always thought that the two museums were housed in different locations, but to my surprise- they are under the same roof. Since the exhibits are so vast, we just tackled the Portrait Gallery and made arrangements to attend a highlights tour. I'm so glad that we did, because it made the building less overwhelming and allowed us to see things that we may very well have overlooked.

Gilbert Stuart's famous portrait of George Washington

A few weeks before we left Alabama, a friend who had lived in D.C. told me about Foundry United Methodist Church in Dupont Circle. She said that they were an accepting and diverse community and she felt that I would really like it. So, after looking on the church website, I signed John and I up to help make and bag sandwiches for Martha's Table, an organization that distributes soups and sandwiches from traveling vans, mostly to homeless individuals in downtown Washington. It was such a wonderful way to spend our evening and allowed to have a time of fellowship with others.

After we bagged our last sandwich, we took a stroll over to Tryst Coffeehouse in the Adams Morgan neighborhood. I had heard that they had a jazz band that played on Wednesdays and was happy to find that rumor to be true. We had bowl-sized cups of their house coffee ("rich and chocolaty Latin American coffees rounded out by a full bodied Sumataran coffee w/notes of baker's chocolate and spices"). That with a Banoffee tart (butter crust, banana, toffee & whipped cream) was just the sugar rush I needed to make the walk back home.

Thursday, we took advantage of the sunny weather and walked to Georgetown. The homes there are so charming and the tree lined bricked streets made me swoon. All of our favorite stores and then some are located on M Street. So, we spent hours just walking up and down taking in the sights. As we walked around, we stumbled across The Old Stone House. The home was built in 1765 , which makes it the oldest standing building in Washington.

Since my super healthy grilled chicken salad that I made at home wasn't cutting it after a few hours in the sun, we got a pick me up at Baked & Wired. Their cupcakes (or cake cups as B&W calls them) are all lined up nice and pretty when you walk in and look like works of art. They taste just as good as they look too! Once again, we could have gotten away with splitting one, but you live and learn (plus, sugar free living it going to be reality soon). So, we shared the Razmanian Devil (lemon cake with raspberry filling topped w/lemon buttercream) and the Pretty Bitchin' (chocolate cake w/peanut butter frosting).

To top off our evening, after a delicious dinner at home (smoked rainbow trout, baked sweet potato medallions and rosemary-lemon green beans), we went to the National Postal Museum for the Mail Social Club. The club meets monthly and makes letters and other paper goods. This month's theme was Mother's Day and Wedding Season. All of the supplies are free and all you have to provide are stamps if you want to send your letters.

I have absolutely loved our week in D.C. and it's not even over! I feel like I'm on vacation, but it makes me so  happy to know that this will be an extended "vacation" since we are staying put. I know that I may be saying this prematurely, but I already feel at home in this beautiful city and I can't wait to see what wonderful things it has in store for us.