(To preface: This was pre-pandemic but that doesn’t mean you cant plan these trips for later!)

I’ve visited Washington D.C. a few times but this was the first in my early adulthood that I chose to go myself. My mother always wanted to visit the historic sights when we were around 8 to 10 years old. They were always fun trips, but sightseeing is a different experience as an adult. I have an old friend who is attending Georgetown University for her masters degree, so it was a perfect time to visit. We had tried multiple times to visit each other during our undergraduate years, but life happened and we could never sync up our schedules.

SO. Flash forward five years and another friend of mine and I decided we should visit her within the first two months of her moving into graduate school! 

Our drive started around 7 AM and we live around 2 hours away. Around 10AM we took a tour of our new friend’s digs and after hearing the sound of our growling stomachs, we set off to find some breakfast. And what a breakfast we found!

Let me tell you. Call Your Mother Deli (@callyourmotherdeli) was so delicious. Located on Georgia Ave,  this bagel place is fairly new. They have a clean menu and options for everyone. I think I am still dreaming about that breakfast bagel and those latkes I had! 

The line was long but it moved quickly. We waited about 15 to 20 minutes to order but from the moment we ordered, our food was out in less than ten minutes. And this food looked and smelled soooo good. I decided to try a sweet, and a savory bagel. (yes. two bagels. Did I finish both? *shrug* read to find out.) 

“The Shyne” bagel–which consisted of eggs, american and cheddar cheese, your choice of thick cut bacon or pastrami (YUM), and a spicy honey sauce that tied everything together beautifully on an everything bagel–was the first thing I sank my teeth into. The first bite, though hard to bite since everything was piled so high, created such a balance of sweet, savory, and spicy in your mouth. I chose the thick cut bacon and it was so crispy against that soft egg and cheese. My mouth is WATERING just thinking about it. I only wish I asked for more of that spicy honey sauce because it truly brought all those flavors together. 

Of course, I also needed to try a sweet bagel. A healthy lifestyle is a balanced lifestyle. The sweet bagel in town is “The Julian”. They use seasonal fruit and cream cheese flavors on this chocolate bagel. And of course what’s a sweet jewish bagel without a layer of chocolate babka pieces? The seasonal choice this time around (I may or may not have been there more than once) was a chocolate bagel with peach cream cheese, fresh raspberries, chocolate babka on a chocolate bagel. It was definitely not as sweet as I thought it would be, but it was surprisingly so fresh! The peach cream cheese was subtle, and the raspberries were so bright and light. I would definitely go back for some different seasonal flavors (and I did!).

The last thing we got that I HAVE to mention, were the latkes. They were absolutely delicious with the side of sour cream and cinnamon apple dip. So crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. Definitely a must try.

From Call Your Mother, we took an uber to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. It’s a free museum and has a lot of interesting exhibits. Our friend that we visited is a history buff, and my other friend was from out of the country, so seeing this museum was definitely on their lists, as it should be for any first time visitor. 

There were some really interesting exhibits about transportation and technology throughout the history of the US. Each exhibit had some fun facts that were also interactive. They also have a section for both the Presidents and First Ladies of the United States. While we were visiting, they had the original red ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz on display, The Bat-mobile, other original Superhero costumes, and comics (both D.C. and Marvel). In the First Ladies walk-through dresses, cutlery, and certain choice items were put on display. While I wish they put more personal things, rather than each President’s favorite dishes on display, it was still interesting to see the change in style and colors through the years at the White House.

The walk through the museum took about an hour to two hours. We exited onto the grounds and walked to the Washington Monument. By this time it was around 3PM and we had been walking a lot. We decided to admire from afar and move on to our next destination: The White House. It was definitely a nice walk from the Monument to the White House, but would have been better if the weather was cooler. The White House was fun to see, although they were not allowing anyone to idly stand or take pictures. So we quickly walked our way towards the Lincoln Memorial at the other end of the park. 

Now I said it was hot. So we all decided to Uber our way to the Lincoln Memorial. Honestly, a great idea because it is not a short walk. If you’re up for it, try it out. There are a bunch of electric scooters (yes scooters!) you can rent on your phone and ride over if you wanted to instead. I would have loved to walk though if it were just me and one or two other people on a nice fall day. 

I think this was the best view of all the places we stopped to look at. Just stepping up to the Memorial and looking out across the water to the Washington Monument was really amazing and beautiful. 

As we were visiting our friend, the rest of the day was spent touring her campus, visiting the school store and walking our way through some of the streets of Georgetown. Georgetown is actually the oldest neighborhood in Washington D.C., and it is such a quaint, cute area.

We window shopped a bit on M street. They had a few bakeries and cafes, and then plenty of shopping. It was really fun to walk around and see some very unique stores and boutiques next to a bigger named brand. I did make a stop at Aritzia and picked myself up a pair of cycling shorts. SO SOFT and the 7” lengths were about $20 for such a good quality and a well made short. A cute pair of cycling shorts, oversized sweatshirt, and some high socks with chunky sneakers sounds like the perfect outfit for a cool summer’s day. But maybe that’s just me.

For dinner we went to a restaurant called Clyde’s. Dinner is always a hard choice for me to make (I tend to choose pasta dishes no matter the restaurant), but I decided to go with crispy roasted chicken over farro and rice with roasted tomatoes and squash. On top was a delicious charred scallion vinaigrette. I was so amazed by just how crispy the chicken was on the outside, but still juicy and soft on the inside. The vinaigrette really added to the farro and vegetable flavors, it tasted like a home made meal on steroids. Soo good. We also got the zucchini chips and although they were more like fries, they were still delicious. They were crusted in parmesan cheese after being fried in an avocado buttermilk mix. YUM!

Overall, a day trip to D.C with some good friends was just what the doctor ordered. Hopefully there will be more trips out to Washington D.C. but for now I think this will suffice. 

If you decide to go for a day or more (after the pandemic of course), I would love to hear about any amazing places that caught your eye or that you decided to stop in! There seems to be a lot to do in that city and I barely covered the surface of it.