A Visit from Kim and Bryan

Kim and Bryan arrived late Thursday night. I took the metro into DC to meet them and help them get acquainted with the metro system so they'd be all set to go Friday. While I was at work Friday they spent time at the Air and Space Smithsonian and went to see Arlington National Cemetery and the Changing of the Marine Guard that is posted at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. For dinner on Friday, we went to the all-you-can-eat meat place, Malibu Grill. Malibu Grill is a Brazilian Steakhouse. All the meat is cooked over an open flame on swords. When it is cooked, the servers come to your table and slice you off a chunk. Swords, cowboy hats and meat. Fantastic. While most of us chose to diversify and have some chicken, sausage, and ribs, Bryan wanted only the steaks. :)

Saturday, after a relaxing morning and breakfast at Amphora, we made our way south of DC to Mount Vernon-the home of George Washington. It was really really hot out, but we enjoyed our visit. Nam and I had never been to Mt. Vernon, so it was a good break from the typical touristy stuff (not that Mt. Vernon isn't a tourist trap too!). While we were there we took a 40-minute boat tour up the Potomac where we got a nice view of the Mansion from the river. Another plus was the drop in temperature that accompanied the boat trip! We also viewed the inside of the Mansion, which we had to stand in a long line to do. George Washington had a peculiar taste in colors, one room was powder blue and pastel green, another was a bright almost kelly green. The view out to the Potomac was gorgeous though, and its easy to see why he was so taken with the area. On our way out, Bryan found himself some metal soldiers and cannons as souvenirs.

Sunday, again after a nice morning at home, Kim, Bryan and I headed toward DC. We had planned and reserved tickets for a Duck Boat tour sometime that day. When we got to the office at Union Station, we booked our time for 4:30pm. We had some time to kill so we walked to Chinatown for lunch at this great Irish pub. When we got back to Union Station at 4pm, they informed us the tour had been cancelled because of an electrical storm that was rapidly moving into our area. We were really disappointed. Bryan did find another metal soldier at Union Station so he wasn't too bummed. Instead of our now cancelled tour, we decided to take the metro over toward the White House and walk around some of the monuments. We saw the front and back of the White house, walked down to the Washington Monument, the WWII Memorial, the reflecting pool, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Korea and Vietnam War Memorials. Bryan appeared appropriately awed at each site, discussed D-day and the wall of stars at WWII, recounted Forrest Gump at the reflecting pool, and commented on the size of Lincoln and Washington. It did start to rain, but it was only a light sprinkle, certainly not an electrical storm. When we finally returned home, exhausted, Nam had a delicious dinner of Vietnamese Beef Stew prepared for us. Yumm-o.

Then yesterday Kim's congressman had arranged for the four of us to get a tour of the Capitol from one of his summer interns. Congress wasn't in session, but there were a gazillion people there anyway. We learned a lot of history of the statues, paintings, etc., and sat in the gallery of the House Chamber. The tour was really interesting with the exception of this one annoying woman. But I'll keep my feelings about her mostly to myself ;) After the tour we went to grab a quick bite then drove Kim and Bry to the airport.

I think if you ask Bryan his favorite parts of the trip were playing the Wii and playing with Nam (even though Bryan kept losing and Nam made him do push-ups). I think I most enjoyed our lazy mornings, snacking on cheese and fruit for breakfast will chatting. It was a fun visit, and I'm so happy to have played host!