DC fun time!

Pictures from my trip will be up soon. I think I have to reinstall my gallery.

On my second night in DC, Keith showed me around some of his favorite spots on U street. An amazing bar called The Saloon was out first stop. Their Belgian selection was top notch and the ambiance was my kind of place. It was dark, but setup to be a place for having a simple night of drinking with friends. They had an amazing Austrian beer, Eggenberg Urbock 23, which was unknown to me. Now it's on my top 5 beer list.

Follow up:

After The Saloon, we met my sister for some good ol' DC soul food at Ooh's and Aahs. The servings were massive, and delicious. I had some delicious turkey, mac and cheese, corn bread, and green beans that could have fed a family. I loved it, but I would be remiss to leave out the fact that my sister barfed up her meatloaf later that night.

Following dinner we went to the Velvet Lounge to see a band (I forget who, and we didn't end up staying for them anyway.) The place is really small, but not divey. The venue was pleasant and great for anyone checking out new and unheard of acts.

And that was U Street.

The next day Tridi arrived at 7:00 AM. Thank goodness we didn't have to wake up and get him at Dulles. He arrived and crashed right away so Keith and I took advantage of him, artistically. (the pictures will be around soon.) When he woke up, we got some lunch, bought some booze, and played Mario Kart Wii for a long time. Eventually we started combining beer with our gameplay and then we realized we'd have to drive to Dulles to pick up Phil. We decided Mario Kart would designate the driver. Tridi lost, but somehow won when we discovered Keith drives a manual transmission and Tridi doesn't. We picked up Phil, made him drink some tequila as a penalty for arriving last, and then went out to U Street again.

Keith took us to a DC institution, Ben's Chili Bowl. Keith explained that the one major constant in DC's population during it's history is the contingent of black citizens. Therefore the soul food and places like Ben's Chili are remarkably good. These places are the real flavor of DC. The place was pretty large and unbelievably packed. When we left, the line inside snaked 3 times and no one seemed to care. We got unbelievably lucky at got our food pretty quickly during a lull in service. Keith, Phil, and I had the famous half-smoked sausage with chili. De-freaking-licious.

After the great meal, we went back to the Saloon just because we wanted more excellent beer. We stayed out for a couple hours, met up with my sister again, went to the Adams Morgan district, and then tried to go to bed.

Somehow Keith and Tridi slept really well. Phil and I were jealous of them to the point of anger. The mix of everything we put in our body over the evening did not go over very well and we ended up re-visiting our Chili. Phil had it waaay worse than me, and that felt like a moral victory. We took the rest of our day pretty easy, forgoing our traditional match of mini-golf and a Washington Nationals baseball game.

Somehow we made it out to dinner in Chinatown and had a great meal at a restaurant called Proof. The food was really good, but the thing I'll remember most about the place was the slickest bathroom I've ever had the pleasure to use. I would have eaten my meal in there if I could. We went home, avoided some urban crime, and I went to bed early to catch my flight on Sunday morning.

My first trip to DC was excellent. Seeing the capitol and national mall really invigorated some good feelings I have about the USA. Hanging out with great friends that I don't see often enough was of course fantastic. I can't wait until next time.