Exploring the Nation's Capital, Part 3

In case you missed it, here are the other two parts: Part 1 | Part 2

Sunday, Jan. 9: I'll spare you all the details, but I woke up on Sunday not feeling good at all. The thought of walking the Mall and going out to eat, etc., was too much for me. Plus, I have tons of pictures of all the D.C. monuments from my last trip when I went with my family in 1997. Instead, Michelle and I watched a bunch of movies and some tv, ordered in and made a good little day of it. I was back to feeling like myself by the end of the day.

Monday, Jan. 10: I'Luckily, my flight didn't leave until 4 p.m. and I was able to print my boarding pass online. That left just enough time to hit one more museum, grab lunch and then send me on my way to the Reagan airport via metro. I'd never been to the Portrait Gallery before, so that was our final stop of my trip!

I'm not a huge art fan, but I heard good things about this gallery. My favorite part was how each portrait had a plaque adjacent to the image, stating who the person of interest was and a brief biographical paragraph explaining the subject. Some of my favorites were the Presidential Hall, the 20th Century Americans and naturally, the sports wing. I'm a big modern history nut, and snapped a few pictures secretly with my phone :) The following is some of what I saw:

Signed Lance Armstrong portrait

The 60s rock concert poster art was seriously one of my favorites!

Reggie Jackson in an OAKLAND A'S jersey (can you tell who my favorite team is?)

Combined Hepburn sister Oscars

The beginning of the sports exhibit & museum's architecture

Remember how I fell in love with the Elvis displays at the Newseum the day before?! Well there was an entire hall of portraits dedicated to Elvis and the photographers who followed him around the year of his 21st birthday. He is a very attractive and interesting figure in Americana. I still want to learn more about Elvis and plan to someday pick up his biography!

Eventually we had to part ways, but I made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. However, there were massive snow storms in Georgia and in the northeastern US states that day. As a result, Delta's hub in Atlanta was shut down for several hours and flights all over the country were affected by that. Luckily, my flight to NYC was only delayed about 45 minutes. However, once the plane was on the runway, we actually sat there for close to 30 minutes. I was nervous I'd miss my connection in NYC.

But when I did land in New York, I found out that flight was also delayed over an hour, leaving me plenty of time to explore and find some dinner. After eating out all weekend, I was not in the mood for any fast food. Instead, I found a cute little French bistro called Croque Madame and ordered up some chicken pesto with a salad and water bottle.

I ordered at the to go cart and decided I had enough time to sit down in the dining area. It was then I realized just how big the "restaurant" actually was. And the BEST part?! Instead of menus and waiters, you order from an iPad and it sends a message directly to the kitchen!!!

(Source)

No joke, this was the most high-tech dining experience I've ever had! The food was amazing and I nestled myself into an individual, one-person dining pod, complete with European/US compatible outlets and of course, the iPad. It did cross my mind to play with the iPad, since each one came stocked with hundreds of apps, but my hygiene-obsessed mind got the best of me. Who knows how many people touch those each day, all of whom end up eating, touching money, food, their faces and possibly mouths. Not the most pleasant realization to have mid-dinner. Instead, I just enjoyed the idea from afar. I'm also not kidding when I say this restaurant literally has hundreds of tables, so imagine how much it must have cost to order that many iPads.

It was a really cool end to a frustrating day of travel! I finally made it home, in bed, sometime after 1 a.m.

I still haven't unpacked my luggage...