Mother-Daughter Weekend in DC

When I was first hired at my new job, my boss asked me if I could go to DC in March.  Of course I said yes because I'll jump on any chance to travel.  Much to my disappointment, the trip was canceled due to some poor choices by other groups which then put a freeze on other government meetings.  Then I found out this summer that it had been rescheduled.  Yippee!  I manage a national grant, so they try to get all of the grantees from across the nation together annually.  The conference was only a 2-day event, so I thought I better make it worth the trip all the way across the country, so I flew out two days early to enjoy the weekend in DC.  And I am so lucky to have a mom who is also up for a fun trip any time she gets the chance.  So we met at the airport and made it a mother-daughter weekend in DC!  Of course, I also worked and fulfilled my duties as a grant manager :)

Day one was mostly travel, walking in the rain and trying to track down my mom's luggage which somehow went to San Diego. I'm not sure it could get much farther away without leaving the continental United States.

Our welcome to DC!  Of course she has an umbrella and
jacket in her luggage which is on the other side of the country.

We didn't let that slow us down though.  A friend had recommended a Thai restaurant that everyone just raves about.  I was told that you have to have reservations and when I tried the day before I was told that I could only be put on a wait list.  Knowing that it was our only night that we could possibly eat there, we decided to show up at the restaurant and just see if they might let us in.

You can hardly tell there's a restaurant there.
I take that as a good sign as these are often the best!

The place is called Thai X-ing (pronounced Thai Crossing).  As soon as I walked up to the hostess stand she asked if I had a reservation.  I could only tell her that I had put my name on the wait list.  "You must have a reservation.  We are all full tonight.  Very busy!" she replied.  I wasn't going to take a no that easily and just walk away.  I basically began pleading with her to let us in.  "Is it possible that one of your reservations isn't going to show up?  Any tables available?  Anything???"  I was willing to do just about anything to get in.  After some thought she said, "Can you eat in one hour?"  Yes!  We can eat as fast as you need us to!  So up and in we went.  And boy was I glad I was not afraid to beg.  I don't think we could say enough to express how delicious it was.

Appetizer Course: Cucumber Soup and Papaya Salad

Main Course: Salmon, Ginger Chicken, another Chicken dish,
and Curried Pumpkin

Oh and one more, in case that wasn't enough, to make
5 main entrees

Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, they brought
out dessert: Mango Sticky Rice!

This was by far the best Thai food I've ever had!!!  We were so full by the end and we still were able to take some to go.  Plus the atmosphere was so unique.  It was clearly just an old 3-story home with all of its quirks that they converted into a restaurant.

We thought it was pretty funny that I was sitting right in
front of a sink.

Interesting decor 

Quaint, limited seating with mood lighting

Only in DC for a few hours and we're already very happy!

When we sat down they lit a candle on our table.  It must have been a one hour candle. 

End of dinner

Our time is up!

So long Thai X-ing...

What a treat...

We'll be back next year!!!

Seriously, if you ever find yourself in DC, don't miss out on this!  It's a one-of-a-kind!

The next day we packed full of sight seeing because what's a trip to DC without walking miles upon miles and seeing all of the monuments and museums?

Our hotel just down the street from all the big landmarks

Cool buildings right outside our hotel

Still under construction, but it's kind of
cool to see the scaffolding 

And funny to watch the planes takeoff right behind

Julia Child's kitchen was one of our priorities at the Smithsonian

She was so tall!

It was also the weekend of the National Book Festival.
We got to see Giada speaking to the kids! 

She seemed very down-to-earth and genuine.

It's like a little toy capital ;)

The Eastern Market

Not quite what were expecting, so quite honestly we
probably wouldn't use our time to go here again.

However there were some cool crafts
and delicious produce

By the time we made it back to our hotel, we were absolutely exhausted, had blisters on our feet, and still needed to transfer to our next hotel in Bethesda where my conference would be held.  We were hopeful that my mom's luggage would have arrived by the time we got back since she had originally been told that it would be delivered in the middle of the night the night before.  Nope!  Still no luggage.  She went round and round with the airline people and the luggage delivery people.  They assured us that they would get it to our next hotel, so on we went to Bethesda.

When we got there, we were too tired to go anywhere so we opted for leftover Thai X-ing.

We would never let such good food go to waste!

While enjoying our food, my mom got the call that her luggage had arrived!  It only took them 24 hours to drive it from the airport to us (about 20 miles max).  Oh well, she was just happy to get it finally!

Clean clothes!  Different shoes! Hair products!

The next day was my conference.  It was a great opportunity to meet with other people who are in a similar role as me.  We got to share best practices and talk about what's working in our district and what we're struggling with. I got to meet my program director who I talk to monthly, but had never had the opportunity to meet her face-to-face.  I actually even got to present at one of the sessions.  They had requested that we speak since we are such a unique district with experience using a pay-for-performance system.  So now I can put on my resume that I was a speaker at a nation conference ;)  Ok, but enough about work.  Back to the fun!

That night we got a recommendation from one of the workers in the hotel lobby.  By that point I felt like we were friends with all of them since we had the whole luggage fiasco and everything.  After naming a few suggestions, she came to one that her face lit up for.  We knew that must be the place we needed to go.  So off we went to Bethesda Row - a cute little happenin' area of the town.

Bethesda Row

The recommended restaurant

We somehow instantly became good friends with the hostess here too.  She was so friendly and bubbly and not afraid to make suggestions on what we should get.

We made it in time for hummus happy hour!
Unlimited hummus and bread, and it's the real deal.

SHRIMP ARAK
sauteed, onions, garlic, lemon-cilantro-arak sauce, pearl couscous

We could have stopped here and been so happy with our meal.  It was hard to stop on the hummus, especially since it was unlimited.  Then the shrimp arak was so fresh!  We want to recreate it.  But the hostess, from the beginning, told us that we just had to leave room for dessert.  She kept insisting that it was worth it.  She even went so far as to say that this dessert had changed her life.  How could we pass up the opportunity to try something so out of this world?!?!

Molten Chocolate "Turkish Coffee" Cake with
with cardamom ice cream, marshmallow, and pistachio-orange

Clearly we could hardly eat it ;)

This will probably also have to be part of our annual trip.  Another place you should go too if you're ever in Bethesda, MD.

One thing I confirmed again on this trip is that it's great to talk the people who live and work in the area when traveling.  They can offer the best support and advice and they just make the whole experience so much better.  Plus it helps to know the lady at the front desk of the hotel when you have a fire alarm in the middle of the night and you accidentally lock yourself out of the room.  (Yep, that happened)

All around it was a great weekend full of new sites and tastes.  But most importantly it was great quality time with my wonderful mom!  I'm already looking forward to next year's conference!!!