Washington, DC: Day 11

My final day in DC was spent with Melissa – Kristin’s friend from William & Mary. We went to the other National Air & Space Museum (on the Mall) and joined a guided tour. This place is huge, and so we limited ourselves to the tour and certain sections we both wanted to see – like the Wright Brothers plane, and the Space shuttle. We also saw one of the first IMAX films ever made – To Fly! – which has just celebrated its 25th anniversary. It charters the history of transport and flying, and why we find it so thrilling.

We had lunch at the National Museum of American Indian which was AMAZING! This museum, which by many accounts doesn’t live up to the Smithsonian standards, has a hidden food court at its base, serving Native American food from around the continent. Thus you can have salmon, buffalo, traditional dressings, burgers and everything. In the end we settled for a “five region sampler for two” with cedar-plank fired salmon steak and buffalo (!) with an assortment of beans and vegetables cooked in traditional methods. It was fantastic, and really not what you expect from a museum food court! Especially in the US! We were so impressed with our meal that we left too late to make the aforementioned IMAX film and had to run against the wind back to the Air & Space museum. Never try that in -5 degree temperatures. It’s FREEZING!! Haha!

For the rest of the afternoon we headed to Connecticut & 18th to explore the “shopping district” of DC and check out Filene’s. Really I don’t understand why they call this the shopping district, because there are no more shops here than elsewhere in DC, and it’s mostly office towers anyway. Filene’s was good though, although small compared to New York.

For my last meal in DC we had Ethiopian on 18th Ave in Adams Morgan. This had been recommended to us by a few different people so we felt we should give it a try. I can’t remember the name of the restaurant, but I think it was at 2450 18th. Ethiopian food is excellent – lots of meats and dips. Basically you eat with your fingers by ripping a piece of bread (more akin to naan than sliced) and wrapping it around the meat. I also tried some Ethiopian beer which was pretty decent!

We stopped off at the busiest Borders in America (!) on the way home and I picked up L’Auberge Espagnole (Spanish Apartment) on DVD for $6 and a guide book to Boston. Then I packed – for hours!

Photos from Washington, DC