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bzarcherSo, today!
Remember how I mentioned structure = good? Victory for structure - getting to the Smithsonian was /easy/ and friendly!
After walking a bit around the mall and the castle/gardens, we split up - Granpa and I went down to the Air and Space museum, which was full of both air and space! More specifically, if getting to see SpaceShip One and the X-15 side by side is wrong, I don't want to be right.
Also as a nice little bonus, the American Treasures museum is being remodeled, and while most of the exhibits are in storage somewhere, a wing of the A&S was set aside for displaying a sampling. More notable items: Washington's uniform, Jeb Stuart's revolvers, the hat Lincoln wore to the play, Kermit the Frog, C-3PO, and a Red Sox helmet. (The Smithsonian institute apparently says "Fuck the Yankees.")
The A&S closed at 3:30 today, so after we finished going through around 3ish, we took a walk down the mall to the Sculpture garden, enjoyed the beautiful art, then met my sister and Granma at the natural history museum and walked through the gem gallery, saw the Hope Diamond (you see one cursed gemstone, I think you've probably seen them all. Paladins and Enchanters excepted.) Then walked down around to the dinosaurs and fossils before it closed at 5:30. Neatest thing I saw wasn't actually a single skeleton or item - it was the Fossil Lab. They have a large workspace for restoring/cleaning/extracting fossils which is basically completely visible to the public. The lab itself is enclosed by large windows and staff access doors, and there's a posted schedule for what the team will be working on each day. (Friday is apparently Tyrannosaur shinbone reconstruction day!)
We rode back to the hotel, cleaned up, and went over to Farrah Olivia.
And got somewhat lost in Old Town Alexandria.
But then we found the restaurant. Yay!
I was, I'm pretty sure, gloriously underdressed in knit shirt, jeans, and my all-stars, but WOW.
Wait. Lemme make this a little clearer - W-o-w!
The entire place is small but really beautiful, with a lot of deep earthy colours on the walls and a nice grey paint that is very relaxing. The space is really well used - about 15 or so tables that each seat 4 and kept moving pretty easily throughout the night.
We shared some plantain fritter and cinnamon smoked quail appetizers, followed by an amuse bouche of lightly fried shrimp with a chili and yuzu sauce that might be the best shrimp thing I can ever remember eating.
I had the "Painted soup" made from a smoked apple creme base on one side and a butternut squash with ginger on the other, with characters painted onto the top with a beet reduction.
If I had a solid week in the kitchen, this is the one dish I'm -pretty sure- I could replicate with some trial, error, and several trucks of luck.
My entree was the slow roasted leg of lamb with a plantain cake, a really tasty palm frond bbq sauce (odd, but it really worked against the smokiness of the lamb), mint essence pearls (good but a little awkward to get into the dish?) and a little bowl of collard greens.
I also ate a good bit of the roast pork loin because my granma got a bit overwhelmed by the portion, and the port grog reduction sauce was veeeery good.
For dessert, I had a lemon cheesecake with candied citrus slices and a lime sauce. Very happy.
The cleanser at the end was a set of a mango jelly candy, a merengue, and a coco and chili truffle that had a great spicy snap.
It ended up being a pretty expensive meal, but omgwau. So, so good. We also had a really nice waitress who made some great suggestions and explained each dish as it was served, which was a nice touch to help us appreciate each component.
The way back...didn't work so good. Instead of just following our directions back to US-1 and to the hotel, Granda decided to aim for 95, because "It'll hit 395."
Half an hour closer to Baltimore than when we started, we turned the car around and I punched up the VZNavigator on my phone to get us back, and we made it back a bit before midnight, after leaving the restaurant about 10:30.
I'm sure I'm missing lots of details, but i'm tired and I'll see everyone tomorrow. Content yourself with this!
Remember how I mentioned structure = good? Victory for structure - getting to the Smithsonian was /easy/ and friendly!
After walking a bit around the mall and the castle/gardens, we split up - Granpa and I went down to the Air and Space museum, which was full of both air and space! More specifically, if getting to see SpaceShip One and the X-15 side by side is wrong, I don't want to be right.
Also as a nice little bonus, the American Treasures museum is being remodeled, and while most of the exhibits are in storage somewhere, a wing of the A&S was set aside for displaying a sampling. More notable items: Washington's uniform, Jeb Stuart's revolvers, the hat Lincoln wore to the play, Kermit the Frog, C-3PO, and a Red Sox helmet. (The Smithsonian institute apparently says "Fuck the Yankees.")
The A&S closed at 3:30 today, so after we finished going through around 3ish, we took a walk down the mall to the Sculpture garden, enjoyed the beautiful art, then met my sister and Granma at the natural history museum and walked through the gem gallery, saw the Hope Diamond (you see one cursed gemstone, I think you've probably seen them all. Paladins and Enchanters excepted.) Then walked down around to the dinosaurs and fossils before it closed at 5:30. Neatest thing I saw wasn't actually a single skeleton or item - it was the Fossil Lab. They have a large workspace for restoring/cleaning/extracting fossils which is basically completely visible to the public. The lab itself is enclosed by large windows and staff access doors, and there's a posted schedule for what the team will be working on each day. (Friday is apparently Tyrannosaur shinbone reconstruction day!)
We rode back to the hotel, cleaned up, and went over to Farrah Olivia.
And got somewhat lost in Old Town Alexandria.
But then we found the restaurant. Yay!
I was, I'm pretty sure, gloriously underdressed in knit shirt, jeans, and my all-stars, but WOW.
Wait. Lemme make this a little clearer - W-o-w!
The entire place is small but really beautiful, with a lot of deep earthy colours on the walls and a nice grey paint that is very relaxing. The space is really well used - about 15 or so tables that each seat 4 and kept moving pretty easily throughout the night.
We shared some plantain fritter and cinnamon smoked quail appetizers, followed by an amuse bouche of lightly fried shrimp with a chili and yuzu sauce that might be the best shrimp thing I can ever remember eating.
I had the "Painted soup" made from a smoked apple creme base on one side and a butternut squash with ginger on the other, with characters painted onto the top with a beet reduction.
If I had a solid week in the kitchen, this is the one dish I'm -pretty sure- I could replicate with some trial, error, and several trucks of luck.
My entree was the slow roasted leg of lamb with a plantain cake, a really tasty palm frond bbq sauce (odd, but it really worked against the smokiness of the lamb), mint essence pearls (good but a little awkward to get into the dish?) and a little bowl of collard greens.
I also ate a good bit of the roast pork loin because my granma got a bit overwhelmed by the portion, and the port grog reduction sauce was veeeery good.
For dessert, I had a lemon cheesecake with candied citrus slices and a lime sauce. Very happy.
The cleanser at the end was a set of a mango jelly candy, a merengue, and a coco and chili truffle that had a great spicy snap.
It ended up being a pretty expensive meal, but omgwau. So, so good. We also had a really nice waitress who made some great suggestions and explained each dish as it was served, which was a nice touch to help us appreciate each component.
The way back...didn't work so good. Instead of just following our directions back to US-1 and to the hotel, Granda decided to aim for 95, because "It'll hit 395."
Half an hour closer to Baltimore than when we started, we turned the car around and I punched up the VZNavigator on my phone to get us back, and we made it back a bit before midnight, after leaving the restaurant about 10:30.
I'm sure I'm missing lots of details, but i'm tired and I'll see everyone tomorrow. Content yourself with this!
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This is what it feels like...
Date: 2007-12-01 06:12 am (UTC)But how could you neglect to mention ENIAC! And then they have a Cray on the other side of the floor (in A&S proper).
Were you also treated to the same 30-second clip of "When Doves Cry" over and over near Prince's guitar?
Re: This is what it feels like...
Date: 2007-12-01 12:49 pm (UTC)Yes, the ENIAC and Cray were very lovely, but I'm not as in love with the big iron as I used to be. :> Still neat, though, you are right.
People mostly didn't hit the music buttons, actually. I think people in general were trying not to abuse the smaller space.