Washington DC, and the DMV area in general, will forever hold a very special place in Tom and my hearts. We met there, lived there for almost seven years and truly developed as much of a relationship with the city as we did with each other. Beyond that, we have many, many loved ones there. My parents-in-law and brother- and sister-in-law are my second family and I we’ve missed them so much since we’ve been gone. Not to mention, my two-year old niece is seriously the sweetest and cutest little girl that ever there was. This is all to say that our recent trip back to DC was much-needed.
We really only spent one day in DC proper, and the rest of the time at Tom’s parents house in Virginia. As a fun twist, my brother- and sister-in-law were staying with them at the same time so we got to pack in all the family time! It had been way too long since we’d seen everyone, and the time with our niece was especially fun. She started talking since we left and could say Tommy and Kacy and my heart seriously melted every single time. We got in lots of snuggles and playtime with her, and celebrated her second birthday (a week early).
We also had some fun outings while we were there. A siblings dinner at Dolce Vita was the perfect way to start off the week upon our arrival. We took advantage of the huge, affordable wine selection and happy hour food (happy hour is available on Saturdays!). We couldn’t resist trying their featured pizza cones, but they turned out to be better in theory than in practice. (We had better luck with the flatbreads, beet salad and meatballs.)
The next day, the whole family went to Quattro Goomba Winery. Tom, his parents and I enjoyed tasting our way through the wines, finding a clear winner in the rosé (go figure).
After tasting, we grabbed a couple of bottles and joined Ryan and Jen and the baby out on the lawn. I failed miserably at getting family pictures while we were there. The time together was too precious to keep whipping out the phone. But we had a great time before heading back to the house for a relaxing evening at home.
We had to work during the week, but it was fun to have breakfast and lunch with family and to take little breaks to chat now and then. On Tuesday, we rode the metro into DC and started our work day at Slipstream Coffee in Navy Yard. Of all the neighborhoods we lived in, Navy Yard is the one we’d want to live in again if we ever return to DC. But man, it has changed so much since we were there just two and half years ago!
Slipstream was just being built as we moved out of the area, but it’s fully up and running now and an awesome place to grab breakfast and coffee and get some work done.
We took a break for lunch at the gorgeous District Winery so we could soak up some of those Navy Yard views we love so much. We knew we’d be having a big dinner later, so we kept it light and ordered two salads, an heirloom tomato tartare and summer greens with shaved seasonal veggies.
After lunch we relocated to The Royal for more work and to be closer to our dinner plans for later. Epic dinner plans, to be exact. We met up with our friends Lauren, Camille, Sham, AJ, Pat and Amanda – all of which have been featured on this site at one time or another. We started with drinks at La Jambe before moving on to new hot spot San Lorenzo for dinner. One thing that hasn’t changed since we left, Shaw is still one of the most happening areas in DC and the quality of new restaurants opening on the regular is still stellar. Besides being an awesome catch up with friends, the food was phenomenal. Much fun was had by all, maybe a little too much by me. But it was definitely worth it.
The rest of the week seemed to pass by at warp speed. I had a fun happy hour with Jen, while Tom had a guys’ night with his dad and Ryan. On Thursday, Tom’s parents took us out for a fun dinner at Our Mom Eugenia, a Greek restaurant in Great Falls, Virginia. The food was awesome and really authentic. We ordered zucchini fritters with tzaziki to start. Tom’s parents both had the sea bass special, which looked stellar. I always our moussaka at Greek restaurants, and there version was on point. Tom’s dish may have been my favorite, though, an oven-braised lamb shank with orzo.
We ended the week with another night out with Ryan and Jen, checking out Caboose Brewing in Vienna. The place was packed on a Friday, but the beers were delicious.
And with that, our first trip back to DC was over. As hard as it was to say goodbye, we know we’ll be back many, many times. We left with full hearts and some great memories.
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