I have to apologize for not having posted anything in the past 4 weeks, but geez have I been busy. There was barely time for cooking, yet alone for taking photos and posting something. I was consumed with 4 major events: buying a new car, our yearly 4th of July trip to Long Beach, prepping for Microsoft’s biggest partner event of the year in DC and then leaving for my 3 week vacation to Germany.

 Now that I am sitting on the plane to Germany I thought the least I could do is post a short trip report about my DC visit.
I have to say our Capitol is much more interesting and exciting than I had expected. I stayed in a little boutique hotel in downtown DC called Donavon House. Its not spectacular but the rooftop bar, small pool and interesting shower in the room do qualify it for a boutique hotel. I am sure there are tons of better hotels in DC so not exactly sure I would recommend this one as it wasn’t exactly downtown but its relatively close walking distance to the Whitehouse – 15 minutes. And that’s where I started off my 2 hour pedi cab tour to see the main sightseeing’s in DC.

I really only had 2 hours of time to myself and since I already enjoyed one of those bicycle tours in New Orleans where you get driven around in a type of tricycle for Grownups I thought it would be perfect for seeing DC. I can highly recommend to take these pedicab bike/tours, they cost around $60 for 1,5 hours and they pedal you everywhere you want to go and you can get on and off at the monuments on your schedule.

Below are a few of the pictures I took during my tour. I got the see the White House, the Capitol, the National Mall – who would have known it’s not a shopping mall but a National Park surrounded by all these great monuments, like the Lincoln, Washington, World War II, Martin Luther King, Roosevelt and many more. I didn’t had enough time to make it into any of the museums around the Mall, called the Smithsonian, I hear that the Air and Flight museum is definitely worth a visit as well as the Native American one (especially for its cafeteria that showcases all kinds of diverse food such as Elk, Bison etc.) and the National History Museum.

One of my business events was at the Newseum which was really cool, they house pieces of the original Berlin Wall and the antenna from the Twin Towers and another event was at the Spy Museum which shows the original James Bond Aston Martin, WW I and II spy gadgets and a ton more interesting gadgets and stories about the Spy profession.

Unfortunately there was almost no time to really check out any of the restaurants in DC and they do have a lot of them but I was lucky enough to try out one…and that’s where my love story starts…you will be surprised that I am even sharing this so openly but what do you want to do, the heart wants what the heart wants.

I was having dinner with my friend Christy and she had seen what I had seen, you know this look when you look at your friend and you know she saw what you saw – the small visual exchange between strangers and gives you an acknowledging nod! It’s always good to know your friend is backing you up in these somewhat delectable situations. There he was, really good looking, kind of blondish and he also smelled really good, my first thought was that he must be European.

To be honest I couldn’t really focus all that much on dinner, thinking what’s he really like, is he sweet and smooth or come on strong and ruin my phantasies, would it be a onetime thing, should I take him back to the hotel or should I just say no? I should have said no but by now the desire was too built up, I had to get closer to him and see what he really was about. That must have been really annoying for Christy, there she was, wanting to spend a nice dinner with me and I was rushing her so I could meet the blond good smelling stranger.

When we finally met, there wasn’t a lot of talking; we had an understanding of his purpose. For the short time he was mine he was sweet and perfect and definitely left and impression. But I know it can only happen one time and that I had to go back to the real world.

And now you wonder what did Mike say to all of this? To tell you the truth, I haven’t really told him yet, but he is one of the few people who truly understands my obsessions and he would have been very happy for me that I finally found the perfect Dulce de Leche filled Hazelnut Crepe (Crepas Salguero)! Yes a Crepe, what else where you thinking I was writing about? 🙂

I have such a hard time finding a somewhat different dessert than the usual Crème Brule, Chocolate Mousse or cheesecake and making the extra calorie intake worth while but this little indulgence was definitely worth it. Make sure to stop by at Barcelona on 14th street and order one of these delectable sensations. They work really well together with the White Lavender/Sage/Rosemary Sangria and you see what they can do to a chocoholic mind! And the Tapas are also really good, I enjoyed the watermelon, mint/ goat cheese salad too!

Happy Travels and Enjoy!