DC in June - Day 3

Day 3:

More conference in the morning, with a nice lunch break for me to go up to my room and enjoy my leftovers. Things were actually almost as good cold, though the hummus needed to be brought to room temp before it could be eaten. I bought some pretzel crisps to use for it. After eating, I took a nice long walk to the National Gallery of Art. I was particularly interested in looking at an Edgar Degas / Mary Cassatte exhibit that I had heard about on NPR. I know next to nothing about art, but I once read a novel that involved Degas, and the NPR story had really piqued my interested in these two. I would highly recommend a trip to the NGA just for the building alone. It has several little courtyards that are lovely. And it is truly awe-inspiring to see famous works of art in person. It makes the art seem both more incredible and more accessible all at once. In addition to the Degas/Cassatte exhibit, they had a brand new Van Gough (along with several old ones) and Wyeth exhibit, all recommended to me by the very helpful docent at the front desk. She also recommended the sculpture garden and café, which I did not have time for today but planned on checking out tomorrow.

I didn't take pictures of the actual art. It was a bit unclear what was allowed as far as photography and what was not, but I decided that taking photos of great works of art felt a bit gauche to me. I did, however, capture the images below in some of the open spaces and atriums in the museum - the building itself is a work of art.

One of the Rotundas

Outside fountain between east and west buildings

View looking up in the rotunda

Inside courtyard garden

After the afternoon conference, we had a reception put on by the corporate sponsors of the conference which included lots of appetizers and an open bar. It was actually very nice, and I spent about an hour chatting with co-workers and catching up with a former co-worker who now lives down here. I had a glass of wine, some cheese and bread, and few other snacks. I then headed off to happy hour at a sushi place called SEI in what’s known as Penn Quarter. It’s clearly a trendy hot spot for high end restaurants. I both love and hate it, but mostly love it. SEI has very trendy decor, with lots of white furniture and a weird wall made of what looks like red branches. I sat at the bar to enjoy the specials.

I started by ordering a couple of food items and a drink off the happy hour menu – I went with the edamame, which I always enjoy snacking on, and the salmon open hand roll. For a drink, I ordered something called the Silver Samurai, which was made with a Japanese liquor called shochu. According to the menu, shochu can be fermented with a few different ingredients, including rice or even sweet potatoes. Not sure which one this was, but it had a sweet undertone to it similar to sake. The drink was mixed with cucumbers and a citrus, which made it very refreshing. The edamame was a very generous serving with a pile of flaky sea salt on top. I prefer them with black sea salt, but this was not hugely different. The hand roll was very small, like three bites. It was just a piece of nori, topped with rice and salmon and cucumber, sort of like a sushi taco. It was served in what looked like a napkin holder to keep the ingredients from falling out. I did not get a picture because my phone froze!

A couple had come in and sat down near me, and I did not really pay any attention at first. But for whatever reason, I looked up and realized that the woman, who was sitting further from me, was one of my closest friends from high school! It was such a weird coincidence maybe the biggest coincidence of my life. Just the day before, I had noticed on facebook that she lived in DC, and I thought about reaching out to see if she was free. It had been about ten years since we had last talked, and I ultimately decided not to because I was not totally sure of my plans yet. I guess the universe decided that it was just meant to be. It was really wonderful to see her, and her boyfriend got my phone working again, yay!

My friend (right) and I

She and I spent some time catching up, while snacking. They ordered the wasabi guacamole which came with what I think were fried wonton chips. It was very tasty, and the wasabi was subtle enough to be enjoyed by someone who might not love super hot food. The chips were excellent, too – light and crunchy.

After they left, I ordered another hand roll – spicy tuna. It took forever to come out, and no one came over to ask if I wanted another drink. Again, slow service appears to be endemic. There was no reason for it because in all cases so far, the restaurants have not been overly busy. SEI was in fact quite slow. Eventually, I caught the bar tender’s eye to order another drink. When it turned out that I was 3 minutes too late for the happy hour price, he actually comped it for me. They also apologized for the slowness of the tuna roll, which turned out to be delicious. I also added another order at this point from the regular menu – the salmon cilantro roll.

I sat at the bar sipping and snacking for another hour or so. The salmon cilantro roll was excellent. The fish is extremely fresh and perfectly textured. The only minor complaint on that was that the “crunch” part of the roll were large flakes that were not well integrated into the roll. I have read that each bite should include some of all of the elements of the roll, and the few flakes were concentrated only on one side and not distributed throughout.

I easily could have eaten another roll, but decided to avoid stuffing myself too much. After a nice chat with the bar tender about travel – he had just returned from a seven month sojourn with his fiancé who works for doctors without borders – I hit the road to walk back to my hotel. Luckily, I noticed a gelato spot right across the street called Pitango and decided that since I skipped the additional roll, I should probably check it out. I went with mojito and bosc pear. It turned out that the mojito was actually sorbet, so it was a bit icier than gelato. Both were very flavorful and smooth, and I enjoyed eating it while I walked home listening to Disney podcasts. 

Some of the gelato flavors.