“Is the District of Columbia a state?” I ask my boyfriend as we’re outside of our hotel waiting on our lyft. Guys, I know how embarrassing it is but at that moment I was confused and upset at myself for not knowing any better. During my weekend in D.C. I did in fact learn that D.C. is a “Federal District” – whatever that means. Long story short the area receives funding directly from the federal government & relies on Congress for any law making decisions. Not sure if I learned this in high school (but if I did, oops for not paying attention). Anyways, that is my fun fact of the week for y’all. The real story here is what all I did during my weekend.

I actually visited D.C. the weekend after July 4th which I thought would make the city a bit more hectic, but surprisingly from what our lyft drivers told us the city was deader than usual (travel tip: d.c. after july 4th isn’t that cray). I flew into Washington Dulles and personally would not recommend unless you do not mind the 30-35 minute drive into Washington. Ronald Reagan is right outside the city if you’re on a time crunch and prefer to be closer to the airport. To be fair I only bought tickets from Dulles because they were cheaper (for the times people ask me how I afford it, I trade cheaper tickets for longer commutes).

If you’re looking for a place to stay read my full hotel review here.

So Wynee, what did you do, see, and eat? Most people don’t think 48 hours is enough but for me 48 hours hits that sweet spot that keeps you coming back for more (travel tip: when booking a friday-sunday trip…leave straight after work on Friday if you can leave earlier, great. on sunday, leave as late as you possibly can or how short your night sleep can be before waking up on monday. the key here is MAXIMIZE). I’ve been on a real gastronomical kick lately so naturally I wanted to eat some good food. I wanted something quick, fast, and light. What better dish than a taco? I stopped by Surfside which was about a 10 minute walk from my hotel – talk about clutch. Okay, so I did not have high hopes for this place as I found it on google and I don’t too much trust google on best places as I feel like they pick the most hyped up places as the top choices. I’m happy to say Google proved me wrong. Y’all I can’t even describe how surprisingly good this taco was. Had the right amount of ingredients, juicy-ness, and portion size. The tacos come in twos and I wasn’t that hungry so I split them with my boyfriend.

After we left surfside we wandered a bit (we’re in the dupont circle area) and ran across a bunch of bars and nightclubs. I had planned on going out this night but I was super tired from the flight and ride to the hotel (travel tip: you sometimes always have to fight through how tired you feel). Some of the recommendations I got that had the kind of music I listen to (rap/hiphop) are:

1. Rosebar
2. Opera
3. Decades

If you’re interested in bars – I actually have a list of those in my Instagram DM’s – if you REALLY want them feel free to reach out to me and I’ll give them to you.

But let’s get to the good stuff like what to do. Washington has an oasis of monuments and sights during the day. You have choices that range from the White House, Lincoln Memorial, World War II Memorial, and even the Washington monument (travel tip: the ones I mentioned are free). You may even be lucky enough to run into a Catalonian festival like we did.

After you explore through your chosen monuments you may be a little tired, a little dehydrated, and a little hungry… okay, maybe a lotta hungry. What would be a trip to ANY city without visiting a super touristy restaurant? Mmm…not sure. I made a quick pitstop at Ben’s Famous Chili (the original location). Of course, I stopped here just to see what the hype was about. From a scale of 1-10 the chili was a strong 6.

Now, like I said previously I don’t really like to depend on Google for food recommendations. Food is such a personal experience that I like to hear first hand from people that I trust. One of the overwhelming restaurants I kept getting was Roses. So obviously I had to head there on Saturday night. Walking into Rose’s you’re automatically welcomed with warmth and comfort. Roses is the equivalent to a 50’s inspired Barbie’s playhouse kitchen, inviting and comfy. Let me just go ahead and say the service at Rose’s did not disappoint. Our server was Patrick and he truly went above and beyond for us (travel tip: ask for patrick at Rose’s).

We had the lychee salad, rigatoni alla vodka, and the BBQ spare ribs (don’t remember the cocktails name).

Remember the tip I gave you at the beginning to book your Sunday flight as late as possible? Well that’s because you want to pretend like you still have a full day of exploring ahead of you. We focused Sunday on brunch and museum sightings. The great thing about D.C. is that the museums are FREE, yes girl, FREE. The downside of this is that they do have to control how many people visit certain museums like the museum of African American History. Although entry may be free you do have to sign up online for a ticket (travel tip: tickets for same day open up at 6AM…be online at 6AM to snag yours). Other museums like the Museum of American Art are completely free and ticketless, YAS.

Prior to visiting the SAAM we decided to have brunch at Zaytinya (another fan favorite). I decided to try their RoZay brunch (appetizer, entree, dessert, and wine flight) and it did not disappoint. I mean what’s better than wine flights and falafel burgers? That’s right, nothing. Along with their brunch deal, I also got their lavender drink “3PM in Istanbul” – perfect, airy, and tasty.

I’m not a shopping kind of person when I’m visiting new places. Because I don’t have space for new things in my luggage and to me it’s like wasting money when I could easily buy it at home. But for some reason I really wanted to go to a book store, I’ve been heavy into reading and wanted to snatch a couple of fiction books. We went to second story books where most of their books are pre-owned. They have a wide selection and are extremely organized… I ended up buying 3 books.

And last but certainly not least… dinner time. I had originally planned to check out Maketto (which is known for their fried chicken, yuuuum). But rookie mistake on my part that I did not check what time they closed. I can’t remember now but I’m pretty sure they are either closed on Sundays or close super early (either way, double check). But who would I be if I wasn’t prepared with back-ups? I decided to check out Iron Gate and was reluctant at first since I didn’t want to eat pasta again on my trip (but really who I am kidding? pasta’s my favorite). Well again, D.C. really surprised me with the level of hospitality because again, our waiter at Iron Gate was on point and extremely knowledgable of all the dishes (forgot his name, smh). We ended up getting the gnocchi (200/10) – it was spicy and savory, blue crab & shrimp youvetsi, and their Maryland soft shell crab.

After dinner it was unfortunately time to head back. D.C. was a beaut and I’m already counting down the days to visit again.

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