Final 12 Hours in D.C.

I was scanning through the food blog posts on my Google Reader, and I came across a great post on Amateur Gourmet (one of those blogs that is so successful the author got a book deal out of it). The post posed a meme:"12 Hours in..." How would you would spend your final 12 hours ever in your city? Obviously, there has to be a lot, but not too much, food involved.

I pick a Saturday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

10 a.m. I woke up and it was miraculously exactly 65 degrees with just a light breeze outside. Perfect running weather! I hit the Mount Vernon Trail for a run, winding my way up the Potomac from Old Town, around the Tidal Basin and the Jefferson Monument, and to the National Mall. (Since I don't expect these last 12 hours to be tomorrow, I have gotten so much faster, I can do this in an hour without breaking a sweat.)



11 a.m. Like I said, I am not even too sweaty, so I get on the metro and ride over to Eastern Market. I walk around, get a coffee, eat some samples (especially cheese samples), and pick up some hot sauces at Uncle Brutha's. I have to stock up on the special green Fire Sauce No. 9 they make if I'm leaving town for good! I take a chunk of cheese, probably the 5 county cheddar, and some bread for the road.

11:45 a.m. But before I leave Eastern Market, I get a crab cake sandwich at the Market Lunch. There is a spot for me to sit at the one table they have.

I was pretty decisive up to this point, but then it started to get tricky.

12:15 p.m. I think about going to the Main Reading Room at the Library of Congress, in my opinion, the most beautiful room in the city. But I only have 12 hours, and there is so much more that I want to do. So I head over to a place I spent much more time while I lived here: the Sculpture Garden (The National Gallery of Art one, not that one on the other side) to dip my toes in the fountain and people watch.

1:00 p.m. Then I'm off to Dumbarton Oaks to stroll through the gardens and maybe sit in my favorite tree branch to read a book. (The branch is about 3 feet off the ground.) I don't know what time of year it is, but I'm assuming the roses are in bloom. Of course this is one of the only places in D.C. where you have to pay admission to get in, but it is definitely worth it.



3:30 p.m. I jam in a quick trip to the National Zoo. It's not the most impressive zoo I've ever been to, but I have a nostalgic attachment to it. I say goodbye to the pandas. Tai Shan's not so little anymore, but I will always remember him as that tiny little fuzzball that graced the front page of the Post for weeks.

4:15 p.m. On my way to the metro, I stop at Open City in Woodley Park for a chai latte to go. So good. Then it's back to my apartment to get ready for my fabulous going away dinner and night on the town. (I thought about skipping this step, but my sense of logic and order would not be appeased. You can only gracefully do so many things in running clothes. I had to draw the line.)

6:00 p.m. Now how to get back into the city, why by water taxi of course! From the harbor at Old Town Alexandria to Georgetown, I float my way back downtown.

6:45 p.m. Deciding where to get dinner was extremely difficult. I basically narrowed it down to Rosa Mexicana, 1789, and D.C. Coast. I was able to eliminate Rosa Mexicana because I remembered they had a sister restaurant in NYC. I think I like 1789's food better than D.C. Coast, but it can also be a bit stuffier. In the end I choose 1789. It is quintessential D.C., which let's be honest, is a little stuffy in general. And their lamb is amazing. But I have to save room for dessert, which although tempting, I will not be getting at the restaurant.

8:00 p.m. Since I chose to stay in Georgetown for dinner, I can now get my favorite dessert in the whole world (the. whole. world.): Filomena Ristorante's chocolate raspberry cake. Maybe I will just get the whole cake instead of a slice. I can eat it for breakfast the next day.

8:30 p.m. For my last stop of the day, I didn't pick the snazziest place in D.C. In fact it is decidedly un-snazzy, but again nostalgia got the better of me. So I spend my last 1.5 hours at the 4 P's in Cleveland Park with friends. (Technically, it's Ireland's Four Fields, but I have never heard anyone actually call it that.) And in the perfect last 12 hour scenerio (since I already control the weather and when flowers bloom it seems) that great Irish band that plays there a lot, the one with the female singer and the bassist that looks like a bobble head doll, is playing.

So where would you go and what would you do with your last 12 hours?