In the nation’s capital, we find plenty of restaurants, museums and people watching. Our first stop after the easy bus ride down from Philadelphia was Taylor Gourmet Deli (485 K St. NW). We ordered the meatball and cheesesteak. Meatballs gave us burps later on, and weren’t homemade; cheesesteak with American cheese was above average with good bread.

We walked off the food in the surprisingly fun National Portrait Gallery on 7th St. On 3rd floor is portraits of famous celebrities from the world of art and sport. But this super sized LL Cool J won as biggest surprise, I thought it would have been nice to have a smaller painting of the back seat of his jeep.

Jordyn liked the Michael Jackson.

And the award for scariest, nightmare ballerinas:

Giving our best Casey Stengel impressions.

Then Abe Lincoln

Spotting the FBI building, I couldn’t help think of the X-Files, and hope there was a couple of investigators working on the case of aliens who stole Mulder’s sister.

We wandered around and ended up at Oyamel (401 7th St. NW). Packed on a Wednesday night, we had some tequila (repasado–Tres Agaves was good), and plenty of tapas. Started with a tender Hawaiian fish ceviche, a mole and pork tamale, and a pork and beef taco. The beef taco was excellent and the fish was delicately delicious.

After a free concert featuring bassoon, cello and piano at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts Millennium Stage, we walked up 24th street to Flavors of India (2524 L St. NW). It was nearly empty and the people in the booth were coughing from the spiciness of the curry. We ordered ours mild. It was the house special: a spicy chicken dish from Northern India served with the aromatic basmati rice, and the appetizer was a mixed grill plate. One of our favorite meals in D.C.

 We ate Chopt (Chinatown) twice for lunch. It’s a salad place where you choose everything you want and they chop it up, season it and put it in a recyclable bowl. It was delightfully filling and healthy lunch. Another fun lunch place was Cava Grill (707 H St.). It’s like a Mediterranean “make your own pita bowl.”

The most disappointing meal was at RFD Washington which had great beer selection and plenty of TV’s, the food was not so good. I had the crab cakes, tator tots and a turkey club. They were purely pub pickings. It fills you up for more consumption of hops, malt, yeast and water.