day two in d.c.

I know it’s been a hot minute since our trip to D.C. in April, but such is life, and now I’m ready to continue our weekend recap!

I have to say that we really lucked out with our scheduled plans and the weather while we were there. Friday ended up being chilly, cloudy and rainy but it didn’t really bother us, as we’d already had plans and tickets to do some indoor museum hoping all day.

We took the metro and hopped off at the Metro Center Station in search of breakfast from Astro Doughnuts & Fried Chicken. Their donuts and chicken biscuits were everything we hoped they would be! Since they only had outdoor seating and it was quite chilly that morning, we grabbed some coffee and a table inside of Bluestone Lane which was only a convenient hop, skip, and a jump away from Astro’s.

Our first adventure of the day was a trip to the International Spy Museum, and we also added tickets to see the Bond in Motion exhibition they are currently featuring. We enjoyed browsing the large collection of espionage artifacts they had on display, and it was neat to see some iconic 007 vehicles up close!

Afterwards, we were in less of a time crunch than we’d initially anticipated, so we headed over early to the National Mall to make our way to the Smithsonian’s. We had about an hour so we decided to first stop by the National Museum of the American Indian once we realized that you do not need a timed entry ticket to visit. While I wish we had more time, I can say that what we did get to quickly see was captivating and thought provoking.

Next up was a visit to the National Air and Space Museum. (Just a heads up that admission was also free, but time entry tickets are required and they book up quickly, so reserve ahead of time if you can!) Half of the museum was closed and under construction, but we still managed to spend several hours learning about the exploration of the skies and beyond!

While here, Phil schooled me on all things airplane 🤓

p.s. can we please revive the retro airline uniforms already?!

For dinner, we decided on Maketto, a hip restaurant offering Taiwanese/Cambodian bites. Since our plans were spontaneous and we didn’t have reservations, we crossed our fingers for seating up at the bar and we lucked out! We loved their tasty plates, cute cocktails, and friendly staff. So shout out to our bartender Amanda because she was fabulous!

When I realized we were less than a half a mile from a local indie bookstore, *and* we still had a little time to visit after our dinner, I may or may not have schemed a quick trek up to Solid State Books to pick up a new read to end the evening. So thanks Phil, and shout out to you for taking that very brisk post-dinner walk with me with our to-go desserts in hand so that I could quickly browse some shelves before the book shop closed ❤️