Family Vacation - Nashville

We haven't had the chance to get back to visit our friends and family in Nashville since Christmas, but last week we got to spend a very nice long weekend back home. Here's some of the highlights.

As soon as we hit town, we went for a great dinner at Whitfield's. Here's me with my good friend David, the Chef de Cuisine.

Best French onion soup ever.

Our friends Jim and Lena got married which gave us a great excuse to visit.

Kathryn and her niece shared dinner at Jim and Lena's reception.

Two goat cheese fans unite!

Honky tonks after the reception. Typical Nashville bar band.

Kathryn's brother Rob and his beautiful wife Colby honky tonkin'.

Hoff kids.

This is the kind of bar you can find in Nashville's Printer's Alley. Sadly, we didn't get to go in. Plus, I had been yelling all night so my singing voice was shot anyway.

Kathryn's niece rocking the pots and pans band.

Eating Out - Steakhouse

Almost forgot to take the picture.

The Palm (Steakhouse)

This is a sleepy time in Washington, DC: it's too hot to move around, the interns are leaving town, the college students have yet to arrive, and - most importantly - Congress is on recess. That last one means fewer big shots glad handing around town. This is a good thing for the rest of us because the limited business means one thing - DC Restaurant Week. A number of the nicer establishments in town sign on to offer three course fixed rate lunch and dinner menus at $20 and $35, respectively. This great opportunity only rolls around twice a year (there's a winter addition).

This week we only had the chance to hit one restaurant week meal, and we headed to the famous steakhouse The Palm in DuPont Circle. You may have seen this one on the DC travel shows or in the guidebooks. It's the one with charactertures of famous patrons on the wall.

Observations

• Kathryn joined me and some friends from work (and Purdue, of course) for the prix fixe lunch. We both ended up ordering the Caesar salad followed by fillet medallions in red wine sauce with onions and mushrooms.
• The two side dishes were served family style for the whole table to split (creamed corn, potato chips, and fried onions). This inevitably made me feel like a pig and worry that I was taking more than my share.
• We did order different deserts. Kathryn went with the peanut butter pie, and I had the cheesecake. I normally don't eat cheesecake, but at a steakhouse where the waiters wear white jackets, the choice seemed appropriate.
• All of the food was delicious but a bit rich, which made my afternoon productivity plummet.
• Cokes were only 8oz (kind of a rip off).
• This lunchtime menu is available every day, not just during restaurant week, but the prices are discounted. Kathryn and I saved a total of $1.70 off of the usual price. What a bargain!

Going Out - Trusty's

The fake vintage settings on my camera phone seemed appropriate for the night.

Trusty's

As a newcomer to the District, it's weird to think that some of our favorite haunts are located in what were some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in America about 20 years ago. One perfect example is Trusty's Full-Serve Bar. It's located in South East (next door to an urban sports clothier) in a neighborhood quickly being swallowed up by the Capitol Hill set. The bar has a mechanic shop theme, with a new upstairs patio featuring a school bus facade and seats. It's a very cool bar that varies between longtime SE residents and more alternative young professionals. They also have a bunch of board games.

The highlight of the night was drinking a few cans of National Bohemian for the first time. Nati Bo was originally brewed in Baltimore and was featured heavily in the Wire (a huge hit with both longtime SE residents and more alternative young professionals). At first I drank it out of curiosity, but by the end of the end I actually preferred the Bo to PBR (a rare occurrence).

Tom and Tani settling up the bill.

I find myself playing a ton of Jenga recently. It might be the best barroom game of all time. This is the "Warhol" setting on my camera. It looks way cooler after a few Nati Bos.

Kathryn and Tani at the DC United game before heading to Trusty's. The bar is one of the few located just a short walk from RFK stadium.

Eating Out - New American

A little bit of West Lafayette in DC.

Ted's Bulletin (New American)

This last weekend we had the chance to check out Ted's Bulletin in Capitol Hill. The restaurant fills up fairly easily, but we went squeezed right in at 5:30. They sell senior citizen favorites like meat loaf and chicken fried steak, so I would argue it's a more natural time to eat there.

Observations

• Our friends Tani and Tom picked out Ted's for our pregame dinner. It was actually before a soccer game, not "pregame" as in drinking, to clarify for all our early 20-something readers.
• One of the attractions of Ted's Bulletin is the selection of "Adult Milkshakes." Tom had a superb White Russian (a Caucasian, Jacky), and I had the deceptively boozy Grasshopper.
• I guess "New" means lots of seasoning and spices for traditionally bland food. Kathryn's chicken fried steak was smothered in a very herby gravy.
• I was able to track down an old Indiana favorite in DC - the peanut butter cheeseburger! The burger was as good as any I've ever had in West Lafayette. The highlight was the curry tomato dipping sauce. Kathryn probably had as many of my fries as I did.
• All of the food was so good that the girls were clawing at our food when Tom and I were hurting from the giant, creamy milkshakes.

"It's basically an upscale Cracker Barrel" Tom

Getting Out - Ultimate Frisbee

In beautiful Anacostia

Since we've moved to DC Kathryn and I have joined the Washington Area Frisbee Club (WAFC) and played in both spring and summer rec leagues. Kathryn is brand new to the sport, and I'm back after a considerable amount of time off. But, we've still had a lot of good times and met some really nice folks. We also got the chance to play with a friend of mine from SLU last spring and a our good friend (and regular reader) Tani from Purdue this summer.

After a dreadful start of the season, I'm happy to report our summer league team is now fighting back toward 500. Our most recent game was particularly exciting in that (1) we won, (2) Kathryn scored a point, and (3) I had three assists. Our season closes in a couple weeks with the league tournament. Wish us luck!

Darkwing Huck after a hard fought victory.

Eating Out - Food Trucks

El Tri.

Food Chain (Tacos)

I'm continuing my assault on DC food trucks this week. Although Food Chain is technically a food cart, not a truck. It's still pretty awesome street food, and this week has been pretty busy here at work. It's nice to step out and take a break from the office.

Food Chain operates several carts around the city, with two on the block across the street from my office today. They offer three kinds of carts: barbeque, Caribbean, and tacos. Today I went to the taco cart, but next time I'm getting jerk at the Caribbean cart.

Observations

• I went with the three taco combo: beef barbacoa, chicken, and black bean. It's hard to rank them because they were all about the same (i.e., damn good).
• The barbacoa and black bean tacos were topped with chimichurri sauce, and the chicken was covered in "baja" sauce (whatever that means). All of them were of course topped with onions, cilantro, and hot sauce.
• The tacos were all decently spicy - not too hot but just hot enough to guarantee you'll buy a drink.
• I ate my tacos in the tiny park across the street from my office. I was quickly joined by some little finches. They beg a bit, but they are way cuter than pigeons. Yet another reason DC is cooler than NYC.

A big fan of taco shells.

(Editor's note: I should mention that Kathryn got me a HTC Droid Incredible for our anniversary. The nice camera phone will likely increase my blogging frequency. Let me know if I go overboard.)

Road Trip - West Virginia

Hitting the rapids.

This past weekend Kathryn and I, along with our DC friends Jim and Kristin, went for a great weekend getaway in West Virginia. We headed out from DC after work on Friday, which resulted in us putting up tents at 2am. Fortunately, this weekend I was able to cash in on a bunch of my underused skills like putting up tents and building campfires. We spent Saturday whitewater rafting (a first time for me!). The rivers are fairly dry in the late summer, so the trip may not have been up to its full potential. It was still one of the best weekend trips we've ever done. We took the long way home on Sunday and stopped at a bunch of random stuff in WV and VA.

Take a look....

Our campsite in the day time. Our new tent is the little one on the left.

Chilling out fireside.

Kathryn chomping down on a smore. I'm convinced that this is the reason she likes to go camping.

The four of us at the New River Gorge on the way home.

We stopped to check out the natural bridge in Natural Bridge, Virginia.

We also discovered Foamhenge, a recreation of Stonehenge (to scale) made entirely of Styrofoam. A must see American roadside treasure.

One last whitewater rafting shot. The pictures we bought didn't scan too well, unfortunately.