Birthday Staycation

We celebrated my birthday this weekend! G typically plans some sort of getaway. This birthday, he told me to pack for a very casual weekend. I knew that we'd probably go somewhere within driving distance because of the baby. I thought we'd go to either the Homestead or Charlottesville.  

It was hilarious: we did a staycation of sorts. He planned a weekend around a formal farewell to DC! 

But before that, we had a little happy hour at our neighbors' house Friday night after work, where he surprised me and Renee (the new neighbor who's birthday it was the weekend before) with cupcakes and Champagne. David (the new neighbor's husband, and of course, also our new neighbor) had invited us, unbeknownst to me, over for drinks. G turned it into a celebration. It was cute and a great way to get to know our neighbors just a little bit more.

So back to the weekend getaway: That Saturday, when we pulled up to the Park Hyatt in the West End neighborhood, right above Georgetown, I giggled. To me it was funny because we live only 12 miles outside the center of the city, but a world away. And as many of you know, I was loathe to move from our downtown place back in February. I wasn't really quite ready to say goodbye. But of course now, I'm in love with our new home and the life we're building in the suburbs.

So Saturday afternoon we got into town, dropped off the luggage at the hotel and walked to Cady's Alley, a cute little design district within Georgetown. Our destination was Kafe Leopold, one of my all time favorite lunch/brunch places. It's styled after an Austrian cafe with great desserts (yes, Lindsor tortes) and a really clean, contemporary and smart yet casual atmosphere. It's also very popular, so we waited in the alley and took some photos. It was a perfect Fall day, cool, sunny and crisp.

We're a fan of alleys!

Father and son (and Glow Worm)

Kafe Leopold

Lunch

Champers and Chardonnay

I always celebrate with fries

Two of my favorite things rolled into one: Foie gras gougeres! That is, puff pastries stuffed with duck liver!

So incredibly decadent--the gougeres were light and airy and the foie gras was melt-in-your-mouth smooth and creamy

A walk through Georgetown

The mod-country decor of our room

An industrial meets spa meets farm house bath

Can you believe this shower ROOM?

Little portable crib...

...with a gift of Baby Burt's Bees--nice touch, hotel!

Mr. Delicious being a boy--he's really good at standing up and walking alongside furniture (and grabbing things along the way)

Uh oh!

Delicious cheese, crackers and compote...another little amenity from the hotel...

...along with complementary Champagne!

...and simple flowers!

That evening, we had dinner at the Blue Duck Tavern, the fantastic hotel restaurant. Years ago, we had dinner there for my birthday, and it was just as fantastic as I remembered. It's a take on country cuisine, lots of red, braised meat, Southern-inspired sides like collard greens and grits (polenta) all done up.

Of course, we also brought our own wine, including this Cab from Hendry vineyards in Napa, which we visited last year.

The relative calm before the storm...

We pushed the envelope in terms of Delicious' bedtime

It was tough trying to have a nice dinner while occupying a tired 10-month old. The sous chef in the open kitchen helped by dicing up some apple for the baby

Unfortunately, Delicious hasn't really mastered eating solid foods, and gagged at the small bite of apple...and threw up all over G's shirt. Good thing we were staying in the hotel. He went up and changed and returned to enjoy the dinner.

I started with Little Neck clams

My main dish was the most beautifully done, medium rare Muscovy duck with quince. To die for.

The splendid Fall meal was very well complimented by a lightly smokey-sweet side of collard greens and blue cheese polenta.

We had to take turns eating and walking Delicious around. Again, we were really pushing the envelope in terms of his schedule. I opted to eat half of my meal and the rest was sent up to the room. As we were hurriedly packing our stuff to go to our room, pastry chef, Peter Brett, came to our table to ask how things were going and to see if we were going to have any dessert. We couldn't, but told him everything was amazing. Well, when room service delivered the rest of our meal, it came with a tin of warm sugar cookies from Chef Brett. So thoughtful!

Sweets from Chef Peter Brett

The next morning, G and Delicious gave me some alone time and went for a walk as I did some yoga. Nice that the hotel provides a mat and dvds!

In-room yoga

Then we walked to Adams Morgan and met up with our old neighbors at another one of our favorite haunts: The Diner.

Our neighbors from the old neighborhood, Generous Jen and Eric

And Baby S--who's no longer a baby! She knows how to do 'cheers' and clink glasses/sippy cups!

Delicious' first kiss from a girl (who's not related to him or older than 35)

A gift of chocolates from Jen and family...perfect since they're from one of the neighborhood chocolate shops: ACKC.

 After breakfast, we took a leisurely stroll along U Street, near our old home and browsed two great vintage furniture and home stores: Good Wood (I love it! And purchased some repro apothecary jars) and Miss Pixie's (which is actually on 14th Street--around the corner from our old house on R Street--and where I picked up a vintage escargot dish which I plan on using as a dish to hold the kitchen sponge).

A display at Good Wood

So much is changing and developing in the old neighborhood, and on our street in particular! They're building new condos and repurposing an old Verizon building. Kind of sad to see life move on (so quickly) without us!

Our old street is almost unrecognizable with all the new construction

We went back to the hotel and Delicious helped me open my gift...some boots!

Helping me open my present (aka, eating string)

Later that night, we returned to 14th street to try out the new restaurant, Pearl Dive, an oyster PALACE. Did you know that oysters, fries, and Champagne are my all-time favorite treat combination? I had it at my bachelorette outing, and it's what I wanted for my birthday. So it was perfect that Jen had mentioned the place at breakfast that morning, and also perfect in keeping with our Farewell to DC theme (out with the old: us, and in with the new: the oyster palace). It was a great birthday, low key, leisurely, and very sweet. Eating my favorite foods, bidding a fond farewell to our old lives, and spending quality time with my favorite guys. I couldn't ask for more!

My two best guys

A very sweet birthday