Adventures: This Past Sunday

Over the weekend, my friend from college came to visit. This is the friend who I always seem to get into the most random "adventures" with. For example, making jello without a measuring cup. Eating ice cream while walking home in the snow. Frantically paddling a canoe about 15 yards from shore and being almost sure we wouldn't make it back with the canoe right side up. Watching Toy Story and seeing all the physics. (Trust me, there's a lot) These stories will all eventually get their own posts before I forget the details, but about this weekend...




We decided to make the trek into DC after church. The plan was to pick up a quick bite to eat and walk around. Well, the weather was absolutely gorgeous. Sunny blue skies with the occasional wispy white cloud. Slightly cool with a gentle breeze. However, I didn't realize this, but the normally bustling L'Enfant area is an absolute ghost town at least on Daylight Savings Sunday right around noon. And there is nothing to eat. After wandering around a bit, we came up with the brilliant idea of grabbing something small at the McDonald's in the Air and Space Museum to tide us over until we could get food in Chinatown. We took the long way round to the Air and Space Museum. And when we got there, we wandered around a bit on the outside trying to figure out if there's a way to get into the McDonald's without going through the museum. (There isn't.) But soon, we'd had a little bit of food and were ready to walk to Chinatown.

Well, we said our goal was to get some walking in, and did we indeed. We wandered up and down all two blocks of Chinatown looking for some restaurant that looked okay from the outside. We thought about how the Chinese name for Chipotle could be longer than the English one. We went through the highly decorative Chinatown gate. Multiple times. We nearly got showered with melting ice that slid off of a roof. My dad had told me there was a decent restaurant with lions in front so we went looking for it. No lions were to be found in Chinatown. Eventually, we ended up deciding that grabbing Chinese food shouldn't be our objective in Chinatown. We considered Shake Shack but the line was out the door. Still, we were hesitant to settle for Chipotle after making the trip all the way into DC. After crossing the same street a couple of times, we ended up at ShopHouse. Which we found out after the fact is basically Chipotle but with a different set of spices. The irony of it all. Either way, we definitely achieved one of our objectives - walking around DC. More specifically, walking in circles around various blocks right around Chinatown. :)

As of this past Sunday, I have now significantly expanded my mental map of Chinatown and promise not to wander around in circles if you'd like to go with me. I can tell you where Shake Shack, Fuddruckers, Chipotle, McDonald's, ShopHouse, and Dunkin Donuts are located. Unfortunately, I still cannot take you to a good Chinese restaurant...