Last weekend Alli and I traveled to Washington, DC, to celebrate her birthday and meet some good friends.  We had a blast, and I wanted to write down a quick recap of the key places and things we enjoyed, if only for future reference.

We stayed at the Hotel Monaco and really liked it.  The location is good, the service excellent, the room size and decor great.  No complaints, really.  This was the second Kimpton hotel we’ve liked in a row, after the Muse in Times Square.

We had a romantic dinner at OYA, a modern Japanese restaurant / lounge.  The place is stunningly gorgeous, modern, white, candles, fires, open kitchen behind a cascading waterfall, etc.  You have to see it to appreciate it, as even the pictures on their web site don’t do it justice.  Service was pretty good, the sake selection very good, and the food reasonable.  Not amazing, food-wise, but interesting and tasty.  This place is worth visiting just to have a drink at the bar and enjoy the decor.

Later that night we had drinks at POV (as in “Point of View”) the root terrace and lounge on top of the W Hotel.  This is definitely a Euro-style “see and be seen” type of place, but we don’t mind that at all.  In fact, we often enjoy that aspect 😉  A big part of the attraction here is the view from the roof terrace, which is open in the summer (and still was open when we were there), covering the White House two blocks away, and other DC monuments.  Very expensive drinks, but fun.

The next day we had a delicious and fun brunch at Co Co. Sala, also nearby.  It was honestly tough to choose from the amazing menu, and our waiter was friendly.  We met up with our friends Kevin and Maja for brunch, and hung out with them for much of the afternoon.  Here the food was delicious, and the drink selection excellent.

That evening we had dinner with a bunch of Harvard Kennedy School alumni at Siroc, a small Italian trattoria.  The food was really good, and the conversation even better.

Of the monuments and tourist attractions, I really liked the Library of Congress and the Air and Space Museum.  We also had a fun time just walking around the National Mall, observing Ultimate Frisbee games, and hanging out.  We were fortunate to have awesome, sunny, warm weather for the whole weekend.

All in all, a great long weekend trip 😉  Happy birthday, koukla…