cherry blossoms

Birthdays and bunnies were the theme of Easter weekend. Thursday evening, after having drinks with my friend Anna and Teri, Art Director of the Wall Street Journal magazine and newspaper, I grabbed a cab to Penn Station. Due to the weeks previous events: shredding my Arkansas driver’s license and receiving an “interim license” from the state of New York, I was unable to use the Amtrak kiosk that is much quicker than the big ticket line, but with mere minutes to spare I was on my way to visit my eldest cousin, Elizabeth Searcy.

I arrived shortly after midnight on Friday, April 2. “HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIZ!!” We caught a cab, arrived at Liz’s apartment and crashed. Liz had to be at work Friday morning, but I had no obligations, so I slept. And slept some more. After getting up at nearly 2:00p.m. I got in touch with Liz and walked down towards Dupont Circle to meet her for lunch. She had to go back to work, so I took a run through the neighborhood and explored more of DC. I have not been to DC since I was 14, except for Fourth of July weekend, 2008 (but technically I was in Virginia the entire time, so it doesn’t really count).

Later that evening Liz and I met up with her friend Grace and had a birthday dinner at a little French restaurant, Bistrot Du Coin. I had the pan-seared Rockfish with a side of spinach. MMMMM!

Afterwards, we met several of Liz’s friends, picked up some wine and headed to HR-57 for the evening. It was a unanimous agreement that HR-57 is the best name for a Jazz club in DC. "HR-57 Center for the Preservation of Jazz Blues is a music cultural center. We take our name from a House Resolution first passed by congress in 1987. This resolution (H.Con.Res 57) designated jazz as 'a rare and valuable national American treasure.'"

Saturday. We got to sleep in… well, for Liz that was till 10a.m., but me, well… Liz finally made me wake up a little after 1 o’clock. What can I say, I work the graveyard shift and the lack of sleep is evident. Anyways, Saturday might have gotten a late start but we didn’t miss anything. We took the Metro down to the Mall, stopped at a cheese and sandwich shop, Cowgirl Creamery, picked up several goodies and then sat on the steps of the National Museum of Art and ate lunch, enjoying the sunshine and warm weather. Liz wanted to show me a few things in the museum so we did a quick run though before heading to see the cherry blossoms.

Elizabeth and I sitting in the indoor atrium at the National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Very cool exhibit of artists' notebooks, journals, thoughts, sketches, etc.

Put it on your bucket list… must see cherry blossoms in DC during their peak. I can promise you it is worth dodging people left and right to see the trees lining the Tidal Basin. I am happy to say that Spring has sprung and this was the perfect weekend to kick start the month of April. Liz and I walked around the Tidal Basin, snapped pictures, saw the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, the FDR Memorial, Korean War Veterans Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Veterans Memorial, as well as the Washington Monument and reflecting pool. Here are pictures from the day.

Elizabeth and I with the Jefferson Memorial in the background

A duck in the Tidal Basin

The FDR Memorial

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Our dinner that Elizabeth made - shrimp etouffee! I made the salad. We ate outside on her patio.

After eating around 11 o'clock Saturday evening we caught some zzzz's in order to wake up in time for church. We made it just in time for the 9:00 a.m. service at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church.

Overall, a great weekend with a great cousin.