A Birthday in DC

Dave was working in Washington DC for a couple of weeks and the weekend in the middle happened to be both his birthday and prime cherry blossom season.

So it was perfect for a weekend exploring the capital city.

I arrived off the megabus bus (which is equally miserable here as in the UK - note to self) at 8pm on Friday night just in time for birthday cocktails and an amazing meal. 

The view above was the first thing you see when you leave the station.

Whilst NY was only just beginning to show signs of life after a never-ending winter in DC it felt like Spring.

Since I'd never been before we had to tick off most of the big tourist sights. 

I loved seeing all the Presidential memorials and so many familiar sights from films and, of course, The West Wing (which I am now even more desperate to re-watch)

{Lincoln Memorial and sight of Martin Luther King's speech at the March on Washington}.

{Obligatory shots with Washington Monument in background, including scaffolding}

We actually just missed peak cherry blossom bloom (and were put off by the huge crowds) but still enjoyed a walk round the famous tidal basin 

{White House! And chocolate milkshake!}

{Library of Congress}

I definitely want to go back. The things we liked most were that all the museums were free (like London and very much unlike NYC). 

We managed to fit in a couple in our quick weekend but we really want to visit in winter and just do museums. 

Also the architecture was so different from New York and definitely felt more southern. 

We loved walking around Georgetown and the Capital District looking at all the amazing houses and old historic streets. 

Montreal

We recently had a wonderful, chilly long weekend reunion with our favourite Frenchies in Montreal. 

It was my first time to Canada and I really liked it but also generally felt a bit confused by the combination of North American, British and (in Montreal at least) French influences.

We stayed in a great studio apartment in the Plateau district surrounded by hundreds of restaurants, shops, bars and coffee places that even passed the Dave coffee taste-test.

So of course there was plenty of eating and drinking to be done...

Including one of the best brunches I think I've ever eaten (sorry New York!)

Montreal's most famous bagels (I'm really not enough of a connoisseur to weigh in on the fierce New York vs. Montreal bagel rivalry...)

And Montreal's speciality - Poutine. Which does taste better than it looks. But not that much better...

We even managed to have coffee from our favourite place three times - a surefire way to feel like a local!

Other than that we did a lot of walking and exploring including McGill University, Mont Royal, the Modern Art Museum, the Botanics, Old Montreal, Olympic Park and the old pier. I didn't realise till we got there how much we needed a little break from NYC but it was perfect timing.

Everything was a bit quiet and we got the sense people had started going into hibernation mode. 

I'd love to go back in summer.

Frequent lonely planet/map stops as always!