Tag: washington

National Arboretum

The most interesting part of our DC trip was the visit to the National Arboretum, specifically to their Bonsai exhibit. Vlad asked us whether we would be interested, and we said yes, but then all the plans got mixed up because of the weather, and I guess Vlad didn’t want to pressure us. We still said we wanted, and it was great! Vlad and Dylon are a lot into bonsai, and they train several bonsias on their deck. Vlad’s knowledge on the subject is really impressive and he talks about it with real passion. I learned a lot of new things from him, like the fact that most often bonsais are found in nature, and then people keep training them and guiding their development. A lot of bonsais in the Arboretum are more than a hundred years in training, and for many, the date they were discovered is unknown. Vlad explained to us the differences in bonsai styles, and which species are used most often. When he was in Japan, he was gifted a catalog of the first after-WWII bonsai exhibit, and we looked through it:).

I took a lot of pictures; I will post a small portion of them, just to demonstrate the variety of what we saw.

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What We Saw In DC

My next trip is already in progress, and I still haven’t shown everything we saw in DC, so I will be brief.

Sunday was not much better than Saturday weather-wise. It was not raining, but it was very cold, and the wind blew worse than in Chicago! We still saw a lot, but it was going like this; DYlon would drive us to a place, we would get out of the car, see around, and jump back in :).

The neighborhood where Vlad and Dylon live
The Supreme Court
The Capitol
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Rose Luxury Dinner

That was the place we had the only dinner on this trip (Friday at Silver Lyan felt very much like dinner for me, but apparently not for Vlad :), and on Sunday, Boris and I had dinner at the American Airlines lounge). Vlad was going to keep our dinner destination a secret, but accidentally sent me an email which was meant to be for Dylon :).

The full pdf of the menu is here, and here is a picture I took in the restaurant:

As you can see, that’s another level of culinary art (I can assure you that everything tasted most unusual, like you never could imagine!). Since there were four of us, Vlad ordered the whole menu, and each dish was delivered with a story that was, unfortunately, not on the menu! Vlad also ordered a wine pairing for him and me to share. Not all pictures turned out well, but most of these dishes are below:

Only a spoon of ice cream with caviar in the middle is edible, the rest is decoration:)
Surprisingly, I didn’t like desserts that much, this one it the only one I liked

The ethical question I have is whether it is acceptable to have a dinner for four for the price, which is equivalent to some people’s monthly income. Yes, that’s because Vlad gives more than 30% tips, and yes, that’s in DC where people’s income is higher than in Chicago, and yes, this was more of an art than food, but still…

National Art Gallery

To say the weather in DC was bad is not enough. It was the worst you could imagine! There was pouring rain all Saturday, so we had to change our plans and head to the museums. Unfortunately, we were not alone: everybody who came to DC for a weekend, did the same, so there were crowds everywhere.

Boris and I headed to the National Gallery of Arts. The first thing we saw there was an exhibit of German Expressionism.

“Sorrow” by Egon Schiele
“In God’s Hands”
Gramatte “Self-pportrait with wife”. It took me a while to see “a couple”

We stopped by Cauguin an Van Gogh, because you can’t pass them, and then we saw the Flemish collection.

“An Old WOman Dozing over a Book” seems very familiar 🙂

Unfortunately, the side effect of all museums in DC being free is the requirement to get passes in advance, and since we didn’t plan for it, we couldn’t get into many of them. Once again, something for the next time!

Two Breakfast Places In DC

I know, I know… but when it’s about Vlad, it’s inevitably about good food :). And I still have one more food-related post in the making :).

I loved both breakfast places we’ve been, both the food and the aesthetics.

Silver Lyan

On Friday night, shortly after arrival, we went downstairs to Silver Lyan bar to see Vlad at work. Last time when we were in DC, he were in Silver Lyan for Hanami, and I wanted to see how it is during it’s “regular operations.” Most importantly, it was a chance to see Vlad doing “his thing,” which always tells about him more than anything else. So we went there, and it was pretty amazing. Now, that Vlad is not in Chicago, I do not have chances to try his cocktails that often and I almost forgot what an extraordinary experience it is! Each cocktail has it’s story (and Vlad told me that they write the stories first and then they figure out how to “make it happen.” He promest to give me the pdfs of all of these stories (I didn’t take the menu pictutures), so at this moment, images only.

Nimbus Spritz
(Bacardí Carta Blanca, carrot mead, mushroom caramel, spruce, White Lyan water, clay “champagne”)
Air Bee n Bee (Patrón blanco, almond blossom, hay-smoked bee larvae, mango vinegar, Mosel riesling)
Salmon Cannon (alcohol-free version)
Porter’s Tropical Old Tom, birchwood booch, douglas fir, ‘pink’ tea
Lychee Martini
(Roku gin, lychee sherbet, elderflower shochu,
black grape)
Silver Service Martini
(Fords gin, served 50:50 with Dolin vermouth
with oyster, olive, house-pickled onion and lemon)

Actually, I just realised that I didn’t take a picture of the cocktail I liked most – the one which Vlad made when he was in Tokio – Lychee Martini with elderflower shochu. And to be clear – Vlad made a mini-version of each of the cocktails for me, so that I could taste several (and I still didn’t finish even mini-versions).

All the different foods we tried during these two days of stay ended were great, and unfortunately, the rest of our agenda was severely affected by the weather. it was pouring rain on Saturday, and bitterly cold and windy on Sunday, so things went not exactly as planned, although I we still did a lot and talked a lot 🙂

DC: Riggs Hotel

We are in DC, visiting Vlad and Dylon and staying at the Riggs hotel: second time for me, first time for Boris, and also, that’s his first visit to DC in general. Unfortunately, it’s the worst possible weather, so our today’s plans were already altered, but it’s still great to be there!

Not only we got special “friends and family” rate, but we were also upgraded to Jiniour Suite
Special upgrade:)
The gym is gigantic, and nobody is there on Saturday morning!

Monday And Tuesday In DC

I just realized that I didn’t post my National Gallery post when I wrote it, and that’s probably because I already started to get sick and didn’t pay much attention. I think it’s mostly because I hit the point of not being able to cope with multiple things happening in the world and the way they affect people close to me, also because I had several days in a row with very little sleep. I slept eight hours last night, but it is not enough to compensate. Unfortunately, I have a big project to complete over the weekend, and I have no idea how I will be able to accomplish this.

On a brighter note, a little bit about the past Monday and Tuesday.

These are the days that Vlad has off. He spends them catching up on sleep, but he is alive and awake in the evening, and we spent both evenings at Vlad’s and Dylon’s place. Vlad and Dylon taught us to play mahjong, and everybody, including Nadia, loved it.

Igor found a refuge in the local library
Vlad is showing to us his favorite tree

I also really liked their place; it’s different from what they had in Chicago, but nevertheless.

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An Afternoon Tea At Mandarin Oriental

Vlad worked at the Mandarin Oriental hotel for the first three months in DC. During his tenure there, he designed the Sakura Pink Empress Afternoon Tea, also cherry-blossom-themed. He could secure only four tickets for Sunday, so he, Anna, Nadia, and I went.

I think that that’s one of the cases when “a picture’s worth a thousand words,” so I am going to show the tea menu (each of us selected their own tea, and Nadia got a kid version of the menu, and she also had a sparkling juice).

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National Museum Of Natural History

Sunday was our big museum day – we spent a half of it in the National Museum of Natural History.

One of only two moai in the US
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