I’m behind on dozens of trip reports and hoping I can use some of December to get caught up. In the last few months, I’ve been to Istanbul, Singapore, London, Stockholm, Tokyo, Taipei, Houston, Phoenix, and Minneapolis among other destinations . I’d planned to write a trip report for each, but have failed to make the time. In January I head to Las Vegas for CES early in the month and then to Finland and Salt Lake City later in the month. I hope to finish some of these past trip reports before these next ones come and go – though they might not be as robust as I had originally imagined. Rather than dividing them into multiple posts, I might just summarize them across one or two posts.
While it is fresh on my mind, and a relatively short trip to chronicle, I wanted to write about our overnight in Washington, DC. Yesterday we had a quasi-staycation in the city. For many years it has been a family tradition to see the trains at the National Botanical Gardens and we decided to wrap the tradition into a night in the city.
Earlier in the year, I participated in Starwood’s (second quarter?) promotion where upon ten nights, you were awarded one free weekend night. Over the promotional period I had exactly 10 stays across Starwood properties. I had nearly forgotten about it and ultimately I actually redeemed the free weekend night on the last possible day. While I looked first at the St. Regis (naturally), the promotion was limited to category 5 hotels which ruled out the St. Regis. I ended up booking the W which was ideal for our plans.
The Washington DC W began life in 1917 as the Hotel Washington. Famous for its proximity to the White House and its rooftop terrace which provided the backdrop for “The Godfather: Part II” and other movies. We arrived at the W at around 7:30PM. We just missed hot cider in the lobby which technically ended at 7PM and was being cleared when we noticed it. Late last month, I hit my 25th stay of the year at a Starwood property which elevated my to Platinum status. As a result we were upgraded to a suite. Our suite – room 1020 – was the corner suite overlooking 15th and F streets. We overlooked the Treasury Building to the East and could see the roof of the White House. We could also see the National Christmas Tree – the proximity to which was one of our motivating factors for picking the W.
I was a bit apprehensive to take my kids to the W because it isn’t a hotel were one frequently sees many kids. However, another family was checking-in in front of us and I saw other families in the lobby as well as spoke to a father who stayed at the hotel the same night as we did with his son while his wife took care of last minute Christmas items. Several of the kids I saw were wearing clothing for DC sports teams suggesting some of these other families were local and doing quasi-staycations as well.
A few minutes after arriving in our room, the doorbell rang and our welcome amenity arrived. While I always appreciate the gesture, as someone who doesn’t drink I’m always slightly disappointed when given wine or some other alcoholic beverage. As the photo shows though – milk and cookies were the perfect amenity for this trip. Kudos to the W and to whomever made this perfect call. I spend a fair amount of my life traveling, but the rest of family obviously doesn’t travel as much so traveling is still a novelty for them. This set the perfect tone for the entire stay.
After enjoying our milk and cookies we walked over to the National Christmas tree for a moment. The kids weren’t ecstatic about this and even tried to argue against it by suggesting we didn’t need to go see it since we could see it out our room window, but once we got out and walked over they enjoyed seeing the trains circling the tree and trying to throw pennies into the train cars. Afterwards we headed back to the room and the boys then proceeded to turn the bath/shower area into a giant indoor pool – to make up for the lack of a pool at the hotel. We closed out the night by watching Arthur Christmas and drinking hot chocolate in the living area.
In the morning we forewent breakfast at the hotel – though I’ve had steaks at J&G Steakhouse and would recommend it. Instead I took the family to Market Lunch at Eastern Market. We were planning to go to Ted’s Bulletin at Barrack’s Row for homemade pop tarts but it was closed upon arrival. Almost all of the restaurants along Barrack’s Row were closed as well so we opted for Eastern Market. When my wife and I first moved back to DC we spend many weekends looking at houses in the district and especially in the Capitol Hill area where we would frequently grab breakfast at Market Lunch however we’ve only been back a few times in the last few years.
The Market Lunch – together with all of Eastern Market – is a classic DC landmark. It is even better after the rebuilding that took place after the fire a few years ago and Market Lunch is still the anchor attraction. The menu is scratched out in white chalk on the chalkboards that hang over the line which can stretch 50+ deep on a given weekend morning as it weaves between the food counter and the raised family-style table and stools. There are literally hundreds of profiles written about this cash-only establishment and nothing I write here will add to that which has already been written.
Despite it being a Monday, Market Lunch was serving their weekend menu which meant Eggs Benedict. My wife ordered The Crab Cake Ben with grits. While I found the abundance of hollandaise sauce a bit excessive the menu name is fitting because the giant serving of crab cake really made it crab cake first and Eggs Benedict second. The grits were mixed with hot sauce and something else I believe which made them some of the best grits I’ve had. I’ m not a huge grits fan – they can be truly hit or miss and when they are miss they are either excessively dry or excessively salty. These grits were creamy with just the right amount of flavor – even sans the dollop of butter they added to the top.
I consider myself a sort of Eggs Benedict connoisseur and try them frequently when traveling. I even once considered starting a blog dedicated to Eggs Benedicts from around the world. When traveling I often get to try the “local approach” to Eggs Benedict, but I’ve never seen Eggs Benedict with fried green tomatoes so I ordered the Fried Green Tomatoes Ben. Here again I found the abundance of hollandaise sauce to be too much and I found it lacking in the robust flavor I’ve had in other places, but the fried green tomatoes with the Eggs Benedict was a great combination. Neither of our orders were served with bacon nor ham as I recall, but I also didn’t find that lacking. It is also worth noting the use of large fresh rolls as opposed to English Muffins. They had sold out of french toast so my older two boys split a full order of buttermilk pancakes while my youngest (and perhaps biggest eater) had two eggs, potatoes, and bacon before finishing out the remaining pancakes. A perfect breakfast following a great stay.
