The reason my mom and Jaron came up this past week was so Tony and I could have a night away to celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary. We’ve never really done much aside from go out to dinner for our anniversary, and I thought maybe this year we’d do something a little different. On a whim I texted my mom and asked if she’d be willing to come up and watch the kids while we went away and without hesitation, she said she would! I wasn’t surprised that she’d said yes, but I sure was hesitant about the whole thing once she did!
Tony and I started thinking of things to do and places to see and eventually agreed to not go too far from home for two reasons. 1) It was our first time away and we wanted to be close in case something happened (more my thing than Tony’s) and 2) we didn’t want to spend our time “away” in the car. So, we ended up booking a room at the Gaylord Hotel at the National Harbor.
We left the house after settling Dakota down for her nap around 1pm. I was nervous to leave but excited as well. We were at the hotel in about an hours time and neither of us could believe how gigantic it was! Tony said he felt under dressed just walking in!
You truly feel like you are outdoors although you’re indoors. It’s wild.
The photos below were taken from our balcony.
After dropping our things off in our room, we headed outside to explore the harbor area.
It was pretty hot out and there were tons of people milling around. There are tons of specialty shops and restaurants up and down the streets and there is a farmers market on the weekends as well. We saw a bar or two and stopped in a couple (really cool) art museum/stores.
One of the art stores had an old white mailbox that was graffitied with people’s names and such. There was a cup of sharpies nearby and I grabbed an orange one and put a little something on there too. (Tony asked me if I was sure I was allowed to do it, haha! I thought it must be why the markers were nearby…and went ahead!)
We went back to the hotel to cool off and get changed for dinner. We decided to try a place called Grace’s Mandarin. It was so cool looking from the outside and even better inside. It’s three stories high and has windows that face the water. We were lucky enough to be seated right next to a window overlooking the street below and the beautiful water.
I thought it was pretty cool when they brought me a little chair to set my purse on!
They also had these little dragon looking things that kept your silverware from sitting directly on the table. Cool, huh?
Tony and I both had a sushi appetizer (first time either of us had roe in our sushi. I didn’t like knowing I was eating it even though it had no taste…just that little crunch. yuck.) and for the main course, he had Sizzling Angus Filet Mignon and I had Hong Kong xo Shrimp. It was all delicious. Next we headed out for a ride on the giant (expensive, $15 per person) ferris wheel.
After our gondola ride, we stopped at a place called Cake Love for a cupcake. He got a red velvet, I got a chocolate ganache. They were yummy!
On the very top floor of the hotel there is a club called Pose, only open to hotel guests. We thought we’d check it out, so we headed up around 9pm and aside from us there were maybe 5 other people. It was all the way up on tlhe 18th floor and it was a really nice looking place, though I must admit I haven’t been to club in a LONG time. Tony and I ordered a drink and then went and sat outside overlooking the city. The view was gorgeous but there were spiders everywhere along the glass. I don’t mean little spiders that you might find anywhere, but giant, ugly things crawling all over the place. It was kind of creepy. We watched the fireworks from the outside balcony, took a pic of the ferris wheel all lit up, then went back downstairs to the atrium bar where we sat and talked and laughed until last call.
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