Sushi, Gin & Tonics, Grilled Cheese

I hope it's true that April showers bring May flowers because the showers are starting early. After meeting my long time friend and witnessing many inches of her tresses fall to the salon floor we headed out on the town.

We were totally up for trying a new spot for dinner but somehow walked straight to our favorite sushi spot. At Tono Sushi we were challenged by the guy sitting next to us to out sushi him and we did! Can you say spicy crunchy tuna, spicy crunchy shrimp, dragon, yellowtail with scallions rolls with two pieces of tuna, and two pieces of eel to follow...eat that Mr. Sushi Lightweight. The night was still young and my friend wanted to venture towards a Gin bar. "You'll have to pace yourself", she warned.

Lucky for us the bar had a G&T tasting for only $14. The bartender paired various botanical distilled gins with the perfect tonics. Who knew there is such a science to making a perfect G&T? As we worked our way through sampling MANY different gins I reminisced about my strange tonic water habit that developed in elementary school. "I'm not afraid of tonic" I announced to the bartender who warned of the high quinine content of his imported tonic. Our gin excursion left us ready for a midnight snack.

We headed next door to a 24 hour eatery and munched on grilled cheese sandwiches. Just one question- Is it presumptuous for a waitress to keep a $7 tip for a $13 check? We thought so. Clearly she didn't because she never returned with my change.

Despite the presumptuous waitress the night was filled with delicious fun that I shared with one of my BFF's.

TGIF $1M

Where can you go to stand next to a stack of $1M dollars? This first Friday of Spring found me headed to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing where I did just that. Why not be a tourist in your own city? Kid 1, Kid 2, and I managed to snag 10:00 tour tickets and unsuccessfully tried to redeem them at 9:15 and 9:30 (we spend a lot of time waiting next to the $1M). After touring where our paper currency is printed and my purchase of a gigantic fake penny we were hungry.

We began walking across the mall leaving the cherry blossoms fading in our tracks. Kid 1 was craving a big slab of flesh and his vegetarian momma directed them towards Fuddrucker's in Chinatown. After feasting on "the best cheeseburger eva" Kid 1 was truly feeling himself and announced that we could rent Segways and really act like tourists.

Fortunately for me eleven year olds can't rent Segways. Keeping true to our $1M theme we headed to Georgetown. Kid 2 browsed in every women's shoe store she could find (she's only six). Kid 1 had bigger plans, he needed to find a Gucci or Louis Vuitton store to find out how much a wallet costs. Our only purchase- a kite!

Just another day in the nation's capitol...