Final Moments in the Capital - Washington DC

Day 3

The last day at Washington DC saw us going our separate ways, only to meet again in Boston later in the evening. Andre went off for his morning flights, while the rest of us headed to the Eastern Market for breakfast.

Eastern Market

The Eastern Market, like most markets, is where you can get all your basic produces, including your meats and vegetables, fruits and cheese. Personally, I'm not too sure if the prices there are actually cheaper than most, but its definitely a place worth visiting regardless if you are staying or visiting DC.

Take a walk down Eastern Market

Besides groceries, DC's oldest communal market also serves as a venue for periodical flea markets. From time to time, the outside space will be converted to host Art & Crafts vendors, food vendors or even flower vendors. Check out their schedule on their website before going to see whats going on.

Read on to find out what we had at the Eastern Market

A museum exhibit worthy of this place

At one end of the market lies the small little bistro where we had our breakfast. Choosing was pretty easy - the weekday menu only offers the basic Eggs, French Toast, Pancakes, Breakfast Meats and Sandwiches. After that, we have to choose our sides (Potatoes or Grits) and beverages. Lastly, they have the lovely crab cakes up for selections too.

Breakfast time

I ordered the 2 Eggs (Scrambled) with a side of Grits and added Crab Cake. Let's start from the best - the Crab Cake. Lovely stuff, though a little underwhelming at first (especially if you are expecting a rich taste of seafood) but when I got to the core, the crab taste blended so well with the other ingredients. I want one more!!!

My breakfast set

The eggs itself was a little disappointing. It was a "scrambled" as I would have liked it to be. In fact, it looked more like a chopped up omelet rather than scramble eggs. The taste was still fine though. The worse of the lot - Grits! Alright, I have to admit that its very unfair for me to pass judgement like that, simply because I absolutely hate grits. So don't take my word for it and try it yourself. 

Dawn's breakfast set

Dawn ordered a similar set but with a different style of eggs and added the Bacon instead of Crab Cakes. The Bacon was salty and crispy, which goes to show it's a well-cooked bacon.

With most of us ordering eggs, Yaofeng took a different route and ordered Pancakes. Though it was a fluffy heavenly experience (the one I had at Clinton's) but it was still pretty fluffy and tasty. Only thing - they didn't have honey or jam to go with the pancakes.

Pancakes anyone?

Overall, it was a hit-and-miss breakfast for us. The Crab Cakes and bacon were pretty awesome but the grits and eggs didn't really match up to our expectations. I'll still recommend a visit to this bistro though as I'm pretty sure this bistro has more than just grits and eggs. 

Visit them at 225 7th Street SE, Washington, DC 20003 or at the website here.

After breakfast, I left the group as I wanted to further explore the museums in DC (the others wanted to walk around town). Making use of the free entrance fee for the Smithsonian Museums, I revisited the National Museum of American History and continued exploring the American War section. Here are some snippets of the exhibition.

Outside the National Museum of American History

Civil War Exhibition

Vietnam War

After the history museum, I could still manage some time to visit another museum. So I decided to take a peek into the Natural History Museum to watch one of their 3-D films. Comparing this museum to the New York counterpart is inevitable. For me, I prefer the DC ones as the exhibits are more spaced out, giving the museum goers more "breathing space" when moving around. On top of that, the lightings for the DC museums is so much better, making the experience less gloomy. In terms of exhibits, I managed to catch more exhibits here as most of the exhibits are actually opened (more than 50% was closed when I was in New York), so naturally, I would have preferred DC.

T-Rex

Mastadons

Early Humans

Predator & prey

The Natural History Museum turned out to be the last highlight of the Washington DC leg of the trip. We met back at our apartment and headed to the Reagan airport to meet up with Andre at our next destination - Boston.

Stay tuned for more on the wonderful selection of Boston's lobster and Clam Chowder.

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