a day in dc: national cathedral, hillwood estate & thai food in cleveland park.

hello!

despite all the rest and naps, coming out of three-day weekends is always a little tough. i have been trying to get back into my usual routine since 6 am today but i've had no luck. i think i have to take it slow especially with this muggy, hot weather that is now upon us {definitely not complaining though. i choose this over cold and snow any day!}. 

i had mentioned on friday how we had planned a mini road trip for the weekend. we were all excited to go to lancaster, pa, but at the last minute that excitement kind of fizzled. the 2.5 hour trip just seemed a bit too daunting and so we decided to spend saturday in dc exploring a couple of places we haven't been before - the washington national cathedral and the hillwood estate museum & gardens. since we both like to kind of wander off on our own, we opted to self-tour both places instead of using the guided tours. 

 // the shadows and lighting in this cathedral were all sorts of amazing. // 

after the national cathedral, we decided to walk over to the hillwood estate {big mistake!}. i think going to the hillwood estate is best by car. we did meet some other poor blokes {like us} who probably thought walking over would be just fine and dandy - it really isn't. unfortunately the nearest metro {van ness stop} is also a bit far off so some folks may have no choice but to walk. getting there is a bit hilly, goes through residential areas that are so quiet it almost seemed a little creepy and the side walk cuts off on one side at one point. wasn't really my idea of a nice walk, but once we got there, the pretty gardens on the grounds of the estate made up for what the walk getting here didn't. 

 // there were so many pretty chandeliers all over the mansion. // 

 // i mean what if these paintings talked like they did in harry potter. kinda creepy but neat at the same time, no? // 

on our way back to our car near the national cathedral we stopped by the siam house in cleveland park and after much debating on whether we should try something new or not, we went with our usual favorites - tom yum soup, panang curry chicken and chicken pad thai. oh i can just have them again right now. 

right after our wedding, we couldn't go on our honeymoon right away and instead did a quick three-day getaway to washington d.c. {from new york where we were living at the time}. we packed the day in with so much sight-seeing that our legs felt wobbly at the end of the day. but it was a good wobbly feeling. i wanted to recreate something similar because i'm all about nostalgia and while it wasn't quiet the same, it felt pretty good. 

we had wanted to actually visit two more places before going home but we decided to make a stop at georgetown cupcake {and wait nearly an hour} and headed over to piri's friend hiro's house in the evening. doggy play dates are kind of the cutest thing if you ask me.