Another Day with the 'Rents

We enjoyed a sunny but very windy day today, and now my allergies are yelling at me. But it was another good day for the parental visit. I had some personal things to take care of this morning, so Mom and Dad took off on their own and did a great job seeing the city on foot. They walked from Rhode Island Ave down to the Washington Monument and the WWII Memorial. They took lots of pictures to send to my Mom's father. He's not all that lucid anymore, and apparently he often thinks he's 18 and in the Pacific again. He treats the nurses at his assisted living facility like he's a teenager, at least. But hopefully he'll like the pictures of the Memorial and the tribute to Indiana's veterans. Then they walked to Union Station, which is no small feat. (on their small feet!) Mom and Dad collect the little flags of every country they've ever been to, so they love that little shop that's in Union Station. Then they walked over to Gallery Place to meet me for lunch.

I'll give you 2 restaurant reviews today.... first up is La Tasca, a tapas place in all of that new development on 7th Street. This is now my 3rd time eating lunch there in October, which is funny considering I'd never been there before. It's a good place - I love tapas, and it seems to be cheaper and more casual than Jaleo. I had my favorite, the sauteed spinach w/ raisins and pine nuts, plus the patats bravas, the sauteed mushrooms, and about 1/2 of a little plate of the chicken & seafood paella. Mom had similar stuff, except a lamb casserole thing instead of the potatoes. Dad had all seafood - mussels and calamari (both turning into a theme for this trip) and some shrimp thing. We all really liked our choices and I give 2 thumbs up on the food. The service was also great. The last 2 times I was there it was with big groups of coworkers and the service was a little slower, but we were admittedly more difficult groups. We had a different server this time and she was great, chatting with us and checking in, telling us about her driving trip across-country. She was fun. My only criticism is about the seating. We were at one of the tables that was on a bench on one side, covered with big fluffy pillows. Those fluffy pillows are cute, but not all that comfy to sit on/against to eat. I moved the one off of my back and then was pretty far from the back of the bench. It wasn't *uncomfortable* per se, but I didn't love the pillowiness. But La Tasca has definitely made it onto my list of go-to restaurants, so hopefully we'll check it out again soon. I bet it would be great on a movie night with some of their sangria specials. Shall we?

We spent the afternoon - aka the time between meals - going on a tour where I work. I'm not ready to share where I work with the blog world, so I'll keep you in suspense. But TP was kind enough to give us a personal tour and he was a big hit. Thanks for taking the time, Mom and Dad really loved it. By the time we finished, Mom and Dad were getting tired from all of their walking so we had some quality sitting time both at the Navy Memorial and at the Olsson's cafe.

Then we decided to take advantage of the beautiful sunny day and headed over to Georgetown. Dinner was at Tony & Joe's, the seafood place that's on the left at Washington Harbour. Or is it Harbor? Did they pretend to be British? My parents had been talking about how excited they were to be back on the East Coast to get some good seafood so they loved the menu. I would describe this place as a "safe" restaurant. There were at least 2 big groups (like they came on a bus) of older people, and this is totally a place for good "old people food." Nothing too spicy or exotic, nothing too hard to digest. Lots of seafood, some other meat, potatoes, soup, salads. Everything's good, of course, but again I'd call it safe. And everyone's meal was pretty good. I had a grilled tuna steak and the mixed veggie side. Plus I started with a shrimp cocktail, which is a family joke since I've loved them my entire life and always get them when my parents are paying. The shrimp were super-duper jumbo, and that was exciting, but the cocktail sauce was fairly mild. I could've gone for a little spicier. The tuna was good but a little soggy. I couldn't figure out why a grilled tuna steak would be soggy. And the veggies came with an herb butter that was good. Mom had red snapper and the veggies, and she liked it. And Dad had the New England clam chowder and the broiled seafood platter. My father never met a platter he didn't like. It had scallops and shrimp and tilapia and something else. Overall, the food was decent but a little bland. My usual taste is for something with more flavor and pizzazz. I do recommend Bangkok Joe's, which is right off of K Street in the Washington Harbour place. It's got great Thai food. Some of my friends had a bad tummy experience there, but I've always really loved it.

That's all for now -- tomorrow it's back to the Mall for more museums. I like this tourist gig!