friends weekend in the city

Hi! Are you out there? I guess I haven't been the best at actually staying on top of this space, but it was a long 14 days straight of working. Thankfully, it all ended with a fantastic weekend with two of my best friends. Now, I'm laid up in bed sick today, catching up on television wishing it was still the weekend!

Since we're from Ohio, it was basically mandatory that we don our scarlet and gray and cheer on the Buckeyes this weekend in Maryland. Let me just say, it was a great day to welcome the Terps to the Big Ten. Well, great for us anyway.

The picture that actually made it to the OSU Athletic's official Facebook page

We had great seats to watch Ohio State easily win 52-24 and met some great Buckeye fans in the process. 

Among the highlights of the day those has to be  of our third string quarterback straight up hurdling a Maryland player on a 17 yard run. It happened right in front of us and my only regret is that I don't have the power to rewind real-time and video tape it. It was that awesome. Thankfully though there's Vine and other people who got it on television. Let's just say that Cardale Jones found some flubber for his shoes for this move. 

Maryland was a beautiful campus...and that's about where I'll leave it when speaking about Terp town because my mom always taught me if you don't have anything nice to say then don't say it at all. Okay well I will say this - for any Maryland fans that plan on going to Ohio next year for the game, I probably wouldn't shout "special ed" when we do an O-H-I-O chant around the stadium. It's rude, insensitive, and just down right moronic. Just because we beat you doesn't mean you have to devolve to that form of human when we rightfully claim our spot on your stadium. Or then mockingly ask a parking attendant if it's okay to run us over as you leave the parking garage. Let's just say it felt pretty good to beat you after all of that. 

Anyway, after a great win on a beautiful day, we headed off to my favorite town, Annapolis for the night. 

My favorite boutique, Brown Eyed Girl, quoting one of my favorite shows as a teen - One Tree Hill

 I will never, ever, EVER tire of this view

After a quick change in the car (Ohio State beat Navy in the first game of the season) we walked around town and ended up at my favorite tea salon, the Reynolds Tavern - a place I will fully detail soon...ish, and then at Acme Bar - apparently the place a lot of Navy kids hang out at to watch football. I think it perfectly summed us up, a spot of ladylike tea and then beers at a rowdy bar surrounded by TVs with football. 

The downside was about ten minutes after being in the car on the way to Annapolis, my throat started to hurt and I got a raging headache with no medicine to take. Then it just spiraled down into a full blown sinus infection. My body was apparently not on the same page my social life was on. 

Even though I felt terrible Sunday, there was no time to rest! Everyone was leaving that night so we squeezed in some time in the city. 

 Friends who selfie with presidents together, stay friends forever

First we spent some time in my favorite museum, the National Portrait Gallery/American Art Museum. They have a great new mini series of portraits of famous people during the 60s - if only you could take pictures! I've found my new favorite portrait. It's of Julie Andrews by John Koch and it really is practically perfect in every way. 

 Then we went over to the National Gallery of Art to catch the only Leonardo da Vinci painting in America - the Ginevra de' Benci. I still don't know how I've been there twice and missed this, but that's why you bring an art major with you to museums. You learn all kinds of things! 

With me fading quickly and my throat aching, we made a pit stop to Pitango's gelato shop. Amanda wanted ice cream all weekend, Anne found it on Urban Spoon, and I savored it as all meds failed. It was a great team effort! By the way, the black tea paired with milk and honey gelato is heaven. 

We had time for one last place and headed off to Ford's Theater and the house where Lincoln died, something I haven't done yet and then it was sadly time to drop Anne off at Union Station so she could get back to Philly. 

It was a great weekend full of laughs and great times and I only wish it had been longer and that my other Ohio friends could have made it! Even though we may be in different places now, I know I'll always have amazing friends, whether we be together or apart. 

*All photos taken by me with my trusty iPhone - except the Vine video

doing DC: the national portrait gallery

One of the great things about moving to DC is having so many things to do for FREE. I don't know about you, but I love the word free. I would do a lot of things if they were free. Because there is so much to do, I typically spend my off time roaming around the city, collecting the tour guides as I go to display to all my friends as a way to say, "See? Look at all the things we can do!" 

However, one of my main problems about having all of these options is never being able to sort through what is actually good and what is worth skipping. Since one of my most used search terms for Google is "What to do in DC today" I've decided to start a series dedicated to highlighting the best parts of our Nation's Capitol, hopefully to help you make better use of your time when you visit. 

First up, I'm going to do my favorite art museum - the National Portrait Gallery. 

The one museum I've wanted to visit in London and still haven't is the National Portrait Gallery. The fact that America has one too totally blew my mind for a minute - okay you can feel free to call out the Midwestern-ness of that statement. Anyway, I typically get claustrophobic after two hours in a museum (seriously, you can ask my mom and my friend Anne who I basically ushered out of the Louvre as we went on hour 4 because I just couldn't take it anymore) but I could spend all day in this place. I've been twice and I still haven't seen all of the portraits. 

Currently, they're doing a series called "One Life: Grant and Lee" that is fascinating - and I'm not a Civil War person at all. There are tiny books filled with photographs of confederate soldiers and other pictures as well as these portraits like the one above. Look at that frame! Am I the only one awed at that frame?

Then you've got the permanent exhibit of American Presidents. Every President has his portrait hanging in this building, even the truly obscure ones like Millard Fillmore. Yep, that's a real name of a real president. Our 13th president to be exact. Please tell me I wasn't the only one that said "Who in the hell is Millard Fillmore??" 

If the above picture looks at all familiar (which is should), it's because this is the portrait of George Washington that was used to create the image for the quarter. It was only started but never completed, and there's a matching one of Martha Washington that is just of her face as well. Everyone should thank Martha for commissioning these portraits. 

There's so many more portraits that I would love to post, but if I did, there'd be no reason for you to go! 

Visiting the NPG is extremely easy. Take the Red Metro line to Gallery Place Chinatown. It's directly off of the stop. Entry is free because it's one of the Smithsonians, and attached to the NPG is the American Museum of Art, so it's two museums in one! Hours are 11:30am-7pm Mon-Sun. You can take pictures in most of the galleries. One piece of advice - I wouldn't bring a backpack if at all possible, because you'll have to wear it on your front like a baby holder. They do this to make sure you're not up against a wall and accidentally scrape against a painting. They do have some storage though if you feel comfortable leaving your items there.

*all photos taken by me with my trusty iPhone