First Days in D.C.

So it's been about a week since I've moved but it's been so busy! I've just now had the time to sit down and put anything together. We left for DC on Thursday at 6am. It was not a smooth start. My brother took a few pieces of my furniture in his truck, a desk and two bookcases. But we were barely on the road for five minutes when the tailgate of the truck fell open. We pulled over, shut it, and continued on. Just a few minutes later it fell open again (and did so again a total of six times). So we returned home and switched cars. I was no longer able to take the desk or the bookcases but at least I was able to take all the other little stuff. We finally hit the road around 8am. To make matters worse on the road our caravan got separated and Dandrich and I ended up getting missing an exit and taking a forty minute detour. Finally we got there, although nearly three hours after our anticipated arrival. But luckily it turned out alright.

Last pictures with my family before I left.

After carrying all the boxes, suitcases, bags etc inside we headed to Ikea to get the furniture which would now also include a desk and bookcase. The boxes wouldn't fit in the cars to take them back to my apartment so we had to sign up for home delivery. The soonest available time they  had was Saturday between 6pm-10pm so that's what we went with. Unfortunately they didn't have everything we needed at that Ikea so Friday we went another one in Virginia. Friday night and all day Saturday and Sunday we spent assembling furniture and putting the apartment together. I vastly underestimated the amount of time it would take to get everything put together. We were running errands for most of Monday and Tuesday.

Q: How many Ikea boxes can you fit in a Prius?
A: This many.

Boxes sitting in my apartment waiting to be unpacked.

Monday we did venture to Chinatown for lunch. We ate at a place called Full Kee. The restaurant was terrific. They had a very authentic Peking duck. It was delicious. Thursday we ate at a great Japanese restaurant, Mokato. It was very traditional - patrons are even required to remove their shoes and wear customary Japanese slippers. I didn't get any pictures there because you are required to turn off your cell phone. The food was great. We got a ten-course meal which sounds like a lot more food then it really was because each course was rather small. But what it lacked in size it made up for in deliciousness. It was one of the best meals I ever had. Wednesday, once we finally had a bit of free time we went Annapolis, Maryland but I'm planning on doing a separate blogpost about that adventure.

Gateway in Chinatown