Thursday May 8th 2025 - Work trip to DC and fun trip to Toronto - Day 3, DC conference - urban walks

Our morning started at the Starbucks in the hotel lobby.  Brian and I end up at Startbucks MAYBE 4 times a year since neither of us drink coffee at all and basically not tea either.  That said, I’ve always liked their food offerings just fine and I thought a break from bagels would be appropriate today.

The conference was the same format as yesterday, keynote in the morning then 1 break-out then lunch and more break-outs.  I only had 2 things I wanted to attend today and 1 was very good the other was just ok.  Lunch today was a build your own taco bowl and it was more flavorful and interesting than yesterday’s cold sandwich bar.

I was back at the hotel about 4 pm and decided that, despite my original plans, I would go ahead and do laundry before getting home.  I ended up changing clothes a little more often than I thought I would so doing laundry now lets me have a nicer shirt for tomorrow (instead of a t-shirt) and my jeans will be fresh instead of less fresh for Toronto. The trip to the laundry place in Capitol Hill was almost all on a single bus which was clean and friendly but rain and rush hour meant progress was very slow.  Being here doing laundry meant I would ‘miss’ the Nutanix celebration tonight back at the convention center.  I’m sure it was a nice event but putting on a meal and entertainment for thousands of people at once is a big task and as interesting as the conference has been, I’ve already logged enough time there for today.


After laundry I headed to Pacci’s for dinner, staying in the Capitol Hill area.  Pacci’s was a real treat.  My Barramundi had chef perfect crispy skin despite being served on a plate of steaming garlic pasta with lots of capers. It was basically a fish piccata and while I haven’t had a single mediocre meal here in DC, this one was the best.  By the time I got to Pacci’s I was pretty far from my hotel (an hour’s walk) so I took 2 buses back but being much after rush hour, both were quiet and made good time.

I was surprised that my manager still hadn’t eaten when I got back to my hotel at 8.  I accompanied him for our last meal together here in DC.  He ate at Old Ebbitt’s Grill, a DC institution that came recommended to us by a server at the very first place we ate when we arrived 2 days ago.  Ebbitt’s keeps a full reservations book even on ordinary weeknights in this off season time of year, it’s VERY popular.  I was surprised to find it more casual and accessible, particularly given its big reputation.  Dining in DC has been very expensive this trip but Ebbitt’s pricing was a lot closer to what I would expect at home for a nice but not fine dining dinner.  Like the other places we’ve been to in DC, the wine list is pretty extensive.

Friday will be a short day with just 1 session I want to attend before hurrying back to the hotel to pack up and head to Toronto.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sunday May 26th 2025 - Finger Lakes Trail - Near Watkins Glen NY - 6.85 miles, just over 900 feet elevation gain

Image
It's Memorial day and the weather Saturday and Sunday was wetter than people surely hoped for.  Today was sunny and dry which was great but I'm very thankful we got an early start since there were sure to be a ton of people out and about on this one sunny holiday day.  We arrived at the trailhead before 8:30 am after a breakfast at McDonlad's along the way. The trail wasted no time in getting the adventure started.  Within 3 minutes we had a challenging stream crossing to do.  With all the rain we've been getting, the stream had a lot of water in it.  Thankfully, the stream bed is very wide and shallow at the stream crossing point but we still had to struggle to determine the best spot to do the crossing. The first few steps were on little flat pieces of slimy rock just poking out of the stream and then one big step that had to land on a very pointy rock before the last, relatively easy step could be taken.  Brian found a good stick and it helped make the m...
Read more

Wednesday May 7th 2025 - Work trip to DC and fun trip to Toronto - Day 2, DC conference - urban walks

Image
I was ready to go in the morning, recharged after a fun but long day Tuesday.  We went to the same bagel shop as the day before and my manager tried the New Jersey staple of the Pork Roll sandwich and I had the same for the 2nd day in a row.  It’s rare to fine pork roll at all outside the NYC metro area and even rarer to find some place that gets all the details right with salt, pepper and ketchup.  Pearl’s is a very cute bagel place and they even have nice outdoor seating like a little bistro or something.  Very unusual for a small shop. As soon as we went up the escalator into the main hall, it was apparent that this was not as modest a gathering as I might have imagined.  There seemed to be a ton of people milling around.  We attended one early break-out session before the keynote session started.  The keynote probably serves mentally, though not officially, as the start of the conference.  That first break-out was ok but I didn’t really get m...
Read more

July 27, 2024 - Canadian Cruise Vacation Day 8 - Bar Harbor, Maine

Image
Bar Harbor was a gorgeous place to drop anchor.  And since it was the only port that was too small for us to directly dock at, we literally did drop anchor there. Unfortunately, the health issues continue to plague our group and I was the only one well enough to go on shore.  I enjoyed the shuttle trips both ways.  It’s really weird to walk from a very large boat to a relatively small one while neither is anywhere near a dock.  The trip TO Bar Harbor I was on a contracted dinner cruise type boat (good sized) but on the way back to the ship I was on one of our ship’s own tenders which are really fancy lifeboats but somewhat better equipped.  For lunch I ate at West Street Cafe and had a spicy chicken sandwich and coleslaw.  Though there are a few deep fried items on the ship, they seem few and far between so it hit the spot as did the blueberry mule.   Other than the trips to and from and the lunch, Bar Harbor wasn’t my favorite.  Far more than an...
Read more