First thing...Whatever you do stay away from The Waterfront.

Instead, you should head up north of Constitution Ave to a couple places that I went to this weekend.  But before I get to the recs, let me tell you about how last Saturday went...

In the 7 years Amy and I have lived in this area, we've NEVER seen the cherry blossoms. Yeah yeah, I know!  How can I call myself a Washingtonian??!! So anyway, we decided to head downtown because it was such a BEAUTIFUL day. I really wish the weather was like that all the time around here. Perhaps it's time to move to San Francisco. We took the Metro from Tenleytown to Metro Center and then walked down 14th St to grab something to eat. First, we stopped at Red Sage's Border Cafe and I had a couple margaritas. I feel bad sometimes drinking in front of Amy, but what can I do?? I can't pass up a good margarita. We also had some chorizo empenadas, black bean chili and a Cuban pork sandwich - none of which were outstanding in any sense of the word. I think I'm spoiled from eating at Samantha's. Red Sage does make a fine margarita though. Either way, Red Sage's Border Cafe serves better food than I've ever eaten at Austin Grill or Rio Grande Cafe so it's a good place to stop for lunch. Their prices are pretty reasonable as well since you can get an entree there for under $10.

After we were done at Red Sage, we decided to walk around the downtown area a bit. There was a Japanese street festival on Pennsylvania Ave so we walked around to see some of the shows. After about a hour or so there, I started getting hungry again. We headed back up 13th St and came across Chef Geoff's. Since it had been a while since we'd been to Chef Geoff's, we decided to stop in and have a salad and some appetizers. Chef Geoff's has some great appetizers like fried green tomatoes and mushroom gnocchi. Of course the gnocchi isn't close to as good as Palena's, but really, it's pretty good. It's a little more expensive than your average lunch destination, but on the other hand the food there is much better than your average lunch spot so it's worth it. I had a couple glasses of wine and we just hung out at the bar for a little bit and talked.

By now it was around 5:30 pm. Amy had a sunburn (pregnancy makes you more susceptible to sunburns) and we were both tired from walking around all day. We were also going to a dinner party at our friends that night so we had to go home and get ready. Being lazy and not feeling like walking anymore, we hailed a cab and took it all the way home.

In the end, we still haven't seen the Cherry Blossoms. Oh well, maybe next year.