d.c., day 6

Today, Drew and I got some pizza to go at Pizza Pino and headed to the White House for lunch. Sort of. We sat at Lafayette Park across the street, so we had a good view of the White House. The pizza was greasy, super cheesy, and very, very good. After mopping off the grease, I sprinkled garlic powder on top. Drew says that if a pizza place doesn't have garlic powder, it's not a "real" pizza establishments. (by the way, this isn't a hard and fast rule. He says that if Domino's had garlic powder, it wouldn't atuomatically make the restaurant a "real" pizza place.) After lunch, I went back to the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. I walked through the exhibit "Strange Bodies."

Next, I went out to the Sculpture Garden. Below, Yoko Ono had a piece entitled "The Wish Tree." Everyone writes a wish on a tag and hangs it on the tree. I love interactive art. There is my wish, the second tag from the right.

After the Hirshhorn, I walked through the Smithsonian Castle. There's not a lot to the Castle; it seems to serve mainly as a hub for information to D.C. and the Smithsonian Museums. There were a couple small exhibits, mainly about the history of the castle and a biography on James Smithsonian. Oh, and the Smithsonian is totally capitalizing on the Night at the Museum movie; there was movie memorabilia in the gift shop and a prop from the movie- the "pile of loot."

Again, heeding Carol's advice, Drew and I went to this vegan bakery, Sticky Fingers. I have decided that Sticky Fingers is hands down the best bakery I've ever been to. It is a cute, clean cafe that serves up coffee, sandwiches, vegan hot dogs, and quesadillas, but that's not why we went there. Sticky Fingers also serves up an assortment of baked goods- cupcakes, cookies, cinnamon buns, and brownies.

We went home with a s'mores cupcake, almond creme cupcake, and raspberry creme cupcake. We also bought a lemon coconut cookie, but that didn't make the metro ride home.

The s'mores cupcake was a fudgy chocolate cupcake with chocolate buttercream, graham cracker sprinkles, and a marshmallow. It was good, but it did not completely resemble a s'mores. It needed more graham crackers. The raspberry creme cupcake tasted like raspberry sherbet decided to be frosting (Drew, 2009). It was light and quite sweet. The almond creme cupcake was my favorite. The secret was in the almond extract. These cupcakes were very moist and satisfying, so if you are ever in the DC area, go to Sticky Fingers! (by the way, we ate these cupcakes over the course of two days, and they maintained their freshness very nicely!)

Drew and I stopped at Julia's Empanadas to pick up some dinner. I've never had an empanada before, but I'm always game for trying something new. They had a vegan and a vegetarian empanada, and the restaurant was listed in the Vegetarian Guide to DC.

I ate the Jamaican Style empanada, which contained beef, onion, potato, and curry. It was very good, and just the right portion.