Happy Anniversary to Us

A year ago today, H and I had the most lovely day. Surrounded by our family, friends, and lots of love, we committed our lives to each other.

A year later, we're about to add another little person to our lives.

To treat ourselves to our "last hurrah," as everyone keeps reminding us we'll need, and to celebrate Our First Year of Marriage, we took yesterday off from our Real Life.

Our original idea was to "do D.C.," to pick a bunch of little D.C. things we haven't done yet (like Ben's Chili Bowl (I know, I know, how could we both have lived here for so long and not indulged?!), and top it off with a special dinner and night in a hotel.

It's absolutely atrocious that I'd never been to the Kreeger or the Philips, not to mention the Corcoran, so we put those on the list. (H had done the Philips, but neither of the other two.)

We wanted to do a little bit of reminiscing, so we thought maybe lunch at Chef Geoff's.

H found a room at the Hotel Palomar in Dupont, and reservations at Vidalia. And when I checked out the hotel website, I saw a pool. Sigh.

A lovely morning at the Kreeger...such an interesting juxtaposition of style. Mr. and Mrs. Kreeger had distinctly different tastes (he modern sleek, and she, as our guide put it, "baroque and rococo"), but they combined them to amass an amazing collection of unusual pieces from masters. Mondrian's art-deco sunflower and Renior's figure-dusted landscape. I only wish I could've seen the pink shag rung she had picked for the bedroom (now the museum director's office).

There's also a piece of the Washington Color School celebration showing at the Kreeger. Gene Davis, a Washington icon in his own right, painted over 800 pieces with the most delightful sense of space and color. I even realized that maybe, just maybe, the first piece of "modern art" I fell for (sophomore year in high school, when our journalism sponsor dragged us through, saying, "I just don't get it) might, quite ironically, be one of Davis'. (Note to self: research Davis' work).

The Kreegers and Washington Color School - inadvertently fitting our DC-themed anniversary.

We lunched at Chef Geoff's, and I did a little memory lane lunch, with two appetizers we served at our reception - and, of course, Nicole's chocolate peanut butter cake. Lunch was completed by the stereotypical geeky DC celeb spotting - NBC's White House correspondent David Gregory and his family (still can't figure out if that was his mother or his father's second wife - who could tell, with all the work she'd had done).

The Bean was dragging me down a little by this point, so after we checked into the Palomar, we opted for the pool (I'd been thinking about it all day - screw more museums - I wanted to float). H napped while I floated to a great soundtrack of Peter Gabriel, Guns 'n' Roses, and Kelly Clarkson. It was the most relaxing hour of catching up on DC (Capital File and DC magazines in hand).

Then dinner.

Thank you, Michael, for being just the most delightful host for our dinner. Kudos to Vidalia for the 2oz wine tastes. Mmmmm...just a taste. We'd been to Vidalia 103 years ago, in our first year of dating (it was so long ago that H thought it was his previous girlfriend*). It was worth it to go back. From the fragrant leek amuse bouche to the heirloom tomato sampler and corn and crab velouté, through the squab and fluffly gnocchi and James Beard-winning 4-way shoat all the way through the desserts (I fell for the "blinis and caviar" made from these funky little strawberry pearls, and H drowned in his 4 way chocolate decadence), it was perfect.

So perfect that all we could do was stroll back to the hotel and fall asleep (such is the life of parents to be).

The faux fur throw and soft surroundings let us sleep happily and in love...

...and now back to the real world. We dragged it out as long as we could, stopping on the way home for a croque monsieur and waffle at Open City, but now my thesis is looming (I'm so behind - can you tell by the length of this post?), and work is threatening tomorow. Step by step, I'll come back to reality.

But it's a reality H and I have created together, that suits us just fine, and is in the most wonderful city in the world. No matter where we travel, and how much we love other cities (Bucharest, Chania, New York, LA...), DC is happily home. We're thrilled to live here, and proud of our Stylish City.

Happy Anniversary to Us.

*He's probably going to hate me for posting that, but it's really, really funny.