National Portraits Gallery and Ray's Hell Burger

Ada and I got up this gorgeous morning and headed into the city. We hopped on the Yellow Line and went to Chinatown. Our destination was the National Portraits Gallery, which is located in the Old Patent Office Building. We wandered around the gallery for hours and saw some truly amazing works of art. Ada and I quickly realized that in observing and reading about the subjects of the portraits that we were getting a refresher course in U.S. History. (or at least Ada was when I'd start rambling on about Civil War generals.)

Robert E. Lee

P.G.T. Beauregard

Ulysses S. Grant

William Tecumseh Sherman

Naval Battle during War of 1812

There was a very interesting exhibit about the death of Elmer Ellsworth. Ellsworth is remembered as the first conspicuous casualty of the American Civil War. Abraham Lincoln noticed a large Confederate flag flying over the town of Alexandria, Virginia. Ellsworth, who had studied law at Lincoln's office in Illinois, quickly offered to retrieve the flag. Ellsworth and his men marched uncontested into Alexandria. They arrived at the Marshall House Inn where the flag was being flown and climbed to the roof to cut the flag down. On the way back down the owner of the inn shot Ellsworth point blank with a shotgun, killing him instantly. The owner was immediately shot and bayoneted by Ellsworth's men.

This is the shotgun that killed Ellsworth.

On the second floor of the gallery we viewed an exhibit of portraits of Presidents of the United States.

George Washington

John Adams

Andrew Jackson-Old Hickory

Abraham Lincoln

Theodore Roosevelt

John F. Kennedy

This one I added just because it looked interesting up close.

Bill Clinton

After the Portrait Gallery we headed to Rosslyn to go eat at Ray's Hell Burger. Besides just being an awesome burger joint, President Obama took Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to lunch here in 2010. Needless to say, our burgers were AMAZING! I had the Big Punisher which is a Diablo burger, pepper jack cheese, charred jalapenos, grilled onions, piranha sauce. Ada got the New Jack Zing which is a Blackened burger, pepper jack cheese, grilled onions, charred jalapenos and sauteed peppers. We also got some sweet potato fries to go along with them. I don't know why sweet potato fries haven't completely replaced regular french fries, because they are superior in every way.

Yes.

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Tonight we went to Hank's Oyster Bar in the Old Town section of Alexandria. It was a short Metro ride away from our place in Pentagon City. They started us off with a small bowl of goldfish and Ada and I were reminded of how much we like them. 

Next we hit up some oysters on the half shell. This was Ada's second time to have oysters, her first being at the Old Ebbitt Grill which were both crazy expensive and crazy awesome. Fortunately the oysters at Hank's were really, really good.

They were so good, we forgot to take a picture until after they were gone.

Ada and I also split an oyster po boy that was amazing. The slaw it came with was very fresh and crisp.

Hank's is definitely a do-over.

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Here we go!

Ada and I are so excited to be in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area! There is so much to see, do, and maybe most importantly: eat and drink. We really miss all our friends in Texas, so we wanted to be able to let everybody know what we're up to.

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