Coffee and pastries, steel-cut oatmeal

We decided to splash out on a nicer hotel for our vacation. A lot of the things to see and do here are free or cheap, and, quite honestly, we wanted to recapture the same experience we had with our hotel in Barcelona, so we figured it would be worth the extra money. So far, we have been proven out. This hotel has a ton of nice amenities, including turn-down service at night complete with little chocolates on the bed.

We both like to have a lazy Sunday morning, so instead of venturing out for breakfast, we ordered room service – a pot of coffee and a basket of pastried, and a bowl of oatmeal for my wife. The pastry basket had a pain au chocolat, almond croissant, raspberry muffin, and a scone. Room service just feels so decadent and old-time Hollywood movie-like. We could have ordered full breakfast, but I am usually satisfied with coffee and a pastry.

After breakfast, we took the Metro over to the National Mall and spent the afternoon wandering through the Museum of American History. We’d visited the museum on our previous trip to DC in 2009, and had been looking forward to seeing it again.