Jordan Visit - July 2016

Keith, Jordan and Shawna at the Lincoln Memorial

We decided that we wanted to spent more time with our godchildren, nieces and nephews so when each of them turn 12, we would invite them to spend a weekend with us.  Our first trial with this experiment was to have our goddaughter, Jordan, visit us in Baltimore.  The timing was great since we were moving soon to Scottsdale thus we could also use the weekend to hit up some spots we wanted to see before we left the area.  Even better is that Jordan did quite a bit of research and had planned the whole weekend for us, even restaurants!

Johnny Rad's for Dinner - A Jordan Pick

Keith flew in from his work travel to Baltimore, arriving on the Friday evening at the same time as Jordan around 6pm so he could meet her at her gate.  They took an Uber back to the house where Shawna was waiting for them.  After a quick tour of the house, we walked to Johnny Rads where we had dinner.  Jordan had seen this place on the Food Network and decided it looked cool - and cool it was.  It has a funky decor inside and it's known for pizza.  We tried the risotto balls for an appetizer which were quite tasty - who could go wrong with fried risotto stuffed with mozzarella!  We then shared the A-1 Meat pizza which was loaded with yummy prosciutto.  As we were deciding on dessert, Jordan mentioned she had never been to a Cold Stone - luck would have it that there was one across the street from our house so we walked there after dinner and had ice cream for dessert.  We then returned home and watched Eddie the Eagle - which was a very cute movie.

World War II Memorial

Bob Dole

Saturday was a long but very fun day.  We woke up around 7, had breakfast and then drove to DC to see all the major sites in one day - just as a good American would!  We parked the car near where we would have dinner later that day and then took a cab to our first site - the Lincoln Memorial.  We walked the entire mall, taking selfies at every major monument including the Vietnam, Korean, World War II, Martin Luther King, FDR, and Jefferson Memorials.  All of this before noon!  At the WWII memorial, we ran into Bob Dole who was hanging out and taking pictures with tourists - so we took one with him as well - very cool!  We walked over to L'Enfant Plaza to grab lunch with the mindset that each person could have their pick of lunch at the food court - unfortunately, almost every place was closed so we ate at the only one that was open, California Tortilla.

Washington Monument

Admiring Eleanor Roosevelt at FDR Memorial

Following lunch, we went to the Holocaust Museum where we had pre-purchased our tickets.  It took us about 90 minutes to go through all of the exhibits - quite sobering but well done.  Jordan really wanted to visit this museum as she had done a paper on Anne Frank when she was younger.  We then walked over to the Washington Monument - unfortunately there were no tickets left to go to the top.   We popped over to the Air and Space Museum where we did a 'fly by' (no pun intended) viewing of the airplanes that are hung in the main lobby area.  After this, we walked over to the Capitol.  At this point, Jordan was pooped from all of the walking (as was Shawna) so we took a cab to the last stop - the White House where Jordan asked one of the guards if he was carrying a gun - his reply "of course, ma'am".

The Capitol

White House

After this long day, we were ready to relax with a drink (or two) and dinner.  So we took a cab to Masa 14 (another restaurant that Jordan had picked out) and had a drink at the rooftop before we had dinner downstairs in the main part of the restaurant.  Dinner was very good - we shared a bunch of small plates including charred edamame, roasted shishito peppers, tuna sashimi, calamari, miso salmon, steamed pork belly buns, citrus hibachi roll, and yucca fries.  For dessert, we tried the freeze dried ice cream that Jordan had purchased at the Air and Space museum - it was gross.  Since we could not have this as the last taste in our mouth, we shared the nutella tart which was very good.  We then drove home, showered (we were quite smelly from all of the walking), and watched Sixteen Candles (Jordan had never seen it).

Masa 14

On Sunday, we slept in a bit and then had breakfast before we headed out to explore the harbor.  We walked to the National Aquarium and spent about 2 hours there.  Jordan had said she wanted to try crab cakes so for lunch we sat outside at Phillips Seafood and we shared the crab cakes, steamed crabs and Alaskan king crab legs - yummo!  Following lunch, we rented the dragon boats and peddled around the harbor for about 30 minutes - Keith did most, if not all, of the pedaling!  And because we had not had enough food at this point, we stopped at Cheesecake Factory to get some cheesecake for dessert - cookie dough and turtle cheesecake.  At this point, it was time to head back and clean up before Jordan and Keith flew out.  We cleaned up and took care of a few personal items and then Shawna drove Jordan and Keith to the airport where Jordan flew back to Dallas and Keith flew to Phoenix for work.

Crabby Lunch at Phillips

All in all, we had a great time as did Jordan as she was asking if she could return to Camp Keith and Shawna next year in Scottsdale!  We really enjoyed spending time with her - the experiment was a success!  In case anyone is wondering why Jordan's face is scratched up in the photos, on the morning that she flew out to visit us, she fell on the driveway at her house chasing her dog.  Of course, we were worried all weekend if anyone would be looking at the two of us wondering if we did this to her!  Thankfully no one stopped us but a woman at the airport did question Jordan if she was OK and if she needed any help.

Dragon Boats