noplasticshowers

First things first. We left this:

Snow, dogs, cats, and the chicken palace

For this:

No snow, no dogs, no cats, and no chicken palace

So that was good.

Getting in to DC was going swimmingly until Pennsylvania Avenue was blocked by police just at the wrong time (Whitehurst Freeway doom). Must be a White House thing going on. That debacle cost us 30 minutes and an excruciating crawl through Georgetown. Traffic thereby ate most of the allocated Phillips time.

A quick dash through the Phillips. Bees and Picasso.

Picasso

Beekeeper in the bee room

Then time for a tea at Soho Cafe just across the street from the DC Palomar. (The Soho is a great find, way better than the Starbucks next door.) There was even time for the tail end of a particularly crowded Kimpton wine hour. 30-year-olds everywhere.

Checkin was chaotic. I do believe the Palomar is full to the gills for the dregs of Valentines Day. At checkin, the computer had a hell of a time time finding us, mostly since newly minted GM Abe Liao had plussed us up to avoid plastic shower despair. Thanks Abe! You rock. (Steph Vogel has moved on to become GM of George. Time for a visit to the George it seems!)

Because of Abe, we’re back in the Presidential Suite at the DC Palomar. Sweet.

But due to a massive shortage of cheese, the amenity we were told about at checkin (as Kristen spoofed Abe to deliver a “personal” message) was not in the room when we walked in. Eventually it arrived, cheese included, and all was well with the universe. Great hotel on valentines weekend? Chaos! Chaos I say!

Chaos tilted our way. Cheese, sparkling water, and cupcakes. Awesome.

The cheese did it

Plus the Presidential Suite?! Yay. You should know that we’re here reaping the benefit of staying many nights at various Kimptons all over creation. The Kimpton InTouch program free night thing? Superb. No other hotel chain does it like this. And an quadruple upgrade to boot. As predicted, Kimpton is rocking our little world.

The no-amenity-yet table in 1024. (Yes, 1024.)

NY bag by the bed.

This shower is NOT plastic. Glass cube goodness.

Dinner tonight was arranged by Larry Kilbourne aka “baker Bob,” executive baker at Le Diplomate. So fun to have friends who include the best baker in North America.

Bread and oysters: le diplomate.

Le Diplomate is excellent. And Baker Bob’s bread is truly out of this world. The only thing we took home in a “doggy bag” was some slices of the gorgeous walnut/cranberry bread.

BTW, their bar is top notch too, though way overcrowded.

A negroni and a tete a tete: le diplomate

Let there be cupcakes!

Cupcakes from Jerry Chou