At the end of March, I got to travel to the US for some training for work, and was able to tack on a weekend in New York City before the training, and a couple days in Washington D.C. afterwards. I've been to both of these cities before, but it's always nice to visit again. I actually hadn't visited New York City since I was a kid when I visited with my family, so it was cool to see it again and do touristy things, as well as catch up with a friend who was living in New York.

New York City

I spent two days in NYC, where my friend who was living there showed me around, doing your typical touristy activities. We checked out the view from the Empire State building, Times Square (it's SO crowded), the 9/11 memorial museum, Central Park, the MET, the High Line. I'm usually not a big fan of museums, but the MET is so big, and has so many different things, that there really is something for everyone to enjoy. The 9/11 memorial was also interesting and also super depressing and crazy, I remember it vaguely from when I was a kid but it's really sombering being at the museum and reading about what happened, and all the people who were killed in that attack. Actually, I remember coming to New York the year after 9/11, and my dad went to go see the two holes in the ground where the World Trade centers had stood, but I didn't go because I was too young at the time.

Another thing I did was eat some tasty food! Some highlights were Ippudo Ramen, Ivan Ramen, and Los Tacos in Chelsea Market.

Washington D.C.

After my weekend in NYC, I had training in Richmond for a week, and then on Friday afternoon, we drove up to DC for just one night before flying home to Toronto in the evening. When we arrived, we had a lovely tasting menu dinner at Little Serow, a Thai place. It was super tasty (and also quite spicy), I really recommend if you're ever here! We also walked around the National Mall area a bit (where all the monuments are) to help with the digestion!

The next day, we started out the day by grabbing some brunch at Blue Duck Tavern, which had the best brunch dish I've had in my entire life - it was a short rib hash, and the flavours and texture and just everything about this dish was perfect. It also has a Michelin star!

Afterwards, we walked around the Tidal Basin area, where the cherry blossoms are. We were so lucky that we just happened to be there during peak cherrry blossom bloom season, but that also meant there were big crowds! It was honestly so crowded, reminded me of China, but the cherry blossoms were beautiful! We also checked out the National Portrait Gallery, which was interesting as well! We didn't have time to do much else before heading home to Toronto, but it was really lovely to be able to see the beautiful cherry blossoms.