The Other Washington DC - Spring / Summer 2022 Episode 6
today we're going back to washington dc we're going to have some fun in the sun at the wharf we're going to eat some delicious persian food at amuse we're going to have some brews with our friends jim and paula and we'll discover that there's more to dc than just museums monuments and government buildings but who are we kidding right of course we have to see some of the highlights and perhaps the greatest monument we had never visited before all that and more coming up next [Music] wherever i want to be because i'm free in my rv greetings from harpers ferry west virginia today we're going to washington dc once again and there is only about an hour drive as we cross the potomac there's the last view of the old town [Music] just like the last time we were here we're going to be staying at cherry hill park it is the closest rv park to downtown and the national mall or so they claim and here we are once again at cherry hill park who would have thought we would be back here eh you know so quickly right but yeah we're once again in washington dc and we're going to explore in a few here and then from here for real we're starting to get to the west you know following the lewis and clark route all right let's get ready [Music] we're taking the baltimore washington parkway [Music] of course traffic is inevitable whenever you arrive to a big city and our nation's capital is no exception when i came here with my mom a couple of months ago our friends jim and paula they drove us by this area called the wharf and i'm like i want to go there so that's what we're doing first today [Music] expensive parking which it is to be expected at a place like this [Music] i think the green lights are supposed to mean that there is a vacant space but it's not true [Music] it was a mission but eventually we found parking now um now let's go upstairs oh this looks very high-end very nice me vida restaurant firewood oh yeah many condos with nice restaurants below i guess this is the other dc if you will the one that tourists don't really get to see as much very nice marina here too and public art here at ben and jerry's let's check out the recreation pier [Music] right now we could be in any city next to a body of water really but the unique site of the washington monument is a clear sign of where we really are [Music] super nice area let me tell you if it wasn't for jim and paula who live nearby we probably would have never found out about it [Music] this piece of art is supposed to be a bonfire actually it would be cool to see it in action sometime perhaps on a cooler night the last time i was here it was bitterly cold today it is sweltering hot you have all these swings here it seems to be a thing maximum load 350 pounds i think i'll be okay one in washington right let me tell you something with this heat that fountain sounds very very tempting so many nice restaurants too bad we're not hungry yet we did enjoy an adult beverage at one of the outdoor establishments speaking of adult beverages i would like to thank bright sellers for sponsoring this episode and let me tell you since the beginnings of civilization wine has been the centerpiece of all kinds of celebrations and special occasions especially when it is paired with a good meal and i've been enjoying wine for many many years now in fact some years back our family would get together like on sunday afternoons everybody would bring bottles and we would do tastings you know to learn about the different grapes and regions varietals like one week we would do like bordeaux next week rioja when you get to italian barolos things get really interesting but let me tell it is a fascinating world but sometimes choosing what wines to drink can be a daunting task how do you know if you're gonna like what you see on the shelf and let's face it it's either the one with the pre-label or you end up buying the same thing you already know you like all the time that's where bright sellers comes to the rescue you take a short quiz and they send you wines from all over the world curated specifically to your palette so let's see what we got this time your wine experience has arrived open a bottle to celebrate by the way they do come with this wine education cards with you know tasting notes and all kinds of information about the wines let's see what we got hmm cabin five segarantino castelo de vera folk fable i have had this before crypsis interesting chardonnay we gotta chill this one tell you what i've never had a segrentino so this is the one we're gonna open beautiful color look at that let's read our wine education card first which by the way they all match the label on the bottle so they're easy to find and this cabin five here we go segrentino 2021 a rich full-bodied red this one shows notes of dark fruits like black cherry blackberry and plum spicy black pepper and hint of smoke on the nose it even has a qr code if you want to scan it and you know rate it and you can improve your your your future matches so let's check it out that is really good sponsors like braid sellers make it possible for me to continue making all this content so thank you bright sellers and cheers to you for giving my followers you guys a limited time 50 off your first six bottle box click the link in the description to see what wine best suits you i'm actually really liking this one it's called ilili it's like ili twice s'mores some more fun at the wharf it wouldn't be washington dc without black helicopters flying around all the time here's a sculpture depicting a main lobster man it was moved to its current location closer to the fish market in 2018 here's a distillery very cool looking with the smoke stack and here's the municipal fish market [Music] this happens to be the oldest continuously operating open-air fish market in the united states dating back to 1805 [Music] it's alive the oldest municipal fish market in the united states i believe all right let's go somewhere else the round draped building on the left corner is the hitchhorn museum of contemporary art [Music] also here to the left my favorite the aaron space museum which is temporarily closed as of summer 2022 next on the left the national museum of the american indian as we get a glimpse of the capitol building [Music] this stop and go traffic is really driving me crazy and it is not an easy city to navigate let me tell you too many diagonal streets and the traffic can be a little chaotic [Music] anyway we're going to have early dinner at the dubliner famous irish pub on capitol hill we've been here before welcome to the dublin here you know same place we ate with seth a couple months ago good shepherd's pie now let's uh let's walk around dc a little bit because this is where the tv networks are fox news nbc news right next to the capitol [Music] the national capital is such a beautiful building too bad every time we come to places like this there's construction going on [Music] we have the capital once again apparently undergoing some renovations and they're getting ready for something over there some kind of concert pretty cool oh that's a nice view there the smithsonian castle and the washington monument and you can even get a glimpse of the lincoln memorial again too bad there's so much scaffolding going on but i'm sure it'll look much better once they are done [Music] this would be the ulysses grand monument dedicated to the 18th president of the united states [Music] it's pretty windy today in dc so many beautiful statues and monuments even though today the plan was to explore a little bit of the other dc where people actually live we just couldn't help ourselves you could spend over a week here and not see all the museums and monuments [Music] where else did we see one of these we're gonna start slowly walking back to our parking lot near the dubliner and call color night tomorrow will be another action-packed day interesting sculptures don't you think [Music] here's the japanese american memorial and yes these are all the names of the internment camps where japanese americans were held during world war ii we actually visited manzanar in california back in 2019 the hall of the states there's our florida flag and the national postal museum that would be interesting to see another time perhaps [Music] let's take the scenic route back to cherry hill [Music] [Music] this is the capitol hill neighborhood by the way with all these row houses very picturesque [Music] do [Music] so [Music] [Music] it's a brand new day and today's first point of interest is the kalorama neighborhood home to many diplomatic residences and embassies and the home of former president barack obama let's see how close we can get as we drive there this is kind of that other washington dc i wanted to see away from all the monuments where people actually live very refreshing to see actually i think it has a little bit of brooklyn in it at least that's the feeling i get if i have to compare it to something [Music] oh this is narrow [Music] oh when a bigger rebel on the left and this is by the way kalorama road so we must be getting close this here on the right is the french ambassador's residence with a miniature statue of liberty on the front yard i think this is the way as we continue on kalarama road northwest [Music] we're going to turn onto calorama circle here [Music] and i think this is as close as we're gonna be able to get the landscaping crew probably has a better chance at meeting the former president [Music] let's get on massachusetts avenue also known as embassy road unfortunately parts of it are under construction like so many other things around here [Music] now that we tried to visit the former president let's go visit the current one driving around dc is an adventure unto itself let me tell you it is that kind of city driving where you have to be 100 alert and i kind of like it it keeps me on my toes [Music] here we see some people camping just a few blocks away from the white house check it out joe's the original opened in miami beach in 1913. didn't know they had one here anyway let's walk towards lafayette square well there it is the white house [Music] i wonder what goes on up there what's up with all those tripods and devices and sensors up on the roof i just wonder there are a lot of tourists here today and there's always some kind of protest going on across the street and when we were here back in march there was some kind of construction going on but luckily not anymore let's get a little closer well as close as we can we're gonna walk around the white house complex and this would be the executive office building it's got that french second empire architectural style [Music] is it me or did that fence get taller over the past few years i have pictures to prove it look at those people up on the roof secret service perhaps in any case they look like they mean business so i'll zoom out just in case speaking of that fence this is today in 2012 at least you could stand right next to it and this is the way i'd like to remember it 1994 the fence was definitely lower back then yeah one curious thing is lots of construction going on and here's the national christmas tree that in front of the treasury department would be the general william tecumseh sherman monument when we were here back in 2012 we had no idea it was going to be as fancy or as famous as it was but we ate at the occidental and it was really good and here's where the money is speaking of eating a few days ago chef sebastian owaisi better known as chef seb he reached out and told us if we ever came back to dc lunch wasn't him at his persian restaurant called amuse so you know that's where we're going it is located in mclean virginia about 10 to 20 minutes from dc [Music] [Music] and this is it a moose tell us a little bit about your restaurant so it is a a modern persian cuisine we've been here for about 22 years oh wow we also have a mobile food vendor aka food truck um and uh you know we've been here part of this neighborhood in mclean virginia which is right outside of dc probably about a 10-minute drive for about like i said 22 years and we are a neighborhood family and we offer a variety different types of food from kebabs to platters to seafood to even a very nice whole vegan menu as well so that's wonderful man i'm really looking forward to it thank you for coming it's an honor to have you here uh robert it's been it's you know i've been a huge fan of the show especially when i uh first bought my my first camper i just fell in love with all your content and it is an honor to have you thank you actually both of you it's an honor to have both of you here um so yeah just you know enjoy your your meal and uh if you have any questions please let me know okay absolutely awesome guys let's get started on the appetizers and stuff right thank you and their appetizers have arrived and this is a typical persian pita bread and you know there's different variations of it we make it here and it's clay oven baked it's real delicious it goes really well with any of these items the first one we have right here is the sauteed eggplant spread so that's pureed eggplants is topped off with drained yogurt sauce aka a very heavy yogurt and also a little bit of caramelized onions and the idea is you mix them together and use it as a spread for the bread this is a persian style tomato cucumber salad that's tossed in our homemade lemon mint vinaigrette dressing and then on this side we have the yogurt cucumber sauce aka taziki but this is a persian variation of it and it has a little bit of dill in it as well okay so all right so dig in and draw your appetizers all right so we have the main courses here this is the one of our family style platters which usually is a combination of variety of different meats okay but on this plate we have the uh peppercorn and saffron marinated lamb loin okay and that's secured and grilled over open flames in the middle we have the ground beef kebab and the ground beef kebab is actually we grind it from a uh trims we put in a meat grinder and we mold it on a skewer gr grill it over open flames and all the way to the end you have the saffron chicken breast filet kebab and that's marinated in saffron lime secured over secured and grilled over open flames and comes with our saffron rice right here that is topped up with a little bit of melted truffle butter okay this is absolutely fabulous i think dessert's coming all right so this this is the saffron um pistachio ice cream so uh saffron obviously is a very dominant ingredient in the persian cuisine so this is actually my mother's recipe and like i was telling you earlier we have a separate business that specifically sells this ice cream so it's a vanilla bean ice cream that is scented with saffron pistachio and rose water so it has a very uh uh myofloral uh flavor but it goes really well with the zapfon and the pistachio and you'll you'll understand what i mean once you take a bite okay so enjoy thank you by the way i want to thank sebastian for inviting us to his place here by the way he also has an rv repair and inspection business and he does have a youtube channel and i'll put a link to that youtube channel somewhere so you can check them out it's about food naturally all right let's continue exploring dc by the way sebastian's rv business is called american dream rv services and inspections [Music] [Applause] you know that building in front of us that's the famous watergate hotel famous mainly for the watergate scandal in the early 70s which eventually led to president nixon's resignation in 1974 [Music] now approaching the lincoln memorial but we're not going to visit today look out for my video from a couple of months ago in which i came with mom we saw the cherry blossoms and all that and i think i made a wrong turn we were supposed to take a left to go hangs point on east potomac park you know the first place we came to see the cherry blossoms last time here we go i think now we're on the right track at least the river is on the correct side and here we are finally what we see on the other side of the channel that's the wharf where we were yesterday [Music] i had to imagine two months ago all these trees were you know covered in flowers all these cherry blossoms and that now everything's green and i don't know if i prefer the the cold or the heat but it is getting very hot we're in the middle of a heat wave here and it's it's oppressive let me tell you um but i thought i would finish this today's video and it's flooded here so i'm gonna i'm not gonna get any closer kind of where we started yesterday here at the wharf area beautiful area here in washington dc i've been reliably informed that that thing that it was like a work of art it's actually a bonfire at night thank you jim for for letting me know in fact we actually want to end by having a celebratory ipa with jim and paula jim from d.c [Music] yeah i thought it'd be a fitting end to finish where we started and of course we haven't seen a lot of the monuments or museums and that wasn't the point of this trip in fact in part the point was that italy needed a an airport with a direct flight to miami and she's going to fly back [Music] for 10 days so i'm going to be solo for 10 days here as we start moving west towards kentucky that is the airport right there although we will get a better view tomorrow and here once again the wharf our new discovery for this trip and we have a super high tide look at that partially submerged bench the wharf kind of reminds me a little of our own brickell neighborhood in miami where i used to work before my youtube days it is that type of modern urban residential neighborhood [Music] here's a thought next time maybe we should get on the water taxi [Music] we're going to do one more thing today and that is meet up with jem and paula you met them the last time we were here we're going to this brewery kind of on the way to cherry hill called denizens [Music] wow [Music] and now now we can properly end our dc video here cheers so i just dropped ily off at ronald reagan national airport and jem told me about this great place called gravely point which is perfectly aligned with the main runway and you get to see the planes land and take off from this unique vantage point by the way ely is going back to miami for about a week and will rejoin me in louisville kentucky i really wanted to get tickets to go up to the washington memorial but couldn't get him on my own interesting maneuver they have to make in order to avoid the no-fly zone over the national about the washington monument jim happened to procure some tickets this morning but i didn't see his text in time so he still got to go up with paula and without us he did send me some footage that i'm going to show you here at the end i've got one more day here in dc before i drive to pittsburgh but i'm not gonna do all that much there is this one monument that i've always wanted to see in person and i always thought it was called the iwo jima memorial since it is based on a famous picture called raising the flag on iwo jima by photographer joe russenthal of the associated press the monument is officially called the u.s marine corps war memorial and it is located in arlington virginia it is quite impressive one of those iconic monuments very moving [Music] [Music] i do have a confession to make i really like washington dc i like what it symbolizes but it represents its classic architectural opulence and how no matter which way the pendulum swings it has always been the epicenter of what is probably the best form of government ever conceived with all its flaws founded in 1791 at the nation's infancy yet at the perfect spot on the north bank of the potomac near the atlantic very close to that line that would eventually divide the country between north and south an enclave on its own binding the country together now i must also confess i did like it better the first time i came in 1994 as a freshly sworn american citizen or about to be before they had so many barricades or tall fences i miss those days i miss those days when you could just walk up to the washington monument and take the elevator to the top luckily as i said our friend jim took some footage while i was there and he sent it to me so let's watch some of that since i couldn't see it in person [Music] yeah riding to the top in this case [Music] actually how about we do a side-by-side comparison between my pictures from 1994 and james footage from 2022 let's see how much if any has changed in the past 28 years [Music] and [Music] and with that we say goodbye to washington dc we'll be back perhaps not as soon as i had originally anticipated perhaps i'll wait until they reopen the air and space museum how about that but we'll be back i promise now the journey continues now we're really going to begin that lewis and clark journey of rediscovery starting at the very spot where the kill boat was launched on august 31st 1803 on the allegheny river in pittsburgh pennsylvania until then thank you so much for watching and see you on the road [Music] i'm riding [Music] riding in my rv
2022-08-20 15:20
