Washington, D.C. Day 3(b) Museum of Natural American History

I have to dedicate a single post to the Museum of Natural American History.   My favorite exhibit was the First Ladies Hall where it exhibited most of the First Ladies' Inaugural Ball Gowns and accessories.

The original sketches of the gowns

Our current First Lady,  Michelle Obama's Inaugural Ball gown which was designed by Jason Wu was set in the middle of the room.

Front view

Back

Accessories

Historial Inaugural ball accessories

In another hall of the museum, Abraham Lincoln's top hat was exhibited too.

Famous American chef  - Julia Child's Kitchen

When we finished with the museum, it was dinner time already.  We took the metro again and went to an busy area called the Adams Morgan where shops and restaurants were everywhere.   We stood in front of a cafe style restaurant called Bardia's New Orleans Cafe and were contemplating whether we should go in, when a couple came out told us the food was very good, and they originally were from Louisiana.  That immediately set our mind to go in right away.  The food indeed was very good.  We ordered the Bayou Po'Boy, which is a sandwich with spicy sausage and creole sauce.  We also ordered the seafood Creole, which is seafood in a spicy tomato, vegetable sauce over white rice and Andouille (sausage) Etouffee, which is canjun roux over white rice.  We learned that Jambalaya actually is sauce mixed with fried rice and not over white rice.  The Andouille Etouffee creole was so delicious that we had another one.  My husband and kids had never tried Beignets before, I ordered the beignets to go with the cafe au lait, and the beignets were freshly made.  This is one cafe we will be sure to visit again if we ever return to DC.

 

Bardia's New Orleans Cafe

2412 18th Street, NW

Washington, DC. 20009

(202)234-0420

It was late and dark after we finished the dinner,  We took the taxi back to the hotel since it was getting late and the walk to the metro station was a bit far to walk.  The fare was about $15 compared to the $9 for the four of us taking the metro.   Taxi was easy to find everywhere and sometimes worth to take it depends on the distance if you have a group of three or more people to share the ride with.