Vacation!

I love the holidays! Spending some time relaxing with family, seeing the Christmas decorations around the DC area, it was a great time. And there was some great food! There were a lot of wonderful family meals, but here are the restaurants we went out to:

Lunch at Clyde's in Georgetown, the original in the chain that apparently inspired the 1976 hit Afternoon Delight. We started off with a delicious chicken soup of the day, which really hit the spot for me, and the atmosphere somehow suggested high-end class and crowded diner at the same time. I had a turkey club sandwich, which I highly enjoyed, J loved his swiss cheeseburger and fries, and his mom got a vegetable omelette with a side of brunch potatoes (it's one of her favourite dishes there). All in all, I'd say two and a half thumbs up, except there were 3 of us... so I suppose that'd be three and a half, maybe 4 thumbs up? I'm ridiculous, I know.

Lunch at Austin Grill in Rockville, a fantastic repeat from my last visit. They start you off with chips and salsa, and we ordered a small bowl of queso with it. First of all, small? No, this was not small. It could be considered small for a table of 6--maybe. But it was delicious! Then we feasted on appetizers, finally realizing that we can't eat both 3 or 4 course meals all the time.

He got the grilled chicken taquitos, flour tortillas stuffed with chicken, cheese, and garlic mashed potatoes. I'm not quite sure what's in the sauce it was served with, but it was tomato based with a great kick and absolutely

complimentary. I ended up with the combo Longhorn nachos, piled with

beans, cheese, roasted jalapenos, sour cream and pico de gallo, and alternating between steak and chicken. Let me tell you, I know there is a God because he gave us edible things like cows. The steak was amazing. It's a fun atmosphere, I'm sure it's much busier at dinner time, but we got just the right amount of attention. Three and a half thumbs up!

Dinner at Rio Grande in Bethesda, a fun place for some more great tex-mex. We went with a few other friends, but one way or another all ended up ordering chicken, steak, or combo fajitas. I loved that we got to make our own, the flour tortillas were heavenly, and again--the chicken is good, but the steak was out of this world. It could also be that this was the first day I had steak this trip--which is practically a record for me--but I'm gonna go with they just really knew what they were doing.

In one of his friend's drink was a little flamingo thing, which I love because I used to be an avid flamingo collector. But this one is special. I mean, it looked decidedly male to me:

And then I pulled it out and saw this:

Those are definitely women's legs wearing heels. So it ends up being some kind

of confused little flamingo, but ah well. It was a wonderful dinner with wonderful people!

I'm not even going to try figuring out the thumbs up thing.