I'm on a Boat!!

Since next weekend will be consumed with running my first 10k, this weekend I celebrated my birthday with both Ben and my parents.

On Friday night, the celebration was just Ben and me.  Ben kept everything a surprise.  He even met me at the metro station (with flowers!) near my work so he wouldn't have to tell me what metro station to get off at.  The surprise was dinner on this

Photo credit

I've wanted to do one of these dinner cruises since we moved to D.C.  Ben upgraded our ticket to include an open bar and a window seat.  So we could have all the drinks we wanted while enjoying the view.  It was absolutely beautiful.  The trip traveled down the river past Old Town Alexandria and the National Harbor.  We had an awesome time!

Then Saturday morning my parents came down to celebrate.  We did a tour of the Capitol first and then went to dinner.  The original plan was to go to Matchbox in Chinatown, but it was an hour and 15 minute wait.  An hour I could have done, but waiting for more than that I just couldn't justify.  So we switched plans and went to Clydes.  The food was really good.  I got the filet and it was cook perfectly.  My mom got a butternut squash ravioli (with dried cranberries and walnuts) that was amazing.

Afterwards we had reservations at Coco.Sala for dessert.  While I've never been, I've heard its fantastic.  For those from Boston, its kind of like Finale but a bit more on the trendy/night out side.  While the food was fantastic, i was less than impressed with the overall experience.

Pros

• Our waiter was   very attentive, quickly refilling our water glasses.
• Once the food arrived, it was very very good.  I got "Nutty but Nice" - a peanutbutter cheesecake with a chocolate coating on top.  It came with a side of rum bananas foster with chocolate shavings.  It was awesome.  It also came with a peanutbutter and jelly chocolate.  Everything was fantastic and it all paired together quite nicely. 
• The portion size was more or less what I expected.  Not a huge dessert, but very satisfying.

Cons

• First, our table wasn't ready at our reservation time.  And the fact that we showed up 10 minutes early really threw the hostess.  We were finally seated about 10 minutes late.  10 minutes is not a big deal, but when you have a reservation, you want your table ready at that time.  And since it was at 9:30, its not like it was peak time.  And considering we arrived 10 minutes, we had to wait a total of 20 minutes. 
• 40 minutes after we ordered, our waiter came back to tell us that they were out of the white chocolate necessary for my dad's dessert.  First of all - not sure why the desserts took 40 minutes, but even less sure why it took them 40 minutes to realize they were out of the white chocolate.  Another twenty minutes passed before our desserts came out.

Overall, it was a great birthday celebration!