Whiskey and Fancy Cars? Ok!

We had a great time with Kristy and Ryan, and we were looking forward to having a great time with Zach, too!

There was still plenty of night left, so we walked down to the end of his block to Stateside. It's a really neat bar with a great whiskey selection. And despite having already had drinks earlier in the day, we did some impressive, um, tasting.

We eventually wrapped things up at Stateside and decided it was time for cheesesteaks and cheese fries at Pat's. At 12:30am. Mmm...midnight cheesesteaks... We eventually went back to Zach's apartment and passed out.

We didn't exactly leap out of bed the next morning, but we eventually all got up, grabbed showers and coffee, and went out for breakfast.

I forget where we went, but it was a few blocks from Zach's apartment and really tasty. I had a chicken and waffle benedict, which was delicious and just the right amount of salty greasiness.

We made a quick stop back at Zach's before heading out to our first stop of the day: the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum. I had never heard of it, and no wonder...it's hidden out by the airport, behind a bunch of car dealerships and shops.

It is totally worth the trip, though...they have some amazing stuff! This is a 1929 Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 SS. The volunteers had opened the hoods on some of the older cars, and you could walk into the exhibit to get a closer look at some of the engines.

This was one of my favorites: a 1928 Auburn 8-88 Boat Tail Speedster. I've always loved the look of the late 1920's sporty cars!

The 1950 Allard J2 had such a nice face. They're apparently super tricky to drive and even the driver guy at the museum won't take it above 90mph.

We were only a little bit into the exhibits when we heard a loud growl from the back of the building. We wandered back there and found...

...a 1952 Jaguar C-Type that they had just driven! That might be one of the best parts about this museum: they still drive the cars. One of the volunteers said that all but a handful of them run and are driven.

We could walk all around the car and look inside. It reminded me a bit of an airplane inside with how basic it was. We drooled over the car for a few minutes before heading back inside to check out the rest of the collection.

The 1956 Jaguar D-Type also had a very nice face.   :)     We didn't get very far into the exhibits before hearing more growling engine noise from behind the building, so we walked back out...

...and this time, they were driving the 1952 Cunningham C-4R Roadster. I wish my video had turned out better, because the sound was great. They were getting ready for their demo day later in the week; they advertise demo days on their website (here) where you can go see them drive certain cars. We watched them drive around for a bit, then finally went back to check out the rest of the collection.

Umm...I'll take the Ferrari. Or that other Ferrari. Or maybe the Maserati over there. At one point Zach asked Mark how much he thought the whole collection was worth. He really had no idea, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was in the hundreds of millions.

We eventually finished up at the museum (and if you ever get the chance, go check it out!), then Zach took us over to the Navy Yard so we could see where he works. It was neat...I'd never been there before! There are lots of older repurposed military buildings, and it's right on the water.

There was even an aircraft carrier. It was pretty cool to see it so close.

It was pretty warm, so we wanted to find something cooler to do for the afternoon. Luckily, IKEA was only a few minutes away.

One of my favorite things to do it pretend that the various displays are actually my house. We wandered all the way through the store, and I wound up buying a new chair and footstool for my office.

The view from Zach's apartment. It's a pretty sweet view of the skyline, and at night it's really pretty when everything lights up. After IKEA we hung out at Zach's for a bit before heading over to a nearby restaurant for dinner.

Mmm...Italian food! There aren't too many good Italian restaurants by us in VA, so it was a nice treat to have some tasty food before heading back home. We eventually drove back to VA after dinner since we had to get back to work the next day. The trip was over pretty fast, but we had a really good time...hopefully we'll be able to do it again!