Like many fellow Canadians these days, the thought of a trip south of our border into the United States brings a lot of feelings. Back when I was heading down to Washington, DC for work, I was apprehensive. Aside from being excited for an interesting work-related opportunity, I didn’t have a lot of desire for the travel and exploring aspect of a trip like this that I normally would have had in the past. Maybe some of that was because I had been to Washington previously, maybe some of it was the feeling like I was heading directly into the belly of the beast… but work was calling so I packed my bags and decided to try to make the best of it.

How did that get started? A February day with the temperatures hitting close to 20C made for perfect unexpected patio beer weather and I took advantage one afternoon at Aslin Beer Company. They had a wonderful array of beers across some favourite styles and I luxuriated in the opportunity to do some tastings while feeling the heat of the sun on my skin for the first time in a couple of months.

To keep the warm weather vibes going, I headed around the corner for an amazing Cuban sandwich at Colada. I got a recommendation on this place from someone in DC I was working with and it was spectacular!

As part of a team building exercise for some of the committee work I was doing, our group headed to the National Museum of American History to explore a couple of specific exhibits that were very timely for the work we were doing together. We then all had an hour or so to explore the museum on our own and with little appetite to get more into some of the political and war-related history exhibits, I stuck to lighter displays – trains and transportation, and arts and culture including the Muppets and a couple of good guys from Sesame Street. That felt like the right call, Ernie and Bert have never led me astray.

I did pass this and have a chuckle at the “history happens” placeholder as they had to update their display on impeachment given everything that is occurring with their current president.

On one night, I found something a Canadian in America can always be comfortable around….. a hockey game is always a safe place.

This was the third time I’ve been able to see Alexander Ovechkin play. He’s looking a lot greyer than the first times I saw him play when I was visiting Philadelphia frequently. He’s also doing a lot less work in the defensive zone than he used to, but when you’ve scored 900 goals you get cut some slack.

This was my view for the game – the cheapest nosebleed ticket I could find. Still a pretty good vantage point for this game between the Caps and the Blues. It was entertaining end-to-end hockey with the Blues winning 5-2.

On account of living in a place that you can’t get to from DC via a late afternoon flight out, I got some bonus time after the work wrapped up and decided on a low-key afternoon away from the bustle of downtown before I got to bed in advance of an early morning departure the next day. I started my afternoon at Other Half Brewing and the beers there were so good that I ordered two tasting flights so I could sample eight of their outstanding brews while I read a book.

After a short uber ride, I walked in to my second brewery, Lost Generation, for more beer tastings. I loved the vibe at this place – the bartenders were a hoot, the place was dog friendly and I had some nice chats with a couple of dogs and their owners, and that was all topped off with the fact that their beers were superb. What started out as a reluctant trip across the border morphed into a nice trip in the end on account of some fun colleagues and a few well chosen extracurricular activities.