Luna Grill, Washington, D.C.

What better thing to do on Columbus Day than shop downtown? Laurent and I went to the shopping strip along Connecticut Avenue between Farragut Square and Dupont Circle. We visited the Godiva store and tried the new 85% cocoa butter demitasse squares (I love the "dark" 72% cocoa chocolate, but I daresay the 85% will be an aquired taste, since it's very much on the bittersweet side). We were looking at suits at another store when, lo and behold, up walked Caleb!

So, the three of us walked over to Brooks Brothers, where we met Caleb's friend from Dartmouth, Peter, then we all walked up to Luna Grill for a late lunch.

Laurent's been wanting a mojito for weeks, so we all ended up getting different types of mojitos; Peter a "regular," Caleb a raspberry, me a melon, and Laurent a "twisted mojito" (with vanilla vodka and some apple juice).

Lunch was basically sandwiches. Caleb had a "rachel," which is essentially just a reuben, but made with turkey instead of corned beef. Laurent had a bacon cheeseburger with a bowl of chili instead of fries.



I had a tuna salad sandwich (a little on the dry and bland side, I thought), and Peter had just the great big sweet potato fries with sour cream as dipping sauce.



Caleb wanted dessert, so Laurent agreed to split a pumpkin cheesecake with him.



We chatted for a long time, and then Peter went off to dine with his brother, Caleb went somewhere, and Laurent and I made our way to the downtown Macy's for another shopping spree. As it turned out, though, I didn't buy a thing, and Laurent only came home with a bag with two tiny cosmetics.

Here's Peter with his mojito and a Kody Pose:

Johnny Rocket's, Washington, D.C.

Saturday afternoon Caleb popped over for a visit and decided he was hungry. We walked over to the newish Johnny Rocket's in that 2000 Penn strip mini-mall that's located where The Gap used to be, so Caleb could have the onion rings he was craving.

What's interesting about his craving for onion rings is that he doesn't like cooked onions! He took the onions out of the onion rings, discarded the onions, and ate just the fried breading!

Meanwhile, Laurent drank an oreo cookie milk shake and I had a water while we watched Caleb eat his onion rings and a chili cheeseburger.

After Caleb finished his rings, he and Laurent had dessert. Caleb chose apple pie à la mode and Laurent (who'd just finished a milk shake, mind you!) got a hot fudge sundae.



I just don't see how those boys can eat like that and still stay so thin.

The newish Johnny Rocket's, by the way, is still nice and new. It seems bigger than many I've seen. I think it could get pretty noisy, though, when all the college students show up, judging from the exuberance of the small crowd present when we were.