we get up the next day. because brie's husband to be is also jewish, they do a little more traditional thing. on sat, they have some sort of traditional pre-wedding ceremony (my youngest niece says it's like a batmitzpha) talia didn't want to go and so she is supposed to hang out with z and i that day. she wants to go to the zoo (she's 27 years old but for some reason i thought she was barely 21, i don't know why because z is younger than her)

with the subway station right across the street, we decide to take it to get to the zoo. btw, the d.c. zoo is FREE. now another first for z and i was the subway, but that kid had it figured out like nobody's business. he managed to get us around d.c. on that thing when talia and i were perpetually confused as to how to work it.

we go to the zoo and it really wasn't all that exciting, i have to tell you. ok city has a better zoo than d.c. a lot of the exhibits were closed due to renovations, but we did get to see one of the pandas, although he/she was being shy and would basically only show us his/her butt.

when we finally get through the zoo, we decide to make our way to season 5 top chef contestant, spike mendelson's restaurant, good stuff eatery. the restaurant is basically burgers and one of the burgers on his menu is the "obama burger" i didn't get that because i'm not really into roqufort cheese. but they had a turkey burger called a "michelle melt" where the herbs were supposed to have come from the whitehouse garden. i didn't get that one either. i opted for just a bacon cheese burger but all the beef was grassfed and dang, that was a pretty tasty burger, i have to say. spike was in the house, behind the counter cooking burgers.

we made our way back to the hotel, in time for complimentary cocktail hour, and then got ready to go to the non-rehearsal rehearsal dinner at the melting pot. meanwhile, i hear about a rockwell exhibit across the street at the smithsonian art gallery. z and i quickly go across the street and see the exhibit. the paintings were loaned to the museum by george lucas and steven spielburg. z had no idea who normal rockwell was so the exhibit wasn't all that thrilling for him, but we both pick up brand new sketch books in the giftshop.

fondue actually was not a first for z and i as my mom does fondue and we'd both done fondue with my parents. i did stuff myself. it's amazing how filling fondue can be. and my brother in law is so funny, he's such a shmoozer and on the way there chats up the taxi driver. this guy has never met a stranger. we all had a great time.