As much as I would like to be able to say that we had dinner at Sardi’s, we didn’t and instead stopped in here at Dafni’s. We hadn’t heard anything about Dafni but we were pretty hungry and, as a previous post would indicate, Greek cuisine is never the wrong answer—and it especially wasn’t this time. I think I may have to hand the laurel wreath to Dafni and crown the restaurant for the best gyro-style lamb I have ever eaten. (Once again, the combination platter was ordered due to my inability to settle for one kind of Greek meat.)

—
Dafni Greek Taverna
325 West 42nd Street, NYC
http://www.dafnitaverna.com/ 

“I wanna be a producer, with a hit show on Broadway. I wanna be a producer, lunch at Sardi’s every day…”

—
Sardi’s
234 West 44th St, NYC
http://www.sardis.com/htmldocs/cms/ 

No, we did not have tickets to Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark but we could not pass the photo opportunity. For those of you that have been living under a rock for the past half a year, the Spider Man musical has been losing cast members left and right due to concussions and other serious injuries. Even without the acrobatics and wires, I will never be able to understand how anyone thought a Spider Man musical was the next “it” thing.

—
Spider Man: Turn Off the Dark
Foxwoods Theatre
213 West 42nd Street, NYC
http://spidermanonbroadway.marvel.com/ 

Come down from there, you silly bear. Didn’t you hear? Barbie and Ken are back together. Besides, I can’t imagine any Barbie that lives in that house would be anywhere near your size.

{Toys R Us, Times Square, New York, New York}

The Toys R Us in Times Square is famous for having a ferris wheel inside the store and, well, you know how it goes: build it and they shall come…

{Toys R Us, Times Square, New York, New York}

Welcome to the Big Apple, Carl! We had a lot to do and only 3 days to do it in. The Toys R Us in Times Square was as good a place to start as any.

Here Carl apes King Kong on a Lego model of the Empire State Building as the rest of us enjoy not having to sit on the Bolt Bus any longer. (The pain was worth the money we saved…I think…)

{Toys R Us, Times Square, New York, New York}

“You no eat meat? You NO EAT MEAT??…That’s okay, I make you lamb.”
If you have no idea what just happened, please get your hands on a copy of My Big Fat Greek Wedding asap.

Silly movie quotes aside, we love Greek food and Zorba’s Cafe does not disappoint. We definitely recommend the Zorba’s Combination Plate to anyone as indecisive as we are. Reviews we read before going complained about a wait but we, visiting between 5-6pm on a Friday, did not have that experience. Additionally, other reviews complained about the small portion size but we found that to be untrue as well. 

Στην υγειά μας! 

—
Zorba’s Cafe 
1612 20th St NW · Washington, DC 20009
http://www.zorbascafe.com/ 

It was finally time to check in with my class and tour the Christian Heurich House (pictured here). In the interest of preservation, no photos of any kind were allowed in the house and the lighting inside was even kept at original (meaning: very, very low) wattage. Christian Heurich is one of many “American Dream” stories; he was a man who came to the US from Germany with practically nothing and became highly successful and extremely wealthy with a bit of hard work and good investing.

I do actually recommend a visit to the Heurich House, especially if you enjoy touring historic houses. The curator is very nice and leads and excellent, engaging tour. (Who knew that the Kennedy Center was built on land where a local brewery, owned by Christian Heurich, once sat? I didn’t)

—

The Christian Heurich House
1307 New Hampshire Ave, NW, Washington, DC  20036
http://www.brewmasterscastle.com/ 
**Admission is a suggested donation of $5 

Succession, Wassily Kandinsky, 1935

Kandinsky was a member of both Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) and, later, Bauhaus art circles, which both put out a lot of interesting art (art that even we can “get,” despite our occasional issues with modern art). This piece, as we were told by our lovely intern, perpetuated the idea of speech without words. I enjoy the play of shapes and color in each individual icon in the painting. 

{Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.}

**For more information about and works by Kandinsky, visit:
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/kandinsky/ 
(or, you know, wiki him.) 

We, having a lot of time on our hands, made sure to explore every last nook and cranny of the Phillips Collection, which included this little corner with a bench. After sitting Carl on the bench and taking some pictures, a docent came over to tell us that we could take pictures of anything BUT this one and the matching painting behind us (something about the paintings not belonging to the Phillips.) There were no signs, no notes in the brochure, nothing to say: “Hey, you with the bear: no photos.”

We leave it to you to imagine what Carl is contemplating on his bench (because, if nothing else, we really don’t remember who painted it or what it was called…) 

{Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.}