I'm Matt Griffith and today we're in Washington DC
Washington DC is an awesome city to come to. It's very historic, lots of monuments
to see, lots of museums, and a zoo. And it's a food lover's paradise. And best of
all - most of the attractions are free.
We're here by the Death Star, I mean Telstar. We're at the Smithsonian
National Air and Space Museum and this is one of my favorite places. I'm a pilot
and this just kind of fits me. The other cool thing is, it's free.
The museum contains the Apollo 11 command module Columbia, the friendship 7 capsule which
was flown by John Glenn Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis, the bell
x-1 which broke the sound barrier, flown by Chuck Yeager, and the Wright brothers
1903 Wright Flyer near the entrance. So there's a lot of interactive exhibits
here such as the Skylab orbital workshop that you can actually walk through.
There's also a flight director across the way. There's just a lot of things for
kids, adults, and us big kids. Now think about the bell x-1 for just a minute. It
was October 14 1947 - yes 1947. Chuck Yeager was just 24 years old at the time.
He broke the sound barrier and flew at an altitude of 45,000 feet. He then went
on to break several other speed and altitude records and you can actually
see this aircraft here. Amazing! A side note, Chuck Yeager and I are from the
same state just 25 miles apart and while he lives on the opposite side of the
country from me now I would absolutely love to meet him one day.
almost all space and aircraft on display are originals or the original backup craft.
thousands of additional artifacts including engines, rockets, uniforms,
spacesuits, balloons, artwork, documents, manuscripts, and photographs document the
richness of the history of flight. Also at the Air and Space Museum are flight Sims.
they cost $8. They're so cool because you actually feel everything and it almost
feels like you're really in the cockpit.
The National Museum of African-American history and culture opened its doors on
September 24th 2016 and has become one of the more busier places here in
National Mall in Washington DC
the National Museum of African-American history and culture is yet another
Smithsonian Institution Museum which opened its doors on September 24 2016 in
a ceremony led by US President Barack Obama. The above ground floors feature an
inverted step pyramid surrounded by a bronze architectural scrim. This museum
makes light of our past blemishes and scars as humans on society and our fellow
man revealing the travesties that took place in history in the U.S. The museum
has about 85,000 square feet of exhibition space with 12 exhibitions, 13
different Interactive's with 17 stations, and 183 videos
housed on five floors.
the museum is beautifully designed and has become one of the most popular
museums in DC since its opening, with more than 35,000 objects in their
collection and roughly 3,500 of those on display. In the collection are items
related to such subjects as community, family, the visual and performing arts,
religion, civil rights, slavery, and segregation. Some of the more notable
items in the collection include a Bible owned by Nat Turner, a trumpet owned by
jazz musician Louis Armstrong, Muhammad Ali's boxing gloves, a cherry red
Cadillac convertible owned by singer Chuck Berry, and the dress Rosa Parks was
sewing on the day she refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery Alabama.
But there's so much more! And if you get hungry the sweet home Cafe is a 400-seat
luncheon only restaurant located inside the museum.
Throughout National Mall there's all these great maps that tell you where
things are so you can find all the various museums here with the
Smithsonian.
this is the creamiest crab cake I've ever had and I think it's
actually the best one I've ever had. We're at founding farmers and this has
like a mustard in it and it's really good, just really creamy. Not too dry like
a lot of crab cakes. I think this is my favorite. Those were really good crab
cakes... but I said that already. Ah, the food. In a big melting pot city
like Washington DC you can expect to find every category and ethnicity of
food you could imagine. It's a food lover's destination and this foodie
gives it a big checkmark and a thumbs up!
We're at the old Ebbitt grill, the oldest bar and grill in Washington DC. It's been
here since 1856. It's just down the street from the White House so it's
known for politicians and actors alike to come visit. And it's also known for
its oysters.
we're outside of Don Ciccio &Figli, and they've got some of the
best spirits you're gonna taste here in Washington DC.
So everything we do here,
based on a family distillery from the Amalfi Coast, established in 1883, was the
first rendition that operated until 1931, which closed due to the economic crisis
before World War II. Reopened in 1951 and then closed down again in 1980 due to
an earthquake, the earthquake of Irpinia and the south of Italy in 1980,
6.9 magnitude earthquake. That's, that's, that's crazy
big. so what eventually brought it over here?
Yeah so Francesco Amodeo he moved here about 14 years ago now very common for
you know him there in the hospitality industry to bring his skills here, so he
worked in the hospitality industry. Sommelier, a beverage director, and as
beverage directors do he started to produce a lot of his own cordials,
liqueurs behind the bar, and the primary one being a limoncello really caught the
attention of a lot of people. Just less sugary, a bit more balance, clean, fresh,
bright. So how do you go about making it less sugary then, there's like, other
limoncellos that we might try? That's a great question.
so really if you look at alcohol content is
the number one thing, so a lot of limoncellos, cordials, liqueurs, tend to be
you know 35, sometimes 45 percent alcohol. With that much alcohol you need a lot of
sugar to mask that flavor. Cover it all up. Exactly kind of hide it. So we keep
things around 25%, 23%, highest that we go is 29. So with that level of alcohol,
sugar content low, and being from the Amalfi Coast originally you know we want
to highlight the flavors the ingredients. How many of the ingredients are kind of
local versus shipped over? So we actually source all of our ingredients
domestically, most of our citrus and fresh fruits and vegetables coming from
California. So the walnuts, the oranges, lemons, artichokes, all from California. And
then we get our fennel and our dill and our mint from Pennsylvania and Maryland.
The only thing that comes over from Italy is the espresso. So you know being
Italian, very particular about coffee. Other than that I guess the imported
products would be our machinery, our equipment, and then our French oak
barrels that we have in the back. Those originally came from the Amalfi Coast as
well, from the Marisa Cuomo winery. If you were to choose one and your personal
favorite, as a recommendation, what would that be? That's a tough question. So all the babies, but just like
in real families, someone has a favorite, right? So my personal favorite maybe it's
just the uniqueness the quirkiness but the Fennell liqueur. And you're moving
soon too right? Yeah we hope to move closer to the rest of the distilleries
in Ivy City, but yeah in the meantime you can check us out here.
6031 Kansas Avenue, Kansas and Blair Road, upper Northwest DC. It's been our home
since day one and we love it here.
all the monuments in DC are within walking distance. But be sure
to have good shoes on because there's a lot to see. The Korean War veterans
memorial memorializes those who served in the Korean War with 19 stainless
steel, larger-than-life statues each weighing nearly a thousand pounds. The
black granite mural wall has more than 2,500 photographic archival images
representing the land, sea, and air troops who supported those who fought in the
war.
The Martin Luther King jr. memorial covers four acres includes the stone of
Hope, a granite statue of Martin Luther King. The inspiration for the memorial
design is a line from King's "I have a dream" speech, "Out of the mountain of
despair a stone of hope."
The Franklin Delano Roosevelt memorial is dedicated to the memory of Franklin
Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States and to the era he
represents. Spread over seven and a half acres it traces 12 years of the history
of the United States through a sequence of four outdoor rooms, one for each of
FDR's terms of office. Sculptures inspired by photographs depict the 32nd
president alongside his dog, Fala. Other sculptures depict scenes from the Great
Depression such as listening to a fireside chat on the radio and waiting
in a breadline. A bronze statue of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, standing before
the United Nations emblem, honors her dedication to the UN. It is the only
presidential memorial to depict a first lady. Considering Roosevelt's disability
the memorial's designers intended this to be accessible to those with various
physical impairments. The Jefferson Memorial is dedicated to Thomas
Jefferson, one of our founding fathers, and as the main drafter and writer of
the Declaration of Independence, member of the Continental Congress, governor of
the newly independent Commonwealth of Virginia, first US Secretary of
State under the first president George Washington, the second vice president of
the United States under second president John Adams, and also the third president,
as well as being the founder of the University of Virginia in
Charlottesville. The world war ii memorial is dedicated to americans who
served in armed forces during World War II and consists of 56 granite pillars,
each 17 feet tall arranged in a semi-circle around a Plaza with two 43 foot
triumphal arches on opposite sides. Each pillar is inscribed with the name of one
of the 48 US states of 1945, as well as the District of Columbia, Alaska, and
Hawaii, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the US Virgin Islands.
The Washington Monument is the world's tallest stone structure standing more
than 555 feet tall commemorating the first president George Washington.
The Lincoln Memorial was built to honor the 16th President Abraham Lincoln. It is
located on the western end of the National Mall across from the Washington
Monument. It has always been a major tourist attraction and since the 1930s
has been a symbolic center focused on race relations, and since 2010
approximately six million people visit the memorial every year.
So in DC today it's 52 degrees Fahrenheit which is 11 degrees Celsius.
And I always dress in layers so I have a long-sleeve shirt that has buttons on
the side where I can roll the sleeves up if I want, I have a solid color tee
underneath and that allows me to unbutton my shirt to let it vent out a
little bit if I need to. Or I can just take the outer shell completely off so
it allows me to accommodate for many different temperatures and allows me to
pack lighter because of that.
We're in front of the National Gallery of Art. It's one of the Smithsonian
museums and the best way to think about it is it's the United States version of
the Louvre. Come on let's go.
The National Gallery of Art and it's attached sculpture garden is open to the
public and free of charge.
The detail in some of these is absolutely amazing. You look at the
horses and the people the detail is just so fine, and to think that this was
painted back in the early to mid-1800s. The gallery's collection of paintings,
drawings, prints, photographs, sculpture, metals, and decorative arts traces the
development of Western art from the Middle Ages to the present, including the
only painting by Leonardo da Vinci in the Americas and the largest mobile
created by Alexander Calder. The National Gallery of Art consists of two buildings
and this amazing outdoor sculpture garden.
We're here in DC's Chinatown and this kind of lets you experience a different
culture in our nation's capital. There's lots of restaurants and even some of the
businesses like Starbucks and Walgreens have their signs in Chinese. It's a pretty
cool place. Chinatown in Washington DC is a small historical neighborhood east of
downtown, consisting of about 20 ethnic Chinese and other Asian restaurants, and
small businesses along H&I streets between fifth and eighth streets
northwest. It is known for its annual Chinese New
Year Festival and parade and the Friendship arch which is a Chinese gate
built over 8th Street at 7th Street. Other nearby prominent landmarks include
the Verizon Center, a sports and entertainment arena, and the old Patent
Office building which houses two of the Smithsonian museums - the National
Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The neighborhood is
served by the Gallery Place Chinatown station of the Washington metro.
Hey! We're all set for 3 Star Brewing Company, which is a Washington DC craft
brewing company, all the way through.
This is the brewhouse here. The brewhouse is about a year old now, we added it just
recently. We brew 20 barrels at a time on there, so it's about 600 gallons of beer get
brewed at a time on that. So we'll walk down through the cellar,
check out the funkerdome, and then we can walk next door as well.
The Funkerdome! Yeah. You can smell it back here.
I get a little more of like the aromas of beer in
here. This is the cellar. The cellar is where all the fermentation happens. We
brew on that main system, everything gets sent back here. We do all ales here
so ale's from about 65 to 70 degrees, provided about two weeks back here.
Alright so the Funkerdome, is our star production.
Ok see all these barrels, were mixing whiskey and wine barrels and beer
sitting here from anywhere from a few months to multiple years. But where do you
guys get your barrels from? Barrels come from mixed places generally um
obviously get from direct from distilleries, some may be sourced from
other, other people, sort of collaboration with opportunities, distilling company down
way out in southern Virginia, where they bought some barrel, freshly empty barrels
back, we filled with beer, age them for a little while and send them back to them
so they can do a kind of a beer whiskey hybrid thing. Which is kind of fun. So there
are cool. So definitely get it from few places.
We've just released this space, as you can see its still very raw, right, but it's awesome, love, but
it's basically space we use for parties, when we have big events here, we use it for
that. And then we have a hip-hop show next Saturday here. Basically this will
be transformed by hopefully end of this year into a whole new space. You know, it's, you know
it's it's very raw but it's great for events. You can spill beer and make a
mess and clean up later, and not feel bad about a little stickiness.
That's how you have a party. Let's do that!
we're at the...
we're at the National Zoological Park, that's part of the Smithsonian. Lots of
animals inside, let's go see! The National Zoological Park commonly known as the
National Zoo is one of the oldest zoos in the United States. It is part of the
Smithsonian Institution and is free. Founded in 1889 its mission is to
provide engaging experiences with animals and create and share knowledge
to save wildlife and habitats. Here we have the Panda in it's
unnatural habitat. Some of the popular exhibits include the giant panda habitat,
elephant trails, Lemur Island, the Great Ape house, and the cheetah Conservation
station. The famous Smokey Bear, which was the
living symbol of the cartoon icon created as part of a campaign to prevent
forest fires, lived here until his death in 1976. The National Zoo hosts about
1800 animals of 300 different species of which 1/5 of them are endangered or
threatened. The best-known residents are the giant pandas but the zoo is also
home to birds, great apes, big cats, Asian elephants, insects, amphibians, reptiles
aquatic animals, small mammals, and many more. This hundred and sixty-three acre
urban park is open every day of the year except for December 25th or Christmas
Day.
So that's been our trip to Washington DC. Our bellies are full, our feet are tired,
even with great walking shoes, but we've had a chance to catch up on some history
and experience the culture.
