How to have a perfect Saturday in DC

Sleep in. Wake up slowly. Run across the street for a copy of the Washington Post, and coffee creamer. Brew six cups of coffee (three for you, and three for your equally undercaffienated boyfriend). Enjoy said coffee and newspaper. Make it about halfway through the crossword puzzle before giving up and moving onto the comics.

Shower and get dressed in your coziest sweater, favorite jeans, and Pumas (or other equally comfortable pair of shoes). Consider going out for brunch, but decide on Chipotle instead. (Who says a chicken burrito isn't brunch food, anyway?)

Take the Metro to Judiciary Square, which deposits you within a couple blocks of your favorite Smithsonian museum, the Hirschhorn. Start with the recent acquisitions in the ground floor gallery, where you'll find works of John Baldessari and Andy Warhol, among others. Move on to the second floor, where the intoxicatingly colorful works of Color Field painter Morris Louis are on display until January 6. (Louis, who lived in DC from 1952 until his death in 1962, is also considered a primary member of the Washington Color School, an influential group of DC-area abstract artists who displayed works in several seminal exhibits during the 1960's.) Stop and look in awe at the massive "Para III" (pictured above). If you can pull yourself away, take the escalator to the third floor to see whimsical sculpures by Alexander Calder, as well as the museum's extensive collections of moody paintings by abstract impressionist Willem de Kooning. Leave the Hirschhorn with a renewed love for its extensive and smartly displayed collection.

Take the Metro to Dupont Circle. Duck into Kramerbooks to browse, and swoon over the scent of freshly-baked pie wafting from the adjoining Afterwords Cafe. Flip through Chuck Palahniuk's Stranger than Fiction, and Roger Housden's Ten Poems to Change Your Life. Gravitate (as always seems to happen) to the food and wine section, where you find A Hedonist in the Cellar: Adventures in Wine, Jay McInerney's cheeky chronicling of his forays as House & Garden's wine writer, which reminds you of your yearning to try Dupont's new wine bar, Veritas.

Find your boyfriend in the film section, thoroughly (and adorably) engrossed in I'm a Lebowski, You're a Lebowski. Gently (so as not to break his intense, Coen Brothers-induced concentration) ask if he's ready to go. Walk the couple blocks up Connecticut Avenue to Veritas, and have an experience so thoroughly delicious it deserves it deserves its own post (coming soon!).

Walk the few blocks back to your apartment in Adams Morgan, warm and happy from the wine despite the chill in the air. Wish that every day could be this perfect. Remember that there's always another Saturday adventure to be had, and that the next is a mere seven days away. Remember -again - why you love living in DC.

Photo of Kramerbooks by Flickr user Eye Captain.
Morris Louis' "Where" (1960) image taken from Wikipedia.