So we decided to drive 15 hours to Washington DC for the week of the 4th.
Stopped for lunch in Nashville and the girls wanted to drive around taking pictures of murals for Instagram. Not something I'm interested in so they dropped me off at a small local shop called Smoker's Abbey. It was cool. They had a lounge and had craft beers on tap. No crazy taxes on pipe tobacco so they had tins for $12. I picked up a tin of Dunhill My Mixture 965 and a tin of SG 1792 Flake.
The next shop was Georgetown Tobacco and is one of the coolest shops I've ever visited. It has an old school feel to it, and it is not forced. From the creaky boards to the selection of fine men's hats, it screams old school. The selection of pipes is a bit lacking, but the selection of cigars is as good as I've ever seen. I ended up hanging out on 2 different days and smoking with some of the locals. Very nice people who steered us to good restaurants that were lesser know except for locals.
I picked up a few Liga Privada cigars, and also purchased a new pipe. I love this Nording Canadian. I wanted to buy a pipe there if nothing else for a keepsake from the shop. I looked at a few, but as soon as I saw this one, it spoke to me.
https://i.imgur.com/3e3YCoI.jpg?1
On the drive home we stopped at another store that I had been wanting to visit for a while. Milan Tobacconist in Roanoke, VA is a shop I've heard a lot about and wanted to visit on my last trip to DC but it was midnight when we drove through. This time around, I planned it where we would pass through during open hours. Fantastic shop. Probably the nicest I've ever been inside as far as just how nice and organized the place was. It was darn near like a jewelry store the way they displayed pipes. There really wasn't a place to sit and enjoy a cigar there, unless it was a separate room that I didn't go in, but mostly just a retail establishment. They had a large walk in humidor and their pipe selection was amazing. They had a lot of stuff. They were very friendly and their prices were fair. I picked up a couple cigars, a tin of tobacco and a couple ounces of a couple of their house blends. Here is a pic of how they set up their pipe cases.
https://i.imgur.com/7NfKweD.jpg?1
That's all for the shop, but a quick note on a cool experience with a DC police officer. We are sitting on the West lawn of the Capital, waiting on the fireworks and I'm staring at 700,000 people. I don't do too well with crowds so I'm really jonesing for a cigar. I don't see anyone smoking so I think maybe DC has rules about smoking in public. About 50 yards away at a intersection is an officer just standing there, so I approach him to ask. As I get closer I think I'm smelling a cigar. I get to him and he has a lit Padron in his hand. I hold up my Jericho Hill and laugh and say, "Sweet. I was coming over to ask if it was okay to smoke." He laughs and replies, "Shit, I hope so." So I fired it up and talked to the officer for a few minutes about cigars. Very cool.
https://i.imgur.com/48qcPfS.jpg?3
And one last pic, just because it's cool. Merica.
https://i.imgur.com/fmHjIZu.jpg?3
