spring(ish) weekends! April 11th, 2011
This past weekend we had a lovely time with visitors from Delaware. Mom and Dad S. came down to celebrate a birthday, toast to Matt’s award from school, and watch us race run the GW Parkway 10 miler. On Friday night, we stayed up until midnight awaiting the news of the impending government shutdown… The “crisis was averted” (delayed anyway), as they say, so that meant our 10-miler race was on, the city would stay open, and more importantly, people would continue to receive paychecks. woohoo for peeps getting paid! On Saturday morning, we grabbed some deli subs to go from our favorite neighborhood Italian hotspot, A. Litteri’s and then went over to the National Arboretum to wander around the gardens and check out the Ikebana exhibit.
textures
this way or that
one of the many beautiful Ikebana displays
(I promise I did not pick this blossom, I found it on the ground…)
Messing with the photographer in action, always a good time.
wind in the willows
…and Val played hopscotch on the pavers at the old Capitol columns
After that, the guys went their own way to do guys things, while the ladies went and shopped!! We first attempted to go to the garden store in Capital Hill, but that was a big fail because there really wasn’t much of a store, just some cool things scattered around outside and then a tiny little inside area. So the next best destination was Hill’s Kitchen. I picked up a cookie cutter in the shape of DC (awesome) and a gift for an upcoming friends wedding.
That evening, we enjoyed a delicious birthday dinner for mom at Founding Farmers, and, even though our table was facing the counter where all the desserts are plated, we managed to pass on those and come home to enjoy Val’s homemade carrot cake. NOM NOM! Good pre-race fodder, right? Hey, carbs are carbs.
On Sunday morning, Matt, Val, and I were off to run a point-to-point 10 miles, starting at Mt. Vernon, winding along the GW Parkway, and ending in Alexandria. My awesome coworker and race-buddy Susan met us out there, too. Ty was tasked with making us breakfast upon our return, but in the end he came out to cheer for us instead. Thanks for getting out of bed so early on a Sunday, Ty!!
Huddled up under our foil blankets before the start of the race!! It was COLD out there at 7am. (Alternate caption: me working on my babooshka look.)
In the end, it was a great race!! This was my third year running it with Susan, and 5th year overall, so it’s become a bit of a spring tradition to look forward to. Val really pushed us to sprint in the end 1/2 mile, so she has definitely locked herself in for next years race as the motivator.
Hope you all had just as wonderful a weekend!
tags: alexandria, nature, running, trees
2 Responses
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April 13th, 2011 at 11:12 pm
several comments!
1- i LOVE birds of paradise flowers.. they are my FAVORITE!
2- can’t bring val anywhere with her hopscotchin all over the place can you? hah!!
3- consider the babooshka look perfected
April 14th, 2011 at 3:12 pm
you have inspired me to find a maryland shaped cookie cutter for this tailgate season.