Howdy-ho. We spent our long weekend in the mountains of VA with 6 of our good friends, Adam & Anna, Keith & Brigid, Mike & Lindsey, (and Bowser and Obi dog) from DC. My grandparents built a cozy little cabin on Hightop Mountain, just east of Shenandoah National Park (and Skyline Drive) — David and Kristy lived there for several years, and my parents will soon live there as soon as they sell their house, which goes on the market VERY soon. We headed out early on Friday afternoon and got to enjoy some time away from the city. Traffic was relatively light getting there, and we found a great little drive-thru ice-cream place (Moo Thru = genius) that seemed to make the trip go by even faster.

On Saturday morning we drove to Massanutten to go on a 7-mile canoe adventure up the Shenandoah River, which we learned is a tributary of the Potomac and flows northeast. We also learned that the water was unseasonably high right now, which allowed us to cruise along quite nicely for the first half of the journey with minimal paddling. For the second half of our route, the water stilled a bit and required some team paddling work. Matt and I are about as compatible together in a canoe as we are when we drive places together (mostly argueing over who is not navigating correctly), but we managed to get it together enough to get through some wimpy little rapids. It was a scorching hot day, so I jumped out of the canoe for a bit and just floated, cold but refreshing. I even managed to get back into the canoe with little problem. A few 100 yards later, Matt took a dip in the water. Unfortunately when he pulled himself back into the canoe, we tipped ourselves over, filled completely with water, and had to swim to the cow-manure filled shores to dump out the water and right ourselves once again. Thank goodness there weren’t any cows at that particular spot, as there were elsewhere along the river, because those suckers were looking pretty hot and ornery standing around in the sun. It was a great little trip though and probably all the more memorable for the tipping incident. Thankfully, we left our cameras behind and there is no photo evidence of this part of the trip. Had we brought them, they’d have been completely water-logged…

That afternoon, we headed back to the cabin in time to watch the sun go down, play some bocce in the driveway, and grill up a feast of hamburgers and sausages, bacon-wrapped asparagus, sweet potatoes, and grilled corn, all on our tiny little charcoal grill. It was an amazing feast, our friends know how to cook! We stayed up that night playing Skill Roll (with the added challenge of obstacles) and telephone pictionary, where some infamous sketches were drawn, such as Brittany on the RV, which later turned into a runaway baby.

On Sunday morning, a brave few of us (me, Matt, Keith and Brigid) hiked a little ways up the mountain road with Bowser and Obi in tow. The dogs played, wrestled, and ran most of the way up, and quickly tired themselves out on a hot morning. We saw lots of bugs, wildflowers, and trees and I wore David’s redneck orange hunting hat, just one of the many treasures we found at the cabin.

Around lunchtime, we ventured 45 minutes south to Charlottesville for eats at Miller’s Restaurant, which is apparently (cool factoid alert) where Dave Matthews used to work. We ate seafood po-boys and had some beers and then wandered around to the shops. It’s such a cute little town and wish we could have spent some more time perusing, so hopefully we can make it back soon. But we had a timed tour reservation to make at Monticello, so we headed onward.

Monticello was pretty impressive to me. They tour was quick and felt a little rushed, probably since it was crowded for a holiday weekend, but I learned a lot about Jefferson and the most important take-home of the trip was his ingenius dumb-waiter system that allowed wine to be brought up from his cellar to the side of the fireplace. Matt and I need to get on that soon for our house – both the wine cellar and the dumb-waiter system, I love it. I also appreciated learning about the on-going nature of Jefferson’s architectural designs, house-building, book collecting, and education in general. He seems like he was a pretty cool person to have had a glass of wine with by the fire. After the house part of the tour, we wandered around the beautiful flowers, gardens, and his memorial gravesite.

On Sunday night, we stayed up until the wee hours learning and playing Settlers of Catan, which is my new favorite game and, like Lindsey, I want to begin forcing all my other friends to learn it so we can play it all the time. It requires lots of beer, bargaining, luck, and strategy. A great end to the day, and a great end to the trip. Feels nice to get away sometimes.

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DC is really, truly beautiful this time of year. I know I’ve written that before, but I just can’t get enough of the warm weather lately and the pretty blossoms everywhere and all the neighbors out and about. Soon it will turn into a hot mug swamp mess, so I’ll keep enjoying it while I can, and probably look back longingly at this post when I am covered in sweat just from walking Bowser down the block.

This afternoon I took some me time and went and got a pedicure and haircut. It had been months since I last did that and I was feeling a little disheveled. The great part about working for myself now is that I can just go do that in the middle of the afternoon, no waiting for the 5 o’clock whistle. I worked my butt off all week, put in a few late nights too, and so I decided to take the long route over to Capitol Hill today, walking only on the sunny sides of the street, admiring all the rowhomes, and I even stopped to watch an outdoor school lesson taking place. The kids were learning how to use yardsticks to measure things like the sidewalk squares and the height of a fence. Man it seems like all that stuff was so long ago…

I also spotted this tiny little patch of buttercups growing at the base of a streetlamp. I can’t remember the last time I saw buttercups. I love them! The remind me of our back field at the house growing up. We would run back there after Dad got home from work, pick some buttercups — the whole field was covered in them — and hold them under our chins to determine if we liked butter. I know we always thought it was some sort of magic when our chins turned yellow, and even when they didn’t, we’d still say they did.

Tomorrow I am headed up north on the Amtrak to Connecticutt with JJ and Denise to visit the one and only Slutsky! I am so excited for our long-awaited ladies weekend. The best is that we bought the train tickets way back in November, I think, so it almost feels like a free trip! Funny how that happens. We are planning to visit some vineyards, go to a wine-and-painting class, and wander around downtown Mystic. woo hoo!

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On Tuesday night we attended a Pink Tie Party event at the Mayflower Hotel, compliments of Matt’s work, to kick off the 100th Anniversary of the Cherry Blossom Festival. That means we got to put on some fancy pants clothes and pink accessories, and do some of the best eating, drinking, and people watching that this town has to offer. There were small plates and mixed drinks from probably about 50 of DC’s best restaurants, chefs, and mixologists (I learned that word there, oh yeah). We probably had about 7 or 8 (plates, not drinks) before I was too full to go on – my favorite being a Greek yogurt with cherries in the bottom from Zaytinya. But the best part of the evening was, hands down, seeing what everyone was wearing. I saw everything from prom dresses with full hair updos to 80s fashion revival. AWE-SOME. I was the nerd taking bad iPhone photos of everything from the decorations to the crazy, androgenous, no-head stilt people (see bottom photo) that were walking around. It’s like I never get out.

brought to you by macy’s

   

yikes.

   

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I spotted this incredibly awesome and stylish lady scarecrow on my way to a meeting in Capitol Hill yesterday. Sparkly, ruffled skirt. Cropped jacket. Color coordinated. Cute hat. YES! I see people walking around DC all the time with less wardrobe coordination than this.

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Saturday was a beautiful, sunny, breezy day, the kind that felt blissfully stuck somewhere between spring and summer. I spent the day checking out the Flower Mart at the National Cathedral with some of the loveliest ladies in my life. Happy Mother’s Day to the mom who raised my husband, and to my own mom, the best mom in the whole wide world!!
   

I forget exactly, but I think these are called Poofy Purple Fireworks Flowers.
   

There was entertainment and carnival games for all the little kiddos…
   

This was our view, front and center of the Cathedral, where we sat to eat lunch– lobster rolls and fresh fruit cups! We also enjoyed some gigantic chocolate-covered strawberries.
   

View of the rose garden from the top of the tower.
   

More views from the top.
   

The main nave; OOooops camera was a little crooked…
   

Little ants.
   

Daughter and mother (matching)
   

Daughter and mother (we forgot to coordinate)
   

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Twas a beautiful day on Monday — uncharacteristically warm at 80 degrees. Luckily I had half an hour to kill after work and before Matt gave a talk about green/LEED things (“Neighborhoods Go Green – Scaling Up Sustainability”) at the American Institute of Architects HQ. I wandered into Rawlins Park to sit for awhile and enjoy the sun and pink blossoms. There were several other photographers taking shots of the beautiful trees, as well as what appeared to be some sort of glamour shoot involving a woman in 5-inch heels.

I, however, was simply enjoying watching the flower petals bob up and down in the water, a slow mass oozing together in the wind. It was quiet and peaceful with the canopies of the trees providing just enough of a blockade to the cars zipping up 18th street on their way home. If only the weather could stay that way always….

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Spring is on the way in DC!!!!! Flowers are in bloom!!!! Birds are chirping!!! Soon we will all be sweating through our shirts in the swampy mug of summer!!!!

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This photo was taken near Gallaudet University — looks like someone is livin’ the white picket fence dream… complete with daisies.

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