We spent the weekend in Rock Hall, MD with family — on Saturday we checked out the farmers market and shops in Chestertown, walked around by the water, listened to a concert in the park, and had a lovely dinner out. Sunday morning was our sprint triathlon. It had been awhile since we’d done one — but it felt pretty good and the course was awesome!!
water
best. boat. ever. (also, Instagram really brings out my freckles)
Chestertown fountain
BOATS
Matt helping a snapping turtle across the road with a car scraper. he was feisty about it (the turtle).
Amos, ready to roll on race morning
race markings — still 29!!!! for another month anyways
I went to see the Terps vs. UNC game last night in College Park with the college ladies. Even though MD lost in their last home game of the season, it was still great catching up and reminiscing about how much CP has changed. One highlight of the evening for me was the unfurling of a huge Maryland flag over the student section — I love that stuff. Also, the gymkana halftime show. People doing flips through flaming hoops does it for me every time.
We spent Christmas weekend in Maryland and Delaware: window shopping, eating family meals, drinking wine and talking, watching a light snow fall outside, catching up with friends we haven’t seen in forever, exchanging gifts, posing the doggies for pictures, scarfing down cookies and fudge, and playing team Scrabble. Just perfect.
Our Terps lost a heartbreaker today, no thanks to their kicker for missing a field goal from close range with just a few seconds left in the game. Too bad, so sad. JJ and I had fun anyways in our front row seats, getting to hear the players and coaches game-time talk and seeing the towel ralleys at close range. I think we even had some water sloshed on us from the bench at the end of the game when the kick bounced off the upright and some members of the team threw their cups in disgust. YEAH! Up until those final seconds though, things were great, we were busy cheering for Cheeseboro and yelling MOVE THOSE CHAINS and wondering why the stripes on the Terps Under Armour jerseys and pants are so weird looking. Who knew that the cheap “obstructed view” seats that I found on StubHub would be so awesome?
We also spend a good amount of time trying to figure out how in the world the student body (aka the drunk section) was able to get their act together enough to spell out a giant “M” in the stands with just the separation of white and red t-shirts. Someone please tell me that we were correct in assuming that white shirts were left on the correctly configured seats in order to accomplish this? If not, props to the current students for being way too organized. Our biggest accomplishments on game days used to be just waking up before noon for some dining hall breakfast so you didn’t go tailgate on an empty stomach.
Besides the game, it’s always good to get back on campus and spend some time reminiscing about college, visiting Testudo and Kermit, and wandering along route 1. As we were walking back to the metro after the game, a guy passing by us was reminiscing about Danny’s (which appears to have been replaced with some place called Wasabi, which is weird) just at the same time as we were, saying aloud to his friends, Remember when it was Danny’s? JJ answered him, Yes, I do. – much to his surprise, because he responded, NO, you don’t know Danny’s… as he continued walking past us, to which JJ replied under her breath, I got pepper-sprayed at Danny’s once. Ahhhh, College Park.
Other good overheards of the day included some guys on the metro on the way there wondering if #1 Liquor would deliver to their tailgate (I wanted to tell them yeah, they will), and a girl I overheard in the bookstore telling her friends how it was actually great that she had no money, because then she couldn’t spend it on crappy food like Ratsie’s. Amen, fellow Terps, AMEN.
C & O Canal Bike Trip and Lockhouse Tour, 2012
September 4th, 2012
This weekend we went biking along the C & O Canal path with a bunch of friends, staying at Lockhouse 10 and Lockhouse 28 along the way. We left DC on Friday evening with Sandy, Olly, and Josh, and did a short 12 miles out to our first stop at LH 10 for the night. It had AC and running water and a sweet back porch with rocking chairs. We had sandwhiches and gin and tonics and cupcakes (somewhat smushed) for dinner, then walked down to the river to try and catch a glimpse of the full blue moon through the tree cover.
On Saturday morning, Ty, Greg, and Val joined us for the next 40 miles out to LH 28 in Point of Rocks, MD. We made good timing and stopped a couple times along the way — to see the river at Great Falls, to have some lunch at a campsite, to fill our camelpacks and bottles at the water pumping stations along the route. Around 4:30ish in the afternoon, we arrived in Point of Rocks and got unloaded for our second night – no running water or electricity, just a few trundle beds and a roof – our “stone tent” as one of the C & O Canal guides called it. We relaxed for a few before setting off in search of some well-deserved pizza and beer in town. We were all majorly hungry after 40 miles.
That night, Olly made us a campfire and we made s’mores and drank Natty Bohs – the perfect kinda-camping experience.
On Sunday morning, we were up bright and early and hitting the trail homeward. It rained a bit on the way, but we made even better timing than on the way out since we were going slightly downhill, and all of us eager to get home to showers. I was nervous about trying to make the whole 54-ish miles home in one day since I have never biked that far at once, but somehow I made it and my legs did not even fall off. Wahoo! I think we will need to make a repeat of this trip again soon!
Matt’s bike, fully loaded and ready to leave!
just a few miles out of Georgetown
lockhouse 10
the state of the cupcakes upon arrival, but this did not stop us from eating them
MOOOOOoooo. JJ and I went to The Howard County Fair yesterday evening and wandered around for a bit. A huge storm rolled in though, forcing us to leave a bit early… But not before we had time to check out the animals, the 4-H exhibits, play some Bingo, eat at the Lions Club dinner, and get in a ride on the swings for $1. It has been several summers since I’ve been back there, but it still immediately brought back plenty of memories of summers past, when it was actually really important to win a goldfish, collect as much swag as possible at the exhibit hall, and ride the Zipper all night.
Prize winning vegetables. I so wish my cucumbers were worthy of being in this contest.
ribbon winning jams and jellies
squeeeee!! a miniature pony
this guy was real feisty
at the intersection of cattle and livestock
BINGO! JJ won a game, possibly earning our money back… probably not though. Still lamenting the years when they used to have corn kernels to mark the cards, and it used to be 5c per play…
waiting in line to ride the swings, wondering if we are too old for this
WEEEEEEeeeee.
The games have gotten really high-tech and high-stakes. You used to win either a goldfish or a big stuffed animal… crazy!
We did the American Odyssey Relay this weekend, our second year in a row as part of Team Wharf (Matt’s 3rd year doing it overall). It was another crazy adventure this time around, consisting of 200 miles from Gettysburg back to DC, with 12 runners, 3 legs each, on very little sleep, with loads of trail mix and gatorade mixed in. Matt put in a total of 17.2 miles at a 8:54 pace and I put in a total of 14.4 miles at a 9:31 pace — our time-keeping was far more diligent this year than in the past. The grand total for our team was 27 hours and 29 minutes of continuous running, at an average pace of 8:19 – wooooohooooooooo! And to top it off, we were awarded the prize for best van decorations, thanks to Gaby, and we each got to take home a commemorative beer glass. GO TEAM WHARF.
Team Wharf – the car decorations before departing
lobster and other maritime themed decorations
the starting line
annnnnd we’re off! Bao is already in front of the girl with the hot shorts
rolling through the countryside
crossing the tracks
put some dirt on the car
competitors car decorations 1
competitors car decorations 2
this is the definition of the middle of nowhere
Matt takes off on his first leg of the race, sometime late-afternoon on Friday
farm land!
Matt coming in on his first leg, at a Walmart parking lot
signage at one of the transitions
Lindsay coming in strong on her first leg!
CHEESE
beautiful sunset
waiting for some water for my hot cocoa at one of the transitions. time: approximately 2am
waiting in line for some pancake breakfast, after van #2 finished up all our night legs. time: approximately 4am
analyzing my final leg, 4 easy miles. start time: 9:53am
things keeping Matt going for the last leg – Bengay + Beef Jerky
Yesterday I played some hookey and spent the day at Sandy Point State Park with my mom and sis. It was a perfect day – sunny, though slightly chilly — great beach sitting weather without getting roasted. We were practically the only people out there, save a few other dog walkers and another family, so we felt like we had the place to ourselves. We packed some blankets and a picnic of fruit, veggies, and chips and just relaxed, looked for beach glass, and watched the cars and trucks endlessly cross the bay bridge. We spotted a beautiful heron trying to catch fish at the edge of the surf, a few big black buzzard-looking birds (stalking cloesly behind the heron), plenty of seagulls, and a giant ship passing under the bridge span with the words Wallenius Wilmhelsen painted on the side. I made some beach art out of the white oyster shells that were littered all over the sand… hopefully someone came it across it after we left.
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Jill, the ever-intrepid photographer with her new camera, took a million photos, paparazzi-style. I hope she feels honored to have made it on Justaexposed. Here are a two of her shots:
In the afternoon, on our way home, we stopped by Freedom Bakery in Severna Park for some cupcakes and cookies to take home with us…. Perfectly indulgent way to cap off a lovely day. Can we do it again tomorrow? And every day after that?
We had a nice, relaxing weekend. On Friday night, it snowed and sleeted here a tiny bit – just enough to make us want to stay in and cozy-up inside. We made shrimp linguine and enjoyed some red wine for dinner, and had a chocolate eclair for dessert. We spent some time thumbing through a signed copy of a Shepard Fairey book that Matt got that day from a co-worker, commenting on his incredible artwork and stencils and picking the pieces we’d hang on our walls. Afterwards, we watched some Parks and Recreation, the best show ever. I love Netflix.
On Saturday morning, we took Bowser to the vet for his annual check-up. All was good. He barely even squirmed for his two shots. We spent the rest of the morning debating back and forth how to proceed with the office “renovation.” We’re having a hard time deciding what to do with the floors, which were covered in paint splashes, scratches, and holes when we tore up the carpet. Paint the original wood white? Add a brand new floor overtop? We had a guy come out to look at it, and suggested that we don’t try to sand it down, so that option was out.
We decided to take a trip to our favorite place in the world, Community Forklift, to see if we could find enough reclaimed wood flooring to lay overtop what is there now. Most of what we found were smaller amount of scraps, not enough to cover the approximately 8′ x 12′ room. So after that, we were back to the painting idea, which, yes, I am in LOVE with, but I still have my skepticisms about getting it to turn out right. Many of the tutorials we’ve read online make it seem slightly harder than it seems. Here are some of my inspirations.
This is the greatness that is Community Forklift.
What you might find there.
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We decided to take a break from thinking about the floor, and drove over to National Harbor to visit the Peep store, which has been high on my list of things to do forever now. It was everything I imagined and more. Pure marshmellow heaven. I bought some green duck Peeps and some orange rabbit Peeps since I have never even seen those colors before. I was thinking about purchasing some Peep art, but the prices were kinda high, and I think I would just want to eat them all off the wall.
now THIS is a great door handle
look at all that Peep goodness
Peep wall
Peep art
Peep, and The Awakening.
I miss when The Awakening statue was on Hains Point. I’m still kind of sad that it was relocated to National Harbor, and wish that it had stayed in DC. Yesterday it was all roped off, so you couldn’t even get up close to it. Bummer.
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Today we went to Home Depot, and bought all the painting supplies we needed to do the floor. I just finished up with the first steps – gave it a good sanding, first with 150 grit then with 220 grit, and then gave it a good soapy water mopping. Going to let it air out overnight, give it one more mopping tomorrow to get the rest of the dust up, and then onto the primer. Before and after pics to come soon!
Hope everyone had a great weekend! Everyone except for Ravens nation…
Things got all busy all of a sudden! Work, school wrapping up for the semester, parties… Holiday rush. Here are some recent photos I haven’t had time to post until now.
Went shopping in Old Ellicott City with the family.
Christmas-y window displays!
We went and got our first real live Christmas tree this year. If you remember this event as a special sort of warm, fuzzy family moment, where you spend an hour wandering around a tree farm with a red wagon, and then Dad bravely cuts down the perfect tree after 45 minutes of looking–maybe there is a better one up ahead! — … well, picture the opposite. It was 9pm on Sunday evening, and I demanded that we go get a tree then, because our crazy schedules were not really free again until it was practically Christmas anyways… so, we headed to the tropical plant place on New York Ave. Picking out the perfect tree consisted of a toothless guy and his cat hustling us along through some dark rows of trees leaning in piles, and us taking the first and cheapest tree we saw that had branches. While the guy and his cat tied the tree to the top of our car, Matt paid for the tree and an extra $3 for a fresh cut on the bottom. It all happened in approximately 12 minutes. Not exactly magical. BUT! Our tree is now home, lit, decorated, and it’s perfect!
…experience complete with giant blow-up Santa.
and, Bowser. Hanging out in bed on a rainy day… BUM.
Afterwards, we watched some Parks and Recreation, the best show ever. I love Netflix.
