We had Chinese take out for dinner. Two Egg Rolls, Wonton Soup for 2, Beef & Broccoli with some Shrimp Fried Rice for Donna’s lunches this week.
Chewie is so excited he wants to blast something. His Red Sox Nation membership card came in the mail today. There is a small bumper sticker that goes along with it and he’s going to put it on the Millennium Falcon when Han isn’t looking.
While in DC the other week, after we walked to a lot of the war memorials in West Potomac Park we headed over to the Tidal Basin to see if we could find any cherry trees that still had blossoms on it. Unfortunately there were only a few. There are about three or four varieties of cherry trees planted around the basin so that some of them bloom at different times, but during our walk we only came across about three trees that looked like they were at their peak. Because of the great distances between bloomed trees, my dream of a sweeping panorama of blooming trees with the Jefferson Memorial in the background (very postcard-like) was squashed. I did take a couple of close ups of one blooming tree. As we strolled along I was looking down reviewing my last pictures when – SMACK -my head hit a low hanging branch. I know now why George Washington chopped down that cherry tree. It wasn’t bad enough to make me see stars, but I did decide from then forward that I would wait until I was stopped to look down at the camera’s LCD.
Our free Chargrilled sandwich from Chick-Fil-A cost us $8.09. We used the coupon from the Chick-Fil-A calendar, but to get the sandwich you had to buy a small fruit cup and a medium soda. We sometimes split a meal when we go out, but that amount wouldn’t be enought so we added a Chicken Strip Salad to the tray.
I’ve added a forwarded email joke to the Joke Page.
Also added 8 photos from the Sterling, VA BMW Ultimate Drive. No captions yet, probably tomorrow.
We were up at 4:00AM to drive to Columbia. The flight and all about it went smoothly. The only hitch was that Donna told her friend Sally to meet us at the Alamo counter at Dulles, trouble being there is no counter at the airport, Alamo is off-site. Fortunately, by the time we figured out where Sally’s Metro bus would stop, it was just arriving. We picked out our Pontiac G6 and headed west.
Brunch was at the Cindy-Dee Restaurant just over the Potomac River into Maryland in a small town called Knoxville. The food was pretty good, but I wouldn’t recommend you drive out from DC just to eat there. (As a side note, I won’t be keeping track of the money spent eating out during our trip, can’t really count it as eating out because we have no choice in the matter.) We were on our way to Sally’s sister’s house for Easter lunch, but Sally informed us that lunch meant 2 to 3 PM so topping off the stomach at 9:30AM was a good idea.
After they got home from church, and while the food was cooking, Donna, Sally, Sally’s brother-in-law and I went a half mile back down the road they live on, to an entrance to the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal for a walk. It was a very brisk walk, in more ways than one as the temperature was probably in the upper 30s with a good breeze. After getting back from our walk we had a wonderful free form Easter lunch, that if we had 60’s soul music playing in the background, could have almost passed for scene from the Big Chill. There was Donna and I, Sally, her sister Suzie, Suzie’s husband John, John’s sister Peg, a neighbor of theirs in Georgetown, Suzie and John’s daughter, one of her friends and her friend’s mother.
At around 5:30 Donna and I were running out of steam, so we took our leave and drove back to DC. Sally managed to direct us back to DC without incident, but after arrival, it took us three circles of the tricky roads near the Key Bridge to actually find the Holiday Inn parking entrance.
Tomorrow, the three of us will be doing some touristy stuff, you know, see some monuments, and if we get going early enough maybe we’ll see President George come out to get the Post in his bathrobe.
Seeing as we are vacationing in the northeast next week and the temperatures there probably won’t get as high as the mid-fifties, we were not going to let the cold weather here stop us from having a nice day outdoors. Note to would be burglars: Our neighbor’s 75 lb pit bull is spending the week at our house and we are only leaving him two days worth of food.
Our excursion began with lunch out at the Stoplight Deli in downtown Aiken. We both had a cup of chili to start. Then we split a Rachel sandwich (corned beef, ham, swiss cheese, cole slaw, russian dressing on wheat.) We both finished off the meal with a cookie, oatmeal raisin for her, peanut butter for him. The usual water was to drink.
After lunch we drove to Ridge Spring’s Nut House to pick up a gift sampler for our Easter dinner hosts. While we out we headed over towards Columbia to fill in a Post Office hole. Gaston and Swansea were first and then we were headed to two towns that I originally marked with red dots (meaning no PO) on the map, North and Norway. Between the two pairs of towns, I spotted a sign directing folks to a Post Office in the town of Neeses, so I followed it. We ended up getting photos of five places even though according to my map there should have only been two.
Please tell me why two people who don’t golf (unless you count a bi-annual stab at putt-putt), aren’t really interested in golf and probably can’t name 5 current golfers, will spend 4 evenings at the end of the first week in April glued to the tube watching the Masters?
While I’m asking questions, why in the world would the History Channel be showing The Planet of the Apes?
All Donna could do after reading last nights post was shake her head. (Wait’ll she sees this one.) What’s a good superhero without a sidekick? While Garnetman can drive like the wind, spot the apex of a curve in a flash, the big picture of proper course is his Achilles heel. He needs direction, so who reads the maps that keep him on trajectory? NaviGirl, that’s who.
Why Garnetman might have starved this very evening had not NaviGirl led him to the golden doors of the China Palace. Sizzling Rice Soup for two and a serving of Double Fried Pork split down the middle. Water to drink.
Once again I “borrowed” the superhero images from The Art of Andy Smith. I did email him to see what he’d charge for his You be the Superhero! program. We’ll see what he says. Of course if he finds this site first and sees the liberties I’ve taken with his art, I may hear from his lawyers instead of him.
We started the day with breakfast at our favorite place, no not Hardee’s, but the New Moon Cafe. We got there just after they opened and had to wait in a line 6 deep, but as always the food was worth it. We both had a Cranberry Pecan Muffin and we split a bottled water. We also bought two Everything Bagels for our Sunday breakfast.
After eating we went over to Hitchcock Woods and took a hike. Not only did we want to take a walk in the woods, but we wanted to go watch a bit of the 91st Annual Horse Show (even though our neighbor wasn’t participating.) After buying some note cards and becoming “Friends of the Woods” it was time to hike back to the car.
Once home, we ate lunch and did a couple loads of clothes, before semi-dressing up for dinner out with the Master’s Miata Club Dinner Out Auxiliary. It was member Patti’s birthday so we went to a little fancier place than usual, Calvert’s. We were there at 5:30 specifically so we could take advantage of the “Sunset Dinner for Two.” We both eat for $28.95 and that includes salad, entree and desert. I had salad with Blue Cheese dressing and the London Broil (mmmm) with steamed veggies and twice baked potato. Washed down with a glass of Pinot Noir. Donna had Creamy Vinaigrette on her salad and then the Seafood Crepe with Sprite to drink. The b-day girl got a special Chocolate Roulade desert with a candle in it, while the rest of us were served Chocolate Bread Pudding. Donna took one bite and didn’t like it, so I sacrificed for the cause and ate both deserts.
The other two couples live over in Augusta, so they had a shorter drive home, too bad for them. When we left for our 35 mile drive the temperature was 70, the sun was setting and the full moon was rising. We pulled into our driveway at almost full dark. This is why convertibles were invented.
Just got back from Columbia where we participated in our second BMW Ultimate Drive of the year. The weather today was the opposite of what we had 2 weeks ago. In Augusta it was sunny and bordering on hot, but today was cloudy and bordering on cold with a little rain tossed in.
Today’s loop was only 10 miles and Donna and I took it a little easier this time, we only made 10 laps in 8 different cars. There always seemed to be a lot of cars just sitting there not being driven, I think the gloomy weather was keeping the crowds away. Here is a rundown of what we drove/rode today:
While as friendly as the Southern Fleet Crew in Augusta, these folks seemed a little less organized than them. Might have just been an off day, the rain probably and they were a bit burnt out. The day before in Charleston they had a mob, 207 different drivers.
Taylor BMW in Augusta won in the refreshment category as well. All they had here was water, soft drinks and Subway sandwiches. In Augusta they had a couple kinds of sandwiches, wraps, pasta salad, cookies and brownies to go with the drinks.
Like last time we had lunch before we drove over. Don’t ever get the Southwest Chicken Salad at Hardee’s – yuk. We shared that, a small drink and a small order of curly fries.
After driving, our plan was to drive home and have linguine & clam sauce, but it was rush hour and I-20 was backed up, so we got off an exit and headed into Columbia against traffic flow. We’ve missed placed our Columbia city map and I’ve misplaced my memories of how to get around, so boy did we get around. Hopelessly lost we stumbled onto Five Points which has plenty of eateries, so we stopped and ate at a place called Yesterdays. Eeeh, I’m sure there is some place better right around the corner, but we didn’t know any better. Lasagna and salad for me and Donna had black bean chili and a salad. The usual water and tea to wash it down with.
To top the day off, we caught the elusive 4th Post Office in Lexington, the Pastime CPU [29072-2117]. As luck would have it, the PO was in the same shopping center as an ice cream place. We had desert and finished the drive home.