We started today by walking along to King Street to have a quick wander around the farmers market in Market Square, and to have breakfast in Le Madeline’s – a giant latte and a blueberry muffin – yummy yum yum!! We were sitting outside watching the world, and its dogs, wander by. (I think it might be compulsory to own a dog in Old Town. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear of a scheme whereby if you haven’t got one already they deliver the most enormous dog to your house….). A mummy bird and two chicks were hopping about round our feet feeding on crumbs – too cute for words! Unfortunately, no pictures as we forgot to pick up the camera.
Today the quest for patio furniture begins in earnest. We were given a tip-off about this place near Tysons Mall that sells really good quality sets for a good price so we went there. The only problem was that our patio here is not terribly big and our patio back home is quite large… If we wanted to take it home we would be looking at buying a completely different patio set to what we need here…and if we’re not taking it home, then there wasn’t any point buying something that would last 50 years! So we left empty handed and did a quick ¾ of an hour in Tysons Mall (which is truly enormous!) where I got to shop for clothes rather than kitchen utensils – BLISS!!
The Mall is so big that you can barely walk from one end to the other in ¾ hour so I had to content myself with one small spur. Shopping was taking ages as I had to try everything on – the good news is my dress size has dropped, but the bad news is my shoe size has gone up – a lot!! I’ve gone from a 5 to a 7!!! I found some fabled Size 0 clothes…honestly they would barely fit around my head!! (I had a giggle when I read the Washington Post last week – they were covering the Spice Girls reunion and said “Victoria ‘Posh Spice’ Beckham has gone from being an attractive brunette to a platinum blonde fashion android with the measurements to rival one of her pre-pubescent fans” For goodness sake girl, have a hamburger – might make you smile!!)
We then headed to Lowe’s, which is a DIY store – think Homebase but on steroids! They had a couple of random patio chairs, but nothing like the range you would have expected from the size of the store. It seems that the “Season” for patio furniture finished at the end of June, so we’re going to be stuck for a table and chairs all because of a few days….
We did manage to buy an ironing board though! Finally I can cross it off the list! I also go a nice planter for the front porch as ours was looking a little drab. The others in the street have containers of rather scrawny geraniums, but at least they’re colourful! I nearly came a cropper at the checkout…the ironing board was put back in the trolley rather precariously and it came crashing to the floor. Thankfully I wasn’t in the direct flight path, and no-one was hurt, but it sure made a noise!!!
From Lowe’s we went next door to….yes, you guessed it – Target!! They had a couple of matching patio chairs and a side table which would allow us to sit out and have a drink at least. Eating would be challenging though, requiring some kind of advanced yoga position to bend down to the table! We got the stuff to the car and…couldn’t fit it in the boot! Or the backseat! So a very grumpy Stephen was forced to take the stuff back to the store for a refund.
In the evening we walked into King Street for dinner, and to see the fireworks and concert marking Alexandria’s 258th birthday. Dinner was nice – we went to O’Connells, an Irish restaurant if there is such a thing! It still sold steaks and fries – not much sign of anything too Irish on the menu!! Unfortunately though the fireworks were cancelled so we grabbed a coffee from Starbucks and headed home. It’s my ambition to one day go and order something complicated from there…everyone else seems to order “Grande Dupio Raspberry mochachino, wet, extra skinny, with wings”…my “tall latte” sounds rather weak in comparison!!!
(Saturday 7th July)
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