The Sparks went to Washington...: mmmmm...ice cream

Kristen suggested brunch this morning, and it seemed a damn fine idea to everyone! We walked along towards King as it was a gorgeous morning, warm, sunny and not terribly humid. Perfect weather! We were about 3 blocks from the house when Stephen first spotted the demo taking place ahead of us. We saw the Mark Warner campaign banners as we got closer. As they were standing outside his house we figured that they were either going to set fire to them, or were friendly. They were friendly! They gave a loud hurrah and then quickly dispersed. I hope the Senatorial candidate is an early riser or it might become quite annoying to be woken at 9:45 each Sunday by a rousing cheer!!

We had brunch in Chadwicks - our first time there. It was very good! It was Paul who spotted that they did a bottle of champagne for $9. Good lad! We didn't indulge in a bottle, but Stephen and I did indulge in a bucket of mimosa for a whole $3 each. Why haven't we been here for brunch before?? The food was pretty good too!

We hooked up with Morag and Simon just after brunch. They work in the same place that Paul is going to be starting in shortly, so we thought they might be able to answer some questions that Paul had, and offer further suggestions as to areas to look for accommodation. After a chat Paul and Kristen headed off to the metro, DC bound and we headed off with Morag, Simon and the girls.

Stephen and Simon were swinging Lizzie between them and Alison wanted in on the fun! Lizzie had other ideas though and reclaimed her spot pretty quickly. Alison was slightly put out that she had only had a couple of swings when Lizzie was getting loads, so Morag and I stepped up. We (wo)manfully swung her all the way across the marina towards the food court. It took a little more effort on her part too as she had to pick her feet up as we couldn't swing her as high as daddy and uncle Stephen, but we did alright! Once we got inside they were clamouring for Stephen to lift them up, high in the air. He is their own personal amusement park!

After they had all eaten we walked along through the park beside the marina. The girls and Stephen and Simon went off to walk along the rocks and Morag and I had a lovely shady spot to watch them from. It was lovely, sitting in the shade watching the boats pootle up and down the river. Alison was taking photos with Stephens supervision, and she was doing pretty well! She certainly seems to have an eye for it. A budding Annie Liebovitz in the making!

It was getting pretty hot and Ben & Jerry's was singing its siren song. Everyone was sorted out with ice cream and sorbets when disaster struck. Alison was climbing onto a stool when her sorbet fell out of the cone and plopped onto the floor. Disaster! There were lots of tears.... B&J's were good though (I'm sure this happens all the time!) and gave her a new sorbet with extra sprinkles which soon stopped the tears. Lizzie was having a grand time with her chocolate ice cream. She was getting stuck in with gusto!! Not only to hers, but also to her dad's when she fancied a change, then her mom's, then to Stephen's. It was obviously a very good idea to sample all the flavours to make sure that hers was definitely the best! She was almost as messy as Stephen was at the end of the day - he'd managed to spill coffee down his t-shirt earlier. He blames the lids on the cups, but everyone else somehow manages to contain the coffee to either the cup or their mouth....

We walked back home taking some snaps as we went. It really was a lovely day!

Paul and Kristen are now on their way home to NYC, complete with a huge number of apartment details. I think there were a couple of possibilities, so we'll wait and see what they decide in due course. We've volunteered to go see anything that comes up.

I was laughing at something that Paul said when we were waiting on Stephen.... Stephen has spent all weekend commenting to me on how much Paul looks like his dad Jim (and he really does!), so I had to smile when Paul told me that he thought that Stephen looked like Jim! Apparently he and Kristen had got split up coming off the metro and ended up leaving the station by two different exits. She had then phoned Paul and said "there's a guy over there who looks like your dad. Is that going to be him?"