Monday was a much warmer day than had been forecast so we took advantage of this for a trip over the Bay Bridge to St Michael's which is a gorgeous sleepy little town with a vast marina. Its famous for its fresh crabs, so with Spark logic...we had pizza! It was damn fine pizza! We sat in the open windows of this little restaurant on the main street and watched the world go by against a backdrop of shady trees and wooden houses with large verandas and rockers on the porch. It was very beautiful. It was also very quiet! I don't think people put their boats in the water until the end on May, so there were only a handful of folks milling about.
We were reminded of why we didn't love our Sat Nav - or Sat Nag as we've renamed her. Aside from constantly trying to route us through the centre of DC as opposed to using the Beltway ("Please make a U turn now" is a constant refrain), she was happily trying to work out a detour because the Bay Bridge had mild traffic congestion. Now, there is a lot of coast and water out that way...our options were basically a 300 mile detour, hope that we'd booked an amphibious vehicle instead of a car, or to sit in the traffic jam...which turned out to be on the other side of the road anyway!!
Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Monday, 19 April 2010
Sunday 11th - Touring the Monuments
It was an absolutely glorious day on Sunday. We had breakfast in the diner across the road and it was worth the huge wait for the omlette station. It was buffet and it had every conceivable breakfast option you can imagine.....mmmmmmm....waffles.....
After brekkie we headed up to the National Mall and walked down and around the Monuments: the Washington, the WWII, the reflecting pool and the Lincoln where we joined the throng before heading over to the White House to wave hello to the Obama's.
Stephen got pretty sunburn walking about. I was the sensible one with the sunscreen on - but would he listen? Would he? No!!!
We drove past "our" house on the way to Morag & Simon's. That was a weird experience I can tell you! They've repainted the door and hard pruned the magnolia tree in the front garden. It felt strange not to be parking outside and heading in...
After brekkie we headed up to the National Mall and walked down and around the Monuments: the Washington, the WWII, the reflecting pool and the Lincoln where we joined the throng before heading over to the White House to wave hello to the Obama's.
Stephen got pretty sunburn walking about. I was the sensible one with the sunscreen on - but would he listen? Would he? No!!!
We drove past "our" house on the way to Morag & Simon's. That was a weird experience I can tell you! They've repainted the door and hard pruned the magnolia tree in the front garden. It felt strange not to be parking outside and heading in...
Saturday 10th - awake and loving Old Town
Thanks to the late night we were able to sleep past 5am, so it was up, and down to Firehooks for a coffee and Morning Glory muffin (which is everyone's favourite!). Then we went for a wander round the Farmers Market and bought a lovely watercolour. They sell so much more than fruit and veggies y'know!!
We headed out to Great Falls just after and it was certainly Great! The water level was way up -probably the highest we'd seen it in the times we'd been before. We wanted a bottle of water, but the folks in front of us at the snack bar line were having problems. For a start they were told it was a $5 minimum purchase (even for cash), and when she asked for an ice lolly and changed her mind she was told it was too late. Surely all the guy serving had to do was put it back in the freezer and give her something else... We decided that this was going to be waaaay too difficult to deal with given our minor jet lag, so we jumped rund to Tysons Mall for a pizza slice and the all-important 1st Starbucks of the trip! YAY Starbucks!!
We met up with our old friends Morag & Simon in the evening. What a great night! You've heard the expression "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas"? Well, we decided that for Saturday Old Town was Vegas!! Lets just say we were out until 1:30am, we had delicious cocktails that made us drunk from the feet up and Thai food in a new restaurant. An excellent night!!
We headed out to Great Falls just after and it was certainly Great! The water level was way up -probably the highest we'd seen it in the times we'd been before. We wanted a bottle of water, but the folks in front of us at the snack bar line were having problems. For a start they were told it was a $5 minimum purchase (even for cash), and when she asked for an ice lolly and changed her mind she was told it was too late. Surely all the guy serving had to do was put it back in the freezer and give her something else... We decided that this was going to be waaaay too difficult to deal with given our minor jet lag, so we jumped rund to Tysons Mall for a pizza slice and the all-important 1st Starbucks of the trip! YAY Starbucks!!
We met up with our old friends Morag & Simon in the evening. What a great night! You've heard the expression "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas"? Well, we decided that for Saturday Old Town was Vegas!! Lets just say we were out until 1:30am, we had delicious cocktails that made us drunk from the feet up and Thai food in a new restaurant. An excellent night!!
Friday 9th April - travel to DC
Aside from my champagne bath at LHR, the only other little problem traveling out to DC was the 2 1/2 hour flight delay due to some computer at Manchester which supplies flight data crashing. After a couple of hours the pilot appeared looking nervous. It must be policy to send them out to reassure people when there is a significant delay. He got as far as our seats and stopped for a chat. We were laughing and joking. He said that a surefire way to make passengers panic was for him to walk down the plane carrying a spanner and wearing a life vest!!
The flight was uneventful and we arrived into Dulles to find a nice shiny new arrivals hall. And most importantly - no queue!! It used to be that you could be stuck there for hours waiting to get through passport control.
We collected the car, drove to the hotel and then jumped in their shuttle down to Chadwicks and a big juicy, char grilled burger! De-lic-ious!! Then we went to the weekend office to listen to the blues band. We were ripped off on the wine though. $13 quid a glass!! Harumph!
By 11:30pm we were bot gritty eyed after having been up for a looooong time, so we jumped a taxi back to the hotel and were in bed and asleep about 20 seconds later.
The flight was uneventful and we arrived into Dulles to find a nice shiny new arrivals hall. And most importantly - no queue!! It used to be that you could be stuck there for hours waiting to get through passport control.
We collected the car, drove to the hotel and then jumped in their shuttle down to Chadwicks and a big juicy, char grilled burger! De-lic-ious!! Then we went to the weekend office to listen to the blues band. We were ripped off on the wine though. $13 quid a glass!! Harumph!
By 11:30pm we were bot gritty eyed after having been up for a looooong time, so we jumped a taxi back to the hotel and were in bed and asleep about 20 seconds later.
A pain in the ash
We have had a lovely time in Virginia and DC...and now, thanks to the volcanic ash cloud, we're going to have a lovely time for another week or so! A full update of our travels will follow.
*Thanks to Simon for the brilliant title. He's wasted as a genius scientist and should be writing for the Sunday Sport!!
*Thanks to Simon for the brilliant title. He's wasted as a genius scientist and should be writing for the Sunday Sport!!
Friday, 9 April 2010
The Sparks go back to Washington
Here we are, at Heathrow airport, sitting in the Lounge. 2 hours to flight time. YAY!
I'm pretty sure Nigella Lawson is sitting having breakfast behind me - a celebrity spot! Quick phone Heat magazine.
We're sipping champagne...and I'm also wearing some! The server managed to launch both glasses from the tray as she brought it over. All over my skirt, shoes, bag, passports...it was her first day (poor thing), but I'm not totally overwhelmed that I'm going to smell like a lush for the rest of the day! Ho hum....
I'm pretty sure Nigella Lawson is sitting having breakfast behind me - a celebrity spot! Quick phone Heat magazine.
We're sipping champagne...and I'm also wearing some! The server managed to launch both glasses from the tray as she brought it over. All over my skirt, shoes, bag, passports...it was her first day (poor thing), but I'm not totally overwhelmed that I'm going to smell like a lush for the rest of the day! Ho hum....
Wednesday, 7 April 2010
Easter
Gotta love a 4 day weekend! I've come out of the Easter weekend relaxed and refreshed - finally! We spent a lot of time doing laundry in preparation for our US trip - Yes - even Stephen got stuck into it! We did an absolute mountain of ironing on Monday. Everest was conquered!!! But you know...it feels good!
It wasn't all work though. We did some fun stuff at the weekend...had friends round for dinner, did a bit of wandering round the shops, drank lots of lattes, went to see the ruins of Hailes Abbey and began to jet wash the patio....
I say began...it didn't have an auspicious start. After searching several shops I finally found and bought wellies, didn't try them on in the shop but should have twigged when I picked them out from beside Spiderman and Barbie wellingtons that they were kids ones! The foot size was okay-ish, but I have fatter calves than your average 10 year old...so I had to customise them to get them on! Then we dragged all the kit out the garage and I began to jetwash whilst Stephen ran inside to watch the Grand Prix (his domestic side does not extend to anything garden related!).
It was fine for the first section, but then I had to move the washer. At this point the hose connector flew off. I got wet. VERY wet. I tried to push it back on, but with the water flowing I had no chance. The next problem was that the outside tap wouldn't turn off... I was yelling on Stephen as I was totally soaked and didn't want to soak the kitchen with my tiny wellington'd feet!! He switched off the tap from the inside and I connected the hose to the washer again. He turned back on the water and...the hose flew off and I got soaked again! I cannot tell you how much under my breath (mostly!) swearing was going on at this point. I looked like I had stepped into a bath fully clothed!!
It wasn't all work though. We did some fun stuff at the weekend...had friends round for dinner, did a bit of wandering round the shops, drank lots of lattes, went to see the ruins of Hailes Abbey and began to jet wash the patio....
I say began...it didn't have an auspicious start. After searching several shops I finally found and bought wellies, didn't try them on in the shop but should have twigged when I picked them out from beside Spiderman and Barbie wellingtons that they were kids ones! The foot size was okay-ish, but I have fatter calves than your average 10 year old...so I had to customise them to get them on! Then we dragged all the kit out the garage and I began to jetwash whilst Stephen ran inside to watch the Grand Prix (his domestic side does not extend to anything garden related!).
It was fine for the first section, but then I had to move the washer. At this point the hose connector flew off. I got wet. VERY wet. I tried to push it back on, but with the water flowing I had no chance. The next problem was that the outside tap wouldn't turn off... I was yelling on Stephen as I was totally soaked and didn't want to soak the kitchen with my tiny wellington'd feet!! He switched off the tap from the inside and I connected the hose to the washer again. He turned back on the water and...the hose flew off and I got soaked again! I cannot tell you how much under my breath (mostly!) swearing was going on at this point. I looked like I had stepped into a bath fully clothed!!
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