Jill picked up her sister, Robin, at the airport early in the morning Friday and they did a bit of shopping during the day and I managed to beat them home. We got in the car and headed out into the wonderful traffic, to East Falls Church and managed to get to Nationals Park right before the National Anthem. We hadn’t been there before, and I scored some nice seats on the third base line. I got a half smoke from Ben’s – “all the way” of course and a beer, and settled down to watch the game. It was fun, but we left towards what we thought was the end (it was tied 1-1, and ended after 11 innings with a Nats win, their third win in a row).
It was an early day Saturday, got up around 6 and on the road by 6:30. One of the reasons Robin wanted to come this weekend (besides Jill having a four day weekend) was the 5K that was part of the Alexandria Waterfront Festival. And when we went to register we learned they had a Doggie Division, so I decided to take Illa along. We got ready, then Jill and Robin got to the back of the runners and I got to the very back with the runners with dogs.
If you’ve ever seen a sled dog getting ready for a race, you’ll know what Illa was like, jumping and crying. My plan to get him ready (not playing with him for 24 hours) worked, as he was raring to go. When the race started, he wanted to start running right away, but there wasn’t really room, so I walked with him for a minute or two, then we started running. I had thought he’d run for a bit, then we’d start walking and the others would catch up. But he kept up a great pace for at least a mile. We did have some periods of walking, but every time another dog started to pass, he broke into a trot to stop them. The end result was a great time for me, 35:16. Jill and Robin had personal bests as well.
It had started raining during the race, and after the race it really started coming down. We managed to get to the car and get dried off, and made it home before the thunderstorms started. I made eggs and bacon for me and Robin, then took a shower and a nice nap. Jill had bought steaks, and she made a salad, then I grilled them and baked some potatoes. We ate them, and we headed out.
Next stop was back to the Alexandria Waterfront Festival. The 5K included admission to the regular festival, and they had a good lineup of bands. By the time we got there, we heard the end of Stephen Kellogg & The Sixers set, then watched the fireworks and caught the beginning of Pat McGee Band’s show, but both Jill and Robin were pretty wiped and we headed home.
Sunday we got up a little later, around 9. We all had some breakfast, then hit the road – again with Illa. This time we went to Chesapeake Beach to spend the day at Dad’s. Sharon showed up soon after, and we had a salad, fruit, sausage and chicken for lunch. Then Jill, Robin and I went to North Beach for a while (and neither Jill nor I used enough sunscreen and got a bit burned).
For dinner we went back to the Fabulous Brew Cafe and had an interesting surprise – Sundays are Mexican night there, no seafood at all. But that was ok with us, I had a chimichanga and Jill had fajitas, and they were pretty good. We went back to Dad’s and he served bumbleberry pie for dessert before we all headed home. Now we’re watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall – none of us had seen it and it’s pretty funny.
