Dog Days and District Weekends

Is this the start of the last full week of September - seriously?? I cannot even believe that this month has passed so quickly; but I suppose when there is always something to do (and I mean that in a mostly good way) then the hours and days roll by pretty quickly. This week was no exception and somehow here we are...only 9 days away from October. Wow.

New sneakers = new life

Leftover Hershey goodness - yes please.

Last week (before the weekend) seems like a whole lot of nothing happened. Work was fairly busy almost all week; the evenings were slightly less busy. Monday night we headed to McAlisters before we went to Wal-Mart...and what an event that was. Halfway through eating a delicious Turkey Melt, I found a long blonde hair; which really just made finishing my meal less than ideal. Blegh. The best part? When we told one of our servers, she said "do you want me to do something???" Ha - no, certainly not...please just stand there stupefied, it's fine. Gracious me, no. Once the grocery spree was done, we went home to walk/jog and I broke in the new sneakers...which = awesome.

My co-worker is just encouraging struggle with this...

The tickets have arrived...tickets for the last (almost literally) home game of the season.

Again - I feel like so little happened during the week! I came home, cooked supper (some nights), exercised and watched Nationals baseball games (they swept the Phillies, hey-o!) pretty much every night. I'm trying to soak up the last few weeks of baseball because soon the long wait for April will start - and there will be no baseball for six months. *sigh* How did I ever survive without baseball games to watch? Ha-ha!

A gorgeous Tuesday night view on my walk - love it.

Awesome mug? Check! Coffee...yea, I need to start drinking it. Look how tired I look!

Once the week started to move toward the weekend, things picked up a little. Thursday night seemed busy - cooking supper, packing for the weekend in DC, just doing little things here and there to get everything squared away to be gone for the weekend - even if it was only being gone an hour up the road. Watson watched the packing procedure with a wary eye; we've gone somewhere every weekend in September so far and he's not a fan of suitcases and duffel bags, bless him. The Friday work day seemed to speed by in a blur; probably because 1) I was busy and 2) I left for the day at 1 PM. By 2:15, we were DC bound for the weekend!

A few Thursday morning guests, just passing through.

Watson really thought he'd just stay here for the night...but then I moved (as you do) & he was having none of it.

We almost made a fatal error (okay - I guess it wouldn't have been fatal - but I'm dramatic) on Friday evening. Once we were deep in the midst of the pre-DC traffic, I realized that we'd forgotten to leave a key for our friend to get into the house to stay with Watson...and Watson was just roaming the house, waiting on company. We cycled through all the possible options to get into the house...was a window open? Was the basement door locked? Would we have to drive back to open the door? Happily, I'd offered our extra baseball tickets to a friend and I knew she and her husband would be headed home and possibly past our house after the game - so I asked if they'd drop off the key. She said they would and the weekend continued on it's course, crisis averted.

DC view for the weekend.

Friday night baseball - nothing better!

Harper at the dish - ready to rake.

After "freshening up" at the hotel, we hopped on the Metro and headed for Nationals Park to see the Nationals take on the Miami Marlins. It was Air Force night and the US Air Force band, Max Impact was performing at the entry gate. I didn't see a lot of the pre-game festivities because I was in a meeting about season tickets (what even in the world??) but I arrived to our seats in time for the National Anthem and the flyover...and then, the game began! It was certainly a good game; a tense affair to be sure, the Nationals kept tying the game...the Marlins would score, the Nationals would score...the Marlins would score, the Nationals would score...and so it went, until we went into extra innings. The Nationals held off the Marlins in the top of the tenth and then Jose Lobaton smashed a sacrifice fly, allowing Jayson Werth to head for home and score the winning run!

A Curly W!

Jose got sauced - and in this case, that's always a good thing.

Talk about hearing a crowd erupt! The ball made it to home and it seemed like it would be an out...but the Marlins player dropped the ball! As he rushed to snatch up the ball, Jayson; having slid over home plate, crawled back and slapped his hand on home plate...and in almost audible intake of breath, everyone waited...the umpire signaled "SAFE!" and the ball park blew up! Definitely an awesome way to end a Friday night - if you're a Nationals fan. I'm sure the Marlins on the metro with us didn't feel the same, but oh well. I do know a Marlins fan said "we'll get them tomorrow..." but actually, no they wouldn't - the Nationals went on to win the games on Saturday and Sunday and take a series win. So...#FishFry.

Of course I found the Nationals van at the Air Show....

Sitting at the air show, blazing in the heat selfie...

Saturday we headed to just outside of DC to Joint Base Andrews to America's Air Show, featuring the US Air Force Thunderbirds. It didn't seem too hot at the start of the day, but by the time 11 o'clock rolled around, it was blazing...especially sitting out on the flight line. Whoosh. The first hangar we walked into on Saturday morning had a Nationals bus sitting in it, so I stalled our movements just a bit by waiting until they opened up so I could snag a Stephen Strasburg bobble-head. The show was pretty great; the Thunderbirds are always amazing and Saturday's show was no exception. The line we had to wait in for over an hour to get back to our car was the least fun part of the day...but thanks to three little guys in front of us who'd bonded over toy airplanes, I was more than amused until we boarded our bus.

The T-Birds take to the skies!

Dinner at the National Harbor.

We finished off Saturday evening with supper at the Cadillac Ranch at the National Harbor; the ferris wheel lit up and lazily spinning against the dark sky was a pretty sight to behold. Sunday morning was started with a delicious brunch at Old Ebbitt Grill, a DC institution since all the way back in 1856...I had Peach French Toast with Honey Pecan butter and yes, it was as delicious as it sounds. How could it not be? We made a quick stop in at the White House Visitor's Center to grab our 2015 White House Christmas ornaments - I've decided to purchase an ornament for each year I live in DC - I suppose only time will tell how many I'll end up with! Parking Panda (best app ever if you live near a big city and need parking) found us the perfect spot to park, we headed to Pennsylvania Avenue and continued our day...

Sunday afternoon in the District - I love it.

Hey Nationals exhibit - I'm headed your way!

We spent a good chunk of the afternoon in the Newseum - my parents had been before but I'd never been and I was especially interested since they have a special exhibit until November called "Nationals at 10: Baseball Makes News" and I HAD to see it. Ha-ha! Yes, I managed to have something Nationals-related in every day of the weekend! The Newseum had an awesome upper floor balcony that offered gorgeous views of downtown DC and was filled with so much history, including a section of the Berlin Wall, the communications tower from World Trade I and an exhibit on Pulitzer Prize winning photographs. Of course my favorite part was the Nationals exhibit...but did you honestly expect me to say it was anything else? If so...you haven't been paying attention.

Not quite as majestic with the scaffolding...oh well...

Honey Lemon Lavender & White Chocolate Strawberry - Ice Cream Jubilee has a new fan in me.

After a few hours exploring the Newseum, we scooted across the street, through the National Gallery, across the Mall and into the Air & Space Museum to watch an Imax movie called "Living in the Age of Airplanes" which was really cool! It offered a lot of insight into how our lives are impacted by air travel, usually in ways we'd never imagine...and it also offered the idea that airports are simply portals to almost anywhere and once you're in an airport, you're literally just steps away from seeing the whole world! Pretty neat thought, right? We closed out the weekend in DC by cruising across town to the Yards Park to grab ice cream from Ice Cream Jubilee...which did not disappoint! I'm already planning to drag my friend Rachel to get some ice cream next Sunday after the Nationals game.

Watson says "oh hey...hi...hey...where have you been?"

All in all - a good week, a great weekend and a wonderful welcome home from my sweet puppy! What more could a person ask for? And I've got another good week ahead, with another awesome weekend in the works...so I think I'll go ahead and chalk September up as a win!