Enchanted!

Oh man - what a weekend it was! Filled from start to finish with all things Christmas and for the most part, so very enchanting! I took so many pictures... which is something I always do, so for that reason I'll just post about Enchant today - because there were so many twinkling lights and y'all know I'm a sucker for twinkling lights! *sigh* 

Baseballs & Twinkle Lights - I love it!

Enchant is the world's largest light maze - and I'd believe it. Certainly, it's not exactly massive since it fits onto the field at Nationals Park - but it's large enough to be seriously impressive; or at least I was impressed. The experience is comprised of a gigantic light maze, ice skating, a holiday market, seasonal food items and of course - you could shop in the Nationals Team Store! 

We had some dinner as soon as we got there and figured our best bet would be to hit the maze first - it's the main attraction and when we first came in we noticed that the line had the potential to stretch out to pretty extreme lengths! I finally got some chili from Ben's Chili Bowl and it was quite yummy - even if it was also extremely spicy! After chowing down, we perused a couple of the food stalls and I honestly thought maybe I'd made a mistake in my choice - they had a stall called Santa's Soup & I could have gotten some delicious broccoli cheddar soup... or a waffle from the Christmas Morning Waffles station. *sigh* 

The center of the maze is marked by a Christmas tree that is 100 feet tall - and I think it's safe to say it's mighty impressive. I mean... it would probably be a difficult thing to bring to fruition but I wouldn't say no to one of those in my yard, ha-ha! I'm sure my neighbors would love me if I had a 100 foot Christmas tree in my front yard - right? It's the best way to endear your community! 

The title of the maze is The Great Search and the maze contains all nine of Santa's reindeer scattered throughout and you have to make your way through it, marking off each reindeer as you find it on a small card you're given as you enter the maze. I'm not sure how much rhyme and reason there was to the maze - but it's filled with all kinds of other light displays besides the reindeer. I'm not sure how tall the reindeer are - but they're not small, ha-ha!

The maze manages to be both tight enough that you feel like you're in a maze but not so tight that you get bogged down with all the other people making their way through the maze. I was surprised because I figured I would end up feeling like we were sardines pushing our way through to see everything - which is just a hazard of holiday activities sometimes - but it wasn't that way at all! As you can see, I even managed to get most of my pictures without random people in them! 

The weather wasn't ideal - but we ended up getting incredibly lucky because the forecast had been for rain all evening. The rain stopped around 6:00 and it was just misty and foggy up until almost 10:00, so thankfully we were able to see everything there was to see without getting soaked in the process! The "floor" of the maze was pretty wet but besides that, everything else was fine. They had small tables with gold coins to scratch off each of your reindeer - and I'm guessing someone had come around and wiped those off because they weren't wet - thank goodness!

There definitely was a point where we saw a kid who'd obviously lost his parents somewhere along the way - bless the little guy. It wasn't too crowded but with the darkness, the twinkle lights, the fog and the wild fervor that overtakes kids at Christmas events - I told my Mom I understand why people put their kids on leashes!

The maze also included a light tunnel, a walkway with vine like lights that twinkled and glowed and more - all in all, the whole experience was definitely Instagram worthy and perfect for capturing the perfect glowing snapshot! I have to say, I did also spend some time imagining how fabulous it's going to be when they unveil the World Series banner at Nationals Park in April... fabulous but not quite as twinkly, I'd wager.

If you found all nine reindeer - which we did - you received a gift as you left the maze. It was simply a chocolate coin but hey; it was a chocolate coin I didn't have! We made our way up to the opposite side of the concourse and perused a few more stalls before making our way to the Team Store. I have to say - this was the least crowded I've ever seen the Team Store and y'all know I had to add something World Series related to my wardrobe.

It started to sprinkle rain and we also noticed that the line to enter the maze was now winding through the roped off lines - I'd definitely advise doing the maze first if you check out Enchant! We left Nationals Park around 8:30 and popped over to Yards Park for a couple minutes to check out Light Yards, which is an art installation put in place each year that's both art and a light display. The little inflatable characters blinked and booped in time with some music and were pretty cool to get to see.

So - Friday night was all about the lights! Once we'd seen all the lights, we made our way further into downtown to park and get to our hotel! And since I've already shared so many pictures here, I'll come back tomorrow and share my pictures from Saturday then!