Another weekend

We decided to go walk around our new neighborhood Friday night so hopped on the Metro and headed over there.  I'd read that there was a local church who hosted live Jazz every Friday night from 6-9 so we went over to check it out. (They have Blues night on Mondays as well) $5 to get in and it was already packed!  An interesting mix of people and the music was great.  Was especially good once a female vocalist joined them and the pianist was awesome.  A little Jazz goes a long way with me however, and once I tired of people watching I was ready to head out.  It happened to coincide with intermission so it was all good.

 Down in the basement they have the performance televised on the wall and they serve what looked like really good soul food!  Fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, deep fried whiting, collard greens, red velvet cake, the list went on and on.  We'll definitely come back when we're not cleansing (see below)!

 Then we walked across the street to where our new apartment will be.  We think it's the second corner balcony from the top but we're not positive.  Then we just wandered......

I had just been testing on some real estate issues having to do with HUD and here was the building.  I think I deserve extra credit!  

  Slept in Saturday then headed to the gym for a good workout.
We've been doing a detoxing cleanse diet all week which has consisted of all clean food.  Morning smoothies, small snacks, lots of water, main solid meal at lunch, a blended soup for dinner, then 12 hours between dinner and breakfast. It really hasn't been bad and all the recipes are from my Healthy Body Healthy Life group I met in Alabama.  Very good recipes actually and discovered a few wonderful new things like brown rice pasta!  Love that! I like whole wheat pasta as well but the texture of the rice pasta is more like regular.
We did a little shopping then came home, crashed and watched some movies.

 After church on Sunday we took a little walk through the Eastern Market, grabbed a bite then headed back to our soon to be neighborhood.  I was meeting up with an actress friend from Salt Lake who just got here to get her Masters degree at American University and Tom was going into the office for a bit.  After Shannon and I caught up (we live 7 Metro stops away from each other on the Green Line) I walked down the street to his office (boy, is THAT nice) and caught up on some phone calls while he finished up.  All and all, a relaxing weekend with crazy weather!  Rainy, then hot and humid, then overcast and cooler, then humid....by the time we got home late this afternoon....downpour!

Tom's New Gig

 Tom has had a very busy week rehearsing a State Funeral, but since he's not able to share photos I borrowed via Wikipedia from President Reagan & Ford's funeral.  Apparently all involved rehearse them yearly as well as meet with the families annually to update any wishes they may have.  Throughout the week they went over all the intricacies and coordination that's involved in conducting such a thing.  It included two 3AM mornings so they could get into The Capitol before congress arrived to do their thing.  It all wrapped up Friday with a full run through beginning at the Capitol, to National Cathedral, and wrapping up with the coffin being brought here to Andrews Air Force Base to be flown to unknown whereabouts.  This particular funeral was for a made up person but they had family stand ins, photographers, press, etc. all totaling about 200 people.  Tom said they made quite a sight driving through DC in their caravan of buses and black SUV's escorted by policemen. I think it's all just fascinating.  The sort of thing you don't put much thought into...the kind of coordination and organization that must go into such a thing.  Some very long days but he was looking forward to doing something different....and this definitely is!

Lunch with Lauren

So while Tom has been at work I've been working here at the apartment on continuing ed classes for my real estate license in Utah.  I need to keep it current so I can still do referrals back there. When I was in UT I was on the education committee for the board of realtors so I didn't only get to help pick the classes we would offer but I would get to sit in on them for nothing as a monitor and still get credit hours.  That was awesome!  So this whole online thing is a little time consuming and not nearly as interesting because you don't get the classroom feedback. I'm also looking into maybe doing real estate here but that's next week.  And yes, I know that's hilarious given my last post.

 My cute friend Lauren (who was in my book club in Alabama) also moved here with her husband Jeremy who is stationed at Fort Belvoir.  They found a place in Mount Vernon and she's expecting their first baby in the next couple of weeks.  It's been a real struggle to hang onto the little one so we're praying she won't deliver (we don't know if it's a he or a she) for at least a week.  Anyway, she called about meeting for lunch and recommended this great place.  It even had...wait for it...FREE parking in the back.  Now this is a thing that is a great commodity here.  It's hard to find parking at all, let alone FREE parking.  I was a little early so stepped inside a cute little clothing boutique next door to the restaurant while I waited for her.  The clerk immediately told me about the 50% sale on all their summer things.  I went to look because they had darling dresses and at half off I could have purchased them for the awesome price of $335!!!  Yep, nothing I looked at was less that $145.  Hence, I may be making my clothes last a very long time here.  So Lauren and I had a lovely visit and I just had to share my beautiful salad!  That's just your basic Boston Bibb Lettuce salad and I tell you I didn't want to mess it up it was so gorgeous.  Yummy too!

National Harbor

 The last Sunday we were in Alabama, the pastor there introduced us to his visiting brother in law who attends this church in DC.  It's also on Barracks Row and meets in an old theatre.  Hence, their web name theatrechurch.com.  We attended there Sunday morning then had to go try another restaurant across the street that had been packed the day before. We just beat the crowds at Belga which is a Belgian cafe.  When I say Belgian....like the people have French accents just as the Latin American place yesterday actually had Cubans working there.  Anyway, how gorgeous are these plates?  Again we shared.....

Pesto scrambled eggs

 After we got home our friend Denise called and said she and her daughter Erica were headed to the National Harbor if we wanted to go.  Tom decided to stay home, get a haircut and catch up on some work so I headed out.  First of all, I thought she meant the Washington Harbor area which is right next to our new place, while Tom thought she meant Baltimore Harbor which is in...well, Baltimore.  Turns out National Harbor is actually an entirely different place.  So I drove 30 minutes to her house where we then drove another 30 minutes to get to the Harbor.  This story will make sense later.

I took this for the Campbell's who like "this" on everything!

The Peep Store.  All things Peep.

Denise and Erica

Cupcakes from Cakelove.  Disappointing.  Left over from the day before I think.

No idea what this guy is doing.....

                                      Cool art piece made from shells, rocks, stones and jewels.....

We looked at a lot of girly stores.  It was great and I was so glad that Tom stayed home.  He would have been miserable!

WORKOUT!

 So, we drive back to her house, I drop them off and head home.....I believe a different way than I came but I can't be sure.  All I know, is 20 minutes into the drive I find myself crossing the bridge that leads back to the harbor we just came from!  My GPS tells me to keep going and 7 minutes later I find myself home!  HOME!  Yeah, so instead of just driving down the street and meeting them there....having no idea where it was I drove all the way over to Virginia then BACK into Maryland.  Ridiculous.

Exploring

 Saturday we decided to drive to the nearest Metro, get a Smartcard and just go.  No destination in mind, just go wandering.  We got off at Eastern Market and headed down Barrack's Row.  Stopped for breakfast at Banana Cafe & Piano Bar where we shared Caribbean Eggs Benedict and a special french toast.  Yummy!

Completely fortified we continued on and crashed a wedding in this gorgeous church.  Actually we sat quietly in the back but it was still awkward.  Then we walked down this very American street.....

 It's still a little shocking to be walking around, turn your head and you see this.......

His birthplace

                         I'm not sure I'll get used to the absolute gorgeousness of this place!

 There was a women's rally going on at the front lawn of the Capitol.  Music, dancing and some moron speaking about women's rights.  A young guy, clearly out of his league was blabbering on about ludicrous things....everyone we passed (who was not engaged in the rally) looked at each other like..."who is this idiot?"  Nice to live in a country where you can publicly say what you want.  Even if it IS moronic.

 Turns out we spent several hours out and about but with so much to look at, you don't notice it until your feet start to speak to you.  Yeah, it was time to head home!