Jam Packed Weekend

 Kicked off the weekend with a great Friday with Jessie and Boston.  They're our friends we were with in Florida for the Triathlon.  We had a terrific lunch at Murphy's, wandered up and down King Street in Old Town Alexandria, cuddled baby Boston and wrapped up our afternoon at Starbucks.

 Friday night Tom and I went to The Kennedy Center to have dinner and see SHEAR MADNESS.  Celebrating our 33rd wedding anniversary!  I had never been to TKC before so it was great.  Gorgeous view from the building.

 Saturday we got up bright and early to hop on the Metro and head to Columbia Heights.  We were volunteering with Convoy of Hope to serve the neighborhood.  Tom and I were on the grocery team so we unloaded the pre-bagged groceries from the truck and set them up on a long table.

Tom and Richard

 Met lots of new people who were also there volunteering.

Helene' our team leader

There was entertainment

There were a lot of older women from the area who are apparently mostly shut-ins so it was great to have them out.

Face painting and craft for the kids

More entertainment

Served food to everyone and then gave them several bags of groceries on their way out.

 We left Columbia Heights and headed to the Armory for some Roller Derby.  We've always wanted to check it out and somehow felt compelled to add it to this already busy day.

Our friend Jan met us there

 Sunday after church we did some more furniture shopping and stumbled upon a wonderful French bakery.  Had a yummy brunch there.  Both Saturday and Sunday we were gone for about 12 solid hours. By Sunday night we were beat!

This and That

 Turns out we moved in just in time for the annual power washing of the windows and painting of the decks.  So we've had guys hanging off the side of our bldgs for a few weeks.  Though there was a language barrier, when they were hanging outside our window, the universal language of chocolate chip cookies seemed to do the trick!

 Don't know if I've mentioned that Tom had planned to retire from the Coast Guard reserve but they found him a position here at Coast Guard Headquarters which happens to be right down the street from Fort McNair.  A group of his buddies had been in town for a CG conference and invited us to join them for dinner at Ted Turner's Montana Grill.  LOTS of CG talk, but that was fine.

Oh, and by the way.....once the painting bug bites....it's hard to stop.

We've spent several Sunday afternoons at the Eastern Market.  Lots of local artists, flea market items, produce, local crafters, food, live music, etc.  

Caramel filled Churros

 We also have the best alarm ever.  The bells from this church a couple of blocks away wake us up every morning.  Much better than a bell or AM radio!

Getting Settled

 Yes, I know I haven't posted anything for 20 days but trust me, if I'd posted every day it would have gone something like this:

Delivery men came
We unpacked
We unpacked
We unpacked
We shopped for furniture
We unpacked
We made our 5th trip to IKEA
We tried to find place in a 1200 sq. ft apartment for our stuff

Yeah, none of this is conducive to relaxing in our new place so we've mostly worked all day in the place.  As you can see it is very WHITE so after I decided I just couldn't bear living in all that whiteness, I headed to Lowe's for a beige neutral.  Would have opted for even more color but we'll have to paint it back to white and the thought of having to paint over a red or something as bold was a little daunting.  So beige accent walls it is.

 We are fortunate that we have a couple of eateries within walking distance and one night we opted for Z-Burger.  It was good....kinda like Tonyburger.  But the best thing was their funny restroom signs.  I've included them just because I found them amusing.

New Washington Digs

Our Metro stop (Waterfront) and what will most likely become my market.

 Finally got to get in our new apartment today.  Stuff we shipped isn't coming until tomorrow so today we hauled our things from Andrews over there.  It was cloudy and rainy when we first got there so it was a tad dark, but when we came back in the afternoon with load number two, the sun was out and there was a ton of natural light flowing through the place.

Bed 1

Master Bath

Now, to see how quickly we can make these empty spaces become a home....and wondering how in the world we're going to fit all of our things in here!

Bed 2

Bath 2

Entry Way

Living Room

Kitchen

Dining

Views from Balcony

Can just see the top of the Capitol

The Sun finally comes out!

Lounge off the Lobby

Coffee Bar

Business Center

Lobby