Forty-eight hours in which the only bathroom needs I was concerned with were my own

Did I mention that my friend Abby and I were leaving our respective families behind in the tender-loving-care of our husbands and flying off to DC to visit our friend Godmother for the weekend?



It was hard to close the car door and walk away when Charlie's lower lip started quivering on Friday after we sprang the news on him. Ryan said they both cried almost all the way home from the airport. That made me a little sad until I called them from here:

to learn that they were eating waffles for dinner having just come home from a late bike ride. Everybody wins!

We stayed at the restaraunt until we were the only ones there and then we went to Godmother's house, put on our jammies, and watched some really classy reality TV. In a word: Perfect.

I took Blue Bear along at the last minute, thinking it might be a fun way for Charlie to learn about our nation's capitol when I returned home. I got some strange looks taking these pictures all over town, but it was so much fun to show them to Charlie today.


Blue Bear says "I don't know about public options and town hall meetings, I just hope that if my arm comes off again I'll be able to see a qualified physician in a timely manner!"


Break time!

There are more pictures, but Flickr is acting kind of funky. We covered a lot of ground on foot--from the Starbucks on 5th and C to the Capitol to the Washington Monument to the World War II Memorial to the Lincoln Memorial and then to a convenient taxi that took us back to the car. Heh.

Godmother took us to a neat section of town for pizza and book shopping after we'd had all the sightseeing we could handle. I don't think I was actually cool enough to be in this bookstore so I headed for the coffeeshop, ordered the coffee of the day, and pretended to be a brooding intellectual as I perused the Bargain Kids section.

From the bookstore we realized we were just a few miles from the house I lived in from ages zero to three, so we punched the address into the GPS and found it looking exactly as I remembered it except much, much smaller. After getting followed briefly by a bright purple Cadillac and encountering a friendly neighborhood man wielding a half-full bottle of Wild Turkey we quickly headed back to the suburbs. I tried to explain our experience gently to my dad, because I didn't want him to be disappointed that the old neighborhood had gotten a little rough around the edges, but he said fondly "Hasn't changed a bit!"

Then it was time for college football and Chinese food back at Godmother's place. Perfect!

And when I got home today everyone was still dressed nicely in their church clothes, the house was beautifully clean, and Ryan had GOTTEN PEOPLE TO COME FIX THE GARAGE DOOR AND SPRAY FOR DEADLY STINGING INSECTS. I think I'll marry him again. Twice!