Finally!

This weekend has been filled with a lot of "finallys!" I finally got around to seeing some of the sites I should have seen weeks ago.

Friday night I went to the National Cathedral with a couple of my co-workers. I was very impressed by the stained glass, but the architecture itself was not all that amazing. I suppose I was spoiled by all of the centuries-old cathedrals in Europe. We went to hear a couple of people from work do the spoken word performance accompanying a J.S. Bach concert. This turned out to be a bit of a letdown. Boring! The organ was not nearly loud enough, and the performance was the world's longest Power Point show and the recounting of Nobel Prize Winner Albert Schweitzer's life, minus the stories telling us why people loved him so much. The show had great potential, it just was not as well-executed as it could have been. Still, it was neat to finally see the Cathedral.

Last night, after only about an hour and a half's drive, I finally went to Baltimore. We had some unfortunate miscommunication that split our group up, but John, Kristi, and I made the best of it by riding around in a dragon shaped paddle boat in the inner harbor at sunset. It was beautiful! I do have some pictures of that experience, and I am now more convinced than ever that I need to live somewhere near the coast. DC would even be suitable, since it's such a short drive to the water. After the dragon, we met up with the others and sat outdoors on the water for a seafood dinner. I had some tasty mahi mahi and watched as the boats floated by under the stars.

Before we went home, we walked around to explore the fancy club area of town. It was unbelievable! I have never seen so many hummers in such a small space, outside a dealership. There were at least 5 hummer limos, 3 or 4 regular hummers, and a handful of classic stretch limos, all for the clubs. We couldn't have gone in had we wanted to; there was a strict dress code to enter the strip. Who knew Baltimore was such a happenin' place?!

We considered driving on to NYC for the night, but wimped out. Instead we sang along to the radio, ate McFlurrys and told fun stories.

This morning we all opted to sleep in and John and Kristi took me out to Old Town Alexandria, finally. I had not managed, in nearly two months of living in Alexandria, to make it down there, and now I know that truly is a shame. It is so quaint, and the banks of the Potomac offer a really great view. The whole area feels very historic. We even went to an old World War II torpedo factory that has been converted into art galleries. Before wandering around, though, we stopped off for brunch. I tried eggs benedict for the first time and discovered I love them!

We also drove by T.C. Williams High School, of Remember the Titans fame. It was very cool to see the football field and "remember." How great would it be to go to one of their games?

I only have a week and a half left in DC, and I hope that I will see many more exciting sites before I depart. Something tells me that it would take much more time than I have to see it all.