Forth! And fear no darkness!: Seeing Family in DC and another weekend

Quick note at the onset – at the urging of a friend I have changed the tagline on the blog to say “There and back again – Jack Peterson’s travels, tales, and experiences,” since I’m not abroad anymore. I included this in here because it isn’t particularly easy to read in front of the pyramids, but I don’t want to change the picture! Anyway, I suppose the easiest way to cover this weekend is just to go day by day? There’s plenty to report (as always), but I’ll do my best to keep it cheery and short. As short as possible at least. Pictures are uploaded at the end too!

Friday was a pretty slow day at work. The two partners as well as Rachel (who isn’t a partner, but is a lot more than a receptionist, so I don’t know what to call her – she is also the person who oversees my work) were all at a conference in Minneapolis from Wednesday thru Friday. Thus, they left us some projects (such as launching Dave Strohmaier’s campaign for Congress), but by Friday afternoon we (the other intern and I) had done about all we could do.

Right at 6 I left the office and met Paul and Evan Carter (another Davidson friend) at my apartment, changed quickly, and then we headed out to go to a Washington Nationals baseball game. My Aunt Carol Beth and Uncle Rick had bought a few tickets and invited me to bring two friends along! As we walked out of the metro station, it began to absolutely pour. We got soaked, but we went into the stadium and got under cover and ate some food. Fortunately the rain stopped around 7:20, and the game started by 8. The Nationals were playing the Baltimore Orioles, and there were probably more Orioles fans there than there were Nationals supporters. Still, the Nationals won 8-4, and it was really nice of my aunt and uncle to invite us out!

After the game, Paul and I came home and changed into dry clothes and then decided to go out. Natalie joined us, and we decided to meet some other Davidson students in the Adams Morgan area. This is kind of far from our place (to walk at least), so we took a 10-minute cab ride. Our friends were in a place named Madam’s Organ, which turned out to be a really cool place. On the first floor was a bar with live music; the second was more contemporary and “popular” music, and the third floor was an open roof bar. We mostly just hung out on the roof, but it was a great place to be. Eventually Paul, Natalie, and I left, and on our way home (we decided to walk) I ducked into Jumbo Slice. About 20 seconds later I emerged carrying the largest slice of pizza I have ever seen. The three of us took turns eating on the way home, but it was an amazing find.

The next day I got up early (for me on a weekend) to meet my cousins Emily and Angie, and Angie’s husband, Adam, and their two kids, Izzy and Althea (3 and ten months old), to go for a walk around the mall. My cousins in Minnesota were holding a 5K run to raise awareness and funds research to be done on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). My cousin sadly had her son pass away at four months last winter from SIDS, and she and her husband (and many other members of my family) have been very strong and faithful through this push to raise awareness. More about the event itself can be found on this Facebook page, but I thought it was important to note why I was gathering with my relatives on this specific day.

The six of us walked all the way down one side of the mall and meant to turn at the Lincoln and walk back down the other side. Unfortunately the reflecting pool is all torn up due to construction, and we got a little lost and ended up outside the Jefferson memorial – way out of the way. We walked a lot farther than we meant to, but it was still fun and we all had a good time. Angie’s kids are absolutely adorable, and I could have just played with them for the rest of the day (though it did get tiring constantly picking Izzy up and running around with her). Hopefully I’ll get to see lots more of them before the end of my time here in DC. After our walk we ate the restaurant in the sculpture garden, which was a nice little restaurant.

That night Paul and I, along with some of our roommates and Richard (a Davidson friend) walked to the Georgetown area to explore. We ended up at a place named Rhino with about 7 or 8 other Davidson students and spent the night just hanging out there. The Georgetown area is really nice, and rather safe. Plus, it’s a little bit of hike, but we can walk to and from Georgetown instead of having to take a cab. After being here for about two weeks, it is pretty clear that I’m going to have to cut the spending as far down as possible.

Today (Sunday) was a relatively slow day, but Katie (Mixon) and I did go walk around for a bit. She showed me a really good bagel place near Dupont, and there were a lot of restaurants in the area as well. Paul and I later went to the GWU fitness center – it is a very, very nice place. Four or five stories tall, filled with any kind of fitness equipment one could need, four basketball courts, a climbing wall – this place had it all. I guess you should expect that if you pay to go to the most expensive school in the country, but still it was really cool to look out over the city while we played basketball.

Hopefully this coming week is pretty routine, at least as far as work and class go. I may update a couple times with some thoughts about class or things going on here, but we’ll see how much time I have. On a side note, Wimbledon starts tomorrow, and John Isner plays Nikolas Mahut in the first round – the same pair that played the record setting match in the first round last year (it ended 70-68 in the fifth set). I’m looking forward to watching as much of it as I can online after I get home from work. Anyway, enjoy the pictures!