Déjà Vu?

So I am struggling to locate the cord that connects my camera to my computer…so I’ll post pictures to this post whenever I find it?

What a weekend. As I noted at the end of the last post, Paul Britton and Patrick arrived very late Friday night in DC. Saturday Paul and I walked around the mall, taking lots of pictures and eventually wandering into the natural history museum. After an afternoon in the muggy 100-degree heat, we spent an hour in my apartment recovering and then walked over to Katie Lovett’s. Saturday was her birthday, and her family was in town. They were nice enough to take a few of us out for dinner to a Mexican restaurant. The Lovetts are a great family – and their make up is a bit like my family when I’m not there (meaning the father is severely out-numbered because they have two daughters a few years apart). It was a lot of fun to get to hang out with Patrick and Paul again, and I had a great time getting to know the Lovett family.

After dinner we all went back to Katie’s apartment in Georgetown and ate a delicious cake and ice cream and shared some champagne. Eventually Paul, Pat and I left to go meet Pat’s brother at a place named Cantina Marina on the river to celebrate Katie’s 21st. Due to dinner and cake, we were running a bit behind, and didn’t get to be there and hang out for all that long, but it was nice to see Pat’s brother, Stephen Muller, again and to meet his girlfriend Suzanne.

Sunday morning I woke up about 9:30 to watch the Wimbledon final between Djokovic and Nadal. Djokovic has certainly earned the #1 position in the world and deserved the Wimbledon title. It is a little absurd to think that we are now in July, the seventh month of the year, and he has still only lost one match. Similarly, it is crazy to think that until this tournament, Roger Federer was 178-0 in matches when he won the first two sets. Wow.

Unfortunately ESPN was not streaming the match online so I was using some other streaming device that used a lot of what appeared to be Russian letters. Every 15 minutes or so the stream would be obligated to show a commercial, and you could choose to watch it a minute or two before time was up or to wait out the full time. Unfortunately, right at the end of the match I didn’t see the option, so as Djokovic went to serve on match point, my stream switched away to a commercial in an unrecognizable language. When it came back, Djokovic was looking at his box screaming with joy and pumping his fists.

Needless to say, I was not very pleased.

Sunday afternoon Paul and I did some more walking. We saw the American History museum, and decided not to stand in the very long, slow moving line for the National Archives. We ended up walking around behind the capitol building to see the Supreme Court. Dinner was a gyro and chips from a store down the street, and then we went to meet up with Pat to see a movie with Stephen and Suzanne. ‘Transformers 3’ was the selection, and mostly it just made us all laugh. If what you’re looking for in a movie is an hour-long giant robot fight scene, this is the movie for you. If not, well sorry.

Post-movie the three of us just went back to Katie’s, watched a couple episodes of How I Met Your Mother, and then Paul and I left to go back to my apartment. Monday (July 4th) Paul left to drive back around 11:30 (Patrick was flying home to get in soon enough to go to work for a couple hours). After eating, showering, and getting ready, I went down to the mall and met up with Katie and her family again. I spent the next few hours walking around the mall with Katie and her sister, Julia, exploring the festival that was set up. Eventually we headed back up to the Capitol lawn where we watched the concert and fireworks. Mr. Lovett had scoped out a great area for us to sit so we could see both. The concert itself wasn’t particularly great, but it likely exceeded my expectations (because they were pretty low). The fireworks show was also amazing, although music was still going on which ruined it a little bit for me.

After the show I walked with the Lovetts to Good Stuff, a restaurant run by a former Top Chef competitor. Katie works here a couple nights a week as well. We all just got milkshakes, but it smelled absolutely delectable. I was almost convinced to buy a burger even though I had already eaten just by the smell inside. Finally around 11:30 (after a long, exhausting day in the heat) we all boarded the metro. The Lovett family stayed in a hotel about a block from my office, so we took the same train and I got off one stop before they did. Again, they’re a great family and I’m glad I got to spend so much time with them!

Sorry this was a fairly detailed post. Hopefully having a 4-day week makes it go by fairly quickly. It was funny having guests in town (did I mention Paul Ream’s girlfriend was here this weekend too, and that our other roommates also had visitors?) – kind of reminded me of our weekends abroad when we would either travel or have guests in town. And this weekend, with all the sightseeing, it felt like I did both. I’ll certainly sleep well in the upcoming nights!

(Final side note – this weekend was a Noren family reunion in Kansas City, which I was not really invited to attend. But I hope it was fun for everyone that made it!)

*Edit to add pictures*

Paul Britton in front of the White House.

Paul again behind the Capitol.

The Supreme Court...I guess this has already been put up.

Julia (left) and Katie Lovett in front of the Capitol.

Katie and I!

A look all the way down the mall.  There were
so many people there. Click to enlarge.

One of the singers at the concert.  She sang some song from
the West Side Story.

Jordan Sparks singing "Beauty and the Beast".

Fireworks behind the Washington monument.

The Lovett family!