Two Weekends for the Price of One

Since our last post, we been working quite a bit.  Ben has been rehabbing and recuperating.  He has been off the crutches for a couple weeks, but is still limping.  When the weekend got here, we were ready for it.  

Kelly had a golf event on Saturday morning.  She shot par and had a good time.  Ben used this time to watch a couple movies that he knew Kelly was not interested in seeing.  In the afternoon/evening, we watched the U.S. Open on TV.

On Sunday, we decided to take a riverboat cruise on the Potomac.  We had purchased a Living Social deal several weeks ago and with good weather, it seemed like a nice day.  We drove to Georgetown and found where our boat was docked. 

These ducks were the only wildlife we saw on the trip.

We did, however, get some good views of the Watergate, the Kennedy Center and the Lincoln Monument.

We also go some fascinating commentary from our Captain.

Overall, it was a nice 45 minutes on the river.  We got to see some of Washington from a different angle than we had seen before.  Also, we got to see a few new sites we had not seen before.

(Mo couldn't wait to get into the water.)

After the cruise, we went to lunch in Georgetown at Filomena.  Last time we were there it was for a pretty fabulous brunch buffet.  This time we decided to just have a meatball sandwich.  It was very good.  Luckily, we still had room for dessert.  

We had avoided Georgetown Cupcake until this point.  We didn't believe it could live up to the hype or possibly be worth waiting in the line.  Luckily, Ben was willing to wait in the line while Kelly went and got the car.  In the end we tried the red velvet cupcake that they are famous for and a 'lava fudge' cupcake as well.  

The cupcakes turned out to be quite good.  In particular, the red velvet cupcake's icing was phenomenal and did actually live up to the hype.  After cupcakes, we headed to the store and then home to watch the final round of the U.S. Open and hang out with the dogs.

On Monday, it was back to work.  Kelly played in her golf league Monday evening.   On Tuesday we went with Kelly's co-workers to the Nationals game.  Unfortunately, the visiting Tampa Bay Rays were victorious.

The game did have a couple interesting occurrences. First, a home run was reviewed, which we had not seen in person before.  A few innings later, the game was delayed for reasons unbeknownst to us.  The next day we learned it was because a Rays pitcher was ejected for having pine tar on his glove.

The rest of the week went by pretty quickly.  Kelly had a few more events, including softball on Thursday.  Also, we stayed up too late watching the NBA finals.  

When the weekend got here, we unfortunately were not able to wholly enjoy it.  Ben had to present on two panels for work on Saturday.  Later that afternoon, the weekend really began.  We headed to a bbq/party Saturday evening.  It was a good time and there were a few good treats - the highlight of which was some very good chocolate covered strawberries.  

On Sunday, we hung around the house and took care of some life chores.  We also watched the Rum Diary with Johnny Depp.  Overall, it was a good weekend, but just a little too short.

Memorial Day and Beyond!

In our last post, we spent the Memorial Day weekend in New England.  We flew from Boston back to DC early Monday morning.

It was good to be home and to see the dogs.  Mo and Dex were good while we were gone.  As a treat, we decided to take them to a baseball game.  It was "Mutt Monday" at the Bowie Baysox minor league game.  The Baysox are the AA affiliate for the Baltimore Orioles. 

The team is largely made up of future Orioles, but has a few major leaguers on rehab assignments.  Brian Roberts, in the picture above, should be back in Baltimore before too long.

The real stars of the game, however, were the dogs.  Mo was a very big hit with her giant finger cheering the Baysox to victory.

Overall the dogs seemed amused by the new surroundings and were very well behaved.  If you know Dexter, you know this was somewhat of a surprise.

A few other surprises for us we the quirks of the minor leagues away from the game.  Below the Baysox mascot gets the crowd fired up for a "big" check give-away in the amount of $25.00.  

Also, the Baysox had their own version of Racing Presidents, but they were racing 'dead' presidents as in giant dollar bills in a race sponsored by a local bank. 

Overall, it was a fun day at the ballpark.  After the game we headed home, had dinner and got ready for the next day, which was going to be a big one.

Ben had knee surgery on Tuesday morning.  It went well.  There would be more to write here except that Ben does not remember the surgery at all.

Back at home, it was several days of laying in bed and recovering.  Kelly did a great job as Ben's nurse and in between naps we watched several movies.  Much of the remainder of our week looked like the picture below.

Friday was Ben's first trip out of the house as we went to see the doctor and got a good report.  By Monday, it was back to work.  We tried to get back into our schedules and it was a busy work week catching up on things.

By the weekend, Ben needed to catch up on some rest, so we took it easy. We watched some more movies, though the Redbox options are getting pretty thin.  We also ran some errands and took care of some life chores.  Ben is becoming very skilled at operating the electronic grocery carts.

Being back on the bus reminded us of an incident from a few weeks ago that we forgot to mention.  On the way to work one morning, there was a hitchhiker in the seat next to us.  Despite open windows, this bird seemed to sticking out the ride.

Also, we have seen a couple good license plates worth sharing recently.  The first was around town in DC and the 2nd we saw on our trip to Boston.

Ben is improving by the day.  We should have some more adventures to write about soon.  Look for our next post in a week or so.

Bean Town And Beyond: A Magical Tour of New England

With the Memorial Day weekend coming up, we decided to start it a little early and flew up to Boston on Friday morning and then caught a train over to Providence, RI.  In Providence we met up with friends and headed to Newport for the afternoon.  

The plan was to trek along the famed "Cliff Walk" that passed between the ocean and several historic mansions.  Before heading out for the walk, we decided to fuel up.  Flo's Clam Shack was an amusing place with some pretty good 'chowda.'

From Flo's we headed for the cliff walk.  Apparently, there were some spots along the way to look out for.  Maybe it was just that people got caught up in the view.  On this particular day, the fog really kept us from enjoying the views.

Despite the fog, it was a nice walk and cool to see some of the large estates that overlook the coast.  At times it was a little tricky for Ben's knee, but he made it.

From Newport, we headed back to Providence.  We had a nice dinner out and then grabbed a beverage in a cool place that was housed in an old bank.  

The next morning, we headed out for breakfast at the Modern Diner, which was housed in some type of space ship trailer.

The menu was pretty out of this world and there were definitely some items worth having again.  Ben was pleased with the corned beef hash eggs benedict.  Kelly was sold by the waitress on the biscuits and gravy, but then had some plate envy when she saw someone else with the waffle she had passed up.

After breakfast, we headed to Boston.   Our first stop was the JFK Presidential Library.

The library contained several exhibits that provided information and insight into President Kennedy's life, his family, and his campaigns.  The museum was excellent and had several fantastic historical items that we enjoyed seeing.  

(The JFK Museum sits on a nice piece of Boston waterfront.)

From the Kennedy Museum, we headed over to Cambridge to check out Harvard and the surrounding area.

There were lots of people around for reunions and some graduation events.  We didn't spend too much time on campus, but enjoyed looking around at some of the older buildings.

(Kelly learned that getting into Harvard is tough.)

(Ben gives a Big Buck Hunter tutorial to some smart Harvard kids.)

From Harvard, we headed to the hotel and then on to Fenway Park for a Red Sox game against the Tampa Bay Rays.  

A visit to Fenway had been on Ben and Kelly's to do list for quite a while.  In addition to being one of a few remaining classic stadiums, it is fun to think about all the legends who played in the stadium over the years.

(The Green Monster wasn't too scary in person.)

The game started in a pitcher's duel and was relatively low scoring for much of the game.

However, with the Red Sox down one run in the bottom of the ninth, pinch-hitter Jarrod Saltalamacchia hit a walk-off two run homer to give the home team the victory.

On Sunday, we went on a walking tour of Boston.  Our plan was to follow "The Freedom Trail," which we started on at Boston Common.

And nothing says freedom like walking by the place that inspired the TV show "Cheers."  

  

Originally founded in 1754 by Samuel Adams, Cheers fame was expanded in the 80s tv show starring Ted Danson. (At least part of the previous sentence was not true.) Actually, it just seemed like a decent place for a bathroom break.  

From Cheers, we walked around the Beacon Hill neighborhood and admired the old buildings and the historical feel of the place.

Ben took a particular interest in the variety of door knockers used in the Beacon Hill area.  

Following the Freedom Trail, we went by the capitol building.

An old graveyard that served as the final resting place for Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, and Ben Franklin's parents among others.

Walking past the Old State House it was fascinating to think about that as the site where the Boston Massacre occurred and where the Declaration of Independence was first read aloud to Bostonians.  Imaging such times may have been made a little more difficult because of the modern developments that surrounded the area.  It was still very impressive.

Thinking about massacres can be a little depressing.  Luckily, around the corner was a giant macaroni sculpture with an amusing warning.

Also amusing were these kids trying to beat the heat in a public fountain.

As our walk/tour continued, we ended up in Boston's Little Italy, which seemed like a decent place to stop for lunch.

However, it was an even better place to stop for dessert.  Based on the line, Mike's Pastry is not a well kept secret.

They do, however, know how to make a cannoli.  For those of you who are regular readers, you know that Kelly loves a good cannoli and as a result, we have become cannoli connoisseurs.

We got a cannoli and it was definitely above average.  However, since we were in Boston, we felt obliged to try the Boston Cream Pie.  It was fabulous!  Essentially it was the cake version of a custard filled chocolate long john.

To burn off some of our dessert, we kept walking and ended up seeing Paul Revere's house and the Old North Church.

From there, we ended up back down by the water for what essentially ended our walking tour of the city.

Maybe it was a swelling patriotic feeling from seeing so many historic sites or maybe it was just too much sugar in the Boston cream pie, but something inspired Ben to dump the contents of a tea bag into the water.

After that, we felt as though our trip to Boston was fairly complete.  So with the remainder of the afternoon, we headed up to Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  Our first stop was the Red Hook Brewery tour.  The facility was ok, but it was a Sunday, so the bottling/packing machines were not running.  

After the tour, we crossed a bridge to technically enter Maine.  Our time there was limited, but it seemed nice.  We hope to go back.

Back across the bridge, we walked around Portsmouth.

It was a nice old port town that seemed to have an enormous selection of restaurants option for dinner.

We settled on a place called the River House because its self described "casual waterfront dining" appealed to us.  We both went with the lobster roll and seafood chowder combo.  The lobster roll was good because it was lobster.  That said, the chowder was phenomenal.  The menu described the chowder as award winning and we could see why.  It was certainly the best chowder either of us had enjoyed in quite some time.

It took us about an hour to get back to Boston, where we packed up our things and got ready for an early morning trip to the airport.