Futbol, Football, The Election, Golf, and a Cheesesteak

In preparation for the election, Kelly's organization sent their employees to several locations throughout the country to do some election protection. Fortunately, Kelly was assigned to St. Louis, MO because of her background in Missouri elections. She flew back a couple days early to spend time in Sparta, leaving Ben to fend for himself. To keep himself busy, he attended the MLS playoffs, which were held about 10 blocks from our house at RFK stadium.

The crowd was surprisingly rowdy and it was a good game.  

Overall, the Major League Soccer game was a fun experience - though the tie was a bit frustrating way to finish.  Ben decided it was probably for the best that Kelly missed the tie game, which would have only added to her distaste for watching soccer.

On Sunday, Ben had to work at a Nationals event.  He then joined some co-workers at the Redskins game as they took on the Carolina Panthers.  

It was a match up of the last two Heisman Trophy winners.  On the day, Cam Newton and the Panthers got the best of Robert Griffin III and the Redskins. 

 

Tuesday was the big election. Ben drove by the Capitol on his way to Virginia where he spent much of the day.

It was a long day for both of us.  We were happy that it was over and that on Wednesday, Kelly flew back to DC.  Much of the rest of the week was spent catching up on sleep and chores.

On Saturday, we decided to play a round of golf at Langston golf course near our apartment. Once the only course open to African-Americans, Langston is full of history. Joe Lewis was one of the more notable members as was Lee Elder.

On Sunday, we decided to take a day trip up to Philadelphia for the Eagles vs Cowboys football game.

After arriving in Philly, we wanted to stop by City Center for their famous soft pretzels.

While a good pretzel, it left something to be desired. Ben thought something was funky in the after taste  - though this could have been something with the water.  The flavor was masked by dipping the pretzel in mustard.

Next we visited Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell and Carpenter's hall.

Independence Hall was very interesting and our tour guide gave us a great history of the room and the events that took place there. Most notable was that the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 2nd not the 4th.

The Liberty Bell was somewhat disappointing.  This may have something to do with the fact that it is located in a modern museum with exhibits and TV monitors and at the end of this long hall is the Liberty Bell.

Carpenter's Hall was Kelly's favorite building because of both its history and lack our tourists.

After sightseeing, we took the short walk from Carpenter's Hall to the City Tavern, established 1733. While visiting her parents in Sparta, Kelly watched a 60 minutes documentary on Philadelphia where they featured the City Tavern. Due to its location to Carpenter's and Independence Hall, many of the founding fathers ate and drank there after long days at work.

In fact, George Washington and John Adams first met at the City Tavern. We sat in the tavern and had a sampler of beers brewed from the recipe's of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and James Madison.

(Washington, Jefferson and Madison were fond of this bicycle built for three.)

Here is the 60 special: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50134481n
The entire segment is good, but they start talking about Philly about 5 minutes into the segment.

We also briefly visited the University of Pennsylvania, which appeared to be quite nice.  On another trip, we hope to explore the campus more.

Finally, we stopped by Tony Luke's for a cheese steak before heading to the Eagles game.

While we didn't have tickets, Ben quickly worked his magic and we were in our seats before kick off.

The Eagles vs Cowboys is one of the great rivalries in football, however the Eagles have been struggling in recent weeks.

The Philly fans were just as rowdy and inappropriate as advertised. We saw one fist fight, several beers thrown (both unintentional and intentional), and an impressive amount of profanity squeezed into one 3 hour period.

The Eagles lost the game after a last minute drive with their back up quarterback failed to produce a touchdown.

With that, we headed back to DC and got ready for another work week.

The Golf Before The Storm

After a tame work week, we decided to take advantage of the fall foliage and good weather and enjoy some quality time outdoors.  On Saturday morning we headed to Rock Creek Park for a round of golf.  While the course is your typical goat track, the scenery more than made up for it.  The peak of the tree change in Rock Creek Park was spectacular.  As an added bonus, we practically had the course to ourselves.

(Yoga, expressly banned...who knew this was an issue?)

After 18 holes, we stopped at 6 Engine for lunch before heading to the local Oregon Duck bar for the football game. The bar was full of Oregon fans and the school fight song played after every score. The ducks score 56 points in the first half, making the second half anti-climatic. After finishing our bucket of PBR's we headed home.

 

After the game, Kelly stopped by a D.C. early voting center to cast her ballot.

Back home, we took the dogs for a walk and then headed back out for a wild night on the town. Ben had been given complementary VIP tickets to the Washington International Horse Show at the Verizon Center. While not totally enthused, we felt obligated to check it out.

The horse show was very entertaining and much of a learning experience. The scoring, jargon and culture was all very interesting and by the end of the night we were faking it pretty good. The winner was Reed Kessler, who was the youngest member of U.S. Olympic equestrian team and just turned 18.

After abandoning the dogs all day on Saturday, we took them to the park as a reward for being good. Dexter played fetch for about an hour and Mosely walked around making friends. On the walk home, Dexter and Kelly got thirsty.

The next day, Hurricane Sandy hit the D.C. area.  Fortunately for us, it didn't cause any problems and ended up being a day off work.

(Dex was nervous about the storm and kept his eyes glued to the weatherman on TV.)

In preparation for Halloween, we decided carve a pumpkin in honor of the Washington Nationals.

On Halloween night, we joined up with some friends to support their Karaoke team. While their team came in last place in their league (yes, their are apparently karaoke leagues), we had a lot of fun watching all the groups perform.