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.

Weekend of October 20th

With a long work week under our belts, we planned a fun filled weekend. We left the apartment early on Saturday to get to the White House for the fall garden tour. Unfortunately the Army 10 Miler Race had shut down what seemed like the entire city. The 20 block trek from our apartment to the White House took approximately 45 minutes. With the road blocks and detours throwing off our schedule, we just decided to figure out how to get out of D.C. for the morning. 

After abut two hours of driving, we made it to Alexandria, VA(10 miles from our apartment). Our next activity was Top Golf, which is a technologically advanced driving range. The golf balls have microchips that are registered to the individual. You hit the balls to targets that awards points. 

Ben thinks Kelly figured out a way to cheat by using her real golf skills to actually hit the targets.  Kelly had the highest score and the 2nd highest of anyone on the 'course' that day.  Ben is sticking to the fact that in golf the low score wins. Generally, it was a lot of fun and we look forward to going back.

Next up was some high school football. We stopped by T.C. Williams to "Remember the Titans" at their homecoming game.

There was very little resemblance to the movie, however it allowed Ben to make several movie references, which is always a treat.

It was a beautiful fall afternoon in the peak of tree color change around D.C. We stopped by Teddy Roosevelt island for a taste of nature.

After a hiking the island, it was time for dinner in Georgetown. Normally out of our price range, we had an above average dinner at Paper Moon. Kelly accidentally ordered a lobster pasta dish that included an entire lobster. After enjoying a cannoli for dessert we headed to the Georgetown waterfront for our boat cruise or "party yacht" as it is advertised.

The boat went back and forth over about a mile or two of the Potomac for 3 hours.  It was nice to see the waterfront and several of the monuments at night.

We enjoyed the sights and our complimentary beverage and some peanut M&M's. Our experience was quite different from the majority of the passengers. Comprised of mainly Georgetown students, bachelorette parties and a birthday celebration,  the crowd was highly inebriated and ready to party. We sat on the roof of the boat, which was more quite and further away from the DJ, which made it a very pleasant ride.

After a long Saturday, we spent the morning sleeping and spending much needed time with the dogs.  We took the dogs around the neighborhood and then went to the dog park, where Dexter's OCD was in rare form.

Later that afternoon, we took a drive to the National Arboretum to check out the tree change, and we were not disappointed.

Hooray for mid October!

The major league playoffs coming to Washington was big news for the city and us as the Cardinals and Nationals played in the National League Division Series.  

Ben got the opportunity to work the first home game (game 3) and we had tickets for game 4. With the Cardinals up 2 games to 1, game 4 was a potential elimination game for the Nationals.  The sellout crowd was nervous for game 4 and routing for a Nationals win to force a decisive game 5.

The game was a pitcher's duel throughout and was a 1-1 tie when Jayson Werth led off the 9th inning. The video below shows what happened.  

With game 4 being one of the greatest sporting events we had ever been a part of, we decided to bike down to the stadium for game 5. Tickets were scarce, so we watched some of the game on the big screen from outside of the stadium and the nearby stadium bar.

After the Nats grabbed a commanding 6-0 lead, we headed home while making plans for the impending NLCS and World Series appearances.  However, it was a roller coaster night with a 9th inning collapse by the Nationals and the epic come from behind victory by the Cards.

We got home in time to watch the Nationals blow a two run ninth inning lead to our beloved Cardinals. We were devastated as Nationals fans, but ecstatic that the implosion came at the hands of the Cards.  It is hard to admit to many our of family and friends, but we were both rooting for the Nationals deep down, which made the collapse hard to take.

With the baseball season over in Washington, some of our schedule was freed up.  In celebration of our first wedding anniversary, we drove down to Charlottesville,VA. Our first stop was Monticello, home to Thomas Jefferson. It turned our we probably should have purchased tickets ahead of time.  No tour was available for a few hours, so we decided a return visit made sense.  Instead, we decided to visit James Monroe's home at Ash Lawn - Highland for surprisingly pleasant experience. Termed by Ben the "poor man's Monticello", it was a wonderful history lesson about our nation's 5th president. 

All that history caused us to work up an appetite, so we stopped by a place called the Bluegrass Grill and Bakery for a delicious brunch.

While we waiting for our meal, we were treated to a piece of chocolate covered bacon by the owner or manager.  While it is hard to imagine this could be anything but delicious, Kelly was not a fan of the cinnamon.

Next up was the University of Virginia's homecoming football game against Maryland.   For Virginia's homecoming, the Cavaliers were taking on the rival Terrapins.

In a battle of mediocre football, the 1-4 Maryland Terps beat up on the Cavs throughout much of the game.  By the end of the first half, it was pretty clear that game was all but over.

After the halftime festivities, we decided to spend second half walking around the beautiful campus.

After touring the campus, we spent some time walking around downtown Charlottesville and then called it a day headed back to DC.

Sunday we had to catch up on life chores and spend some quality time with the dogs. 

Monday was the big day, our first anniversary. We had an awesome dinner at La Plaza where we enjoyed Paella and Steak Fajitas. We busted out some wedding cake that had been preserved for dessert.

When we blew out our candle, we wished for another year as great as this one!