Saturday, August 28, 2010

The Party That Wasn't, A Road Trip, and Nonstop Walking and Eating Marathon

The MK party was a total bust. BUST. I spent all day cleaning and cooking, and getting out cute serving dishes and arranging things. And only three dear friends came (I owe them big time because I think I MADE them come). The consultant came a bit late (no biggie) and brought her kids (I told her to). The babysitter I had arranged forgot, so there were nine kids in the basement. I finally got her to come, but woke her up from a nap. We were sneaking rum into our cokes when the consultant wasn't looking. Everyone had to leave early (don't blame them). The consultant's daughter wouldn't stay in the basement and was running around upstairs on my NEW FURNITURE. Then she had a problem in the bathroom. Everyone left. No one ate much of the food I made. I didn't get the margarita pie out of the freezer.

That is the last time I do that.

We recently took a trip to Duchess County, NY to attend the bridal shower weekend of my future sister-in-law, Tara. My mom flew up here and helped me drive with the two kids. It was only a 4 and a half hour drive up there, but a 6 and a half hour drive home. Hello! Jersey turnpike on a rainy summer Sunday. The kids did really well overall on the trip and it went much better than I could have asked for. We had a great time seeing Tara's hometown and meeting her friends and family.

My mom stayed with the kids overnight while John and I had a night in Georgetown. I planned it all and didn't tell him what we were doing. I picked him up at the airport after one of his trips. We took to the train to Union Station and the Metro out to Foggy Bottom. It was great. We checked into the hotel, had a few beverages. Then we walked down to M Street in Georgetown and had dinner at Clyde's--which gets its produce from local farms. I had scallops in a jalapeno corn cream sauce with fried green tomatoes. Yum. After that we wandered around. I really wanted to find a good jazz club, but it was Monday night and we ended up at an Irish pub where supposedly JFK proposed to Jackie (doubt that.) The next day we went on a 5 mile death march across D.C. John ignored the close proximity of the hotel to the Metro station (I spent a LONG TIME planning that!) and we hiked all over. We had breakfast at Founding Farmers (a farm to table restaurant) that was wonderful. We walked by the White House and the WW2 Monument and then we walked over to the Jefferson Monument.

We were carrying our backpacks with our overnight stuff. I was DONE. I was totally exhausted. I couldn't figure out why John was just walking on along like no problem! He was talking about walking another mile and a half to a restaurant. I put my battered and sore foot down and hailed a taxi. We ate lunch at Old Ebbitt Grill where I had a Norwegian sandwich, with smoked salmon, olive cream cheese, and hardboiled egg. Definitely different, but good!

Then we took the train home. It was a wonderful 24 hours. KID FREE! We were just giddy to be by ourselves. It was great. Basically we just walked and ate, walked and ate, walked and ate. My kind of vacation. Except for the walking.

4 comments:

Angie said...

So eating kid free is your type of vacation?! Allen does that with walking, too. Sometimes it does seem easier to just walk than figure out bus schedules.

I am not a fan of hosting those type parties. I've gone to MANY parties, but can't seem to get people to show up when I host. I was friends with 4 or 5 people who sold stuff (Mary Kay, Longaberger, Pampered Chef, Stamping Up) at Fort Campbell, so I was trying to help them out. I haven't done one of those since.

Unknown said...

OMG. You are my twin, or something. That's EXACTLY what Matt and I did when we went to NY recently. Farm to table restaurants, lots of eating, lots of walking. I got blisters. Great fun w/o the kids. Who the heck doesn't love whine-free dining? Loved every second of it. Yay for you guys!

Oh, and I've been asked to host parties and have NEVER done. Probably won't either. Especially after hearing your story.

joanna said...

That DC trip sounds wonderful! - how'd you find all the farm to table places? That sounds like research!

I haven't been to a big MK party since college. And that one was maybe 6 friends. The makeovers were fun-sort of- but I don't think we bought much.

Jen said...

Eating and drinking kid-free? What is not to love?! Well, except maybe all the walking. Yay for you guys!