NC, Fall Fun, Trials Week

Two weekends ago, Mike and I went to North Carolina to visit with his family. 

When Mike picked me up at work, we couldn't resist starting off the trip with Captain Cookie! He has a storefront one block away from me. I got ginger molasses with pumpkin ice cream and Mike got ginger molasses and funfetti with black cherry ice cream.

Traffic was horrible on 95, but Mike was a champ driving and we made it to Raleigh in time for dinner with Leslie. I was still feeling a little ill with a sore throat (Mike and I had been sick the whole week prior), so I opted for a ginger martini at dinner and spicy Thai soup. 

Saturday morning Leslie and I did a Pilates class together that was offered by her apartment building! I didn't realize how much I'd been neglecting my stretching and yoga! It was hard but a great way to start the morning. Plus, mike got to sleep in.

We spent the rest of Saturday and Sunday morning in Burlington with Ween, Daddy Jim, and Jim. Leslie ate lunch with us on Saturday. I should have taken more pictures of Ween's meals, but let's just say there was homemade pumpkin ice cream. No time for pictures:)

On the return trip Sunday, we stopped by Raleigh again for brunch at Tazza kitchen. I was intrigued by "bacon butter".

Huevos rancheros for Leslie and me. Mike got his usual:)

Rupert was SO happy when we finally made it home! He spent some time re-claiming Mike's lap as his spot.

This past weekend, Rupert had to go to the vet on Saturday morning for his rabies shot, and then we had a "Fall party" on Saturday night watching scary movies and making things with apples other people picked. 

So there is a video circulating online about how to make these rose apple pastries. Steph was the mastermind, but I can actually say I assembled about half under her supervision. They are the best, and I can't wait to make them again on my own!

Mike has gotten really good at making cast iron skillet pizzas. He even put spinach in this one for me❤️

This week is a big one for Mike. He has a trial that should be finished by the end of it, and then he'll be moving on to his next rotation in "internships" (command services). This is all my understanding of it so I'm sure I'm getting it wrong. What this means is he's working late a lot and we don't know yet if we'll be able to travel to Williamsburg for our Hallowscream vacation at Busch Gardens this upcoming weekend. Hopefully we will!

Ships Move

I am not on a carrier right now. I was supposed to be on one for the week, but as our CO told us, "this is a good lesson in the Navy. Stuff happens and ships move." "Stuff happens" may or may not be a loose paraphrase of the actual phrase he used. We are in the Navy, after all.

In addition to ships, we also move. The Sunday before this past Sunday Kelsey and I (and most of my command) ran a half marathon. 

It went well!

There was some collateral damage.

Some other junior officers from my office.

That Monday I had permission to skip work and hang out with an honor flight coming from Indiana. All of the veterans on the flight fought in Vietnam and most had never seen their memorial. They all made fun of us for being staff officers, which was fair coming from them. They seemed to appreciate having folks in uniform to accompany them. The random tourists at the monuments also seemed to be blinded and dazzled by the summer whites to the point that, for perhaps the first time in my life, I had to say "one more person and then no more pictures." 

In another work outing, last Friday we got to put on our civilian clothes and take a tour of the Naval Academy. It was the most beautiful college campus where students aren't allowed to enjoy themselves that I've ever seen. Highlights included watching the lunch formation, which included a bagpipe procession to the tune of the theme from Top Gun. Well done, pipers.

The pipers get a place of honor in the center, as it should be.

More importantly, last weekend we were able to meet up with Courtney and Ashton and Melissa. There will be lots of times that I can be on a ship, but Ashton will not be this cute forever, so that's a fair trade.

And Ashton understands the import of the season.

Pictures and Marathon Tracking

If you are awake on Sunday morning and terribly concerned with what Kelsey and I are up to, you can go to http://results.xacte.com/track/?id=843 and ask for updates. My number is 3030 and Kels's is 3025. I have no idea how many times you will be updated as we run if you sign up for these updates. 

I took some pictures over Labor Day weekend while Beau and Jen were in town for Jen's sister's wedding. 

Rooting for the flytraps to eat the bees. They did not. They tried but were not strong enough.

On our way to the art museum.

Kelsey, ashamed at having gotten lost in the art museum.

Beau in the Air and Space Museum looking at Apollo stuff.

More later- I mostly wanted people to have the running tracker if they wanted it.

Tapering

Tapering is when you decrease mileage leading up to your race to conserve energy, minimize chance of injury, and give your legs a break. Apparently serious runners get really antsy during tapering, but I'm over here thankful for a little break;) 

The humidity in DC has been persistent with some gorgeous days here and there. It is definitely still summer, but I'm hoping we get a little more of a season change leading up to the 20th. It's already darker in the morning on our walks to the bus and, although that makes me a little sad and feel like winter is coming too quickly, we have to pass through my favorite season first: Fall❤️

I am also glad that we have a little bit of summer left. I have gotten to a lot of the things I wanted to achieve and experience, but my priority has been adjusting to the new job, so I haven't yet made it to a farmer's market (although Kay and Brian did give us some delicious garden veggies!), outdoor yoga, hiking, or kayaking. I think we're going to save hiking for the Fall when Mike can capture the colors with his camera and kayaking may have to wait for next summer. I recently downloaded a yoga app that I can project to our AppleTV, so that has made it really easy to get in some yoga time!

We did manage to fit a lot in this weekend. We saw Beau and Jen while they were in town for a wedding and took them to Tortilla Coast and museums (my legs were so dead from a 10 mile run that morning that I ended up sitting a lot:/). I also got tea with Kay and Absi on Saturday and it was everything I wanted! Some more pictures from the week are below!

After our 10 mile run!

Air and Space museum with Beau and Jen!

Mike and Beau!

Happy Hour at Tazza Kitchen after a hard week. This was peach carbonara pasta and it was to die for!

One Friday evening, I had some of Mikes scotch in a wine glass. I hope Daddy Jim will forgive me.

Delicious  "Afternoon Tea" with Kay and Absi!

This is my failed attempt of a picture of my favorite coffee at Whole Foods that I sometimes get in the morning. It has high body and low acidity. I can't tolerate acidic coffee very well, so this is about as close to Papa Buck's coffee as I could get:)

Remember Mikes friend Kirk who owns the cookie food truck? Well, he has a storefront right near my new work, and sometimes we use him for events, etc. he's extremely popular. Last week, we had an event called "Careers and Cookies" and I got to take this guy back to my cubicle: Ginger molasses cookies with vanilla ice cream. So yum!

One of my coworkers and her daughter decorated all of our cubicles with balloons on the first day of school!

And because I'm sure you all are wondering how Ashton is doing...

He is loving life!

Here is one of his "Fall" daycare pictures! So sweet and what an incredible daycare. He turns 2 in November and has Courtney has already planned an indoor pool party with a Charlie Brown/Peanuts theme!

Nourishment

The start to the Fall semester has been a crazy one already and, as I gear up for another week, I'm trying to remember the importance of nourishing yourself (body, mind, and spirit) during busy seasons. That can look a million different ways, but here are some ways Mike and I have been nourishing ourselves lately.

Impromptu dinner at Tazza Kitchen

Dinner out during Restaurant Week with Davia, Christina, Dan, Amy, and Patrick.....The beer I was drinking is called "Victory at Sea"

Adorable rolls.

Mike's scallop ceviche was quite good.

Beautiful dish.

On a long run when I passed Reagan.

A frittata I made in our cast iron!

Homemade Oatmeal Cream Pie and Capp from Stomping Ground

Took my lego to the office, broke it, and this is as good as I could fix it

Playing Settlers of Catan at Kelly and Alex's apartment for Alex's birthday

My new favorite audiobook!

Miles 9 and 10

The weekend after the wedding weekend, Mike and I went up to Cumberland to hang out with his grandparents, aunt, mom, sister, and Carson to celebrate his mom's birthday. It was also our weekend to run 9 miles and we impressively woke up at 8am on Saturday to try to fit in these miles before breakfast. It was very dramatic. The temperature was gloriously under 70, but we were in the mountains. We had guess at our route (thanks MapMyRun!), be very careful and aware running on the shoulder in an area where there are not a lot of runners, and all 4.5 miles 'out' were downhill. There was also the added fun fact that breakfast at our hotel ended at 10am. By the time we started running, we had to average 9 minute miles to have 5 minutes left in the continental breakfast....this wouldn't be a big deal, but Mike was very excited about the Belgian waffles. I begged him to 'just leave me behind' a few times, but he refused to leave me out of eyesight. Instead, he did his own version of cheering me on where he lied about how close we were. Our 9 mile run truly took a team. I forced us out of bed and on the road....Mike's motivation got us back to the hotel in time for breakfast:)

Mountain face we ran past

Leading the charge! (This was still the first 4.5)

The rest of Saturday was spent recovering with Mike's family. I went on a shopping trip with Leslie and Aunt Linda where we visited THE BEST TJ Maxx and I found a new favorite black cardigan to keep me warm in a freezing office. Later that evening we ate Rachel's request of Thanksgiving Dinner (minus the sweet potatoes and something else) since she will be in France for the holidays. We ha cheesy olives for appetizer and German chocolate cake for dessert....the best German chocolate cake I've ever had....the icing was homemade. Unfortunately, I have no documentation of this meal because we inhaled it. After dinner, we played a fun game where we all requested songs for Carson to play without considering what was actually in his repertoire.....he was a very good sport and even played a little bit of "Africa" (from our wedding) and "Farther Along" (one of my favorites that my grandfather sang. Rachel was a really great sport and sang with him during some songs. It feels really good and strangely familiar to end the day with music.

The whole bunch of us on the front porch minus Aunt Linda who was the photographer!

Leslie, Rachel, Aunt Linda

On Sunday, we hung out a little bit more and then headed back to Washington D.C. with a haul of saltine cracker toffee and some new recipes:) Because we were trying extra hard at adulting, we decided to stop by the Costco in Gaithersburg on the way home. Words can't describe the feat, but I can tell you our marriage is stronger than ever. It turns out that it was 'tax-free' weekend. Costco's saving grace was that this one had a giant bottle of Suja brand Mighty Greens juice:)

Friday I teleworked and appreciated Mike's giant supercomputer to work on:)
Turns out you're never done learning about statistics. 

We also finally made it to Capitol Sushi! It was very delicious, but we were slightly underwhelmed after the build up. I really appreciated the pre-seasoning, but would have liked a better "ending" to the experience. We fixed that with Pitango Gelato:)

We finished our 10 miles this past Sunday. I survived even though Mike beat me by like 20 minutes. Someone remind me to wake up earlier for long runs.

Beautiful sunset Saturday evening!

This week we have plenty planned! We are saying goodbye to Meimi who is leaving to China for her Fulbright year, going to Restaurant Week with GGSS friends on Friday, set to run 11ish on Saturday, and christening Kelly and Alex's apartment with some Settlers of Catan on Sunday.

Hope everyone has a good week!

Things I Did While Kelsey Was Being a Bridesmaid

A couple of weeks ago Kelsey was in a wedding Luray, Virginia. I was not involved in the wedding and so I had the day to kill. I had not been to Luray caverns, so I went to Luray caverns. 

And they were...

Pretty

much

what

you'd

expect.

I don't want to be flippant about a geological masterpiece- the cavern itself is amazing and the rock formations are varied and impressive. That said, it is a "show cavern" and has a poured concrete walking path that makes the tour feel sort of like playing indoor minigolf without the putter or the ball. I spent most of the time wandering around wondering about the utility of the words "stalactite" and "stalagmite" and the fact that millions of schoolchildren are forced to learn those two words and the difference between them on the off-chance that they chance upon a cavern and need an economical way to describe the mineral deposits on the ceiling and floor. Then I thought about the marginal utility of most of the words in the legal profession and I decided to stop thinking about words.

Since I finished my tour of the caverns by 10:30 AM and had until 6:00 PM to do things by myself, I went to every museum and tourist attraction in Luray.

First stop: the Pioneer Museum!

So many stoves! Old stoves! Kelsey was getting very jealous of me when I sent this picture.

And dressers and chests! Oh boy! I bet Kelsey wished she could leave her champagne and bridal party spa treatments to come see some of these.

And that was basically it for the Pioneer Museum. Then I went to the old railway station that had been turned into the Luray visitor center...

...which consisted of one room with a big train set and an older gentleman who still seemed very upset that the train stopped coming through Luray 57 years ago.

Then I went across the street to an art gallery. This was probably my favorite stop. Some of the artists were very avant-garde and I wish that I had taken more pictures of the bizarre and unsettling sculptures and paintings which occupied me for an hour or so. 

This was not the most unsettling piece of art, but it was my favorite stained glass piece.

I had tapped out every museum and public area of Luray that I could find without GPS (I had no service) around 2PM, and so I went to a McDonalds and read on my kindle for the remainder of the day. Kelsey has previously provided pictures from the actual wedding. 

Kelsey will also provide pictures from Mom's birthday up in Cumberland. I forgot to bring my new camera and was kicking myself for that. 

We also celebrated Absi's birthday the other week. I did get one good picture from that on my iphone.

Posing for pictures is for amateurs.