For the third year in a row, David and I went to the St. Mary's County Oyster Festival. The Festival is home to the national oyster cook off and the national oyster shucking championship. The first year we went, we made a weekend of it and spent Friday and Saturday nights at the Brome Howard Inn. Last year we were only able to go for an afternoon because David was on stand by at work for the Farm Bill. This year we were joined by our friends, Al and Lyndsie. We spent two nights at the Brome Howard Inn and two days at the Festival. It was an extra special weekend because Lyndsie and Al were celebrating their first wedding anniversary! They even brought the top tier of the wedding cake and shared it with us at dinner at the Inn on Saturday night.
We arrived in St. Mary's in time to check in before heading to dinner at The Tides Restaurant.
We also enjoyed the grilled oysters. They were cooked with butter and
An interesting angle on our trip this year was the destruction of our "secret" festival weekend thanks to Washingtonian Magazine. They did a fall issue about weekend trips and festivals. Not only did they feature the St. Mary's Oyster Festival, but they also announced that THE place to stay is the Brome Howard Inn. The weird thing was that the inn keepers and at least one of the Festival guys (member of the sponsoring rotary club) didn't know about the article! The innkeeper said that explained all the phone calls she'd been getting! We already reserved our room for the festival weekend next year when David plans to compete in the oyster cook off. It's going to be great!
The last time we stayed at the Inn the restaurant was closed so it was nice to be able to eat there. The food was great and the atmosphere was perfect. There was warm fire glowing next to our table and we enjoyed an evening of good fun with friends. We were all pleasantly surprised to discover that Lyndsie and Al's year-old wedding cake still tasted good! The icing wasn't so great, but the cake was really yummy! Hopefully the Uns will join us again for oyster weekend. We had a great time!
On our way home from the festival on Sunday, we stopped at a farm to go through a corn maze. I was disappointed that it wasn't even remotely challenging, but it was a beautiful fall evening so we had fun. We also got to feed the goats and cause quite a stir in the barn as they clamored for the food. We also talked with the farmer and David got to hear a little bit about the frustrations he has with USDA. For more than a year now David has worked there and will continue to do so in his new position. The farmer told us that he doesn't do a whole lot of farming any more because agri-tourism is much more profitable for him. That struck me as kind of sad.
I love fall. It's the absolute best time of the year.
As per usual, I'm at least a month behind in blogging. So much for my renewed effort to blog at least important events. Jenny is my only reader so thanks for checking out this page from time to time! I have to go back and finish my entries for both Jane and Preethy's weddings. I want to at least get placeholders in for the stories to come so here goes.
My sweet husband planned for our 2nd Annual Fall Soup Party to double as the celebration for the 2nd Anniversary of my 29th Birthday. The festivities were on Saturday, October 4. It was a great time with family and friends. David made four delicious soups -- Wisconsin Cheese & Beer, Beef Soup, Senate Bean Soup, and Minestrone. I think the beer & cheese soup was my favorite. What's not to love? I was very touched by the number of people who drove hours to be there -- Jane & Brandon, Katie & Chad, and Jenny C. My mom came, which was very nice so she could meet a bunch of our friends. Friends brought lots of good wine, tasty bread, and yummy desserts. It was a great time! David surprised me with a lovely cake and lead everyone in singing.
If I have to turn 30, this was the way to do it! In the days before the party and my birthday I was feeling some uncertainty. I also felt like some sort of resolution was in order. But then the usual things of wanting to exercise more and diet to lose weight came to mind. Those things very rarely go well and ultimately lead feelings of failure and disappointment. So let's just skip that all together. In the end, I notice no difference and am feeling pretty good about entering my 30s. God is good and surely has unimaginable blessings in store for the next decade!
Jane and Brandon spent the night with us and joined us at church the next day. I'm glad our small group friends got to meet them since they've been praying for their wedding for a year! After church we met up with Mom, Grandpa, Grandma, Bill, Michelle, Alyssa, and Hunter (Taylor was working) for lunch at Clyde's. It was tasty!
It was two wedding weekends in a row for us as we had the honor of watching Stan and Preethy wed in Vienna, Virginia on September 28. Preethy was absolutely beautiful in both her white and red saris and Stan looked dashing in his tux. The bridesmaids and groomsmen complimented each other perfectly in their purple saris and purple vests/ties. I enjoyed the privilege of playing flute for the wedding ceremony. The best part was performing Ave Maria with Preethy's friend, Chrissie. She has an amazing voice and it was the first time I'd ever played with a vocalist before. I actually got goosebumps! After the ceremony we all went to Meadowlark Botanical Gardens for the reception. Unfortunately the weather wasn't perfect -- we found ourselves waiting out the scattered thunderstorms, but it was a beautiful day. Preethy and Stan managed some sunny photos in the beautiful gardens.
On Sunday, September 21, 2008, my little (and only!) sister got married! Jane and Brandon said their vows at Hamilton Baptist Church then celebrated with family and friends at beautiful Whitehall Estate in Bluemont, Virginia. So now she's Mrs. Linton. This is very weird to me, but I suppose it's not less weird than when I became Mrs. Kelly last year. Brandon is a wonderful guy and I'm so glad they found each other. They met several years ago through a small group Bible study at Virginia Tech located in scenic Blacksburg. Brandon is two years older and working on the web team (not sure if that's exactly the right description) at the Carmax headquarters in Richmond. Now that they're back from their honeymoon in St. Lucia, Jane has taken up residence in Richmond and setting up house for them.
The wedding events started on Friday afternoon when I met Jane and Mom for manicures and pedicures. Weddings are the only time I bother with manicures so that was an extra special treat. The evening was low key with take-out Chinese for dinner then dessert at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Hank and Margitta came up from Florida for the weekend and it was nice to have some time with them before the festivities were in full swing.
One small glitch in the weekend -- I had a slight mishap with some self tanner. OK, so it might not have been exactly "slight" because it warranted a desperate trip to Palm Beach Tan in the morning. Jane also had some weird white spots thanks to the tanning bed, so off we went in hopes of not embarrassing ourselves in strapless dresses. It was our first time with spray tanning and it went OK, except that it didn't solve all the problems. After some time in a bathtub with baking soda, my streakiness and orange hue were gone and in the end I would prove to not be the laughingstock of the weekend.
Back to the real wedding events. On Saturday afternoon Jane and Mom hosted a lovely bridesmaid and family lunch at the house. With chips, salsa, fajitas, and of course the bucket of margaritas and cosmopolitans we all had a great time. Jane was incredibly sweet and thoughtful with our gifts. She created special, individual photobooks of pictures of her with each bridesmaid. Despite the dismaying progression of bad hairstyles, it is something I will treasure always. She also gave us lovely earrings and necklaces to wear to the wedding. Thank you, Jane! You can see my earrings and necklace in this picture with my handsome husband.
The Inn was built by a wealthy family in 1909 and became an inn when it was sold in 1953. Our room was adjacent to the upper balcony located on the upper right hand side of this side view of the house. It is an absolutely gorgeous 20,000 sq ft Georgian mansion.
David does all of the cooking at our house and is very talented in the kitchen. The cooking classes were a great experience for both of us and we had a great time. We especially enjoyed getting to talk with Chef Dionot and his wife, Patrice. Our shining moment was cooking coconut chicken soup on Saturday. There were 14 people in the class so roughly teams of four people were assigned to each course. On Saturday David and I worked on the soup alone and it was delicious, if I do say so myself. Even Chef Dionot seemed very pleased with our dish. The same can't really be said for our attempt at sweetbreads with artichokes and mushrooms on Sunday, but we did just fine. The entire Sunday menu left much to be desired -- endives, duck, sweetbreads. It was an exercise in classical French cooking. Maybe that's why we never go out for French food.... It's all about the technique -- Chef Dionot must have said a dozen times that all cuisine is based on French technique.
David promised me that we can go back there someday and I intend to hold him to it! We're looking forward to our next weekend getaway to St. Mary's County in Maryland for the annual Oysterfest and a stay at the Brome Howard Inn.
Yes, you heard me right. One of my neighbors just called another neighbor "Mr. Poopy Pants" on the yahoo group message board for our condo community. Absolutely amazing....
I'll tell you what I did in 190 minutes last night. I left my office at 5:45 and walked through my front door at 8:55. Yes, that's 3 hours and 10 minutes door to door. My commute usually takes about 50 minutes to go 9 miles. And to make it even better I spent all but about 25 minutes of that time standing on a Metro bus wedged between my fellow commuters. It was really rather remarkable. In that amount of time I could have watched almost all of my favorite movie, Gone With The Wind. Or driven almost all the way to Blacksburg to see Jane. Luckily a cell phone and a Blackberry made it somewhat bearable, but it was too difficult and uncomfortable to read my book. The massive delays were thanks to an ice storm and several multiple-car pile-ups on 395, essentially turning the highway into more of a parking lot than it usually is. Not such a fun way to spend a Tuesday night, that's for sure!
At approximately 6:10 on the evening of January 17, 2007, I was "bumped" by a white Ford Explorer at the intersection of 12th Street and Independence Avenue, SE. The walk signal was flashing and I had 28 seconds to cross the street. It is a six lane intersection and I have often seen turning cars pay little heed to pedestrians so I always look before I cross. I cleared three lanes of traffic, then heard a car accelerating to my right. I turned and found myself looking into the eyes of a middle-aged man slamming on his brakes. He bumped my right thigh and I stumbled around a bit, but did not fall down. I really was not injured at all, but I was pretty shaken up. That was scary!! A woman crossing the street behind me yelled at the man to stop and she checked to see that I was OK. I kept walking, mostly because I was fine and just stunned. It was also cold and raining. I was only a few steps away from David's parked car at USDA and just wanted to get to him. The driver did stop, though he seemed to do so reluctantly. He claimed to not have seen me. It was dark, but I was wearing a long, red coat! I said to him several times that two women were killed in DC last year by a bus driver doing the same thing he just did -- turning without looking for pedestrians. He apologized and drove off. I took down his license tag number just in case I really was hurt. Really I'd like to send him my dry cleaning bill because my coat bears the evidence of the contact made with his SUV. My leg was sore for the rest of the night, but I woke up this morning feeling fine. My guardian angels were looking out for me last night! Let this be a lesson to those of us who cross busy city streets every day -- don't get distracted by iPods, cell phones, or Blackberries and always watch for turning cars because they are not watching for you!
