The Final Vacation

July 30th

Football season in our world is days away and although we are super excited, we know time together will be far and few between. So with our last weekend before it all starts, we decided to get out of town for one last adventure. This year we headed to Alexandria. We talked about going to Mt Vernon, riding bikes and just relaxing. Then we realized that wasn't us so we hit the ground run with a random roadside find, Old Hill Hard Cider.

This place was a great find and such a pretty area.

We made it to Alexandria in time to grab dinner at a really neat restaurant, Il Porto. The building was restored and was a perfect place for dinner where we got a table on the second floor over looking the main street so we got to do a little people watching as well.

Dinner finished in time for us to immediately jump onto a ghost tour around the city.

The highlight of the tour, for sure, came at the end of the tour when we were walking back and the the main doors of the building they just told us about started shaking. It definitely made both of us jump and then laugh at ourselves. We convinced ourselves that a real, live person was on the other side of the door and tried to open a closed door but we will never really know for sure.

The next morning it was raining so we decided to skip bikes and Mt Vernon and head into Washington DC to check out the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. With all we had seen, experienced and learned this summer in Amsterdam & Berlin, we really wanted to take the time to see this museum.

It is definitely a powerful museum and one I am really glad we had the time to explore and continue to learn from.

After the museum, we headed back towards Alexandria with a stop at a place I don't think I have been to since a was really little, Arlington National Cemetery. We spent time walking around, reflecting on so many things as we visited JFK's final resting place as well as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

We did make it back to Alexandria and spent the evening walking around the small town, finding good thai food at Pasara Thai, and checking out the local shops all while avoiding the evening rain.

We finished our final weekend with a quick stop at Carl's on our way home.

It was a great weekend and I think we are ready to tackle football season in the come days and weeks.

Baseball Weekend

July 16th

It has been a lot time since we had gone on a baseball road trip so we found a weekend and a few friends and hit the road.

We started out at the local Salem Red Sox team where we had the opportunity to hang out in a box, meet the team mascot and enjoy the weather and a very little baseball.

The next morning, we picked up Brian and Daniel and drove up to Philly. You can't go to Philly without a quick trip to get a cheesesteak at Pat's or Geno's and this trip was no different.

After lunch we made our way to Citizen's Bank Park to watch the Phillies beat the Mets. We all really enjoyed this stadium and I might have watched the Phillie Phanatic for a good part of the game.

We hit the road right after the game to get closer to our game in Washington DC.

The Washington Nationals were playing the Pittsburgh Pirates at Nationals Park. Daniel is a big Pirates fan so we were hoping his outcome of this game would go in his favor unlike for Jed the day before.

Thankfully, for Daniel, the Pirates won and it was a happy car ride home. It was a super quick trip but it reminded me how much I enjoy traveling and exploring different baseball stadiums. Hopefully there will be more baseball trips in the future.