Whoa!  Remember those travel recaps I promised?  They’re still in the works, I swear.  But between updates on the kids, posts I wanted to write in commemoration of our anniversary, Austen in August, and just my normal blogging, there weren’t enough days in the schedule to get them all in!  I guess I could have scheduled posts to go up more than three days per week, but I like that schedule.  So I just have to be okay with being a bit behind – on travel posts as well as the rest of our summer adventures – and catch up slowly.  In a way, I think it’s better, because we can keep talking about summer fun into the early fall!

Anyway, to continue on with the travel posts, here we have a much belated recap of our second day in DC on our way down to the Outer Banks. You already heard all about how we spent that morning: getting in our July hike (just under the wire; it was July 29th!) at Great Falls National Park.  Great Falls is my favorite place in the entire world, and we knew we had to make a stop there, even a short one, while we were in town.  I’ve already shown you these pictures, but indulge me and look at a few of them them one more time?

What a fun, fun morning.  I just wish we’d had the entire day to spend there… but we had to hustle back to the city, because we were expected for lunch in Adams Morgan with my friend Maureen.  No pics from lunch, but we ate at Lebanese Taverna and I had a delicious plate of vegetarian nibbles – yum.  It was wonderful to see Maureen, and to introduce her to Peanut (she’d never met her!) and Nugget.

After lunch, we had a couple of hours to kill before our dinner plans – meeting yet another baby girl! – and we headed to our old stomping grounds, Old Town Alexandria.

We spent our last three years in the DC area living in Mount Vernon, which is just a few miles south of Old Town on the GW Parkway.  (And seriously, the most beautiful commute ever – I miss seeing the Potomac sparkling next to me as I drove to work each morning.)  Old Town was “our place” – the neighborhood where most of our weekend fun could be found.  Our church was in Old Town; our favorite restaurants were in Old Town.  We were there every Saturday and Sunday, almost without fail.  (The staff at Pizzeria Paradiso knew us, for goodness sake!)

So with a little bit of time on our hands, there was really only one place we wanted to be.  We wandered up and down the brick sidewalks, drinking in the King Street atmosphere that we’d been missing for two years.  I’ve never found any place I’ve loved as much as Old Town.

I sort of felt like this “Welcome Home Weekend” sign was put there just for me.  It was so good to be home.  No matter where else we live, or how long we’re away, Alexandria will always be home.

We wandered down to the Torpedo Factory, which was one of our favorite haunts when we lived in the area.  For those not familiar with Alexandria, the Torpedo Factory once was an actual torpedo factory – during World War II – but is now an art center housing a big group of artists’ studios.  Torpedo Factory artists work in every medium, from painting, printmaking and photography to pottery, textiles and jewelry design.  We wandered around checking out the works on display, and I picked up a new coffee mug from my favorite pottery artist, David Norton.  (I had one of his mugs already – bought just before I moved as a way to remember Old Town with my tea each morning – and it’s still my favorite.  Now it has a buddy!)

We whiled away the afternoon gazing at the Potomac and strolling through Founders Park until it was time to hop in the car and head up to Maryland for dinner with friends.  My friend Michelle had graciously invited us for dinner at her house and we were so excited to see her and her husband (their wedding was seriously the most beautiful I’ve ever been to) and meet their sweet baby girl.  Michelle outdid herself with a delicious pasta dinner and then the most insane homemade (cherry lambic!) popsicles I’ve ever tasted.  She sent me the recipe, so I’m now obviously in the market for popsicle molds.  It was the perfect way to end our weekend in DC – sitting around the table with friends, eating popsicles made with beer, catching up on all the news from my old job (Michelle and I met when we were both working for the same government agency right out of law school) and laughing about our kids’ goofy exploits.

We headed out around 7:00 – too soon to say goodbye to such wonderful friends, but it was their daughter’s bedtime and we had to get our own kids settled down because we had a big day of driving – on to North Carolina! – the next day.  Next recap, I’ll share some pictures from the beach!