Teaching Gretchen the city life

This past weekend my sister Kristen and my niece Gretchen came to visit. I took the opportunity to teach Gretchen about city living. Lessons learned:

When riding the Dinosaur train (Metro) you should always hold on, stand to the right on the magic stairs, and saying abracadabra when swiping your card assures success.

Apartments may be small, but there are great playgrounds right around the corner (and taking the elevator down to get there is almost just as fun).

Cities have great food (and milkshakes) within walking distance.

You have to walk a lot.

There is always time for coloring,

building,

and sports.

And when you get caught in a torrential rain storm, stop and eat tacos.

Scenes from my Shutdown

I woke up the first day of shutdown determined to make the most of my day. For some crazy reason I thought I might only have the one day to enjoy and I didn't want to waste it. 

I lept out of bed made myself a latte and started mixing up banana bread.  

Then I watched all my favorites on the Today show (looking at you Willy) while blogging my September recap.

Then I went for a three mile run that ended at Whole Foods to purchase eggs and some other essentials for eating all my meals at home.

I mixed the eggs with some pumpkin and chocolate chips for pumpkin bread.

Oh and giant Texas muffins.

A few weeks ago I stopped by a street sale with my friend Jenn. They were cleaning up and there was a free pile. I grabbed this tray from the free pile and decided to paint it up.

First I sanded.

Then I painted with chalkboard paint.

Then on to some flag painting, first the DC flag

Then my interpretation of the US flag.

Then it was noon and time for lunch. Haha... just kidding. That was two days of projects. I also finished hanging my collage photo wall and framed and hung some photos in my bedroom. 

My sister Kristen and niece Gretchen have arrived for fun. Even though tons of things are closed and they canceled the half marathon we were going to run, we are determined to have a good time. 

Yesterday we hit up the playground.

And then enjoyed milkshakes at Ted's Bulletin.

Today the building museum!

Saturday night in the District

Tacos at Taqueria Nacional

Dessert at BakeHouse

Culture and Art at Nuit Blanche at the Wonderbread Factory

fun with stencils

fun with ink balloons 

September in review

I wasn't a very good blogger in September. A few thing were going on...

I moved.

I stayed in the same apartment building, but I moved two floor downs and to the front of the building. I also added a bedroom! Now it seems to be taking me an extra 20 minutes to get ready in the morning. I think I get lost.

I'm still working on decorating the new space... so much wall!

I was playing dodgeball.

Dodgeball turned out to be a lot of fun. A friend and I joined a team of strangers, who ended up being awesome. We ended the season with a rooftop party at the Vida Penthouse.

Team Peace Corps Peru

Penthouse Pool!

My sister Beth came to visit.

Beth came to visit some of her friends in Baltimore, but luckily she found some time to spend with me. I took her running and eating.

Pizza & pizza scissors at Ghibellina 

cream cow for breakfast at Ted's Bulletin

Pacers Shake Shack Run

I had a quick trip to Missouri to see Marissa get Married.

I squeezed in a quick visit to see my family, which of course included coffee and bake goods at Old Drum.

junior year college roomies

Me & Sarah enjoying the beautiful evening

Dad enjoying coffee from a john deere cup while decked out in john deere 

I painted wine glasses with friends at 918 F Street.

I continued to work out in Franklin Park.

Every week was a great workout and full of great giveaways. If they do this again I suggest everyone attend.

I'm in the hot pink shirt

I watched Australian Football at the Australian Embassy.

So it isn't just like rugby after all. They play on a round field (CRAZY) and have four poles at each "end zone" looked a little like a quidditch field if you ask me.

I coordinated the DC State Fair Bike Accessory contest.

It was a lot of emailing and worrying, but it all worked out perfectly. I also entered a dog bow tie in the DC flag knitting contest.

The winning entry and my three judges

I didn't have any DC red, but you get the idea...

I also did a fair amount of running... this Sunday Kristen and I are running the Woodrow Wilson Bridge 1/2 Marathon.

Wednesday workout in the park

You really don't need a gym membership in DC during the summer. In addition to all of the free running and cycling groups that go year round there are opportunities for free outdoor yoga and I recently found free bootcamp style classes. For August and September every Wednesday at 5:30 Downtown DC Business Improvement District is hosting a workout in Franklin Park. 

Trainers from Crunch Fitness lead the classes while City Sports and Freshii provide free give aways, fruit, and water.

Last week's was canceled due to bad weather, but the first two classes I attended were intense. Constant movements from burpees to pushups to bear crawls to jump lunges... After the second class I was sore for three days.

If you work downtown and can make it to the park by 5:30 I highly recommend checking these classes out. Oh and if you don't like rolling in the dirt, I highly recommend bringing a mat.  Check out the website for more information. The only downside (upside?) is apparently they livestreamed last weeks workout and you might just end up on their website looking like a badass.

Movies under the stars

For a few months every summer there are free outdoor movies all over the city. There is the screen on the green on the National Mall and countless other locations in DC, VA, and MD. I always think it sounds like a great idea, but then its usually a movie I've seen or don't care to see and its always a week night and it gets dark so darn late in the summer. Well this summer I finally made it to a showing in NOMA. I biked over and found some friends who already had a blanket and dinner spread laid out. Soon it was dark enough and Ferris Bueller took to the screen. The grass area was packed with blankets with most eyes glued to the screen and when Ferris took over the mic to twist and shout in downtown Chicago a quarter of the crowd stood up to join him in dance.

I biked home glad that I had gone to the movie, glad that I had taken Ferris' advice "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it."

English Ivy

Did you know English Ivy is invasive? A few weeks ago a friend of mine dragged me out of bed early to go "save the trees" by cutting and sawing English Ivy off of some trees in DC Parks. We ended up spending the entire 2 hrs on one tree and hopefully saved it. The supervisor said we picked a tree with some of the most mature ivy he'd seen in awhile. By cutting/clipping/sawing the ivy at ground level hopefully the vines that have grown up the tree will die.

Not only did we help save the trees, but we met a few nice people, and seeing a tree go from covered in ivy to cleaned off was very rewarding. Sawing and clipping definitely got out some aggression. If you live in the DC area, check out the Rock Creek Conservancy volunteer opportunities!