DC in Review

WRITERS NOTE: When I started out on this post I meant for it to be short...oooopps

Thursday April 29
~Drive to the ATL airport
~Stop for my first glorious Dunkin Donuts Iced Coffee since early January
~Fly to Baltimore
~Have a drink at Little Havana with Sara and Dan
~Hang out with my Sara
~Fall asleep while Sara is packing

Friday April 30
~Have an uneven night of sleep
~Eat yogurt with Strawberries, blackberries and wheat germ - yummy thanks Sara
~Get ready for the day with Sara (something I miss most about not having a roommate)
~Reunite with Kelly
~Get lost looking for Dunkin Donuts, get an iced coffee and cheeseburger from McD (first of many random Mickey D cheeseburgers of the weekend mind you)
~Catch up on the drive to PA
~Get a call from my friend Josh who I FBed about seeing while in DC and he insists on on staying with him instead of a hotel when we are there
~First stop: AMISH! Got to a place called Kitchen Kettle and are the youngest people there by 50 years (or so it seems)
~Sample all kinds of Amish yummies - fudge, jams, salsas, cheeses, kettle corn
~Amish hunting around INTERCOURSE (that's really the name of the town) and taking forbidden pictures of them
~Wine tasting
~Head to Kelly's cute apartment and get the grand tour
~Drink some beverages on Kelly's lovely deck
~Head to Lancaster for dinner and drinks at an Irish Pub called Annie Baileys
~Eat yummy yummy food and I like throw my water glass off the table - how it happened I stll don't know
~Meet up with some of Kelly's friends for drinks on the beack deck of Annie Baileys and I proceed to drink my first IPA beer
~Head back to Kellys

Saturday May 1
~I have a hard time sleeping and get up at 4:58am to start my day
~When Kelly gets up at a normal hour we go for lovely run around her neighborhood
~Get ready and packed up
~Make 3 stops before we hit the road - Dunkin Donuts for my coffee, Turkey Hill for Kelly's coffee and gas (but it was dramatic and I don't want to enrage kelly when she reads this) and finally to Grand Central for tasty bagels
~Roadtrip to DC (the place, not the person - it will confuse many of you I'm sure as you read this)
~Drive past DC to Arlington, VA to check in for our 5K and pick up our stuff
~Find Josh's apartment (he's participating in the Great Urban Race and won't be back til later)
~Kelly and I take the metro to Chinatown to meet her friends for a cupcake crawl (we may have stopped for $5 soda for our "beverages" as well)
~While waiting on Kelly's friends we sit on the stairs of some random building in DC and actually SEE Josh and his friends run past us while in the Great Urban Race...very random
~Meet up with Kelly's friends and get 2 yummy cupcakes
~Explore DC further
~Head back towards Josh's place - Kelly and I have random silly time sin her car
~Josh arrives!
~Josh's apartment building is redonkulous and he has a great place
~Catch up, have a beverage
~Get ready and head to Georgetown (if only it sounded that easy, there was a lot of walking, metros and humidity involved
~Stop for some Chipolte in Georgetown
~Meet up with Kelly's friends at some outdoor bar right on the water
~End the night early because OH WAIT Kelly and I are running a 5K the next morning
~Head back to Josh's and while enroute I lose a cute, new little back jacket I had just bought the day before :(
~Back at Josh's we chat with him roommate George who graduate from the Q with us, but I didn't really know him then
~Sleepy time

Sunday May 2
~Sleep terribly - which has been my theme the entire trip. I think it was nerves and excitement overall that contributed to my sleeping woes.
~My alarm goes off when I am actually asleep and I turn it off.
~Get up 30 minutes later than I wanted to
~Get ready with Kelly and Josh graciously toasts us bagels and drives us to the race.
~I am panicked that I am gonna miss Dave and like jump out of Josh's car only to immediately see Dave cross the street (he had just greeted the his "team members" which I missed), but I do like walk right behind him until 2 girls stop him for a picture
~I like freeze up and just stare at him (and assess his height)
~I spend the next hour no less that 3 feet from him just in awe
~See some of Dave's friends and family
~Get a picture with his brother Andrew
~Line up with Kelly for the race...I have my phone because we plan on running at out own pace
~Race starts and I am feeling GOOOOOD
~The first half of the 5K I am feeling good despite ALLL the people (it was very hard to navigate through crowds of people like that whilst running)
~Hit the water table (which I later learned was the half way mark, but I had no clue)
~Slow it down to throw back to cups of water and the humidity and heat HIT ME
~My body is good, but the air is SO thick
~I slow it down and see Kelly pass me so I tap her on the shoulder and we run for a little bit
~We separate again and I see a sign that marks the 3K point
~Well like an IDIOT I think 3MILES and run full force thinking I have like .2 miles left.
~After like 5 minutes I realize my mistake and I need to slow it down a little since I like overexerted myself
~See a 4K sign
~Skip to my last 2 songs on my ipod for the home stretch
~Soak in the crowd and spectators and I run towards the ball archway that signifies the finish line
~Cross the finish like and feel thrilled - so much for a second I thought about turning around and running the course again, but then I realize I am drenched in sweat, even my eyeballs are sweating
~Kelly and I find each other and partake in the goodies at the finish line - water, bananas, crackers.
~We sit and cool down despite the fact that I think we continued to sweat for a full 30 minutes AFTER we finished running
~We gather for the awards and David Cook talks
~More Dave staring and picture taking
~Once people clear out Kelly and I get coffee (I get iced she SOMEHOW gets hot...crazy)
~We walk around a bit, the race was at Freedom Plaza so we were in the heart of things
~The course of the 5k had us run past the Capitol Building it was cool
~Walk past the White House - I had never been before
~Take the metro back to Joshs
~Eat brunch on a sidewalk cafe - GOD I LOVE CITY LIFE
~Thank Josh for housing us and showing up a good time
~Drive back to PA - poor Kelly's legs from all out walking, running and driving
~Shower and collapse
~Rally
~Stop by Millersville where Kelly works and go to her office and meet some of her students
~Get dinner at a cute place called Loxleys that was Robin Hood themed
~Drink wine and watch a movie
~promptly sleep and sleep soundly

Monday May 3
~Start our morning with stretching and a jog
~Drink coffee on the deck
~Pack
~Head to Millersville for an official campus tour and to meet more of Kelly's peeps
~Get MORE Dunkin Donuts
~Drive to Baltimore
~Meet Sara and Katie for dinner and drinks at Nacho Mamas
~When I say "drinks" I meant a HUBCAP - a $15 hubcap of margarita that I practically drink myself
~Say goodbye to Sara and Katie
~Kelly drives to me to airport
~I am like buzzed checking in and going through security which I found hilarious
~The flight is empty so I sprawl out
~Get into ATL at 10pm
~Drive home to Auburn whilst catching up with my favorite West-Coaster Christina

So there you have it folks. DC was an absolute blast. Had TOO much fun. Good times and great people. It was EXACTLY what I needed.

Picture from the Race for Hope I found online:

The runners applauding surviors walking to the starting line with David Cook