Greatest Weekend!!!

Fasten your seat beats, friends, because you are in for a ride with this blog!

We'll start out slowly, but anticipate the high excitement to come.

FRIDAY
Work was busy, as my bosses were preparing for their trip to Denton/Dallas, Texas. We stayed a little late, but nothing too crazy. While on the Metro to Bethesda (where I ran into Alec from my kickball team), I decided to make pickle roll-ups and pepperoni bread for the Navy homecoming tailgate. So I stopped by Safeway to pick up the necessary ingredients, but failed to realize exactly how much time goes into making both of these items. The bread was a bit disastrous for several reasons...
1) I clearly didn't have time to let the frozen bread dough thaw in the fridge over night
2) We do not have a rolling pin
3) We do not have a slicer for cutting cheese
4) One cookie sheet is insufficient for baking three loaves of bread
5) I didn't have a recipe letting me know how long to bake the bread, and consequently undercooked one loaf

After that fiasco, it was on to the roll-ups where I didn't have much better luck.
1) There was no dried beef at my tiny Safeway
2) The ham I got instead was sliced too thin and kept breaking, leading me to use two slices for each pickle, causing cutting issues later
3) I didn't have a tupperware large enough to fit the finished product in

Needless to say, I was preparing this food all night long and didn't make it to bed until around 1am. This wasn't great news either, as I knew I had a long Saturday ahead of me. Here's how yesterday went...

SATURDAY
Our (Anne, Jenny, and I) commute to Annapolis started at 10:30 from Bethesda. We had long wait times for the Metro, but luckily Jay was there to pick us up at the end of the line when we got there. Upon arriving in Annapolis, we met up with David to help him finishing sewing bean bags for the cornhole game he and Jimmy made earlier in the week. Crazy, I know. That took quite some time, but it allowed Cat and Kristin to catch up with us. We were a huge hit when we showed up to the tailgate because nobody else had brought food. Although we had all had troubles with our food items, it was an easy crowd to please.

March on was fantastic, again. It was like an entirely different event with the Mids in their winter uniforms now. We forgot the candy to throw at them, but it was still very enjoyable. The game was oversold by a few thousand extra general admission spots on the hill, so we had nowhere to sit and watch the game. Jay led us into the student section with all the Mids in uniform next to us. Because it was homecoming, nobody seemed to care. We avoided being scolded by the guys in red, which was a step up from last game. It got really cold, but we toughed out the entire game even though we were getting stopped by Pitt.

The post-game '69 tailgate was great. My burger was delicious, and the retired Navy guy tending the bar made me excellent vodka crans. I saved the cup! We would have stayed longer, but everyone was freezing. We all went home to Jay's for a bit before hitting up a few bars on the water. Nobody seemed too upset after the loss.

SUNDAY
Our commute home was interesting. We got a ride from Andrew in his jeep with no front passenger window and practically everything he owns in the back. There was just enough room to fit everyone. Then we Metroed in on the orange line to Smithsonian, were Cat and Kristin were monument walking. We did that whole bit so Kaitlin could take massive amounts of photos on her fancy camera. After walking to the "backside" of the White House, we ran into a lady handing out tickets to tour the rose garden!!!

Apparently this happens only twice a year, but it's open to everyone. The people at the gate handing out programs said "Welcome to the White House," and we all freaked. Then this little boy summed up the prestigiousness of the situation best with..."(to a secret service agent) So, THIS is the White House? (to his father) I'm not dreaming, this is the White House, Dad!"

The Navy traveling band was playing music next to the fountain, there were signs of former presidents and first ladies all over the lawn, and plenty of secret service people to answer all of our questions...including the guy I talked to about hating his job when I toured the East Wing earlier this year. It was SO MUCH FUN! I mean really, who would have guessed that everyone could just tour the White House lawn on a Sunday afternoon? Somehow, some way, we were in the right place at the right time and got to experience that. I'm thinking the big guy upstairs was looking out for us today.

Nothing could really top that, but the day did go on. Anne, Jenny, and I decided to walk to the National Portrait Gallery for a special exhibit on Georgia O'Keeffe and Ansel Adams, of which we made it just in time to grab a quick beverage in the cafe (with a talking trash can that said "thank you") and hop on the 4pm once daily tour. Perfect timing yet again. It was a great exhibit, and so was the women's photography exhibit upstairs. Great idea to go there, but we were straight up exhausted by the time we finished. I made it home around an hour ago, a day and half and a million memories after leaving yesterday morning.

*ONLY IN DC*