The Big Guise

Ryan is a party planner. He'd do them a lot more often if it were more feasible. We have been trying to have this particular party all summer, but things kept coming up. Finally it happened in September. We have this friend named Melissa who sings in a cover band called The Big Guise. We wanted to provide them with a fun summer gig, so we planned a party around it and invited all our friends. We spent the afternoon shopping for treats and stringing lights across the yard. (Or rather, Ryan, his dad, and Curtis did, while I watched--I wasn't actually feeling super great this day.) Regardless, it looked awesome.

We had a pretty good turnout and a lot of fun. Melissa and the band kept us supplied with classic rock tunes all evening while everyone chilled in lawn chairs, on blankets, or around the fire pit just chatting away. It was a blast.

Phantastic Day in Philly

We've recently been doing a few short trips in the area and had talked about doing a day trip to Philidelphia soon. The next day at church we were talking with some friends of ours, John and Leslie Dow, and they mentioned they wanted to do a trip there also, so we planned it up and it was a huge success. We left bright and early Saturday morning for the 3.5-hour trip and then got busy exploring the city.

Benjamin Franklin's grave

 We headed first to the historic district. We found Christ's Church cemetery and decided to pay the $2 admission fee so we could go see Ben Franklin's grave. Little did we know that the grave was right next to the wrought iron fence by the sidewalk and we could have seen it easily from there! They don't tell you those kind of things until you buy the ticket. But we also learned all kinds of interesting things about the cemetery too, so no problem.

Liberty Bell

 We walked around the historic area and saw the sights. I actually thought the liberty bell would be larger than it is. It's relatively small, but still a cool thing to see. I learned a lot of cool history about it there, but don't remember much to write about it here. But it's cool.

Independence Hall

 I especially loved going to Independence Hall. It's a pretty building, but even more than that, to think about the important events that occurred there is just incredible. It kind of feels like a sacred space just because of the magnitude of what happened.

The chair at the front of the room was the actual chair George Washington sat in--it's one of the only original pieces in the room.

 Being in the room where the Declaration of Independence was signed was incredible. It really made me think about the task that those men had to accomplish. They represented a small nation who wanted to break from one of the greatest powers in the world at that time. With little experience in running a government or a revolution, these brave men put their trust in God and relied on him to guide them. I know of no other way this country could have ever found the strength to accomplish that task except through the hand of the Lord. As I visited I increased in respect and admiration for our forefathers, and felt saddened by the lack of faith and reliance upon God in our government today.

Home of the original Philly Cheesesteak

 For lunch we headed over to grab a bite of the original taste of Philidelphia. There are two restaurants that boast the best original Philly, Pat's and Geno's. They are across the street from each other. Geno's was pretty good. There's debate over which is best, but I've got nothing to compare it to yet. The line was down the street. However, since they pretty much only serve one thing, it moves pretty quickly.  I hear the cheese whiz is the way to go next time. Apparently that was the original and someone changed it for provolone later.

My thoughts exactly

 Downtown Philly has tons of awesome sculptures to walk around and see. Though Ryan's not big on taking pictures, he's a good sport and we got some fun ones.

Ryan on a giant chess piece

 This plaza here was really fun. It had giant game pieces from all sorts of different games like Sorry!, dominos, chess, monopoly, etc. It was a blast to play on them and climb around taking pictures.

Leslie and me on the Monopoly hat

Rocky!!

Next on the schedule was some art and sculpture. We didn't end up making it in to explore the art museum. It's a little pricey and we got there too close to closing. But they do have a huge sculpture of Rocky out front.  We walked up the Rocky steps (the steps to the museum), although the appropriate thing to do is run them I suppose.

John, Ryan, and the Shades of Hell

 Just down the street from the art museum there is a Rodin sculpture garden. I love Rodin's stuff. I've seen most of it before, but it was great to go walk around again and share it with my friends.

Ryan's hair looking crazy

By the end of the day, we were tired. It was a lot of walking around and driving around. One crazy thing about Philly, it can turn from a good area, to a bad area, and back to a good area, in no time. Just around the corner can be completely different. It was bizarre. But anyways, after a fun, but tiring day, we went to Darling's Diner, famous for Philidelphia cheesecake. Oh, it was divine. What better way to end the day than eating cheesecake with your friends out by the water and watching the ships?

Weekend in Williamsburg

I forgot to take many photos on this trip, but we had a great time. Ryan's work sent him to Chile for 10 days at the end of August with no other option and not much notice. We missed being together and so we decided to take a quick one night trip to the Williamsburg area. We stayed the night in a tiny little town about 45 minutes away from Colonial Williamsburg in an adorable bed & breakfast. We felt like we had gone back in time.

The next morning after breakfast we drove in to Williamsburg and walked around the colonial village. It was so lovely down there. We packed ourselves some lunches and ate at a nearby park before heading back to Sterling. It was a quick trip, but fun to spend the time together away from the busyness of life at home.

Exploring Our Own Backyard

Recently we have taken to exploring some nearby places that are just beautiful. While most people are driving in to DC for interesting things to do, we decided to drive the other direction, to the truly beautiful part of Virginia where you feel like you can breathe more deeply and enjoy the simple pleasures of life. Last week on Friday we just started driving west and ended up going to a cute town called Winchester. The had street activities going on in the central part of the town, which has been closed to cars and is permanently a walking road. There were musicians set up, fruit stands, and even an old bookshop that was so fun to peruse! We are seriously considering relocating there at some point in our lives! We just have to figure out how to produce an income there. :)

Then on Saturday we drove about an hour to a tiny old civil war town called Harper's Ferry. It's located in WV near where West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland converge. We borrowed some bikes and had a blast riding around. We didn't go to any of the historic sites there, but we did find some awesome old abandoned hotels and homes. There's so much to explore! 

This is the gorgeous sunset view over the river right next to the  huge old abandoned hotel.

We are very much looking forward to other places we might explore soon right here where we live.Always on the lookout for new experiences and adventures!

A Pig Roast Thwarted by a Derecho

A pig roast thwarted by a... what? Yea, a type of storm that no one has ever heard of before. So here's what happened. A friend of ours named Emma has a Samoan brother-in-law. For a long time now she has talked about having him come up and doing an authentic Samoan pit barbecue pig roast. And it finally happened. And what's better, the pig roast was also to be a camping trip. 

This was a pretty common sight all over the area after the storm

Overall, it seemed like an ordinary Friday night in the summer. It has been wicked hot, so Ryan and I decided we'd go up a little bit later. We figured dinner wouldn't be ready until 9 or so. So when we arrived at 8:30 and found out they were estimating it would be more like 11 when the pig would be sufficiently roasted, we knew it was time to head into town and pick up something quick to eat. We debated if we should set up our tent before going, or wait until we got back. It was sprinkling lightly, so we decided to let that finish and then we'd set it up after dinner. BEST decision ever. We found this hole in the wall Mexican restaurant, El Sloppy Tacos, (great name isn't it!) and ordered something to eat. As we ate, there was a tv on and it said a storm was moving our direction. We were debating whether is was anything to worry about since we hadn't heard anything previously, and decided we'd just wait and see if it was a big deal. Well, in the next 30 minutes or so, things got crazy. The wind picked up, a lot. And the rain began to pour. The lights flickered once, twice, and then they were gone. There were about 6 other people in the restaurant and one worker. She had one candle so we lit that and just hunkered down for the storm.

It was eerie as we stood in the doorway looking out on the street. There was a large old church at the top of the street on a hill. With every flash of lightning it was silhouetted against the sky. Stragglers wandered the streets in the rain. It would have been the perfect setting for a horror film. When the storm finally calmed enough that we could run to our car, we did, but still got soaked. We quickly agreed that we'd just go home that night, but we had some stuff in our car that the campers needed. We started down the road toward the campsite, but were soon impeded by a large downed limb. Although Ryan and some other guys were able to get that cleared fairly quickly, we soon learned there were several more along that road.

Needless to say, Ryan and I did not stay the night. We couldn't have gotten in if we had wanted to, not for at least several hours until someone brought a chainsaw. We drove home and carefully avoided the the tree limbs that littered the road. The damage was impressive, though we realized that even more when we got home. Our complex was eerily dark and as we came up to our front door, a small emergency box was making a creepy beeping noise ever 30 seconds or so. It was so Jurassic Park-like. All the power was out. To make a long story short, this storm quite handily knocked out the power for most of Northern Virginia for several days during a week of record high temps. While most were suffering the heat, we packed up and went to Ashburn for a couple days because Ryan's parents had power. Someone smart out there put all the power lines underground so the many trees of Virginia couldn't take out the power. Ryan and I both got Monday off work because the power still wasn't on at our workplaces, though it had come back on to our place by Sunday night. Here's some of the damage to our building:

Pieces of our building strewn in front of our doorway

Some of the siding that fell off

It probably fell from here

Almost Treehouse Camping near Gettysburg

We recently went on a great campout with a bunch of our friends up to Gettysburg in PA. We chose the particular campsite we did because it was supposed to be a treehouse campground, which sounds utterly awesome, but the treehouses were booked. After arriving, we didn't mind so much because we we pretty disappointed by the treehouses. We had a pretty big crew there though and we had a great time chatting around the fire and getting Curtis to pluck some guitar strings for us. When we were ready to call it a night, Ryan and I realized we hadn't yet blown up our air mattress. We got an awesome air mattress for our wedding with a pump, but as we hadn't used it yet, we didn't know how loud it was!! We started to blow up the mattress and it would have woken up the entire campground since it was around midnight or so. So Ryan got in the car and was trying to blow it up as much as possible in the car. Oh my, what a sight as the mattress began expanding, and Ryan was running out of room. We did as much as we could and had to call it good for the night. We slept on the half inflated mattress that night, and it really was a better deal for me than for Ryan. He was on the ground, which floated me up nicely.

The next day we hit the road to visit some of the historic sites. Steve Meilstrup acted as our expert tour guide. (What made him an expert was that he knew more than anyone else!) We started out at the visitor's center, and then drove around to different sites. 

A very cool monument, although I can't remember the exact meaning of it.  But we had a great time climbing around it, and there's a great view from the top!

The approximate location of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. 

Little Round Top, a very important site in the war.

Just resting with some Civil War dudes.

Honeymooners

Before I got married, I thought I understood why a new couple needs to have a honeymoon after the wedding, but now I REALLY know the reason: All the prep work is exhausting and then the wedding day is such a whirlwind, the couple needs some time to rest and recover!! And boy did we ever do that. It was such a wonderful relaxing time to spend with my new husband! We went on a Carnival cruise that left out of Miami on Monday morning. Before we left, we had a little time to walk around Miami. We found this little park and this little guy was there. For some reason, the snail struck me as awesome, and funny. Hence the photos.

Wow, was this place cool or what! This is the open air central courtyard of the sweet hotel we stayed in in Miami.

Before we left we had a little time to walk around Miami. We found a small park near the water and this little guy was there. For some reason, the snail struck me as awesome, and funny. Hence the photos.

C'mon Ryan, just try it!!

When we boarded the cruise it was raining! 

The first night there was pretty big storm around Miami, so the water was pretty rough. Cruise dinners are awesome, but I was feeling a little bit seasick so I couldn't eat much unfortunately. But don't worry, I made up for it on the other days.

Here's the view from our balcony

The first port of call was Key West, FL. It's really a pretty small place and we didn't have tons of time there. I found that what most people in Key West do is just drink. Especially when the weather is not at its best. We spent most of our time there trying to find Ryan a new swimsuit since his ripped on the first day of the trip. And then we took pictures of funny stuff we saw.

Hilarious. This is one of the most vicious looking dogs ever.  I don't think I'd want my hands that close to this particular dog.

Nothing like getting your palm read by a chicken.

This was the formal dinner night of the cruise. 

Our other port of call was Cozumel, Mexico. It's a small island off the coast of Cancun. It was hot! Ryan put his Spanish skills to use and he haggled with a Mexican taxi driver and we took a tour of the island all afternoon.

We did a stop at a very small ruins site called San Gervasio. 

There was place after place of gorgeous beach line. 

After the tour, we went to one beach and played for a couple hours. 

Getting ready to get back on the boat after a full day of fun.

The last day of the cruise was just a day at sea. It was super relaxing. We walked around, took naps, read books, and just enjoyed the time together before heading back home to set up life together.