Well, about the only thing we did to actually honor the actual spirit of Memorial Day was to put the flag up on the porch - but we did get in a lot of quality outdoor time, plus a lot of fine dining. In fact, actual cooking is just a faint memory to Carole right about now.
We started off the weekend Friday night taking a 4 mile walk along the northern end of the College Park bike trail, followed by dinner with Carl at Christopher's in Crofton - crab bruschetta with huge chunks of lump crab, great snapper, salmon and seafood pot pie. The next morning Carole and the Biker Chix (plus Jacqui) went kayaking on Triadelphia Reservoir while I did a 35 mile bike loop on the Rock Creek/ Bethesda Branch trails. I kept up a 18 mph average pace until I ran into a Memorial Day 5k race/fun run that clogged up the trail from the Air Rights complex through the Columbia Country Club with tons of annoying runners. The Biker Chix reunited Saturday, dragging their husbands along to a fine Memorial Day yard party that featured many Latvians with hordes of blond kids - it was like being transported to Salt Lake City for the evening.
Sunday morning the Biker Chix re-reunited and kidnapped Carl as their boy toy for a bike ride along the full College Park/Anacostia trail system. We went down to the end at Anacostia Park, went over the bridge to the Bladensburg Marina, then on the way back went around Lake Artemesia a few times. Under some trees near the Lake, the Biker Chix grabbed their water bottles, made Carl take off his helmet and then started staring at me and humming some kind of Druid chant, so I hopped on my bike and pedalled away at high speeds. Carl has not been seen since.
That night we went with Jim and Jacqui for a great tapas meal at Jaleo in Bethesda, where after a mere two pitchers of Sangria we learned very interesting things about the pre-married lives of those two. Then the four of us were first nighters and saw Woody Allen's "Midnight in Paris" - entertaining, much better than the last 20 or so Woody Allen movies, but I think you have to be an art history major to really appreciate the movie.
On Monday, Carole and I took the boat out for a jaunt across the Chesapeake Bay. We got to the marina at about 0930 and it was already 85 degrees and humid - August has come early in the mid-Atlantic. We gassed up and on the way out passed a Coast Guard patrol boat - which is when I realized I hadn't put the new registration sticker on the boat. We did some serious evasive maneuvers and then headed across the Bay to the Bloody Point Lighthouse on the southern end of Kent Island and went a bit further into the Eastern Bay area. It was so hazy you couldn't see very far, but we were only a few miles from the Wades Point Inn we had stayed at last year. The winds were low and the Bay was relatively calm.
On the return we decided to head up the South River and since Memorial Day in Nauticalese translates to "take out your yachts and cabin cruisers and celebrate the unofficial start of summer by throwing up 6 foot high wakes" the South River was way rougher than the Bay - seriously disturbing Carole's horizontal sunbathing/lounging. That boat above is one of the smaller ones that were out.
I also managed to get some radio-nerd action in over the holiday weekend, making a little over 500 contacts in the CQ WW WPX contest. Carole and I then closed out this international dining themed three day weekend with dinner at El Andariego with Jerry and Marie. All in all a great holiday weekend, but keep watching Carl's Facebook page to see if he ever recovers from the Biker Chix spell.
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