The days are just packed

Kerry and I made the most of the three-day weekend. We began Saturday morning with a trip to the Maryland Renaissance Festival, with Ros and Brian. It was our first trip in a couple of years, so it was good to catch up with Johnny Fox, swordswallower extraordinaire, and a big ol' turkey leg.

We continued south to Angus and Julie's. We had missed AJ's birthday party, but the jumpy-jump was still inflated in the front yard, so that was all right. As is his wont, Angus prepared a meticulous and delicious recipe from Cook's magazine: chicken, this night. We watched the US soccer team secure their place in the World Cup with a lovely 2-0 victory over Mexico. (We then watched most of a drear and dull defeat of DC United by Colorado. Team loyalty is all well and good, but we, the spectators, should have quit while we were ahead.)

The next morning we had delicious fruit-filled French toast (thanks to Jamie Oliver and cuzzins E & C for the recipe), then went sailing on the Potomac with Angus and Haley. Neither Kerry nor I had been sailing before, or maybe just not in the last 25 years. It was a beautiful day for it, and we had a wonderful time. It's easy to see how people become dedicated to and passionate about it.

Sunday afternoon, we met Kha-Linh, one of my fellow interns from the World Bank last summer, at the Smithsonian. She's a student in France, currently doing an internship in New York, and was in DC to see her brother for the weekend. We went to the Museum of Natural History, where we saw the renovated hall of mammals for the first time. They've done a lovely job, brightening the room and exhibiting the animals in poses that capture them as living beings, not fuzzy statues.

After the museum, a bit of ice cream, the sculpture garden, and seeing Kha-Linh back to the Metro, we headed north to a long dinner at the Ram's Head. The Ram's Head isn't necessarily a "long dinner" kind of place, but our visit was made the longer by first trying to go somewhere else, where the wait had grown from "one party" (so described over the phone just before we left home) to "over one hour". (The somewhere else will not receive coveted Elkridge Hollerer publicity until we actually get to eat there.) When we did get to the Ram's Head, they were busy and short-staffed. The meal was good; it just ended up consuming most of the evening. We barely had time to get home and fall asleep on the couch watching Singin' in the Rain.

We used the holiday to have Ben, Rachel, and wee Sophie over for a Labor Day cookout. I made way too much of Dad's Piri Piri chicken and E & C's mint pineapple - again with the cuzzins' recipes - Kerry made brownies, and there was some corn and the biggest sweet potatos ever. Sophie eschewed all for pureed peas and a bottle of formula. (There's no accounting for taste.)

The weather was sparkling all weekend, we got to do lots and see lots of our friends. It was a great way to wrap up the summer.