C+O and Family Weekend

Descendants of the June/Harry Grubschmidt clan and their families made their way to DC this weekend for a celebration of the twins (Carla and Bayla) b-day, my parents (John and Carla) anniversary, I believe my Uncle David's b-day, and general family togetherness. It was a long approach, starting in Paw Paw West Virginia on Tuesday and ending in Georgetown on Saturday - 150 miles on the C and O canal. Nikki, Christian, Mike and I participated in the last leg of the journey from Leesburg (at White's Ferry), heading up Friday night. Chris actually came in on Thursday, so we got a chance to hang out. We ate at perhaps the dive-y-est restaurant around that evening, enjoying both chicken-fried steak and chicken-fried chicken (yum!), had a few drinks watching Brazil/Portugal on Friday morning, and burned off most of those calories with some frisbee golf on Friday afternoon.

The bike ride was great!! The canal towpath parallels the Potomac river and is shady and beautiful throughout. We kept up a pretty good (10 mph) pace, though it was generally pretty leisurely and we took a lot of "butt breaks." Nikki got to use her new bike ("Trixy") and I pulled our trailer with Hina in the back. I only crashed the trailer once! Hina was ok and made up for it by jumping in the Potomac and covering herself with mud. We booked it home and caught the second half of the USA/Ghana game in Georgetown (so sad). After prettying ourselves up, we had a wonderful dinner at the Source in DC - food and drinks were great (though I'm not sure up to all the hype) and we had a private patio table in the balmy DC evening. We continued the good food/drinks theme on to the next morning, when we ate brunch at Chadwicks in Alexandria. There was just enough time to visit the torpedo factory for some last minute crafts-shopping before everyone dispersed (back to Pittsburgh, Philly, NYC, and San Diego). Nikki and I squeezed in a bit more fun that day - watching the exciting Argentina/Mexico game at Fados bar downtown, grabbing a bite at Zaytinya's (another restaurant that's been on our list), and a good ole brainless summer blockbuster (Knight and Day) to finish things out.

Next weekend we're driving to Savannah to meet up with Amy, Ant, and Gordita - so excited!!