On Being Pre-Thankful …
Posted by Rick & Sarah - 23/11/05 at 08:11:18 am
This past weekend our good friends, Josh and Lori, had what was billed as a Pre-Thanksgiving potluck party at their lovely home in Washington, D.C. Since we had already made the decision to not travel on Thanksgiving proper, and we knew that we were having guests for the winter holiday, we decided this was the perfect opportunity to get away for a long weekend. Not only would we get to see most of our favorite friends because of the party, but we wouldn’t have to travel on the worst bloody flying days of the year. Josh and Lori were also very sweet to let us stay with them.
Another plus was that we found an excellent price on a flight on Southwest. The minus was that we had to fly out of Manchester Airport (New Hampshire) to catch it. One hundred thirty-five miles from Montpelier. Oh, and it was an 8:50 a.m. flight, which meant we had to be on the road by 5:30 a.m., at latest. Did we mention that it snowed the night before, and that the roads were icy? We didn’t let these things get in our way though. While we had to drive slower than the speed limit for the first part of the trip, we were able to make up the time once we got to New Hampshire, where the roads were significantly drier.
The rest of the trip, thankfully, went very smoothly.
After arriving at BWI we caught a SuperShuttle from the airport to Lori’s office in northwest D.C. to pick up her keys. Then we took a cab from her office to their house on The Hill. Once there we were greeted warmly by Ginger and only set off the alarm 3 times. Oops. Once we dropped off our gear, checked e-mail, and walked the dog, we took Metro up to Bethesda to run a few errands.
We dropped in on Jason at Creative Goldsmiths to catch up and have our rings cleaned. Then we headed over to the Green Papaya for a yummy Vietnamese lunch. We have a good Thai place around the corner from us in Montpelier, but to the best of our knowledge we don’t have a Vietnamese place nearby, so we figured if we were going to have lunch out, we should make it something we can’t get as often in Vermont.
We then decided to drop-in on Sarah’s old office to surprise her former coworkers. We hung out for a while and had some sparkling wine to help celebrate an office birthday, before jumping back on the Metro. Rick got off at Cleveland Park and headed for Atomic Billiards while Sarah continued on to Union Station to meet up with Lori to shop for the dinner party.
Rick shot pool, caught up with a bunch of friends (Rich, Tony, Erica, Michael, Sam, Chris, Nicole, Nina, Jonah, Christina, David, Paulo and Fil … hope we didn’t forget anyone!), and drank until Sarah caught up a few hours later. Since many of the folks in attendance had tickets to see the new Harry Potter film in Georgetown, we headed back to our hosts’ at a reasonable hour.
Saturday, Rick headed up to Rockville to hang out, and make some music with some friends, while Sarah helped out with cooking and other chores around the house (Yes, Rick got to party more than Sarah, the jerk!). By the time the Pre-Thanksgiving dinner party started at 7 p.m., the house smelled and looked great! Our hosts cooked a huge 24-pound turkey and a roast! They also made a bunch of side dishes. Check the photos for a look at the spread. We knew this before, but our friends are all wonderful cooks.
The party was awesome. Thirty or so people showed up, and each one brought enough to feed at least 10 people, or so it seemed. We got to see lots of friends and catch-up. It’s odd; it has only been 3 months since left, but while visiting D.C. it felt like a lot longer than it does from our perspective in Montpelier. Both still feel like home though, so it’s all good, as they say.
The food was so good, many people had seconds or thirds (Rick), and there were still leftovers. At the end of the evening Josh made everyone take something home with them, along with their own dish(es), and there was still more. We wouldn’t be surprised if Josh and Lori still have leftovers.
Early Sunday morning, more hung-over from food than drink (despite circumstantial evidence), we packed and took the Metro to Takoma Park to meet Amy and Liz for breakfast at Mark’s Kitchen. Ann and Mark were surprised to see us. Kate said she had a dream that she was going to see us, so she was less surprised, but just as happy as we were to see her. After breakfast we hitched a ride with Amy and Liz to the airport with a brief detour to their place to meet their cute dog Raja.
The flight home was packed, but thankfully uneventful. We were also glad to see that the weather in New England was dry and cooperative. The only delay was when we were pulled over by a New Hampshire state policeman to alert us that one of our headlights was out. We had just learned this ourselves Friday as we left for the airport, and the airport parking attendant had also pointed it out to us as we left the lot. We told the cop about the parking attendant, and he told us to have a nice evening and to get it fixed soon.* The funny thing was that we had been trying to find the result of the Steelers’ game on the radio, and just when we found a station about to give scores, the cop pulled us over. We didn’t find out the Steelers’ lost until later when we stumbled upon—of all things—WTOP, in Washington, D.C., which was probably a good thing.
On Monday we picked up the dogs from Ruby’s Run and got back to our routines. It really was a wonderful weekend, and definitely the best Pre-Thanksgiving EVER!
* Rick fixed the headlight Monday morning.
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I’m so glad I got to see you at the party. The pictures of Vermont are idyllic. Everything looks so adorable. Make sure to keep posting, so we know how you’re doing
Best,
Sondra
Comment by Sondra — November 28, 2005 #