Spring Has Sprung

Its been a busy few weeks for us and unfortunately our blog posts have suffered.

A couple weeks ago, we finally managed to track down Wizards tickets and with some luck of scheduling, they were playing the Lakers. It was Kelly's first NBA game and we were hoping for a decent one.  Unfortunately, the Wizards are one of the worst teams in the league.

(Verizon Center is home to the Wizards)

The stands were pretty full as a lot of people came out to see Kobe Bryant and the Lakers.  For much of the game it seemed like at least half the crowd was for the Lakers.

(Kobe has been sporting a mask since having his nose broken in the All-Star game.)

(Kobe and John Wall)

(Kobe Bryant scored 30 points)

At one point the Lakers were up by 19 points and fans had to be amused by puns on the score board.

 
There was also some good fan-cam dancing that was embarrassing for this woman.

However, as as the game went on, something began to change. 

(G-Wiz, the Wizards mascot, seen here bribing the ref with a burrito.)

Whether it was the free burrito for the ref or that the Wizards began playing well and Kobe went cold... the Wizards somehow managed to win!  The crowd got pretty into it and it was fun to see what will likely be the highlight of the Wizards season.

Ben made a trip back to the midwest last week for work. He had a whirlwind tour through St. Louis and Jefferson City, but managed to visit a few old friends and old favorites, like Oscar's Diner. 

We have continued to walk the 2.5 miles to work in the mornings, which have become more pleasant as Spring arrives. The unseasonably warm weather has caused D.C. to start blooming.

Dexter and Mosley are doing well. They are enjoying the nice weather and the long training runs on the weekend. We took them both for a 6 mile run on the national mall a couple of weekends ago, however Mosely was not impressed after the two mile mark. She was a trooper and made it the entire 6 miles. We decided to leave Mo at home for our 7 and 8 mile training runs, and let Dex pick up the slack.

After an entire year of anticipation, the cherry trees have finally blossomed. It is the 100 anniversary of the Japanese giving DC over 3,000 cherry blossom trees. Our first visit was last sunday on a run. We tried to run past all the major groves of trees including the mall, around the tidal basin and through East Potomac park. The blossoms were truly specular. A few days later we decided to head down the see the blossoms at their "peak". The peak means that 70% have bloomed. It was a beautiful evening and perfect for taking pictures.

Knowing that storms were coming and that the warm weather meant a short season for the cherry blossoms, we made another trip down to the tidal basin area on Saturday morning.

It was interesting to see how the blossoms had changed in only a few days.  The were more pink than they had been on Wednesday, but many were beginning to lose their petals.

With our fill of cherry blossoms, we headed out.   Ben had seen an advertisement for a beaded Beetle at the Native American Museum. Intrigued, we decided to stop by and check it out. The picture doesn't do it justice, but this Bug is covered in hand woven bead work. Very impressive. After a very brief visit in the museum, we were back in the car and off to brunch.

We finally made it to the Argonaut on H street. We drive by often and always put it at the top of the list of places to try, but have never made it happened. It was definitely above average and has a few items we would like to try. Due to its close proximity to our apartment and its really cool vibe, we will go back at some point.

After brunch, we headed home to take care of a bunch of life chores around the house.  With storms coming, it was a good day to get some things done and to finally put up a new post on the blog.  

Taking a Bite Out of Our Nation's Capital

The week was fairly standard at the office with a few lunch hour highlights. On Tuesday, we met up  at Farragut Park (a park that is halfway between Kelly and Ben's office) to go to  the "DC Empanada" food truck. We split beef, chicken and pork empanadas and unanimously voted the pork the best.  

Tuesday's culinary highlights continued as we observed National Pancake Day for dinner.  Unfortunately, our sourdough starter had gotten a little funky - so sourdough pancakes were out.   Fortunately, Ben found a great recipe for buttermilk pancakes.

On Friday Kelly got to experience the P.O.R.C food truck. Overall, it brought a lot to the table.  We have been very critical about BBQ in DC, but this food truck provided an above average pulled pork sandwich.

Our friend Paula, formerly of Missouri and currently of Rhode Island, stayed with us Friday night and we spent a busy Saturday out and about in D.C. We stopped by the Botanical Gardens to check out the Orchids exhibit. It was an entire greenhouse full of beautiful orchids.

(Ben offered this kid 10% of all the money he pulled out of the fountain as a finder's fee.)

We wondered through the other four greenhouses including the "jungle", "dessert", "medicinal flowers" and "Hawaii".

(Who knew what cocoa looked like before it gets hot?)

(Kelly is a little suspicious of the bird of paradise.)

Next up was the Portrait Galley. Paula had never been and it is our favorite museum so we are always up for a visit. There was a great exhibit "In Vibrant Color" that included color photographs from the early to middle half of the century. It was interesting to see color pictures of people that you see all the time in black and white.

(Ben contemplating how to get bacon this big.)

With a fair amount of touring already under our belts, we decided that lunch was in order.  We went to the nearby Rosa Mexicano.  We were enticed by the other patron guacamole and the fact that it was apparently somewhat of a signature starter.

(The Original Guacycle.)

It was pretty delicious as was the rest of our meal, particularly the shredded chicken sandwich we had.  Full and rested, we headed over to the MLK and FDR memorials. While Paula looked around, we further discussed our obsession with the cherry blossoms and how excited we are for them to bloom. The trees have buds on them and should be blooming in just a few weeks.

Our final stop for the day was Eastern Market. We looked around, indulged with a canoli and stopped for a cup of coffee before heading back to the apartment.

After a long day of exploring, we took Paula to Union Station so she could catch the red eye train back to Rhode Island.

Sunday had highs and lows. After sleeping in, Ben made biscuits and gravy for brunch. We searched for something to watch on Netflix and settled on Die Hard. Kelly had never seen any of the trilogy. While enjoying a lazy afternoon, we ended up watching all three Die Hard movies which gave each of us the confidence to save the world if called upon.  We also watched most of the final round of The Honda Classic, including Tiger Wood's 62 earning him second place behind Rory McIlroy. Kelly is fond of watching The Honda Classic because she played PGA National, the host course, when she was in high school. After procrastinating all day, we finally set out on a 6 mile training run to the Washington Monument. It was a bit chilly, but overall a great night for a run.  The dogs were especially happy to go on the run.

(Dex only wished we would have run farther.)

And finally, this is the first installment of a new feature we will call "license plate of the week" - though it will probably not appear every week.