Aahhh

There's nothing like a four-day weekend to make going back to work on Monday dreadful. In spite of the pain of waking before the sun was fully up this morning, I really enjoyed the Thanksgiving vacation. We went to our friends Ben and Robyn's apartment for Thanksgiving dinner and it was delicious and fun. Also, it was much better than making some Thanksgiving sides at home and just having Neil and myself to eat them... that was the alternate plan until we got invited to Ben and Robyn's.

Earlier that day we got to spend time with our friends Topher and Lotus who were in town visiting Topher's dad. It was great to see them, even if it was a brief visit.

The Friday after Thanksgiving was the best day ever. I say this because my husband actually suggested we got to the mall where I got a much needed new coat, and then willingly went to two movies in a row. I can't think of many better activities than attending two movies in a row and I hadn't done it since college because Neil isn't a movie freak like me. Also, normally, trips to the mall are not Neil's idea, but mine and then I feel like I'm torturing him the entire time. In any case, Friday was perfect.

Saturday was also a lot of fun. We had lunch at the Native American Museum because they have authentic Native American Cuisine including Navajo Tacos (although they call them Indian Tacos) with green chile! I am a big fan of Navajo tacos which basically consist of fry bread covered in beans, tomato, lettuce, cheese, onions and green chile. At the museum, however, they have a buffalo chili on top which includes beans and then the rest of the ingredients. I was wary of the chili since I don't eat much red meat and especially not buffalo, but it was really good and I felt like I was at home (almost). After lunch, we walked to the Washington Monument to find out about going to the top, then we walked around the White House (or the large perimeter that surrounds the White House) When were at the closest point, the police cleared everyone out and closed the street. We waited for a while to see what was going on but the only clue we got was that one officer asked the crowd of gawkers if anyone had left a CVS shopping bag behind. So maybe it was a suspicious shopping bag? It was strange, there were at least three men with long photo lenses in the crowd taking pictures, but who knows what they were of. Neil and I got too cold so we left. It was curious to say the least.

After that we went to the zoo where we saw both adult pandas, but not the baby. We also saw a hippo up close (a first for me) and some other animals, but Neil was freezing so we left the zoo and went home.

On Sunday, we went to the top of the Washington Monument (cool, but not amazing), locked ourselves out of our apartment (thank goodness the front desk guy has a key), and took a four-hour nap (nope, I am not kidding).

All in all, it was a great weekend and it helped us to feel a little more like DC is home.