A heavy fog shrouded I-295 as I continued my drive south out of New Jersey. Like Dave told me in Delaware: a thick morning summer fog usually means a hot, humid day.
The highlight of my trip back East was Dave's wedding in Alexandria on Saturday, at a small lawyer's office off Cameron street. I made sure I was there on time, arriving in town at 9am after an early drive from NJ. The wedding was scheduled for 2pm, giving me enough time to walk around and explore.
The weekly Saturday morning Farmer's Market was in full session, with locals selling huge tomatoes, green peppers and other organically-grown produce.
I found a convenient parking spot across the street and walked around town, eating a bland lunch at the marina mall: a bland gyro with soggy fries.
I had been to Alexandria a few times over the years and didn't need to explore much this time. Everything looked just like it did 15 years ago. The fast-paced hike from yesterday still tired my thighs. I was happy to stroll up and down King Street, look at books at Books-a-Million, shop at clearance clothes at the Gap, and return in time for the 2pm showing.
There were a lot of people from Dave's office there, cramped into one narrow and hot back alley. Dave wore a grey suit but Renata looked stunning in her pink top. She was downright elegant with her blonde hair, pink puckered lips and high heels.
She choked while repeating her vows. I choked, too.
And after a short reception in the building, we walked a half block to the King Street Blues Cafe and sat upstairs, all 18 of us along several tables joined together. I sat in a booth with several other women, wives of Dave's co-workers who were just as bored as I was having to listen to the men talk "shop" the entire time. Was there really nothing else to talk about but the latest $24 million defense contract, or the last fun TDY to Puerto Rico?
Luckily I befriended the German wife of one of the men, and another wife of another man. Otherwise I would have felt so left out. Since Dave sat on the far end of the table he had no direct contact to me, but came by twice briefly to chat with me.
But otherwise I probably could have not needed to come if it weren't to witness an old friend of mine get married. The short three-minute ceremony was nicely done.
Two hours later we were all going our separate ways, and since Alexandria held no special bond to me, I drove north into DC and walked the Mall there, visiting the Museum of American History for 90 minutes before it closed at 7pm. I walked around the WWII Memorial, the FDR statue, the Eclipse, around the Jefferson Memorial (where cobwebs hung from Jefferson's head!) back to my car. That was another 2:20 hours of walking in the humidity.
I found a convenient parking spot across the street and walked around town, eating a bland lunch at the marina mall: a bland gyro with soggy fries.
I had been to Alexandria a few times over the years and didn't need to explore much this time. Everything looked just like it did 15 years ago. The fast-paced hike from yesterday still tired my thighs. I was happy to stroll up and down King Street, look at books at Books-a-Million, shop at clearance clothes at the Gap, and return in time for the 2pm showing.
There were a lot of people from Dave's office there, cramped into one narrow and hot back alley. Dave wore a grey suit but Renata looked stunning in her pink top. She was downright elegant with her blonde hair, pink puckered lips and high heels.
She choked while repeating her vows. I choked, too.
And after a short reception in the building, we walked a half block to the King Street Blues Cafe and sat upstairs, all 18 of us along several tables joined together. I sat in a booth with several other women, wives of Dave's co-workers who were just as bored as I was having to listen to the men talk "shop" the entire time. Was there really nothing else to talk about but the latest $24 million defense contract, or the last fun TDY to Puerto Rico?
Luckily I befriended the German wife of one of the men, and another wife of another man. Otherwise I would have felt so left out. Since Dave sat on the far end of the table he had no direct contact to me, but came by twice briefly to chat with me.
But otherwise I probably could have not needed to come if it weren't to witness an old friend of mine get married. The short three-minute ceremony was nicely done.
Two hours later we were all going our separate ways, and since Alexandria held no special bond to me, I drove north into DC and walked the Mall there, visiting the Museum of American History for 90 minutes before it closed at 7pm. I walked around the WWII Memorial, the FDR statue, the Eclipse, around the Jefferson Memorial (where cobwebs hung from Jefferson's head!) back to my car. That was another 2:20 hours of walking in the humidity.
What else was there to do now that I've walked the Mall? Find a hotel, that is. I drove to Falls Church for that, where rates were lower, but the traffic never seemed to ease up. The only advantage of driving around the DC-Balto area is listening to C-SPAN radio. That's all I had on my car radio, with the tuner set to FM 90.1.
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