Day After With Friends

The day after the wedding dawned a little early as my wife and I assessed the damage inflicted on middle aged bodies engaged in teenaged level dancing from the night before.  In a command decision that was fully supported by the relevant conditions, we slept in.

Realizing we had to check out of the hotel we eventually arose, albeit a bit more slowly than the day before.  If nothing else, through decades of practice, my wife and I are a pretty good team at packing up.  This was done shortly and the car loaded while I checked out of the fabulous Hotel Monaco.

We decided to return to the Chocolate Bistro of the day before for brunch that was a little more lunch than breakfast.  We were walking back to the car through the streets of Old Town Alexandria on another gloriously warm spring morning (steeling ourselves for returning to frigid New England) when inexplicably my knee gave out. 

It was kind of weird because it was fine the step before and just decided it wasn’t going to work anymore.  My wife was typically over concerned but I got it functioning well enough to make it to the car.  It’s been surgically repaired twice and I don’t think the dancing from the night before did it any favors.

Food Court at PX - Spent a Lot of Time

We drove over to Ft Belvoir because we had the time and this was our normal weekend stop off when we lived here.  All kinds of new road construction made navigation a bit of a challenge.  It was very nostalgic once we reached the PX because we spent so much time there with the kids when they were growing up.  Of course everything had been changed around which lessened the impact.  I did run into a reserved parking spot for families of Soldiers killed in action.  I thought it was great gesture and even though parking was extremely challenging on this weekend day no one chose to take advantage of it.  It was nice to be back, at least fleetingly, in a world where that meant something.

Well Done

We then headed out to Centreville to the house of the mother of the bride for a day after wedding get together.  I think these events are almost more fun than the actual wedding reception because everybody is relaxed and that certainly was the case.  The town house rapidly filled with some truly great people.  My wife’s friend is a fantastic cook and she outdid herself yesterday including her signature lasagna.  The atmosphere was great as kids were giving the two house cats and small dog very little respite as they charged around the house.  The day was tinged with a little sadness as we drew near the end because it meant the end of these few days of very good friends rarely gathered together.

Master Chef at Work

Great Friends Out on the Deck

Benevolent Pandemonium - So Much Fun

The "Tres Musketeros" - Tears Were Shed at Parting

We ended the night by journeying up to Maryland where we joined some friends from our first night of the trip for an impromptu birthday party.  We met some new friends there including a guy who played A league soccer in Europe married to yet another beautiful Panamanian (something of a trend there).  We finally ended the long day at the house of our friends near Rockville faced with another long trip back home today – I’ll miss the flowers and leaves.  Hopefully they’re not too far off back home.

The Birthday Boy

Surrounded by Beautiful Panamanians