We had a wonderful time this past week and have just gotten back to Atlanta. It will take some time to blog everything we did, so let's just start where we left off and see how far we get. First, some photos from the Postal Museum that we didn't have uploaded for the last post:
Now back to the 15th... Friday was Patty's 30th birthday. Matthew made a delicious "breakfast in chair" of a two-cheese omelet, Kashi oatmeal, and orange juice. It was served on a tray with our red Gerbera daisy in a vase as Patty sat in the sunroom in the comfy chair reading Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger. After breakfast, Dad A took us on a secret mission, which turned out to be a trip to VA Runner for a new pair of running shoes! The owner, Jeff, did a thorough analysis of Patty's feet and running biomechanics, and recommended a couple of shoes. After testing the shoes outside, we chose the Brooks Adrenaline, which were by coincidence updates of the shoes she wore into the store. It was really neat to have such thorough and personalized service and to learn about the way the muscles in our legs and feet work. Jeff used to be a marathon runner and even had trained for the Olympic trials at one point, but injury prevented that from happening. He was a really interesting guy. We noticed an autographed picture of Deena Kastor behind the counter, which was pretty cool. There were also patches from lots of police units around the country, including the Fairfax County Police Helicopter Division.
We got back to the house and, after lots of baby maintenance and random things, Dad A and Patty went running. An hour and a half later, they got back to the house. Every time we tried to measure the distance, it came out different, but it was between 6.5 and 7 miles with about a quarter mile walk tacked on the beginning and the end. It was a little chilly but ended up about right, and the pace was comfortable. It felt really good to Patty to be back on the track after being sidelined for so long. Of course, her legs didn't feel too good the next morning, but it was very much worth the pain. Before getting the new shoes, she'd already planned to run that day - she'd wanted to set the tone for the next decade, and a run was the perfect way to do that.
After the world's longest run, we went out to dinner - Gabriel stayed at the house. We went to Coastal Flats, a seafood restaurant. We were thrilled to see that they had two of our favorite drinks, mojito and caipirinha, so Matt got the ciapirinha and Patty got the mojito. For dinner, Matt had the Hong Kong-style sea bass, and Patty had the hazelnut-crusted trout. It was delicious.
Although we got back close to midnight, there was a surprise ice cream cake waiting. It was vanilla ice cream with chocolate cake from Baskin Robbins. Patty hadn't said anything, but she had secretly been hoping for an ice cream cake. We usually have them for our birthdays.
That's where we'll stop for today. There's lots more to write about, but it's getting late. Here are the things about which we still have to write:
- Ikea and the Nationals
- March of Dimes, baby shower, and geocaching
- a trip to the Mall
- our trip back to Atlanta and people we met on the plane
- AR7 watch
- whatever we do tomorrow, which will include playgroup and softball
- ...and of course, photos
