Big Birthday for Larry!

We celebrated Larry's 60th birthday on the 8th of July. Our celebration party consisted of two, Larry and me. I made his favorite meal of lasagna. With all my food allergies, he doesn't get to have it at home very often. I was able to find substitute ingredients for it here in Washington and it was delicious. We had it for two dinners. The picture is of Larry ready to did in. My food challenges have prompted me to experiment and create my own recipe library. I may not be able to have everything when I'm out but I can at home. I find it hard to believe he is 60 and I'm not far behind him. I think our life changes over the past five years have very much contributed to our quality of life as we know it. I can honestly say we neither one have any regrets and are living life large.

The weeks of Summer are ticking down at a very rapid pace. It's been very hot here, we have had temps above 90 degrees for about 50 days now. I hope it means Winter will also be warm. Ha Ha.

The weekend following Larry's birthday we rented a car and drove to Deltaville to empty our storage shed and visit with our friends Tom and Cathie Dunn form S/V Interlude. Whey live in Gloucester Pt. We had a beautiful weekend and a great visit.

Larry seems to be settling into a routine at work and enjoying it. I find that comforting because this sure is a change for him, considering he was retired for 7 years. It definitely has been a big change for both of us. We love the city even with its crowds of people and constant noise. If you wish you could never have a dull moment.

After the 4th of July at West Marine business starts to slack off, believe it or not. My hours have been cut from two days at eight hours each to one day at six hours. My main reason for working there is for the discount but the extra money is good. I seem to manage to be busy regardless of the cut in hours. It's still life on a boat and every errand takes at least half a day.

I have today off but received a call from Larry about 8:15 AM and he needed a tie. He didn't wear one and had a meeting at 9 Am at the FAA building. What can I say my boy forgot his lunch and Mom had to bring it to him. Got my exercise this morning. It was a good walk the air was some what cool compared to what it has been and the walk was in the shade of the buildings. I may change my route to the Metro for work and catch it up by Larry's work. My present walk is straight up a hill in total sun. Hmm, let me think.

We had our first over night company since arriving here in DC. Our friends Keith and Jane from Rochester, NY. They were on vacation by car and making stops to visit with friends. We had a wonderful weekend. The weather was sunny and very warm, no rain in site accept after we were asleep, perfect. They arrived Friday evening around 5 Pm. We had dinner and visited.

Saturday morning we got up early and went to the Yacht Club for breakfast. After breakfast we headed up to the city by Circulator bus. We had planned to see the movie, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Saturday evening. We went first to the theater to buy our tickets, thus avoiding the line before the show. With tickets in hand we walked to the National Aquarium. This is one of the few National sites that charges a fee. It was $9.00 and was only a partial one floor exhibit. We didn't wish to be disappointed like those coming out and saying it wasn't worth the money so we left.

We then walked to the National Mall and the Air and Space Museum.The photo was taken of one of the planes suspended from the ceiling. We spent several hours and still didn't get to see the entire museum. More another day. Larry and I joke that we have five years to see it all and we think it will take that long. From there we went to the National Portrait Gallery to visit the Norman Rockwell exhibit. Jane and I both are fans of Rockwell and we all enjoyed the exhibit. I would have liked to see more of his work.

After the Portrait Gallery we walked across the street to Gordon Biersch Brew Pub for dinner. I had called earlier in the day for a reservation but the person I spoke to failed to put our reservation in the computer. They were very apologetic and got us to a table right away. We were not in a big rush it was 5:30 and we had tickets for the 7:30 show. We were enjoying our drinks and didn't realize how late it was getting until our food came. We didn't rush but when we were finished and the waiter came to see if we wanted anything else, we said the check please. He left and came back a few minutes later and said our meal and drinks were on the house. We sat there in total surprise while he explained their policy is to get your meal out in 15 to 20 minutes after you order, ours took 45 minutes. Wow. I guess they want to make sure you return and don't bad mouth them to others. It works, we'll be back. We gave a healthy tip to our waiter and left for the movies.

There was a line for tickets, prior purchase, good move on our part. The critics didn't give this movie a very good rating but in my opinion they don't know what I like and I liked this movie. It made me laugh and those of you who know me, know how I like to laugh. Keith got a kick out of how I laughed out loud. I told him that's why Larry doesn't like to take me out in public to the movies. We all had a good laugh about that.

On Sunday morning we had a cooked breakfast on the boat before they had to head to NY. We heard from them that it took just under 7 hours. It pays to travel on Sundays and avoid the rush hour during the week. We'll look forward to their next visit.

Tuesday night, tonight, at the club is spaghetti night. We plan to meet Sally and Andy there for dinner. I of course will bring my own.