Highlights of my trip to Maryland--

I drove up last Thursday, and it's normally a twelve hour drive or so, but on an impulse, I detoured off of the main highway somewhere in southern Virginia (Fancy Gap, it looks like), and took the Blue Ridge Parkway for a few hours. I had no phone service (curse you, T-Mobile!!) and no physical map so after a while I started to get antsy and worry where I was going to join the highway. I stopped to take a lot of pictures, as well as to admire the views.

Friday night, Dan and I took the metro down to Adams Morgan to meet up with one of our friends for a few drinks. Hex was late, so Dan and I wandered a bit, in search of a bathroom, and found ourselves in Dan's Cafe. Adams Morgan has a ton of bars but this one didn't quite fit- the facade lacks windows and looks kind of condemned. I ordered a beer and Dan asked for a bourbon neat. The bartender pointed out that he could have a flask bottle for thirteen dollars, instead of a little airplane liquor bottle for five bucks, so Dan took the bigger bottle. The bartender poured the bottle into two glasses, which he pushed over to us with a bucket of ice, before spiking the empty bottle into a trash bin. Dan used the bathroom while I continued to marvel over all of this and came out a shaken man. I have since looked up Dan's Cafe on yelp, and almost all of the reviews mention the bathroom and how terrifyingly gross it is. Hex was still not there, so I helped Dan out with the bourbon. I'm a good helper. And my beer was terrible.

The rest of the night included the biggest slices of pizza I have ever seen, karaoke with a bunch of drunken college kids, and live music at Madam's Organ.

Saturday night, we met up with Hex again, this time at a sports bar in Leesburg, which seemed odd, except that the band playing there was The Reflex, and they are tons of fun live! The bar was giving out jelly bracelets and while some folks were there in jeans and a tee (including yours truly), other people were all kinds of dressed up- I even saw a totally hideous and hilarious zebra print suit.

Sunday morning, we drove down to Old Town in Alexandria, where we visited the Torpedo Factory, which is an arts space, and actually has exactly nothing to do with torpedos anymore! I really liked the neighborhood- it reminds me a lot of Charleston, in some ways- I guess it was mostly the old buildings and being close to the water.

Driving home Monday, I spent a lot more time on the Blue Ridge Parkway, starting at mile 0 and ending at Meadows of Dan, where I got onto a rural road and spent a lot of time praying I'd get to a highway before I reached West Virginia. I stopped a lot and walked around and took even more pictures. I even had a picnic lunch in the mountains! I didn't get home till 1 a.m., and I was still too wired to sleep until 4.