After the hockey game Friday night, we actually had a pretty good weekend. Normally we both have to work (Martha at the bookstore, me at hockey), but we actually had some free time this weekend to have some fun.
I have been saying for a while now that I didn't feel like I was taking full advantage of the fact that I'm living in the DC area, because up until now we haven't had much time to go out on the weekends. So, on Saturday the Tigers were playing in the first game of the World Series, so Martha and I decided to head out to Old Town Alexandria ("The Fun Side of the Potomac"). My main requirement was that we had to go somewhere to watch the game, so we headed to one of our favorite locations in Old Town - Bugsy's Pizza. It's owned by a former NHL player name Bryan Watson, but other than that it has some fantastic pizza. We went to the second floor sports bar - The Penalty Box, and ordered a couple of personal deep dish pizzas and some beer. Good times were had by all.
After finishing our pizza and beer, it was on to Alexandria's Original Ghost & Graveyard Tour. It was about an hour long tour through the streets of Old Town, with occassional stops for stories about ghosts and history. While I did have a lot of fun, and am glad I did it, I think our tour was a little heavy on the history, and a little light on the ghost stories. It was interesting, however, to find out that when they took apart the Carlyle House to clean it and rebuild it in the early 1900s, that they found a box in the corner of the foundation. That box contained the mumified remains of a cat. Gross, but apparently this was a scottish tradition to ward off evil spirits.
Sunday it was out to the Stribling Orchard for apple picking. After an hour and a half drive, thanks to horrible traffic on I-66, we made it there. Unfortunately, our apple picking desires were almost immediately frustrated, as we found most of the trees were picked entirely clean, or the apples remaining were not in good condition. We ended up just buying a few apples out of the bins near the front of the orchard.
Despite the fact that apple-picking excursion was a bust, we happened upon a few wineries in the area of the orchard. The first one we checked on was closed, but the second one was open - and busy! So, we stopped at Naked Mountain Winery to sample some of their wines. Despite a very large amount of fruit flies in their lodge, the wine turned out to be very good. We tried all of their flavors during the testing, and I was particularily impressed with their 2002 Chardonnay. Martha liked the Chardonnay/Riesling. The only one we weren't particularily fond of was their "Raptor Red," which didn't seem as smooth as the others. So, we purchased a sampler box, as well as a bottle of the Riesling. We should be set on wine for a while.
When we got home, there was some time to relax, and time to watch the Tigers defeat the Cardinals 3-1. The game was marred by controversey when the Fox television cameras picked up what Rogers would call "dirt" on his hand. I'm not going to call Rogers a liar (as I'm a Tigers fan), but that sure is some of the stickiest-looking dirt I've ever seen. Of course, after the cameras picked it up (in the first inning), the next time Rogers was on the mound, it had been washed off. Very interesting.
