Wild, Wonderful, Washington

So I’ve been waiting to blog about my trip home until they had the tournament pictures up from Fool’s Fest. They still don’t, but I’m running out of time before heading to New Zealand so here goes:

After the Wednesday night redeye to BWI, the first stop was the Dutch Country Farmer’s market to grab some scrapple for brunch. It’s definitely an acquired taste, but something about it just gets me in touch with my Pennsylvanian roots and lets me know I’m home.

Friday was the first day of Fool’s Fest - always a great tourney. It’s got a huge draw from the Mid-Atlantic so on practically every field you can run into someone you know from somewhere. Even better the Maryland reunion team I was playing with was in charge of the beer garden for a couple of rounds, so everyone drops by to say hi. The Saturday night party had a couple good photos of our games so imagine them here… We got rained out on Sunday but I stuck around to help clean up the tournament and hang out with friends.

Then it was time to wander around downtown DC. I do miss all the trappings of the monuments and museums of the Mall. The cherry blossoms were still around and tour groups were in full force. I’d wanted to visit the Library of Congress, but it was closed to prepare for a new exhibit. The National Gallery of Art had a great exhibit about mid 1800s painting and photography in Fountainebleau (a forest outside of Paris where a bunch of Impressionists got their start) and the U.S. Botanic Garden had an amazing orchid exhibit. Too bad I forgot my camera and had to make do with the one in my cell phone!

Too quickly I headed home to Seattle where I did my taxes and am busily trying to tie up all the loose ends before I head to New Zealand in two days!