I must say, taking a week off from work is pretty blissful. The reason this week of vacation took place was to visit my friends, Stephanie and Victor, who now live in Virginia.
I met Stephanie and Victor when I was in college. Stephanie was a student caller when I was working as a caller and student supervisor. After my days at the call center ended, I wound up at the video store and Victor just happened to work there as well (although I was at the Santa Cruz branch and he was at the Capitola one). I befriended both of them at different points of my life. Now, they reside in Virginia where Stephanie is attending graduate school at George Mason University and Victor cheers her on.
The visit was a brief one since not everyone could take a week off from work. My friends Amy and Jennifer both flew out as well (although from different parts of California). Friday through Monday was our duration. The highlights were our visit to DC on Saturday, eating at various hip restaurants, and making our own sushi on Sunday night. It wasn’t the most destination oriented; a lot of this trip was just enjoying each other’s company. Steph and Vic are two very entertaining people; it’s never a dull moment with them in the room.
Our excursion in the big capitol was eventful in the small-part-of-the-day way. In most cases, when people travel in groups, no one wants to take the role of leader. I’ve seen this on a dozen occasions. Of course, when we arrived to DC, no one spoke up about what we should do. I took a stand and suggested something that my boss had said: the International Spy Museum. Everyone agreed. The museum was incredibly fascinating; there were many interactive exhibits, display cases with some very unique espionage artifacts (many were very James Bondish). In the beginning you could choose from a wide range of identities that had a first and last name, occupation, age, where you reside, where you were born, what your destination is, and what your purpose of your stay is. By the end of the museum tour you could log onto a computer and find your identity and ask a series of questions (they were very reminiscent of those Choose Your Own Adventure stories). Based on your answers you would find out if your person made it out of the country or not (mine went into questioning due to suspicious answers).
After the museum, we were back at that game of “what do we do? I don’t know.” People asked me and I said I did my part by suggesting the spy museum; it’s up to other people now. But nonetheless, I chimed in again and said how about we walk around the different memorials. Everyone agreed on that.
We spent most of the afternoon in Washington DC and then wound up back in Fairfax. Most of us were incredibly exhausted from the 99-degree weather and the insane amount of humidity.
The rest of the weekend was spent solely in Virginia; we ate at different restaurants, played a lot of Nintendo Wii, and worried if their dog Cokey would make it out alive. Sunday night they invited their friends Alex and Liz over and all of us were playing some games and enjoying some drinks; at one point Steph and Vic’s little dog Cokey started acting really hyperactive. When Steph and Vic went to bed, the dog was still acting weird and never went to sleep. Vic took the dog to the vet at 7am because it was still being funky and never slept. The vet took some blood tests and it looked like the dog consumed some alcohol. Ha! The dog got drunk. I assume it made it out all right; I haven’t heard anything yet about its status.
Overall, the trip was definitely a fun one, even if it wasn’t a major sightseeing one. Steph and Vic have made it back to California a small handful of times since they moved out to Virginia last summer, so I figured it was my turn to make the rounds.
I will post pictures soon. Steph had a digital camera so she will be emailing those to me. I would have taken pictures but somebody has my camera.
I met Stephanie and Victor when I was in college. Stephanie was a student caller when I was working as a caller and student supervisor. After my days at the call center ended, I wound up at the video store and Victor just happened to work there as well (although I was at the Santa Cruz branch and he was at the Capitola one). I befriended both of them at different points of my life. Now, they reside in Virginia where Stephanie is attending graduate school at George Mason University and Victor cheers her on.
The visit was a brief one since not everyone could take a week off from work. My friends Amy and Jennifer both flew out as well (although from different parts of California). Friday through Monday was our duration. The highlights were our visit to DC on Saturday, eating at various hip restaurants, and making our own sushi on Sunday night. It wasn’t the most destination oriented; a lot of this trip was just enjoying each other’s company. Steph and Vic are two very entertaining people; it’s never a dull moment with them in the room.
Our excursion in the big capitol was eventful in the small-part-of-the-day way. In most cases, when people travel in groups, no one wants to take the role of leader. I’ve seen this on a dozen occasions. Of course, when we arrived to DC, no one spoke up about what we should do. I took a stand and suggested something that my boss had said: the International Spy Museum. Everyone agreed. The museum was incredibly fascinating; there were many interactive exhibits, display cases with some very unique espionage artifacts (many were very James Bondish). In the beginning you could choose from a wide range of identities that had a first and last name, occupation, age, where you reside, where you were born, what your destination is, and what your purpose of your stay is. By the end of the museum tour you could log onto a computer and find your identity and ask a series of questions (they were very reminiscent of those Choose Your Own Adventure stories). Based on your answers you would find out if your person made it out of the country or not (mine went into questioning due to suspicious answers).
After the museum, we were back at that game of “what do we do? I don’t know.” People asked me and I said I did my part by suggesting the spy museum; it’s up to other people now. But nonetheless, I chimed in again and said how about we walk around the different memorials. Everyone agreed on that.
We spent most of the afternoon in Washington DC and then wound up back in Fairfax. Most of us were incredibly exhausted from the 99-degree weather and the insane amount of humidity.
The rest of the weekend was spent solely in Virginia; we ate at different restaurants, played a lot of Nintendo Wii, and worried if their dog Cokey would make it out alive. Sunday night they invited their friends Alex and Liz over and all of us were playing some games and enjoying some drinks; at one point Steph and Vic’s little dog Cokey started acting really hyperactive. When Steph and Vic went to bed, the dog was still acting weird and never went to sleep. Vic took the dog to the vet at 7am because it was still being funky and never slept. The vet took some blood tests and it looked like the dog consumed some alcohol. Ha! The dog got drunk. I assume it made it out all right; I haven’t heard anything yet about its status.
Overall, the trip was definitely a fun one, even if it wasn’t a major sightseeing one. Steph and Vic have made it back to California a small handful of times since they moved out to Virginia last summer, so I figured it was my turn to make the rounds.
I will post pictures soon. Steph had a digital camera so she will be emailing those to me. I would have taken pictures but somebody has my camera.
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