Eric’s Blog

This week was all about indulging in great food and some well-earned distractions.

We received word that the people buying the house on the shore got their loan last Friday, but they have to wait three business days before they can commit the funds to purchase our home due to a federal mandate. They’ve already accepted the house and filled in the paperwork, now we just have to wait until everything gets recorded on Wednesday, then everything it is officially official. Once that is done, we’re scheduled to close on the King George house this Friday. I can’t tell you how ready we are to be in our new home. We’re going to have a lot to be thankful for.

Since it was a bit of a blow to find out that we were being delayed again, we decided to indulge ourselves. We went out to dinner Wednesday night in historic Fredericksburg. We went to Strangeways Brewing Company on Thursday night for Disney trivia with our friends. We went window shopping for furniture for the new house Saturday, and had a few drinks and a great meal. And finally, we went to Washington, D. C. on Sunday to visit the Holocaust museum and see some of the monuments. This is something we’ve been wanting to do for awhile now, but we just got around to it.

I haven’t done any official research yet, but there seems to be a German influence on the culture here. We went to two different restaurants this week and I was able to order a German dish at each place. At Capital Ale House, I ordered the Wurst Platter. At Park Lane Tavern, I ordered the Jagerschnitzel. Both were good, but the Jagerschnitzel was my favorite. The dessert we got there was one of the best things I’d ever had. Hot bread pudding with a shot of Jameson on it and topped off with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream!

Sunday, we drove up to the Branch Avenue Metro Rail Station which is about an hour and a half away from the camper, and we took the Metro into DC for the afternoon. We transferred trains at L’Enfant Plaza and got off at the Smithsonian Metro Station. We walked a few blocks to the Holocaust Museum and spent about 4 and a half hours there.

We were going to see one of the art museums also, but we ran out of time. Now that we’ve been to the Capitol and we know how easy it is; we’ll definitely be going back more frequently. There is so much to see and do there, and both Adrianne and I love spending time exploring the city.

The Holocaust Museum was difficult to tour through. I hadn’t been there since seventh grade. I remember some of the things, but I didn’t have a good appreciation of it back then. There were some changes to the museum since I was there last. There were some other people there who weren’t treating it with the respect that it was due. They were doing silly things like posing for pictures in front of a Nazi flag and snickering at some of the photos. Most people were very respectful and took it seriously though.

We left the museum and had just enough daylight to hike up to the top of the hill by the Washington Monument for some sightseeing and some pictures. We were going to get something to eat in the city, but a lot of the restaurants there require reservations and the earliest availability was at 8:00 PM. We decided to get back to the train and grab some food on our way home.

All-in-all, it was a nice weekend. We’re getting ready for closing on Friday and our inevitable move out of the camper and into our new home. There will be plenty to do to get the house ready for Thanksgiving next week, but in the end, all that matters is that we’ll be together.