The most EXCITING, AMAZING blog post EVER!

Friday, I flew from Orlando up the coast to D.C. and then to my friend L's house in Silver Spring, Maryland. One of the first things L told me upon my arrival is that in following this blog all year so far and seeing the amazing experiences I've gotten to have visiting friends all over the country, she was feeling a little bad that we'd spent my entire visit with her back in April in her basement, me teaching her how to make skirts. She doesn't need to feel bad about that at all--it was in the top five of most satisfyingly productive days of my year so far--but I did agree to her request that I try to make my post about this return visit exciting enough to rival anything I've done with any other friend all year.

So here goes!

It was a whirlwind weekend: a 40-hour reunion with three of my best friends (L, S, and F). The four of us were on the same study abroad program in Padova, Italy, 16 years ago, and while I got to see all three of them in their hometowns as I traveled this year, it is a special treat to have a 4/4 reunion too--before a new year that will bring the birth of S's second child and international travels for me, among other things that will make it tough for us to get together again very soon.

F arrived from Portland a few hours after I did, and the first bottle of wine was soon given some air.

The next morning, with L's husband on duty with her two kiddos (and F's son and daughter safely at home on the other side of the country with their dad) we picked up S at her in-laws' Bethesda home, where she'd arrived the night before from NYC. Hooray for grandparents who are very excited to take their grandchild out for his own adventures so the four of us girls could have a kid-free day together! S's son, L, looked a little less excited to see us go than we felt to go.

But go we went. Hey, look, there's our nation's capitol in the background!

And oh, look, the Washington Monument! This really is one of the most exciting and eventful blog posts of the road trip!

All joking aside, we had a pretty thrilling day, in our own style. F suggested a visit to the National Gallery, which sounded very cultured and impressive. Especially if you ignore it that pretty much all we did there was use the bathroom, get hollered at by security guards for walking into the center of the lobby (which was not roped off but for some reason was off-limits), and take a few artsy-looking pictures in the very artsy space. For your consideration…

"Expectant mother with phone in main hall":

"Cherubs, recreated":

From the National Gallery, we went to the American Indian Museum. Most people probably go to this museum to learn more about American Indians. Us? We heard the cafeteria/café is spectacularly good. And oh, it is. Blue corn bread. Need I say more?

After gorging ourselves on fares from the Americas, we went back to our roots: gelato! Gone are the days of gelato for every meal (which honestly did sometimes happen that year back in bell'Italia, and the horrifying pictures of us prove it). But given what a powerful foundation for lasting friendship the stuff turned out to be, it was a moral imperative to head to DuPont Circle for some great gelato that L had scouted out for us. It really was probably some of the best gelato I've ever had. Dulcezza's, if you ever have the chance to go there.

Dark chocolate and salted caramel, oh my.

The gelato made us so happy that the employees of some of the shops we visited after that could not help but comment on the glow it caused. No joke: one shoe salesman said, "You all seem like a lot of fun." Which somehow didn't come off as creepy, even despite the fact that he was being forced by the management to wear a Santa's Elf hat during his shift. I didn't have the heart to take a picture of him suffering that indignation. So I made F, S, and L pose with some of their day's loot, instead.

After our frenetic eight hours of child-free-dom, we returned to L's house and continued the fun draped in children.

I even received a drawing from L's daughter, S, who also happens to be one of the youngest readers of this blog. Hi, S!

Among the drawing and pasta cooking and salad tossing and laughing and nail polishing and other forms of blissful chaos, there was prosecco. With raspberry. Even _I_ had some, and despite not liking booze or carbonation, see how it's appealingly refreshing.

How'd I do on the extremely exciting blog post, L?
It may not be a national park or particular activities that make for drool-worthy pictures, but I wouldn't trade this group of friends for anything. So as far as I'm concerned, a weekend with these ladies is equal to any of the other most exciting parts of my year.

Olympics

After saying goodbye to my mom at the airport in Seattle, I headed over to the Olympic Peninsula, thinking I might stay for a couple days and then try to squeeze in a trip back up to North Cascades National Park before I needed to be in Oregon at the end of the week. But the travel gods made clear that I would be a world-class idiot if I didn't just stay in the Olympics for the week by delivering once-in-a-lifetime weather: a week of gorgeous, warming sunshine. In the rainforest! What a gift. So I took advantage of it and stuck around as long as I could.

Hiked up Hurricane Hill with it's amazing views of Mount Olympus, plus sightings of endemic Olympic squirrels and Olympic marmots.

I was really excited about hunting down some undeveloped hot springs I read should be in the Elwha River Valley, and was bummed to learn they are temporarily closed. But the reason is a good one: the Elwha River dam is being disassembled over the course of several years, and the whole area is restricted due to the reclamation process. That's a good cause. Plus, salmon were spawning in the Elwha River for the first time in anyone's memory due to the progress made on dam removal. I have been spoiled by seeing a lot of salmon spawning in various places this summer, but all of the park employees in the Olympics were so outrageously excited about these pioneering salmon that I couldn't help but get excited, too.

I decided to take further advantage of the gorgeous days and go to the end of the road: Cape Flattery, the northeastern-most point of the contiguous U.S. I don't think the view up there ever gets better than this, not a cloud in the sky, and Vancouver Island visible in the very distant background.

I even took a hike to the breath-taking Shi-Shi beach (also on the Makah Nation Reservation lands).

Of course, no visit to the Olympics is complete without a stop in the Hoh Rainforest. Very sad to see these days of blissful Olympic wandering come to an end.

Crabbing in Washington

Once restored to our native land, my mom and I headed from the ferry terminal at Anacortes, Washington, due west to the town of Mount Vernon and our family friends P and L. In addition to it being great fun to see them, we had the added boon of a beautiful day deemed perfect for them to take us back to Anacortes and out on their boat to go crabbing!

These people are pros. P dropped two pots, and then we sailed around for a few hours eating lunch, enjoying the sunshine and perfect temperature, and talking about the logistics of life on a boat.

When the time came, we went back to the pots and, voila! Dungeness crabs galore! We had to throw back all the females, plus males who weren't at least 6.25 inches across. Despite the second trap not having been latched (and therefore devoid of all but the stupidest crabs, who didn't bother to crawl out of it after having devoured the chicken drumsticks used as bait), we ended up with 9 or 10 legal crabs.

Back at their house that evening, P, not one for sentimentality, dropped them all in the boiling pot while my mother hid her face. I felt a little less bad for the crabs when I saw this guy take one of his comrades with him to its doom. My finger experienced one of those pinchers, and they are mighty.

YUM.