Driving, Dogs and Decor

Well, I'm very belatedly posting these pics from my weekend trip. What a busy week its been! I got home Sunday night around 7, fed the kitties, fed myself, took a shower, unpacked the essentials, called my hunny and then collapsed in bed. Isn't it strange how driving is so tiring? We left Virginia around noon and were making fabulous time until an end-of-the-world rainstorm decided to slow us down. Traffic was crawling around 30 mph and I could barely see out the window even with the wipers on high.


Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. My youngest sister and I left Friday afternoon to visit my middle sister in Virginia. She moved there around Christmas and we hadn't seen her condo since we helped her move in. I was excited to see how she'd decorated everything. I love her sense of style and she didn't disappoint. My parents were also going away for the weekend, so with no one to watch Riley (Bootz and Freckles are clearly unfit to supervise), he came along for the ride. I was a little worried about how my new car would fare with Sir Slobbery in the backseat, but the only thing I had to clean were the windows. Phew! We hit some traffic on the ride down and got there around 8. My sister whipped up some homemade pizza (delish) and Riley and Rocky happily rough-housed and knocked into stuff (and us). Shall we be nosy and poke around her condo a bit? Lets!Love these! The colors are so rich and its a great centerpiece on her table.
The previous tenant had painted this one wall red and I think it works. Its bold, colorful and vibrant. And a bitch to paint over, so red it is!
Saturday night, we visited the home decor store where she got all these goodies. Its called Kirkland Home or something like that and is basically a cheaper Pier One. I was in heaven! I restrained myself and only got two pieces - I'll show you how they look once my hunny puts them up for me.
Love the open and airy design of her kitchen shelves.
The honeycomb is such a cute touch.
She has a huge balcony right off her living room with a set of sliding glass doors. She inherited a green thumb from my dad and has some nice flowers and herbs growing out there.
Oblivious to the homey decorative touches, the dogs were happy to see each other and catch up.
On Saturday, we took the dogs to a nearby dog park. I don't bring my camera to dog parks for fear of being tripped and having the camera smushed or trampled on, so I have no photos to share with you. It was a toasty day and the dogs quickly discovered the two plastic swimming pools at the back of the park. At first, they were content with standing in the pools to cool their paws off. Quickly bored with that, first Riley and then Rocky laid down in the murky water and then emerged totally soaked. Rocky wasn't satisfied with just that and decided to roll around in the woodchips and mud. Imagine our delight at the thought of transporting these two soggy dogs back in our cars (both are new) to my sister's condo! Luckily, they both dried off pretty fast and our cars were saved.
After we dropped the pooches off, we headed off to the day's main event: Washington, DC. I hadn't been to DC in years and was looking forward to some sight-seeing. It didn't take too long to find a parking spot by the water and started our walking tour.The Jefferson Memorial was our first stop. The marble columns are beautiful and delightfully cool. At this point in our trip, I was already pretty darn'd hot. I am NOT a summer person. My skin burns within 10-15 minutes of being outside and I hate, hate, hate being sweaty and sticky. I don't mind baking in the sun, so long as there is a pool nearby to jump into. Alas, no pools at this memorial.

Continuing on our journey, I safely stowed my camera within my purse instead of carrying it. I was afraid it was going to slip out of my sweaty fingers! We stopped for a quick lunch and then hiked on to the Smithsonian Museum. I loved the exhibits and how close you can get to everything. As we were stopped at a crosswalk outside the museum, I felt a shiver go through my whole body. Definitely not a good sign! I bought some juice from a vendor and took a breather. At this point, I was way beyond taking pictures since that would involve ungluing my bag from my shoulder, opening the bag, taking out the camera, holding it up to my sweaty face and clicking a button. No way jose, too much effort involved there.


The Washington Monument loomed in front of us and my middle sister asked us if we wanted to walk up and take the tour. After I grunted in response, both sisters looked at me and said, hmm, maybe we'd better not - you don't look so good! We detoured around the monument and headed back to the car. Four or so hours after we arrived, I collapsed in a puddle in my sister's car and pumped those air vents up as high as they could go. After a drink and a shower, I was back to normal, just a little sunburned. I slept well that night!
We woke on Sunday morning to a lovely 95 degree sticky day. I just can't stand that weather! The humidity totally drains me. We hung around in our pj's, had lunch together and then headed back to Jersey. My sister comes home pretty often, but it was great to see her place and spend time with her. Next time, I'm visiting in cooler weather!