Celebrating Sara's birthday

Living a long distance relationship has been tough.  Going from seeing someone 4-5 days a week to seeing them once every month or so is hard.  But, when we do get to see each other it is all the more sweeter.  This past weekend, I traveled back to DC to celebrate Sara's birthday with her.

After a long week at work (hopefully, I will have time to blog about that later), I left for DC Friday morning and landed in DC that evening.  Sara had been hinting at a surprise for a few weeks and while waiting for my bag, she started giving me clues.  I quickly found out that we were spending the night at a bed and breakfast in Annapolis and then going sailing on the Chesapeake the next morning.  (A quick note on the B&B - this was my first stay at a B&B and while the place was lovely, I felt like it combined all the awkwardness of staying at someone's house with additional awkwardness of breakfast with strangers.  I'll give it a try again, but it's a bit of an unusual situation).

Due to jet lag and going to bed at like 1030, I woke up the next morning super early (430 or 5) and couldn't fall back asleep.   Eventually it was time for breakfast (which was delicious and a definite plus for the B&B) and then off to our sailing cruise.  Sara and I both thought we were taking sailing lessons, so we could learn stuff like, "How does sailing work?", "What's that thing called?", and "What's up with all the knots?"  Instead, it was more of a pleasure cruise.  We did get to steer for a bit (way harder than it looks), but no one got to climb any masts or make any knots.  The beauty of this was that it was a beauty of a day and there are few places better to be than on the Chesapeake on a glorious Saturday morning.

Captain Sara

Apparently that pretty sail is spinnaker (I did learn something)

Sailboats racing on the Chesapeake

Cruising on the beautiful boat

Back in the harbor

After sailing, we made our way back to DC and spent the day watching football.  Both our teams (Huskers and Aggies) were playing no-name opponents, so we headed to Sara's favorite sports bar (now also an Aggie bar) to watch both games.  Two of Sara's friends joined us to celebrate Sara's birthday.

Sara and her friends

On Sunday, I had to complete my long run for marathon training.  I am now up to 16 miles, which is a really long way.  I ran from Sara's house in Shaw to the White House, down Pennsylvania Avenue, around the Capitol, then all the way down the Mall and past the Lincoln Memorial to the Kennedy Center, across Memorial Bridge to Arlington and then down Mt. Vernon Trail, past the Pentagon, my old neighborhood in Crystal City and finished in Old Town Alexandria.  I was just about dead at the end and Sara magically appeared at the end of the run to pick me up.

That evening (after a needed nap), we went out to dinner at one of Sara's favorite DC restaurants, Le Diplomat.  Then, we went home where she opened up her present from me - two sets of pearls (one traditional, one more modern) that I ordered from China through a friend.  The smile on her face told me that she loved them.

Isn't she beautiful?  How lucky am I?

Then, sadly, it was Monday morning and I needed to leave to head back to Germany.