Breast Cancer 3-Day, the preamble
trowa_barton and I flew down to Baltimore last Wednesday night. Dad picked us up at BWI and we stopped to pick up a Ledo's pizza on the way home. Om nom nom nom. I was having a craving. :-}
On Thursday morning Mom drove us to DC, first to the new Washington Nationals Park, right on the Anacostia River, to drop Trowa off for his crew orientation day. We continued onward to Dupont Circle so that I could check us into the Embassy Suites hotel at N St. and 22nd St. (It's a really nice hotel, by the way, and with a AAA card had some of the more reasonable rates to be found in the city.) With that accomplished, Mom and I took a couple of hours to hang around Dupont Circle. I took her to Teaism, one of my favorite haunts in DC, where we got steaming mugs of chai and shared some seaweed salad and a plate of delicious seitan-spinach-macadamia stirfry. I also got us a couple of cupcakes from Hello Cupcake, a pumpkin spice cupcake with cream cheese frosting for Mom and a lemon cupcake with raspberry frosting for me.
By midafternoon Mom was starting to worry about leaving before rush hour traffic, so she dropped me back at the hotel. Conveniently, taura_g had recently arrived by train and had just checked in. We decided to explore the neighborhood for a bit, eventually ending up at Kramerbooks & Afterwords for smoothies. Trowa had messaged me to say that he was done with the crew orientation just a bit earlier, and he joined us at Kramerbooks. We sat outside, enjoying the pretty weather, then returned to our room for a while. I napped briefly while he searched for a place where all three of us could enjoy dinner -- taura_g really wanted a steak, Trowa is pretty easy to please, and of course I am a vegetarian.
We ended up having dinner at Sesto Senso, an Italian restaurant for which we were rather underdressed. The food was quite good, and though they did not turn out to offer steak on the menu, both taura_g and I very much enjoyed their excellent spinach ravioli. It was still pretty early when we finished, so we walked around the neighborhood for a while, later deciding to get tea and dessert at Le Pain Quotidien.
After that we returned to our room, figuring that we ought to repack our gear, get to bed, and get as much sleep as possible. Trowa awoke at 4:00 a.m. and took a cab to Nationals Park 45 minutes later to join the hydration team in advance of the arrival of the walkers. I awoke an hour after him and let taura_g sleep while I showered. I think we left the hotel around 6:00 a.m., walking to the Dupont Circle Metro station and taking the train to the Navy Yard station. We met some other walkers on the way. I was surprised by how awake I actually was, even though I really would have liked some hot chocolate or some tea.
We arrived at the stadium to find that most of the walkers were already there and milling around while waiting for the opening ceremony to begin. After taking our luggage to our designated gear truck, we joined the thronging sea of pink. Energizer, one of the major event sponsors, had pink foam bunny ears for everyone who wanted them (I wore mine for the whole walk). We stretched, filled up our water bottles, and listened to some moving remarks. Survivors paraded banners. We got revved up. And then we started walking.
On Thursday morning Mom drove us to DC, first to the new Washington Nationals Park, right on the Anacostia River, to drop Trowa off for his crew orientation day. We continued onward to Dupont Circle so that I could check us into the Embassy Suites hotel at N St. and 22nd St. (It's a really nice hotel, by the way, and with a AAA card had some of the more reasonable rates to be found in the city.) With that accomplished, Mom and I took a couple of hours to hang around Dupont Circle. I took her to Teaism, one of my favorite haunts in DC, where we got steaming mugs of chai and shared some seaweed salad and a plate of delicious seitan-spinach-macadamia stirfry. I also got us a couple of cupcakes from Hello Cupcake, a pumpkin spice cupcake with cream cheese frosting for Mom and a lemon cupcake with raspberry frosting for me.
By midafternoon Mom was starting to worry about leaving before rush hour traffic, so she dropped me back at the hotel. Conveniently, taura_g had recently arrived by train and had just checked in. We decided to explore the neighborhood for a bit, eventually ending up at Kramerbooks & Afterwords for smoothies. Trowa had messaged me to say that he was done with the crew orientation just a bit earlier, and he joined us at Kramerbooks. We sat outside, enjoying the pretty weather, then returned to our room for a while. I napped briefly while he searched for a place where all three of us could enjoy dinner -- taura_g really wanted a steak, Trowa is pretty easy to please, and of course I am a vegetarian.
We ended up having dinner at Sesto Senso, an Italian restaurant for which we were rather underdressed. The food was quite good, and though they did not turn out to offer steak on the menu, both taura_g and I very much enjoyed their excellent spinach ravioli. It was still pretty early when we finished, so we walked around the neighborhood for a while, later deciding to get tea and dessert at Le Pain Quotidien.
After that we returned to our room, figuring that we ought to repack our gear, get to bed, and get as much sleep as possible. Trowa awoke at 4:00 a.m. and took a cab to Nationals Park 45 minutes later to join the hydration team in advance of the arrival of the walkers. I awoke an hour after him and let taura_g sleep while I showered. I think we left the hotel around 6:00 a.m., walking to the Dupont Circle Metro station and taking the train to the Navy Yard station. We met some other walkers on the way. I was surprised by how awake I actually was, even though I really would have liked some hot chocolate or some tea.
We arrived at the stadium to find that most of the walkers were already there and milling around while waiting for the opening ceremony to begin. After taking our luggage to our designated gear truck, we joined the thronging sea of pink. Energizer, one of the major event sponsors, had pink foam bunny ears for everyone who wanted them (I wore mine for the whole walk). We stretched, filled up our water bottles, and listened to some moving remarks. Survivors paraded banners. We got revved up. And then we started walking.