Weekend Wars

This past weekend was one of those great weekends where nothing really happens to make it great, but it's great because you get a lot of stuff accomplished and it actually is relaxing.  Amongst other things, we attempted to go update drivers' licenses (I need to get a new one, L needs to update his address... which he can't do online for some reason), the lawn was mowed, I updated my closet by switching out all my winter and summer clothes in my closet and building a shoe rack for myself, and I finally finished a project that has been in the making since the Olympics.  I also made L go with me to a Junior League picnic for all of the transfers.  Back story: Mom gave me the CUTEST all-weather blanket, bag, and matching pillow about 2 years ago. 

 It's really for the beach (hence the pillow) but the only beach I've visited since she gave me the fun set was Hawaii (and it was packed up on the moving van), I decided that it would work for picnicking.  L has been less excited about the idea of a picnic than I have been since I first threw the idea out to him.  (This was not a surprise, as he is a man.)  We've used the blanket to watch fireworks from the Lincoln Memorial on his first 4th of July up here and yesterday we broke it out again for a picnic for the Junior League Transfers.  Hooray for cuteness!

The picnic itself was a giant CF.  Not enough planning.  The instructions literally said, "Look for the group on the grounds of the Washington Monument."  Well, if you've ever been, it's actually a REALLY big area with a hill in the middle (which is where the monument sits) so you can't see from one side to the other.  Also, there are always tourists everywhere, so it's not like there's going to just be an empty field with ONE small group standing around.  Also, it's important to note that since all of us are transfers, none of us know each other or who to look for.  Extra bonus for this weekend: it's the end of the Cherry Blossom Festival, thus PEOPLE WERE EVERYWHERE.  Starting to see the flaws in this plan??  The point of the picnic was to view the cherry blossoms around the tidal basin but sadly, the trees peaked about 2 weeks ago and consequently there weren't any yesterday. 

This resulted in Picnic 1.0 starting with 2 other couples (one of whom I already knew; the other couple saw us spread out our blankets and asked if we were with JL because they were lost, too) before we were "found" by the one Active who was heading the event up, so we moved over to Picnic 2.0 where they were.  Picnic 2.0 was in front of this amphitheater/stage thing where there were some performances going on.  Some visual aids:

We have no idea what was going on.  The preceeding groups had been an Irish children's dancing group (think Lord of the Dance) and some Japanese (we think??) children dancing with drums.  Kind of like the opening ceremonies to the '08 Olympics, but about 1/200 of the people and waaaaaaaaay less cool.  We're assuming this is the Japanese version of a Chinese dragon.  It bounced around the stage and then rolled over.

And that was that.  The final verdict on the picnic experience was that we were both glad to have gone- the weather was fantastic and it was so nice to see friends and make new ones- but we both agreed that it absolutely needed better planning.  Sunscreen would also probably be a smart add-on for next time.  Who knows- maybe we'll have more picnic adventures sometime soon!