Last weekend was the Apple Blossom Festival. On Friday, we decided to venture down to the Midway downtown and catch the firefighter's parade. We walked the mile from our house to Old Town and forced our way down Loudoun from Piccadilly to Cork Street, then back up to Washington Street. Not that the majority of you reading this have any idea of where I am talking about. This walk is usually easy and relaxing, but the sea of humans we had to push through made it a little less leisurely a stroll. We made it to Washington Street just before the parade started. Geez Louise was that a long parade! It started at 5:30. After an hour, AN HOUR!!, we decided to go find some grub for our growing-ever-crankier child.
We pushed through the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds and, after about a half hour, finally made it back to Piccadilly Street. When we reached Kent Street there was still a line of fire trucks as far as the eye could see. We crossed Kent and wound up at the Chop Stick Cafe and had a pretty decent dinner. The phở was nothing to write home about, and their version of Level 10 Spicy was Pat's version of Level 7 Spicy at best, but the staff was nice even though they were crazy busy and they had a kids menu which is always a plus at an Asian restaurant, and their prices were very reasonable, so I'm sure we'll be visiting them again. As we left the restaurant, after dark, we could hear the sirens at the end of the parade. The whole thing was like 3 hours long. Very very cool parade, but a bit of overkill if you ask me.
Saturday rolled around and, having had enough of the Apple Blossom Festival, we decided to head east to West Virginia (counter intuitive, no?) to see Harpers Ferry. It was a fun trip. We parked by the visitor's center and hiked in to town. Harpers Ferry is a very pretty place full of history, steep grades and old stairs. We didn't bring a stroller, but Hazen hiked the nearly 2 miles into town and up and down hills and steps all day like a champ. It was a great day trip and one we'll probably make fairly often. Despite the tourist traps, it is a beautiful place.
