A Week-end Away

Bernie and Carol invited me to Chestertown for a special week-end, Downrigging Weekend.

According to the brochure, "It all started back in 2001 when the newly launched schooner SULTANA and the PRIDE OF BALTIMORE II took a casual sail together on the Chester River just before both vessels"downrigged" for the winter."

Both captains thought they should do it again and so Downrigging Week-end was born.

It has evolved into one of the largest annual Tall Ship gatherings on the East Coast.

Co-Host Bernie in the kitchen

       My bedroom was perfectly lovely!


A little statue of Dante next  to a tall vase of flowers

Carol and I walked around the town and spent a lot of time chatting. On Saturday evening we went on a cruise and saw the illuminated ships from the river.

A very fun week-end.

On the way home on Sunday, I stopped on Kent Island to have a three-hour lunch with my friend Robin. Great! We hadn't seen each other for a very long time. Too long!

                                            Carrot cake to end the lovely lunch on a sweet note

A Saga

Our Norwegian Reading Circle had a wonderful discussion of the Orkneyinga Saga at the Norway House.

Marie, Tim, Christine, Lynn, and John (photo by Linda)

Adam Showcases the Masters

George and I went to a wonderful concert given by Adam Levin, a Fulbrighter to Spain, at the Spanish Embassy's residence.

He composed several works in honor of the Masters of Spanish guitar.

A Very Special Lecture

Gertraud, Ginny, and I met at the National Cathedral to have a bite to eat before attending the Inaugural Eudora Welty Lecture. The author chosen to give the lecture was Salman Rushdie.

We ordered our food in the Open City (formerly the Herb Cottage) and took it into the Bishop's Garden for a lovely picnic. It was a surprisingly warm evening, almost 80 degrees, perfect for eating outside.

Almost 1000 people attended the lecture in the nave of the Cathedral. Rushdie's assignment was to talk about his beginnings as a writer.

The event was sponsored by the PEN/Faulkner Reading Series.

This lecture was inspired by the lectures that Welty delivered in 1983 at Harvard in which she surveyed her own life as a writer and discussed the links between her childhood in Jackson, Mississippi, and her literary voice.

She had said, "The events in our lives happen in a sequence of time, but in their significance to ourselves they find their own order, a timetable not necessarily -perhaps not possibly - chronological. The time as we know it subjectively is often the chronology that stories and novels follow; it is the continuous thread of revelation."

Pinstripes

I have joined an advanced  Italian conversation meet-up which meets every two or three weeks at the Pinstripes restaurant in Georgetown. It is a very nice group of interesting individuals who love Italy and the Italian language.

Thai with my Name Sister

Christine and I met at T.H.A.I. in Shirlington Village. As usual, an enjoyable lunch with stimulating conversation and good food.

a selfie!

Old Towne with Marie

It was a very beautiful day, warm and sunny. Marie and I drove to Old Town.

We first had a very tasty lunch at Extra Perk on Fairfax Street. 

We then went to the Torpedo Factory. We were most fascinated by the beautiful artworks of Fiber and Glass Artist Ruth Gowell seen in the photo below with Marie.

Marie and the artist

She combines textiles and glass to make beautiful creations.

Textiles

Sue and Christine

Adventure with Janet and May

We began our adventure with a tour of Woodlawn, a home that was built during ColonialTimes by descendants of George Washington. A very lovely home with a view of the Potomac in the distance and not far from Mount Vernon.

Our excellent guide invites us to ascend the spiral staircase to the second floor. (May in the black sweater.)

This is the bedroom where Lafayette used to sleep. You can see his portable desk!

A bedroom of the house

Then we had a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's Leighey House. It was very interesting to visit and hear about it.



The final act of our adventure was lunch at the period restaurant at Mount Vernon.

A lovely day!!!

French Bakery

Betsy and I met at Tyson's for a delicious lunch at Paul's, a wonderful French cafe.

A Spanish Birthday

The Birthday Boy

I took George out to lunch for his birthday. He chose the restaurant and his choice was the majestic X.

I had a salad as my main course and rice pudding for dessert. The pudding was fantastic, the best rice pudding that I have ever had. The ambiance too was very special. It seemed that there were few Americans in the restaurant. Most seemed to be Spanish or other nationalities. It was a real treat to go to this special restaurant.