Really, did I think yesterday morning was painful? Arrived in ATL around 6:30am, arrived in Baltimore around 9am. Got to my dad's house around 10:30. He finished packing, we had a bite to eat, then he drove to National Airport to fly to Denver for a week-long conference at which he's giving a short course. The drive was most of the time we got to see him, and both Erik and I were passing out! I was a bit worried about driving back, but managed to stay awake with the windows down. Since it was "on the way" we stopped at Taipei Tokyo Cafe on Rockville Pike for lunch. Next door, Anthropologie was having a giant tent sale, so I tried on about thirty things and they all made me feel like Mrs. Stay-Puft. A pox on that place! I am not a willowy blond native Californian, nor will I ever be (no offense to you, ladies).
Hm, the next part's a tiny bit of a blur. We went back to my dad's house, and I napped. Erik worked on job apps. Around 7pm we went to Brookside Gardens and played with the incredible macro lens that Lake has loaned us. It was so much fun to discover tiny tiny leaping spiders and hovering flies and the overtly sexual innards of flowers, but the light was fading and we didn't get many decent photos. Next, on to Udupi Palace for dinner-- probably my favorite Indian food of all time. After that, since we were near-ish (for the DC area), we drove through Takoma Park and ate slices of vegan cake outside. Mine was supposedly chocolate cheesecake, but had nothing cheesecakey about it. Okay, I hear your rollyeyes, but most items called "cheesecake" have a certain dense-pudding consistency, regardless of ingredients, and this was straight cake! It was okay, but not great. I didn't finish it, if that tells you anything.
After that, we tried to find a movie theater at Wheaton Plaza (renamed Westfield Shoppingtown about ten years back, but how could I possibly bring myself to casually drop a "word" as odious as the latter? Truly, it's outrageous. Truly, truly, truly outrageous.). The main one was totally shut down, and the in-the-mall one had disappeared without a trace. What an odd mall. At one point it had been cleaned up and was considered fancy, now it's ghost townish and quite tarnished. Everything in Macy's was 25% off and really crappy polyester. Maybe that's the thing for this season, but I certainly didn't find a better dress for the wedding tomorrow there. We went to Giant for soymilk and eyedrops, and then came home. Wow, it's almost midnight here and I'm more awake than I have been all day!