Old Town

Well well, it's finally the weekend. Wesley and I have renamed Saturday to "Funday" as our new day of the week because we always have fun on Saturdays!! Anyway, before we get into the weekend, I am going to backtrack into the work week.....

Work has been going GREAT. I am getting a lot of responsibility and am even doing a Embassy induction for a Diplomat on Tuesday!!! So I am really enjoying it. They are always seeming to have parties... Wednesday was someone's last day so we had champagne, etc etc. On Thursday we all received an email saying there was an "open house - private office." Me... not knowing anything... was like... what is the private office?? Well, it just so happens to be the Ambassador's Office. We all were able to go up there (because we usually don't have clearance to go in) and they had tacos, dip and chips, and all sorts of other food. They were also serving Pimm's. Pimm's is an extremely British drink that is typically drank in the summer. It is a combination of Pimm's liquor, ginger ale, and lemonade. It's so good!!!! I had two... yes two alcoholic drinks at work. Still something I am getting use to. Before I tried it I asked one of the women I work with who is Scottish if they were similar to Mint Juleps... which she of course didn't know what it was and I had to explain it to a huge group of Brits and they thought it was soo funny.

Anyway, the point of this blog was to tell about Old Town Alexandria. By hopping on the Yellow Line and riding the Metro for about 20 minutes you are taken into Virginia, and more specifically, Alexandria, VA. Old Town is considered one of the oldest settlements/towns in the United States. We walked the 16 blocks down to the Waterfront where they just so happened to be having an Irish festival which we walked around for a minute. King Street is the middle of it all and there are TONS of little shops, restaurants, and bars. On one of the side streets we stumbled upon this little shop called Grape + Bean (www.grapeandbean.com). They had all sorts of fantastic wine I had never seen (it is also a coffee shop, but who cares about that! haha kidding kidding) and it's all reasonably priced. I immediately thought of my Dad because of all the great wines! Anyway, we got a reuseable bag from there for .99 cents and we plan on going back! I'll have to get back on how the bottle we got tastes. Anyway, Wesley and I aren't sure what we're going to do tonight - maybe go to Dupont Circle for some dinner and come home. Where the wind..... well, actually the Metro........ takes us!!!!!!! Until next time............


Oh yea. This is Lauren.. by the way. :)