Dorothy Piotrowski’s blog

Once again I entered some of my photos into the 148th annual Paris Fair.  I was fortunate to have a few winners again this year.  I think next year I’m going to go for quantity instead of quality.

We got up and packed up the car for the long trip home.  We stopped and had lunch at the Dutch Pantry in Dubois, Pennsylvania.  We took a slight detour into Olean, New York so that we could stop by a Jo-Anns store to pick up cardstock for the Paris Fair.

We had dinner at Olive Garden in Hamburg, New York and then made our way to the Peace Bridge.  Once again, there were no problems crossing the border.  I think the last time that we had to pay was October 2003.

Since it was such a late night last night, we decided that we should sleep in.  Once we got up, we headed over to The Market Common.  This is a really fancy area of Arlington with lots of nice shops.  Liz told us about this store called The Container Store that we wanted to check out.  Boy am I glad that we did.  They have everything you need to organize any room in your house.  It’s two giant floors of organization.  Fortunately for me, there was a Crate & Barrel next door.  Nana has always wanted a Cuisinart Food Processor so I decided to pick one up for her.  We had a quick bite to eat at Baja Fresh and then we headed to the games.

Today’s games were being played at George Washington University in downtown Washington.  The first match was against George Washington and it didn’t go our way.  The AU Eagles lost the match 3 games to 1.

We needed to get some pictures for the Paris Fair, so we decided to walk down to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.  This is my second visit to this memorial and I find it very moving.  We didn’t spend too much time here since we only had one hour between matches.  On our way back to the university, we picked up a snack from the Pot Belly Sandwich Works.

The AU Eagles played the Georgetown Hoyas and won 3 games to 1.  Barry Goldberg, AU’s coach, invited everybody to join the team for dinner at Panera Bread.  We were lucky to be able to spend a bit of time visiting with Liz.

After dinner, we dropped Liz and Chelsa off at the apartment and said our goodbyes.  We headed back to the hotel and called it a night.

We got up early on Friday morning, had breakfast at the hotel and started on our journey to Washington.  On our way there, we decided to stop at the Antietam National Battlefield.  This is the site of the bloodiest one day battle in American history.  On September 17, 1862, over 23,000 soliders were killed.  It was very surreal to stand out and look over the corn fields and imagine the tens of thousands of soliders fighting there.

After our quick driving tour through the battlefield, we headed over to Harpers Ferry National Historic Park.  The lady at the front desk of the Super 8 told us that it was a very interesting place to visit.  A quote from the National Park Service website .. “visit to this quaint, historic community, at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, is like stepping into the past. Whether you stroll the picturesque streets, visit exhibits and museums, or hike our trails and battlefields, Harpers Ferry offers a wide variety of experiences for visitors of all ages”.  We spent a quick hour or so here but then had to get back on the road to Washington.

We got to the Holiday Inn Rosslyn at Key Bridge in Arlington, Viriginia around 4pm.  We dropped our bags off in our rooms and hit the indoor pool for a quick dip.  We walked over to the nearby Chipotle restaurant for a quick dinner before heading over to American University for the game.

The AU Eagles first home game was against George Mason and unfortunately they lost (game recap).  After the game, we headed over to the American City Diner for a late night snack.  The milkshakes were awesome.

We dropped Liz and her roomate Chelsa off at the apartment and proceeded to unload a van full of stuff for Liz.  We got back to the hotel around midnight and decided to call it a night.

Karen’s niece Liz is attending school at American University on a volleyball scholarship.  This happens to be her final year so we thought it would be nice to catch the pre-season tournament in Washington.

We left home around 9am and crossed the border without any troubles.  Our passports are sure getting a workout lately.  We called ahead to Cracker Barrel in Meadville, Pennsylvania to order our turkey dinners.  Yummy.  We got to our destination for the night, Super 8 - Hagerstown in Maryland around 5:30pm.  We met up with Karen’s brother Ross and his wife Susie.

We got back into the car and headed over to the Prime Outlets - Hagerstown to do some shopping.  After wandering around the mall for a couple of hours, we decided to have dinner at … you guessed it … Cracker Barrel.  After dinner we decided that we should call it a night.