ACTIVATED CHARCOAL, discuss! I’ve seen it advertised as a miracle whitening powder for teeth; and as a purifying face mask/pore cleanser – but imagine my surprise when the cocktail I ordered arrived with an activated charcoal ice cube in it!
A massive black ice cube! 
I felt cosmopolitan and sophisticated for all of about 5 minutes until my lovely gin and lemon infused drink turned into a gritty, sludgy, inky mess – with a smile to match – beautiful!
We’re in Washington for a few days you see. Mostly to do a Parkrun (what else?), but also to take in some of the culture and history.
The drink shenanigans didn’t stop with my black swamp cocktail though – Dave had his Guinness served in a jam jar and he wasn’t very amused!
We’ve never been to Washington before, but as a city it certainly doesn’t disappoint. As the taxi driver from the airport said – it’s like a little New York – and we’ve been to New York many times – so it did feel familiar. Apart from the charcoal and the jam jars!! Oh my – and the buffalo wings!
We love grabbing a drink at a bar, ordering wings and watching sport (in this case the Winter Olympics*) when in New York, so we followed suit here in Washington – although we do think someone was having a laugh with the chilli – the wings were soooo hot. Check out the size of our lips!!!
Washington itself has so much to offer. The White House, Capitol Hill, National Mall, Arlington Cemetery, National Zoo, Monument, Lincoln Memorial, Post Office Tower, Space and Aviation Museum, Roosevelt Island- are some of the places we’ve visited, but there is so much more! We’ve walked absolutely miles; baked in beautiful summer-like sunshine; shivered in minus temperatures – and as I write the snow has started! AND – it is all free! We haven’t spent a penny. Every single attraction is free – and at this time of the year Washington is relatively quiet as well. 
Have you seen ‘House of Cards’? We loved it – well not so much now that Spacey has been outed – but the opening credits always made me laugh with all the different vistas of the Capitol Building. It’s a private joke between Dave and I that I point at it every time it’s on the screen. Imagine my excitement being able to do it for real!! You can even see it from our hotel room – if you stick your head out of the window at an angle!
Valentines Cards? It was Valentine’s Day when we flew out and there was a really awkward moment in the taxi on the way to the airport when I realised I hadn’t got Dave a card.
I pondered why I hadn’t got him one. I’m sure I’ve got him one every year previously since we’ve met, so why didn’t I get him one? Had advertising let me down? Did I forget? Did I think about it and decide ‘no’? Did I get him one last year? He hadn’t given me one so far either, so I thought it was safe to fess up!
To my utter relief, he hadn’t even thought about the fact that he hadn’t got me one either. We are so in tune!!! Haha!!
Dave’s favourite film is Forrest Gump and I’m his Jenny – so we had a go at reenacting this scene at the Lincoln Memorial (although I wasn’t brave enough to run across the water – and there were signs forbidding you – and there was no need as no crowds). 
So, Saturday morning saw the main event – PARKRUN!! Dave was a bit worried it might be cancelled because of the cold weather and threat of ice, so was busily plotting our route to the next nearest one (there are three around Washington). We’d already decided that we’d walk the what turned out to be 6 miles to the start line. In hindsight this was really, really silly because the run was on an island and it took us a lot longer to navigate the bridge than we thought- plus I needed a wee – standard – but particularly after an hour and a half yomp.
We arrived at the start line and I was in ‘wee agony’ and Dave having easily popped into the bushes himself was trying to point out convenient places for me to do the same. All he managed to do was make me crosser and more resentful of the male ease when it comes to wees!!
Luckily there was a ‘temporary’ toilet 1/2 mile from the start line, but the run director “couldn’t guarantee what state it would be in” – but I didn’t care. He shouted after us “we’ll wait for you before we start”.
Wee done my mood lifted. Such a friendly parkrun. Approximately 50 runners and the run director himself was originally from Banbury. He’s finding it difficult to get Parkrun to take off- which is bizarre given that Washington is full of runners.
The run itself was pretty and along a boardwalk and up and down through the woods. I came first in my age category (I was also the only runner in my age category – but still first, so Pah!!) 
Only joking about the Valentine cards!!!
*Curling – we think we’ve worked out the rules now – but what if there is a draw???
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And there is something magical about being up and about before sunrise. Before cars and buses and people take over. It’s so quiet.
