Return to DC Life

We’ve been back in DC for thirteen days now. It’s strange and wonderful, and despite all the crazy and stress, we’ve made the most of it.

I realized I kind of glossed over the move home, probably because it’s all a blur to look back on. We had so much fun during those last few days in São Paulo that we were a bit sad to leave, but in truth, we’d been missing DC like crazy and were really glad to get back.

Our flights home were relatively uneventful. I was able to doze off and on during the red-eye from Brazil to Newark, until the bumpy final hour when my very minor flying jitters were put to the test. In Newark, Ashton sailed through customs – all that paperwork and barely a glance, figures.

Our last flight was delayed, so we used one-time passes to access the United club lounge for free breakfast. After that it was one slightly unnerving 40-minute prop plane ride and we were home for good.

We didn’t schedule any downtime into our return. We went straight to DC to see the apartment in Navy Yard we rented sight unseen. Luckily, we love it!

Later that night, we drove back to Virginia to Tom’s parents for a spicy Thai dinner with his family. The next morning, we were up early to move into our apartment. The movers worked freakishly fast. Three hours we were alone and surrounded by boxes of stuff we had no memory of packing. The weekend was spent in a frenzy of unpacking, Target and Ikea shopping until we literally couldn’t stand anymore and fell into coma-esque sleep each night.

I typically consider myself a master of packing and unpacking, but this whole international moving process threw me for a loop. What to keep versus what to throw out? Where would I have thought to put that five months ago? Did we keep those glasses or throw them away? It’s been a bit of a mess.

We’re finally all unpacked, but have one more cabinet/shelf to assemble before we can put everything in its proper place. Then we have to hang everything on the walls, decorate, get some rugs, hang curtains (the worst of all moving chores!) and all will be settled.

Unusually for me though, I’m not freaking out too much over the disorder. I think living in Brazil broke me of some of my former habits. I’m not as OCD with cleaning as I was before we left. And we’ve found more than enough to do outside of the apartment. So much so that it’s left little time for lamenting our bare walls.

We’ve gone for lots of walks in our new neighborhood, which I love. We’re a few blocks away from Yards Park and the Anacostia River, which is far from the most scenic waterfront in the world but loads better than no water at all, since my ultimate goal is to live somewhere with a water view. Even if it’s a shack in the woods overlooking a little stream. Although that probably wouldn’t happen because there are too many spiders in the woods. But you never know.
A major priority is to focus more on being healthy in the coming months, and the calm and scenic walks we’ve gone on have been a great start toward that goal.
There’s a little boat shop with kayaks for rent I’d also like to check out before it gets too cold.
We’ve also taken advantage of some of the great restaurants in our area (more on that to come) and I love that the area is safe enough that we can take an after dinner stroll before heading back home.
We were kind of worried that the area would be super chaotic during Nationals games, since the stadium is also very close to our apartment, but so far it’s been a non-issue. The traffic really isn’t bad, and we’ve noticed no noise from fans on the streets or the games themselves.
We’ve gone to one game so far and even though the Nats’ season has taken a turn for the worse (and even though I’m far from a baseball fan), we hope to go to at least one more before it’s over. It’s just so darn convenient. We even had our first getaway already, having spent this past Sunday in Virginia wine country.
We caught up with our friends at Maggie Malick’s Wine Caves, where we’ll still be pouring wine once or twice a month, and went to another favorite, Stone Tower Winery.
Ashton has clearly settled back into his old lifestyle, aka begging for cheese.
Doesn’t he look like quite the proper gentleman in this family portrait? I look all squinty. Tom looks great. This is how all of our photos tend to go…

I’ve also already made time to catch up with old friends, and new, for happy hours and dinners such as this one at Masseria, which was epic, as I’m sure you can tell by the fact that we’re toasting with cheese. This is how every meal should start.
And that’s more or less what it’s been like since we’ve returned to DC life. Stay tuned for some new restaurant reviews and other fun posts as I continue to explore my new neighborhood and the rest of the city to see what I’ve been missing all summer.