Opening Day at the Nats

Today was the first day of the baseball season and we managed to get tickets for the opening game against the Atlanta Braves. We booked the tickets months ago and were hoping for a nice, sunny day but unfortunately we didn't get that, it was cold and wet!

After a couple of hours at work this morning, my team and I went out for brunch at Ted's Bulletin. We had been out for dinner there a few weeks ago and they do amazing milkshakes so we all wanted to visit again. After brunch we all headed to Nationals Park. Chris had been due to meet us at the ball park but couldn't get away from work which was a shame.

The rain wasn't too heavy so the game still went ahead. We were lucky to have seats undercover but it was still pretty cold. Last year, the first pitch was thrown by Obama, this year there was no big celebrity, it was 5 men from the 5 services. If you're trying to guess what the 5th service is, it's the Coastguard!




The game itself was pretty boring, Atlanta ended up winning 2-0. The Nats had played well during spring training but today they were just as bad as last year. Oh well, there are plenty of games left for them to improve! We're coming back to watch them play the Phillies in a couple of weeks time and also have tickets to see them play San Francisco in May. I'm looking forward to lots of warm, sunny evenings at Nationals Park over the next few months!

Cake and Pasties - the perfect food day!

After our visit to the cherry blossom trees yesterday morning we drove out to Virginia to a cake show. There were loads of amazing cakes on display and lots of stalls selling cake decorating things but I was hoping for some free samples so was a bit disappointed!



On the way back from the cake show we stopped off at a new Cornish Pasty shop Pure Pasty which the men in particular were very excited about. Chris has been waiting 15 months to taste a perfect pasty again and it was our friend Tracy's first experience of a pasty. We all filled ourselves up with pasties and sausage rolls and then walked around the corner to a frozen custard shop for dessert. Yum! I get the feeling we're going to become regular customers in the pasty shop!

Cherry Blossom

Washington is famous for its Cherry Blossom trees. They were a gift from Japan 99 years ago and every spring they attract huge crowds for the couple of weeks that they are in bloom. Last year I missed them because I was back in the UK so this year I was determined to get down there and take some photos.

We met up with some friends early this morning and had a walk around the tidal basin which is lined with the blossom trees. Peak blooming period is later this week but today was still pretty impressive.

Hello Springtime!

Lion Cubs

Today we went to the zoo to see the new lion cubs. There were two litters born in August and September to the two lioness sisters but they have only been out for visitors to see for the last couple of months. There are seven cubs all together and they were so cute running around play fighting with each other! We ended up watching them for ages, every time we went to walk away they'd do something else cute and we'd watch them for another 10 minutes.




The great thing about the zoo in DC is that it's free so you can just go along see one thing and go home again, you don't have to worry about staying to get your money's worth. After we finally pulled ourselves away from the cubs we had a look at the orangutans and the pandas. We finally thought we were going to see the orangutans swinging up on the O-line which is a cable running above the zoo which the orangutans use to move between different buildings but the orangutan was just teasing us and didn't seem to want to climb up it. I'm determined to see them swinging about on it one day!