Pencils of justice!

My sister made it out of the forest and came to visit last weekend!  We had a lovely time doing important things like exploring historically significant buildings, marveling at the awe of our nation's capital, AND...shopping.  Struck a nice balance, if I do say say myself.  One of her few DC-ish requests was a stop at the Supreme Court, which sadly isn't open to the public on weekends, so we hustled ourselves over there as soon as she got in on Friday afternoon.  Side note: it's kinda fun to hop in a cab and say "to the Supreme Court, please!"

We missed the last guided tour by a few minutes, but still had an hour or so to wander the hallowed halls of justice, which are so SO impressive...

...and we spent probably more time than is necessary admiring the set of self-supporting spiral staircases, which are just entirely too cool and lend themselves nicely to fun sister shots...

...and then we also found cool sculptures of the justices (justii?), and I had fun taking pictures of those because I take excessive pictures of absolutely EVERYTHING...

...and then because we were short on time, we cut short the educational/awe-inspiring part of the trip and headed over to the most important part - the gift shop, of course!  There we found quite possibly the most awesome board game ever...

...as well as PENCILS OF JUSTICE!!  How awesome are these?!?  Ok, probably not quite as awesome as I make them out to be, but any double-eraser pencil that basically functions as a Supreme Court gavel is pretty outstanding in my book.  These, of course, are the only thing we actually purchased.

Then, since we had some lovely late afternoon fall lighting in our favor, we had to do some Supreme Court photo shoots.  Good times were had by all, I assure you.

Then we went hunting for squirrels on our way over to Union Station....

...and stopped for some lovely shots of the Capitol, which also has its very own reflecting pool.  You're not so special, Washington Monument!

A delicate balancing act!

Upon our arrival at Union Station, we immediately had to ring the Freedom Bell.  And it actually did ring a little bit! 

After stopping by the convention center to pick up our tickets to see Paula Deen at the Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show (yes, the Queen of Butter!!), we headed in the general direction of home...and dinner...but not without a stop at a bar I've been meaning to vist, The Passenger.  It's a very cool bar that mixes very cool drinks and serves really tasty tiny olives and Marcona almonds.  I'm kinda in love.

Then we had some tasty Thai food for dinner and did exciting things like make a grocery list and go to Whole Foods (where we almost got stuck in the parking garage - not cool!) and chill to the "Gilmore Girls."  That's just how we roll.

We slept as long as Harry would let us (silly kitty!), then enjoyed some cake for breakfast along with LOTS of coffee and even more "Gilmore Girls," and then we pulled ourselves together and walked over to the convention center to take in the food insanity.  It will never cease to amaze me how people line up for free samples of ANYTHING.  Let's just say Amanda and I were big fans of the Northeast Beef Promotion Board (or something like that...I missed their actual name), where they were handing out STEAK NACHOS WITH GUACAMOLE.  And no one was lining up for this.  What is WRONG with you people?!?  At any rate, that satisfied us as we fought our way through the hordes and into the "theater" to check out Paula Deen in all of her buttery hilariousness.

And she did not disappoint.  This woman is a hoot.  I mean, truly ridiculous and quite entertaining.  We enjoyed her antics for about an hour and a half while also taking in the delicious smells of Thanksgiving that were wafting our way...cornbread dressing and glazed ham (I'm sure she would have opted for turkey, but seeing as how Smithfield owns her these days, it was most definitely a Thanksgiving ham) and sweet potato gooey butter cakes, oh my!

Then, time to escape the crowds and take in a quick afternoon snack at Busboys and Poets before heading home to embark on a tapas adventure.  We rounded up three kinds of Spanish cheese and a couple of cured meats and sliced French bread and scooped out quince paste and olives and grapes and then attempted to recreate patatas bravas (which I LOVED in Spain...and I'll tell you about them...I promise) and madengrilled chicken skewers and some of the most amazing cookies ever in the form of salted-almond honey wafers, which had me very concerned when we were attempting to make them happen...but they turned out to be delicious and amazing.  Oh, and of course there was sangria!  Then we had a couple of boys come over to eat all this food and watch football and have game night.  It was awesome.

Bobbing for apples, sangria-style

Quite a spread!  And yes, I made cheese signs out of sticky notes and toothpicks - it made me so happy. =)

Sunday was reserved for shopping adventures.  After all, what are sisters for?  Oh, and we also ate more cake.  Kinda perfect.  Great weekend.  Photo spread available here.