Suzie's Visit, Day 3

Today was by far the most exciting day of Suzie's visit!

When we were communicating via email before her visit, she mentioned that she had a long run scheduled for Friday and asked if I wanted to join her. Eek. Honestly, the last time I ran was the 8K in March. However, I didn't want to look like a total sissy. "Well, how long is long?" "The goal is to run for 50 minutes straight." Ok, I thought, that's roughly 5 miles, like an 8K. I think I can do that. We started running together for about half the run, but then I started to fall behind. I considered myself lucky that I made it through the whole run without stopping or passing out. I think I need to revisit incorporating running back into my exercise routine.

After we got back and got cleaned up, we went to Brookside Gardens to walk around and see some pretty flowers and wildlife. The pond was full of turtles and fish. There was also one lonely frog. Then we went to the local library and used book store. I picked out some books that I wanted to read and also the movie My Neighbor Totoro, which we planned to watch later on in the afternoon.

Finally, time for lunch (leftovers from the two previous nights' dinner) and a movie! Suzie brought a pineapple cupcake mix so we baked them so that we would have something to share with Meg and Robyn when we see them later on in the day. While the packaging said pineapple cupcake mix with pina colada cream cheese frosting, I don't think the flavors really came out, but the treats came out really good. We ended up putting in the movie, eating two cupcakes each, and passed out in a food coma, totally missing the second half of the movie.

Robyn's concert band was playing in Alexandria so we met up with Meg to go sit in the audience. The concert was held in a big square so people could come and go with their kids and dogs. One of the dogs had an accident right in front of us and the owner was clearly mortified. In a rush, she looked for something to pick up the mess with. She kept apologizing for her dog. The onlookers were very sympathetic and laughed with her. Meg helped with giving her a plastic bag and another group of people gave her some napkins. Whew.

After the concert, we went to Il Porto, an Italian restaurant, for dinner. Meg and I had ravioli, Suzie had lasagna, and Robyn had seafood pasta. We asked for a refill of bread several times because it was so good and we were starving! The food was fantastic! :)