Weird Trees, Sea Bugs, and a Couple of Thoroughbreds

Last week I was in Washington DC for a conference, so obviously it turned into a blogger meetup! I was going to stretch this trip out over a few days of posts, but so much has happened since then that I rewrote everything into this epic post, so please bare with me.

Sunday Night

Despite red eye flights being terrible horrible things to do to yourself, I also really hate wasting time. On Saturday, I went to the WHP event and saw Kate's crew plus David do their SJ/XC and then on Sunday, I went to a little festival my town has every spring. I knew I wanted to have a full day in DC before my conference started on Tuesday, so the only time to get out there was overnight. Regrets. I got two hours of sleep and was awake during my nedir. Ugh.

Why was Megan so weird on Monday?

Monday

Monday morning I was able to get checked into my hotel around 9:30, then Austen gave me a metro stop to get to. I'm a little bit slow at using new public transportation, but I figured it out and made it! Even though the first train I got on kind of malfunctioned so I was dragged back and then hopped on another train. It all worked out in the end.

Poor Austen because the second I saw her and Lyra, I definitely hugged Lyra first, then Austen. That dog is just SO CUTE. We stopped for Austen to get some coffee (I had just had some so opted not to over-over-caffeinate myself) and I got to hold Lyra, who I contemplated stealing, but I had no idea where I was.

Rode the metro!

We hopped in Austen's car and headed out to see Pig at Austen's beautiful barn. I was SUPER excited. I have been to the east coast exactly once (Boston for my grandparents' funeral), and I saw ZERO horses, so I was determined to see horses this time. 

As we were driving out, I noticed a few things: the trees are weird (something Emma said about the trees in the bay area when she was there last year), everything is freakishly green, and there are speed cameras that catch you, creating this weird slow down near them and then speeding off afterward. 

I expressed a little apprehension about humidity. I've been in humidity maybe a handful of times and I've hated it every time. I asked Austen about it and she's like "you know when there's a big fat guy sitting on your chest and covering your mouth with his sweaty hand?"... yeahhh sure that happens all the time, so I was well prepared?

It's beautiful out there but it is HUMID

Upon getting out to the barn, I got out and felt like I was drowning, but at least I was drowning at a beautiful place. Horse keeping on the east coast is so different than it is out here. I could write a whole post about how different it was.

I got to meet one of Austen's barn mates who is going to school near me, so that was cool. She had another husky and both he and Lyra started talking/howling and it was the CUTEST thing I've ever seen. After tacking up, Austen hopped on and we headed out to the field. Dude. Field. Every now and then I see east coast (and others, I know I've seen Texas bloggers doing it too) bloggers ride in fields and I'm so jealous. Where do these fields come from? Why are they not developed/a vineyard/used for agriculture/owned by a person who hates horses? Why are the squirrels not destroying the ground so much that you have to worry about stepping in a hole and breaking a leg? 

Austen's barn connects with a load of other barns and all of them have fields to ride in! Just the idea of being able to do dressage out in the open regularly makes me swoon. Why do you guys ever go in the arena? 

The cutest dog on the east coast

The first thing that happened was Lyra finding a fox and chasing after it. Then Austen chased after her on Pig to tell her to stop. Lyra's plans were foiled as the fox ran back into the bushes, though she stalked it the whole ride. It was fun to see Pig and Austen in person. Knowing how much Austen has gone through to keep him going through the years, it was great to see him looking sassy, super sound, and happy in his work. It's such a balance with older horses, I definitely went through it with Rico. 

Pig is also adorable by the way (sorry Pig, I know you're majestic, not adorable), he doesn't show his age at all and kept spooking at me standing in the shade, but he has that old horse wisdom in his eyes that reminded me so much of the way Rico looks these days. Like oh the things I've seen, woman. After hosing him down (oh my god so humid), we headed out to get some food and then drop Lyra off before zipping out to Emma's barn.

Hi Charlie!

I kept following along on the map and sort of got a good idea of where the cities were. Though I'm no east coast wizard, I still had to ask a nice lady at the conference where Delaware was. I definitely thought it was further north. 

Charlie had been a bad ass at his event the day before, so he got Monday off. I was still happy to meet him and pet him. Lots of petting. Seriously guys, I've never met a softer horse. He is the SOFTEST horse I've ever pet. I feel like a terrible owner because TC's coat isn't too great (just put him on Omega Horse Shine so hopefully that will help) right now and really has never been the greatest. 

We took a short barn tour while Charlie soaked his tail and ate some food. Emma's barn is beautiful and similar to Austen's in how the horses are kept. They stay in box stalls half the time and then go out in these giant turnouts with other horses (or private) half the time. I think it's so awesome, I really would love to find that sort of a barn around here, but it's just not happening. Oh well, TC seems to be happy in his paddock.

Charlie is strict with his tail conditioning

From Emma's barn, we went down to Baltimore for dinner and wandering around. I was really excited to see Baltimore as well as DC on this trip, even though I feel like I didn't get enough time in each place, it was nice to see a bit of everything.

The first thing that really stuck out about Baltimore is BRICKS. There were bricks in DC too but not as many as Baltimore, pretty much everything is brick there. In someone's house (we're creepy) there was even a brick that was painted to look like a brick house. In California, one small earthquake would crumble the bricks, so our houses are made very differently.

We parked by the harbor to wander around before dinner. I thought that since it was cloudy and had been getting cold at Emma's barn, that it'd be cold down in Baltimore, but it was not. It was hot and humid again, despite the overcast sky lying to me. So I left my sweatshirt in the car, woops.

The harbor is super cool, it reminded me a lot of Boston.

Everything is brick

For dinner, we decided to have crab at a restaurant where we could sit outside and see the water. I've never had crab like... out of a crab before. I'm not the most adventurous eater, but Austen and Emma assured me that they were delicious. And they were... but it was an interesting food experience. I was kind of made not hungry by the process to get to the meat, but it WAS really good. I had a couple and then ate the rest of the food we had at the table. I'm glad for the experience, but you know, maybe I'll stick with crab that someone else has already picked out of the body and put in something for me.

We wandered around the neighborhoods after getting some delicious ice cream. I was surprised by how many places had cellars/basements that you could get to from the outside, and again the bricks. The houses were crammed together a la San Francisco, but not very many of them had garages. It didn't seem like you really needed a car (unless you had a barn to drive to) though.

Tacos, Crab pasta, Calamari, and Austen!

I was hitting a wall by about 10:00 (still surprised I stayed up that late in the first place) after we were hanging out at a bar (and after I got my sweatshirt out of the car because I'm a pansy about weather), so Austen zipped me back to my hotel in DC and I immediately passed out and didn't move once that night.

Tuesday Morning

Tuesday morning I woke up after not quite enough sleep. But I was eager to get to see some of DC before I had to be at my workshop at 12:30.

I mostly took snapshots, not enough time to
try to be good at photography

The weather was weird when I got outside and I was instantly reminded that I actually have wavy hair, not straight hair, as the mist re-curled it from its blown-straight look. It was humid but overcast again, and it seemed like it was raining, but no one else seemed to think that. I stopped to get some tea and a bagel on the way down. I looked at the map and instead of taking the metro, I opted to walk. Walking was actually going to be faster given my location, and I almost never hit my step goal on conference days.

It was funny to see the random buildings as I walked. Oh, there's the US Mint. Oh, look, the department of such and such. Just all these places I've heard of. I guess it's similar in the bay area, like I drive past Moffet Field and Google all the time. See the Golden Gate Bridge at least once a month or so. But there was just SO MUCH. And I left the hotel at 9 needing to be back at 12, I had very little time.

Such a cool city

Ponies!

Priority was to see as much as I could just to experience it and then come back later to the places that I felt like I wanted to see for longer. Unfortunately EVERYTHING fell into the latter category so I was kind of screwed. I was so sleep deprived too, that I sort of felt upset about that. Oh woe is me, free vacation to this amazing place and I can't stay for weeks so I can see everything. Sleep deprivation makes me pathetic lol. Luckily bf really wants to visit at some point, so we'll be back out eventually, whenever we can swing it.

I got to the National Mall before all the museums opened. I walked down to the Washington Monument first, took a few pictures, then wandered back. I briefly stepped in the Smithsonian Museum, like the main building, then decided that I didn't want to spend time inside if I could help it.

From there I went to see the Capitol building, which was cool. I wanted to walk much closer, but again, very little time, must see everything.

Didn't get any closer unfortunately

Once as I did that loop, it was time for a museum. I chose the Natural History Museum and wasn't disappointed. I didn't get to see everything, but I did see the Mammals exhibit and was glad I chose this particular museum to wander around in for 45 minutes. It's ENORMOUS and all of the displays are beautiful. I love that the museums are all free, though I did buy two magnets because 1) always magnets and 2) gotta support the museums.

From there, I had some time to go down to the World War II memorial, where you can see the Lincoln Memorial from. I got some pictures from there and was frustrated to see that my time was up. In my sleep deprived state, I thought about blowing off my workshop and just wandering around all day, but I didn't. I walked back through the eclipse and took pictures of the White House (was kinda not enthused about seeing it, but at least our president seems to be playing golf more often than spending time there, so that made me feel better), found two horse statues, and made my way back to the hotel.

SO MANY PEOPLE

Didn't want to see him at ALL

It was a whirlwind of touring and by the time I got to the conference, I had walked nearly 16,000 steps. In three hours. Damn.

Wednesday Night

Wednesday night, Emma and I met down near the mall and had a drink before Austen found us after she got off work. Then they took me to experience east coast Mexican food!

Now, the thing is that I live in California, so while it was good food, it was definitely NOT Californian Mexican food. But it was still good! We had guacamole and some tacos, then headed out to a bar in a basement (literally had been in a basement like... twice before this trip) to have one last drink. By then I was so so tired so I skipped out, but did get excited about Austen's idea of going to get ice cream at Shake Shack (my first time there) after Emma had to go make her train. It was delicious and we wandered back to the train after eating and talking way too late for me having to be up for an 8:45am session. Oh well, totally worth it.

Pony statue

Overall it was SUCH a fun trip, even though I STILL feel like I haven't caught up sleep-wise. I can't wait to go back because even though I feel like I did so much over there, I really felt like I barely scratched the surface on DC!