Okay...so last weekend: a total and complete BLAST, but totally and completely exhausting.
Friday about 130, Paul and His Insanely Cute Boyfriend Travis arrived here from NY. We sat around and BSed while they recovered. Eventually, we went to High Rock and they got a view of the entire Cumberland Valley. We returned here and hung out again for a bit. I tried to coordinate with Kris for the four of us together, but he already had plans. So just the three of us went to The Valley Mall. We walked the whole length of the mall, checking out several stores. Travis bought a shirt and a pair of shoes as well as some shoe polish. Paul got a haircut. By then, we were hungry so we went to El Ranchero to eat.
We were seated and had placed our drink orders when Kris called me back. He was home, doing nothing and hadn't eaten yet. So I went and got him ("It'll take me 10 minutes TOP!" I told them. And it did.) So he got to meet them and we ate together. Afterwards, I dropped him off and the three of us came back here.
We went to The Lodge to see a drag show. It was a show sending a local drag queen, Stephanie Micheals, the currently Miss Gay Maryland 2012, off to the Miss Gay America 2012 pageant. And we all three gave dollars to various performers, since all of it went to Stephanie anyway.
Years ago, 15-20 years, when I was a regular at the old Deer Park bar, I knew Stephanie just cause we were both there so much. But I haven't seen her in at least 5, probably closer to 10 years. But when I held out a dollar for her, she totally remembered me. When I was at the bar getting a drink, she even came over, in between her performances, to talk to me a bit. We reminisced. It was great to catch up with her. After the show, there was much dancing, even some grinding into Travis's ass (after I asked Paul first to make sure it was okay) and much fun was had by all. We left a little after 1AM.
The reason they were coming down here again was to visit DC. I had assumed that meant the monuments and the museums, which it did. But they also wanted to sample DC gay nightlife. So once they were here, Paul found us a room at the DuPont Hotel, right on DuPont Circle for only $200 for the night! WHAAA? That's an amazingly good rate! So we took it.
Saturday, we drove to the Metro (and I didn't miss the turn off and have to take the toll road and pay a fee like we did back in June going to Pride) and took it to DuPont Circle. It was before noon, and as checkin wasnt until three, we checked the bags there, used the restroom and then started on our way.
We SHOULD have taken the Metro from DuPont to Smithsonian....but it was a beautiful day, not a long walk (from P Street down to about H Street), and I do like the walk. The weather was, as I said, beautiful. The sky was a sunny blue with white fluffy clouds, it wasn't humid OR hot, there was a cooling breeze. You just could not ask for better weather there.
We walked by the North face of the White House took some pictures, then continued east onto Pennsylvania Avenue towards the Capitol. We had only gone a few blocks when Travis started to really have pains in his feet. His shoes were cutting into his feet. At 11th street, we decided to find a shoe store, and follows Siri's advice, walked about three blocks north, checked out a few stores on F Street and ended up just going to a CVS and getting him some moleskin stuff to wrap up his feet. That helped somewhat. Then we walked back down 8th Street to Pennsylvania and continued on. This excursion took maybe an hour, wherein Paul found a lighter shirt, bought it and wore it, and I got some snack stuff at CVS to tide me over.
We walked across the Mall, taking photos of the Capitol as we went and then walked to the Air And Space Museum. We checked a few exhibits (the Moon on, the exploration of the other plants one, and one other I can't remember), and then decided, since it was after 1, to just grab a lunch at the McDonald's food court in the museum itself.
Then we set out for the Lincoln Memorial, this is one Travis wanted to see. It's like over a mile in distance, possibly closer to two miles. We took some pics around the Washington Monument and the WWII Memorial. We got to the Lincoln, hung out there a bit, took some photos, rested a bit.
Then things kinda fell apart. It has been years since I've been to that part of DC, and I frankly forgot how close, or how far away, the Metro stops were. We found the nearest one using our phones and set out. I truly thought it was like only three blocks or so. Turns out it was like four blocks east and six blocks north. And we were already so tired. And Travis' feet were so sore. I felt so bad. I did convince him to change shoes with me, as we wear roughly the same size. And I too felt the thing digging into my foot, but as my feet were a bit smaller I could move my feet around so it didn't actually hurt me that much or that long.
Finally, after the longer than expected distance and finding the one we were heading to closed (luckily there was another one nearby), we got onto the Metro. We rode that all the way back to the hotel and checked in. And then we got up to our room.
And oh my GOD what a room! I had stayed at this hotel about 8 years ago. Since then they had renovated, and it was amazing! The room wasn't terribly large, but it was comfy. The beds were okay, but the pillows...oh man, your head just sunk into them like into a cloud. There was a flat screen TV, a comfy chaise along the walls. The bathroom had a heated floor, a stand up shower with a window overlooking the Circle, the bathroom was divided by stained glass. Overall a great place.
We hung out there and recovered for a bit and then decided to get something to eat. And after looking at about six places, we finally decided on one. I only got the hamburger, but my GOD it was delicious. And the waiter there...oh my GOD, simply a black Adonis. Both Travis and I agreed on that.
We made it back to the hotel room in time to watch Doctor Who. That ended at 1000, and we had decided to go out to the clubs. So showers were needed, Travis needed to do ironing (again) (even my jeans!), and much much prep time. And so we finally got to Cobalt at midnight. We hung out there a bit, drinking, dancing, having fun. About 130am, I was done. So I showed them where JR's was, hugged them goodbye, made sure they knew how to get back to the hotel and returned to the room. I was asleep soon thereafter.
Later, I found out they were denied entry to JR's cause Paul was supposedly too drunk, so they went to a karaoke place and spent the rest of the time there. They sang a few songs, drank some more, Travis met a friendly young black guy like himself and had to fend off the repeated come-ons from a drunk, obnoxious white guy. They closed down the bar and got back to the hotel room about 330, I think.
I got up the next morning, showered, dressed, woke them up, and then while they got ready, I went to a nearby bookstore and looked around. I got back to the room, we got everything all packed up. After checking out at noon, we decided we need some food, so we went to the hotel's restaurant for the brunch.
I had three scrambled eggs with chives, three slices of Canadian bacon, toast, and a hash brown thingee. And a mimosa. LOVE mimosas, but this one was pretty strong. Travis had a similar meal to me, Paul had chocolate and strawberry pancakes. They both had bloody Marys. With tip, the bill was $80. No, I'm not kidding. Wow! I guess that's how the hotel can keep the room rates so cheap. But it WAS pretty damn good food. And really, when is the last time I actually ate brunch out anywhere? So whatever, it was worth it.
After this, we got on the Metro and made it back to Sebastian, who got us home safely. We then just hung out here doing nothing: Travis read comic books, Paul paged through a Doctor Who book, I was putzing around online all while we had a movie playing on the TV. We were just biding our time.
Kris got off work at 730, so we went to pick him up and then the three of us went to the Golden Corral buffet place where we gorged ourselves. Then we returned home here, watched some TV and hung out a bit before going to bed. Well Paul and Travis went to bed, my bed. Kris and I planned to sleep on the living room floor. That worked for a few moments, but after a while, my hip and shoulder were NOT having it. So I got up on the couch to sleep. Kris was content to continue to use the floor.
The next morning, Paul and Travis packed up and left about ten. Kris and I retired to the king sized bed for some much needed and long overdue bedtimesexxyfun, then we showered and headed out to get something to eat. And he wanted to go to High Rock, since it's one of his favorite places and he hadn't seen it since he got back. So off we went for my second High Rock trip in the same weekend. I then took him to work, came home here and since I was for the first time since Friday morning alone, I just crashed and did nothing the rest of the day.
Totally exhausting weekend, but totally completely fun! Can't wait to do it again.
....Just not right away, I haven't fully recovered yet.
POLT
PS
Picture post of the weekend forthcoming.
