Captain Toby Takes Me Fishing - August 23, 2008

In my years of experiences, I have found when you draw someones arm behind their back and bring it up so high they can scratch their neck - well they tend to invite you out fishing. Just kidding! Captain Toby Lloyd once again took me fishing and this time we tried our hands at catching "blues". Toby did inform me that these fish are pretty much on the bottom of the food chain as far as eating goes, but they are a hoot to catch. I won't tell you how many we did catch and release, but I will tell you I did catch twice as many as Toby did. He says he was just being a gracious host - which of course he is!

Toby at Thomas Point Lighthouse


Couldn't let Toby be in every picture.


A picture at Blood Point - this lighthouse was for sale but not sure if anyone purchased it.

I had a great time with Toby - the only thing is we forgot to take a picture of one of the "many" blues we caught. Guess you will have to wait until the next time Toby takes me out - which I hope happens real soon!!

South Dakotans Gathering at Meidingers - August 22, 2008

Cindy, Lorrie, Jim, Lana and Jack Nesbit, and Vicki Larson.

Jim and Lorrie Meidinger invited the South Dakota Mafia over for supper, drinks, and a whole lot of fun. We all happen to work in the Department of Ag building - well, except Jack. Jack is married to Lana and he is a born and raised east coaster. We plan on making this a monthly event and we will be hosting the next gathering.

Laurie Johnson and Amie Horvath come to DC - August 10, 2008

Our newest guests currently reside in Chapel Hills, NC. Laurie Johnson and Amie Horvath are both "Traveling Nurses" that came to spend a few days with us seeing the sights in the greater DC area.


They fought the tough traffic from Richmond to Alexandria so we knew they would be hungry when they arrived. After a few beverages of our choice we fed them Steaks, King Crab, and Shrimp.

First night at Alexandria


Steaks - King Crab - Shrimp Anyone?

With the Bartender at O'Donnels

We had to show them a little of the night life and of course we took them to a couple of our favorite spots. Chadwicks and O'Donnels are two of those that we tend to show up at.

With the Bartender at Chadwicks

At the Iwo Jima Memorial

The girls spent their days seeing all the usual sights around the National Mall. We never tire of showing people around - you would think one could only see the Washington Monument 10 or 15 times, but, the sights are so amazing we never tire of them.

3 Hotties at the Theodore Roosevelt Island

The Roosevelt Island is one we have never been to - it is a short hike but well worth it.

Checking out the Fish Market

The Fish Market is always a fun stop for newbies. The trouble is - we still can't get anyone to order the baby octupus???

Aren't they just cute!

Laurie and Amie at the King St. Waterfront

Eating at Pines of Florence

We have heard from other "Traveling Nurses" that the Pines of Florence is a great place to eat so the girls took us out on our Anniversary. We must say the food was excellent and the company even better. If you are ever feeling ill - my recommendation is to call these two!

On the Metro

Gretchen Wilson - August 9, 2008

After the Brandts left on Friday we were feeling a little bored so we decided to head to Wolf Trap which is America's National Park for the Performing Arts. It is a beautiful outdoor theater area which hosts a wide variety of concerts and performances. Check out Wolftrap.com to see what all they have. We happen to arrive on the night Gretchen Wilson was performing. This is one of Cindy's favorite country singers and I must admit this girl can perform! She comes from Pocahontas, IL and sings songs like Red Neck Woman, Here for the Party, Pocahontas, and Homewrecker. We took about a 40 min. Metro ride and then bused for another 15 minutes. It is first come - first serve for finding your place on the "lawn". They do have reserved seating but we heard sitting on the ground and bringing your own lunch and beverage is the way to go. So we picked our spot on the lawn, sat back and enjoyed the evening. The warm up band was a guy by the name of Randy Houser. He is an up and comer in the country music world after only 18 short years writing and performing and currently has a hit single called "Anything Goes"

Just waiting for the fun to begin.

Cindys just "Here for the Party"

Picture of the stage area.

Another pic of the stage



Gretchen Wilson doing her thing.



Another song to enjoy.



Gretchen can really sing!

Randy Houser - the new man on the scene.

Brandt's Take on DC - 2008

The Brandt family (Kelly, Lisa, Courtney, Carissa, Paige, and Jayden)were the next group to visit us on the East coast. They arrived in DC on July 30, and departed August 8. They began their journey staying at the KeyBridge Marriotte in Arlington and stayed there 3 nights. Finally they came to our place on Saturday and we found that 8 people can live in a 2 bedroom apartment and everyone keep their sanity. Of course they did all the main sight seeing adventures like most of our guests - touring the Capitol, the monuments, some Smithsonians and more. They also spent a couple of days in Hershey PA loading up on chocolate. We had an great time with them and really enjoyed their visit. The kids were absolutely amazing - they were so well behaved which certainly means they have been brought up properly by 2 great parents.

Here we are practicing being Grandparents. We figure we could handle around 10 Grandchildren - hint hint Dustin/Christi/Bryan/Jessica. This picture was taken near the Tidal Basin in DC

Here is the Brandt family at the F.D. Roosevelt Memorial.

4 Good looking girls at the Jefferson Memorial.

Here Paige is doing tricks in the pool!

Here Carissa stopped swimming just long enough for us to get a picture.

More fun in our pool.

Some of those statues look so life like!

Eagles Concert

July 26th - As if the Redskins scrimmage was not enough excitement for one day, we got home, showered, and headed - without tickets - to the Verizon center to see if we could catch the Eagles concert. We tried buying tickets online but the cheapest we could find were $195 a piece. After more than a few scalpers we finally found a guy who sold us 2 tickets for only $150. We were more than satisfied as they played hit after hit beginning at 8:30 and ending at Midnight - three encores total. They did take a quick break which allowed us time to grab a beverage of our choice. If you ever get the chance we really recommend you see the Eagles in concert. They know how to put on a show!



Just press play - sorry about the quality as this was taken with our digital camera. The concert, however, was awesome.

Washington Redskins Scrimmage

On July 26th we decided to go see the Washington Redskins scrimmage. It was a warm day so only 28,000+ Redskin fans showed up. Later we found out from some FSA co-workers that Cindy and I were on TV during a sports broadcast of the scrimmage.

Do these dresses make us look fat?

It was great to see the legendary "hogs" making their way through the crowd.

QB Jason Campbell

Leading the skins will be Jason Campbell who looked awfully sharp during the scrimmage.

Moss Getting a Drink

Santana stopped by for a drink after making some pretty nice catches.

Taylor To The Rescue

Injuries brought Jason Taylor (#55) from Miami and this guy is really put together.

The Cheerleaders

And what would a team be without its Cheerleaders.

Superbowl Trophies on Display

Three Superbowls trophies - hey - its only 2 more then the Jets have! How many does your team have?

Fishing the Chesapeake

Captain Toby Lloyd and Jeff

On July 12 we finally had the opportunity to do some fishing on the east coast. A fellow FSA employee offered to take us out on the Chesapeake Bay near the Bay Bridge. Captain Toby has been fishing the bay his entire life and he showed us a great time. We were fishing for stripers but we were early as they really start to show up in this area in August.

Bay Bridge

Cindy catching the bait
The first thing we had to do was catch the bait. Here is Cindy holding what is considered a trophy bait fish called a spot. To catch spot we used blood worms which look like a regular worm but we came to find out that these critters bite. Yes they have mouths and teeth but they do work to catch spot.

Listening to the croaker
Along with the spots we also caught croakers which look pretty similar. To keep croakers they have to be a certain size and that would be too big to fish with. They do make a croaking sound when they are out of the water.

Toby's Boat

Although we had a riot we were unsuccessful in catching stripers. Toby said he would be happy to take us out again and I am sure we will take him up on his offer.

AT & T Golf Tournament

On July 5th we had the opportunity to see the AT & T National Golf Tournament at the Congressional Country Club. As luck would have it, Tiger Woods just had knee surgery so he was unable to attend. Also to our dismay, you can't bring cameras in so this is the only picture we could show you. On the upside we did get to see Rocco Mediate who took Tiger to a playoff in the Open; Camilo Villegas - a favorite of Cindy's who is a pretty flashy dresser from Colombia; as well as Choi, Couples, Furyk, Allenby, Hamilton, and eventual winner Anthony Kim. We had a great time hanging around 9, 10, 15, and 18th holes. We are thinking of getting tickets for the entire event next year.