The House On Canary: Day 2

Day 2 started out very very early. I didn't go to bed the night until 11:30 or so Virginia time, and only after forcing myself to try to fall asleep. The alarm rang at 3:25am! Yes, you read that right...3:25am! Chris and I had to drive to the base so that he could start his Friday bright in early. Except that it wasn't bright. It was pitch black and foggy. For those of us desert rats, fog isn't something we are too accustomed to. Of course, back when I lived in California, I was used to the fog, so I wasn't too worried about having to drive back to the hotel by myself in it. All I did was brush my teeth and we headed off on a 20 minute drive or so to the base. I had to take directions, on a chinese food takeout menu, on how to get back there later in the afternoon for the company picnic. Luckily I had been to this part of the base once before, so it wasn't too bad. We almost were to Chris' barracks, when I realized something. There were deer on base! For most people, I'm sure hitting a deer while driving never crosses their minds. This however is one of my biggest fear while driving in the dark in deer country. Glad to report though, that I managed to get back to the hotel in one piece, through the fog, without hitting any animals.

I went back to sleep until 8:30 or so and woke up to rain. Pouring down rain. I looked out the window in the hotel and saw a minor flood in the parking lot. This alone made me question why I was going to run errands in that weather. Luckily by the time I made myself nice enough to be able to appear in public, the rain had stopped. I went to Caribou Coffee, something we don't have in Arizona, and then I moved onto Target and Costco. My plan was to buy Chris a birthday cake at Costco, but I was really disappointed in their selection, so I had to head over the a grocery store and get something. I got his favorite, angel food with strawberries and whipped cream. After that I headed back to the hotel and got ready to go to the bbq. By that time, the sun had managed to come out and the rain looked like it had moved on other locations. I was pretty happy about that, since a bbq in the rain didn't seem like any fun at all.

The bbq was a lot of fun. I met a ton of people that I had heard Chris talk about. The grounds were really muddy and it was really windy, but other that that I loved it. We hung around there for a few hours, eating, drinking, and laughing a lot, and then we had to go to the barracks. I actually got to go inside and see what it was all about and let me say that I officially feel sorry for him. Each group of 6 has two rooms, a sleeping room and study room. Both are incredibly small, with little space for anything. It also smelled really bad when I walked in, but I give them credit because they had gone on a 12 mile hike in the rain that morning and all their gear was wet and in their rooms. It was also literally damp. I mean I walked in and it was wet in there. But I am happy to report that it was incredibly clean. They have room checks for cleanliness and I'm glad. We hung out with the roommates and then went back to the hotel. Chris slept and I hung out and then we met 4 of his friends in downtown Fredericksburg for dinner and drinks.

We had a ton of fun that night. I was excited to finally get out and have a good time. We went to the Capitol Ale House and had some dinner and beers. They have 70+ beers on tap, and it was fun to try different things. I also had this incredibly good sandwich of sausage and sauerkraut on pretzel bread with cheese. I can't wait to go back in a few weeks and have another one, it was that good. The place stuck us in the basement and that's probably a good thing, because we were all really loud, there was a lot of laughing that night. After dinner we headed over to an Irish pub, very interesting place because you can still smoke in Virginia in bars and such. I was not a fan of that part, because I was afraid that my hair and clothes would smell like smoke. Luckily we didn't stay too long and I came out unscathed. We headed home after that and went to sleep.

Here's some photos of Friday. Sorry for the long post, I forgot how much I can write and it just all started spilling out. Stay tuned for Day 3!