Fall 2010: Nation's Triathlon, Philly, Boston Sports Extravaganza, Charger Football x2 and More!

In September, the heat was (finally) winding down and we had some beautiful weather! Perfect weather for a triathlon, no?

We had been monitoring the weather and the temperature of the Potomac River the week leading up to the Nation's Triathlon and were hoping that the water temperature would cool down. Apparently, if the water is above a certain temperature, you can't wear a wetsuit during the swim and Joe wasn't too comfortable doing this particular race in the open water without a wetsuit. Luckily for him, the steaminess was subsiding this particular week and wetsuits were allowed. The day before, Joe and I went down to West Potomac Park so that he could rack his bike and do a practice swim in this:

Yeah, that's what I thought too. Some photos of the day before race:
Fast-forward to O-dark-thirty the following morning and that once beautiful day now looked like this:

Race participants lining up by age group and gender; Joe wasn't too thrilled to be in the "pink" group:

The entire summer, Joe couldn't wait to be done with the triathlon; any free time he had on the weekdays after work and on the weekend was spent training and he could. not. wait. for the thing to be done with. "I'm retiring from triathlons after this," he said numerous times. Of course, immediately after the triathlon, he said, "Hmm, that wasn't too bad. I wouldn't mind doing another one." Go figure. We'll see how that goes. In the meantime, more triathlon pictures can be seen here.

A couple of weeks later, Joe and I went back to Mount Vernon in October for the Fall Wine Festival. We thought it would be a wee bit different from the Spring Wine Festival we went to a few months earlier, but no dice. Same festival; same pictures.

I failed to mention that this time around we went with work peeps again minus the cool kids. So, it was a bit painful. But, we may have had too many sips of wine that night because we look so happy to be there! I didn't take too many more pictures, but the others can be seen here.

For Joe's birthday weekend, we took a short road-trip to the City of Brotherly Love. I had already planned to use vacation days for a trip at the end of October, so we only had two days/one night in Philly. That meant hitting all the touristy spots -- first stop was Eastern State Penitentiary. (Nothing says love like prison!)

After Eastern State, we hoofed it over to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see the Rocky Statue and the steps.
When we got to the steps, we didn't have an urge to run up them... but there plenty people there who did. And I didn't have a problems taking pictures of them -- even if one was a man of the cloth! :-)

I thought he was awesome! A few other photos from the rest of our trip:

And my most absolute favorite place:
There was so much more we wanted to see, do and EAT (!) but couldn't since we were only there for a weekend; we will definitely go back as soon as the weather warms up. No pictures of food this time around, but the food we had (here and here) was absolutely FANTASTIC. More pictures from our Philly weekend, including a gazillion Eastern Pen pictures and photos from a high school hockey game we stumbled across, are here.

For Joe's birthday, I treated him to a Boston Sports Extravaganza (BSE). BSE Part One was here in DC:

This game had a GREAT start! (As you may know from previous posts, this is my absolute favorite part of hockey!)

You know you love my stalker/paparazzi-zoom snapshots. :-) Back to the game:
Not even the "Toot-Toot-Toot... LET'S GO CAPS!" chant could get the team going -- Caps lost to the Bruins, 3-1. More pics of BSE, Part One here.

For BSE Part Two, we flew to San Diego to see the Pats at Chargers. (OK, so BSE Part Two was more of a birthday present to me!)

Hello love! Oh, how I've missed you!

I will spare you the story of how I got choked up and misty-eyed as our trolley car approached Qualcomm and I saw the sea of Charger fans. Yes, I can get that emotional.

Stalker-alert! :-)

For those that watched the game, you'll recall that by the end of the third quarter, the Chargers were trailing 20-3. Some fans were so embarrassed by the Chargers, they decided to put bags on their heads. (But not me!)

Fast-forward to the fourth quarter and my boys were making their comeback.

Touchdown Gates! (OK, so my picture was a tad bit late!)

Trying an onside kick:

First down, Chargers!!

The Chargers were marching down the field and scored on this drive. Pats fans were worried and Charger fans were pumped!

But the Chargers comeback fell short and they lost to the Pats, 23-20. That's what you get when you turnover the ball FOUR times. But I'm not bitter.

After the game, sad Charger fans (including myself) made their way to the trolley.

While I didn't get to see my team win, I had a wonderful time cheering on my team with Joe, my mom and my dear friend Courtney -- who, at the last minute, took my brother's place since he fell ill a few days prior. <-- THAT is a whole other story. :-( But no worries, he's all better now! Lots more pictures of the game can be seen here.

Thank you C for coming with! I'm glad you enjoyed your first NFL game and hope you didn't mind my big "Booooooooooooo!" and "C'mon PR!"

The following weekend, the Rally to Restore Sanity/March to Keep Fear Alive was held in DC. We love Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, so we thought, "Why not?" Oh, it was awful. (Not the rally; we didn't even get to the rally.)

Like old people wanting to leave the game before it ends to beat traffic, we left the Mall before the rally even started just to avoid the whole the horror otherwise known as M-E-T-R-O. But not before snapping a photo or two from the Lincoln Memorial. :-)

More pictures from this DC visit, here.

Before we wrapped up Fall 2010, Joe and I made one last trip. The backstory: when the Chargers came out with their 2010 Opponents, Joe and I identified possible cities we could go to for a couple of away games: Indy, Cincy and KC. When the actual schedule came out, KC and Cincy were automatically ruled out -- the Nation's Triathlon was the day before the KC game (which ruled out travel that weekend) and the Cincy game would be held in December (which, after traveling to the land of the Cleves last year, ruled out anymore outdoor winter games). That meant I had my eye on the Indy game. When I ask Joe if he'd be interested in going, he says, "We probably can't get tickets. And even if we can, they're probably really expensive." Figuring Colts tickets are probably hard to come by (I mean, what else do people in Indianapolis do?), I figured we'd just go to the game in SD.

Fast forward to two weeks before the Colts/Bolts game, I thought I would check out ticket prices on StubHub; needless to say, I was surprised to see tickets for $60+ and so many of them! I'll spare you the story of Joe being on the fence about going to Indy and me doing a lot of whining and pouting. (This went on for about a week.) The important thing is that the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Joe and I hit the road! (Yes, I do realize I am a wee bit spoiled by my husband.)

Nine hours later we finally made it to our destination!

The game was scheduled for 8pm on Sunday, so we had a full-day to dilly-dally around the city. There really wasn't much to see or do in their city center, but we did spend some time at the NCAA Hall of Champions:

The Hall of Champions had a few interactive exhibits, including a small basketball court with factoids throughout.

After horsing around, we strolled around the city to see the (lack of) sights.

After a short nap, it was time for SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL!

After Peyton Manning threw his fourth interception, Colts fans threw in the towel; Lucas Oil emptied out quick.

Sorry, Peyton and Reggie. Tonight wasn't your night. Good guys won this game, 36-14.

More (stalkerific) pictures from Sunday Night Football: Chargers at Colts can be seen here! If not for the eleven-hour drive back to Alex, it was an AWESOME roadtrip!