October Date at Kings Dominion
Disclaimer from Christina – my laptop is being really mean to me right now and all my pictures won’t format correctly in WordPress. I’m trying to figure this out and hopefully I’ll fix it soon. Until then, I recognize that the picture placement / spacing is really off and gross looking and I’m sorry!!
This past weekend was legitimately one of the only weekends this fall that Mike and I were both in DC with no special events or visitors. We decided to take advantage of this time, and get in our October “special date”. You can read about some other special dates here, here, and here. I never wrote a post about our August date, but it was white water rafting in Harpers Ferry, WV for our anniversary. Unfortunately, we kind of forgot about our September date because it was such a crazy busy month. We did go see Sons of Bill at U Street Music Hall so we kind of cheated and called that our date. October though, we were ready for something good! Mike and I are more of the adventurous types, so we prefer to make our dates cool activities. Saturday morning we hopped in the car and headed down to Kings Dominion! It’s almost two hour from DC to Kings Dominion, but it is totally worth the drive for a couple reasons. Number one: you get to see the leaves changing in Virginia!
And number two… there are like 5 Wawa’s on the way down!!! If I haven’t made this completely clear… I LOVE Wawa. I grew up in New Jersey, and it is kind of like a way of life. Plus, tickets to Kings Dominion are expensive enough… let alone trying to buy food there! We stopped at a Wawa and got deli sandwiches (also much healthier than the multitude of fried options at the park) and drinks. We ate half of our sandwiches in the car and then headed into the park for the day. Mike and I both felt the same way, we didn’t want to waste any time on so-so rides. We were only interested in the big ones. We both love roller coasters (fun fact: When he was little, Mike REALLY wanted to design roller coasters for a living. He knew all the “big names” in the industry and everything. But then he decided to be a huge slacker and build rockets that go into space instead… WHATEVER!). We ended up riding six rides: Dominator, The Volcano, Anaconda, Intimidator 305, Drop Tower, and Rebel Yell. Totally worth it.
It was really interesting to go to KD with Mike because he knew so much about the engineering of the rides. He knew all the different names for the different style seating (inverted, suspension, etc. etc.) and was pointing out stuff I never would have noticed.
After Dominator, The Volcano, and Anaconda… I needed something to drink (and potentially a snack). I walked around searching in vain for a soft pretzel (seriously KD… not a single pretzel vendor was open!) so we ended up settling for the Coke “Oasis” which sold soft drinks and a surprising selection of very healthy snacks including whole fruit, cliff bars, pop chips, etc. We both got a Coke Zero (diet soda is my true vice… I won’t be judged) and a piece of fruit to tide us over. Then we hopped in line for INTIMIDATOR 305. I could tell Mike was eyeing this ride from the moment we arrived. It boasted a 301 ft drop at approximately an 85 degree angle. This was a serious coaster.
Intimidator did NOT disappoint. It didn’t go upside down, but it was by far the best coaster of the day. Afterwards, we headed over to the other side of the park to finish out the day. First on the list was Drop Tower. This ride did not look that scary, I just thought it was going to be fun. In reality, it was by far the most scared I felt all day!! Once we were strapped into our seats, I felt really nervous that my feet were just dangling there, and I became irrationally scared that my shoes were going to fall off! Then we started going up and it was just SO FREAKY to be up so high (305 feet) and have your feet just dangling! While I was a little freaked out and simply COULD NOT look down, it was an amazing view of the park and the surrounding country side. And then we dropped… and it was awesome!
We finished out the day with Rebel Yell, a wooden roller coaster. I totally underestimated this one. I thought it was going to be easy peasy, not that exciting, but it was so much fun!! Such a fun way to end the day. We were hoping to go on the Grizzly or the Hurler to complete the day but they were both closed 😦
Halloween Haunt was going on that night and right when we were about to leave we started seeing lots of people in costumes. We decided not to stay for Haunt because we wanted to get back to DC since Mike was racing in the morning.
Before we left though, we treated ourselves to some Rita’s Italian Ice. I also LOVE Rita’s so it was the only treat that interested me (Dippin Dots is cool but it doesn’t really taste like anything…) I got Swedish Fish ice and vanilla custard and Mike got cherry and vanilla. Perfect way to end a perfect Saturday.
My favorite thing about Mike (well I have a lot of favorites) is how much fun we have when we’re together. We were at KD for 6 hours and it felt like it flew by 🙂 It was a great way to spend a Saturday together ❤
A Summer in Summation
We’re not doing Friday Favorites this week. I lost my iPhone on the cruise (wahhhhhhhhhhh) and then I got an insurance replacement but of course it’s a piece of crap refurbished phone so I hate it and I’ve kind of been avoiding it. Therefore, I didn’t take any pictures of my “favorite happenings” of the week this week. Let me think of a few of my favorite moments of the past week right now: Mike and I went whitewater river tubing in Harper’s Ferry, WV for our one-year anniversary on Saturday. Then we went out for pizza at Pete’s New Haven Apizza (the site of our very first date actually… and he let me order a WHITE PIZZA woot woot). Then he gave me this 🙂 (ok I lied, I took one picture this week… but the lighting isn’t good b/c my apartment is like a cave.
Woohoo my very own motorcycle jacket!!!! And it’s awesome because it is purple / pink with a sparkly design on the shoulder. He even got the size right… good for you honey! Now I really wanna go for a ride.
I digress… other favorite moments of the week: I ate Carvel Ice Cream Cake which is absolutely the best ice cream cake available and my friend Bryan and I ALMOST won a cornhole tournament at our company picnic yesterday. We lost in the championship game… womp womp. Anyways, that’s it. I’m really, really looking forward to this holiday weekend because Mike and I are visiting his family in Charlottesville!! I cannot wait to get out of the city and enjoy some sun, fresh air, and lake water.
It’s Labor Day though which means that another summer has come to an end (I know the season isn’t technically over, but I run my seasons more on a monthly basis meaning June, July, August are summer and then September, October and November are Fall). So today’s post is a summer in summation!
Here are my favorite things I did this summer, and the posts that go along with them 🙂
Bonnaroo Day 1, Bonnaroo Day 2, Bonnaroo Day 3
One Year Anniversary with Mike
My trip to Europe: Post 1, Post 2, Post 3
Now I’m setting my sights on the Fall and thinking about the exciting things that will be happening this season! Monday, there’s another seasonal checklist coming your way so stay tuned and HAPPY LABOR DAY WEEKEND!!! Here’s a picture of Fig just to keep you going…
Hiking up Bull Run Mountain
So back in May, Mike and I decided to institute a monthly “special date“. We started off with his choice of a great meal followed by a night out mini golfing. For our June date (my choice) I decided to tick off a couple items on our summer to do lists. It was actually July 1st but we decided it counted towards June (especially since we went to Bonnaroo in June so that was kind of a special thing). So that Sunday afternoon we hopped in the car and headed out into Virginia to hike up Bull Run Mountain. It was absolutely gorgeous. There were even some “ruins” on the bottom part of the trail and some fun placards with information. DC was smack in the middle of an unbearable heat wave (I know like everywhere in the country was having the same heat wave so don’t get me wrong I don’t think we’re special) so we brought plenty of water and prepared to get really sweaty.
Before we even got in the car I knew that I wanted to go all the way to the top. I read that the views were amazing and I wasn’t going to let a little heat stand in our way!
The previous Friday night a huge storm came through the area. Tons of people lost power, trees down everywhere! Luckily, I didn’t lose power at my apartment but Mike’s house lost power for almost the entire weekend (especially not fun when it is 100 degrees outside). There were a few trees down on the paths up to the top but we were able to navigate them relatively easily.
The views from the top did not disappoint 🙂 After taking a few pictures we settled down and lounged on the rocks for a while. It was a definitely a challenging hike to the top, so we felt like we deserved a little rest.
On the way down the mountain we found a little steam that I couldn’t help but splash around in. Mike was certain I was going to fall in but guess who came the closest to falling? (I’ll give you a hint… it wasn’t me!)
Over the train tracks and back to the car. It took up probably around 3 hours to do the 5 mile hike but we took a long break at the top and several pit stops along the way.
After hiking we went back into DC to try a new pizza place (one of Mike’s summer goals). We went to District of Pi in Chinatown and ordered a bada bing salad and a Kirkwood deep dish pizza. It was AMAZING. I didn’t take any pictures because I always feel so awkward taking pictures of my food in a restaurant. Maybe I’ll get over it, maybe I wont! ANyways, Mike was so happy. In fact, he said District of Pi might be his new favorite DC pizza place (title for favorite pizza place of all time is currently held by Crozet Pizza in Crozet, VA). They also have a great beer selection on draft so it was the perfect way to treat ourselves after an active day.
I am really loving our special date tradition. It’s a great way to ensure we go out of our way to do new and different things (and a good way to get through our summer to do lists!). Mike gets to plan our July date so I can’t wait to see what he comes up with 🙂
A Special Date Night
Maybe I’m getting a little off message this week but as I’ve said before… life is all about balance! I can’t spend all my free time in the gym or on my yoga mat. In an effort to ward off any misconceptions about that… I thought I’d share a special “date night” Mike and I had last weekend! As I mentioned in my very first post Mike and I live about 45 minutes apart (without traffic… and if you know DC at all, you know how often there is “no traffic”). During the week with both of our work and, of course, workout schedules, evenings we get to spend together are often short and spent in workout gear (ok, I’m always in workout gear, he usually changes). Most of the time, we don’t care as long as we are together! I look forward to the evenings I spend hanging out at home with Mike and our respective cats, cooking dinner or just running to the grocery store to pick up something easy. But every once in a while, it’s really nice to spend a special night out together doing things that are fun and different! After reading a couple blogs (especially my new favorite Peanut Butter Fingers), I noticed that some couples plan special date nights at a predetermined interval (every month, once a week, etc.) I thought this was a great idea!! So here is our “May Date Night”. Mike got to plan this one, and we had our date out in the suburbs near his house!
We started the night at this really awesome restaurant called Mokomandy (which we were told stands for “Modern Korean by Mandy”). Mike and I are both very adventurous eaters and really enjoy different ethnic foods. Luckily, there is NEVER a shortage of places for us to try in DC and the surrounding areas. Mokomandy was really intriguing to me because it is described as “Korean and Cajun” foods. Um… YUM. I thought it was going to be fushion cuisine but it actually wasn’t. The menu was described as a “duet”, featuring both cuisines.
We got a seat at the bar because we apparently weren’t in the loop that you needed a reservation but it turned out great! I started with a Hazed and Infused beer and Mike had a cocktail (details of which are evading me).
We decided to get several items and share them all since the menu was a mix of tapas style small plates and mezze style medium plates. We started with gator croquettes with their homemade hot sauces (which were all amazing). For our entree we had poutine (not sure that this is either Cajun or Korean… but I LOVE poutine so I wasn’t asking questions), bulgogi beef, and a wild boar bowl with fried egg and purple rice.
We finished off the meal with a cajun favorite… spiced rum bread pudding! The bartender, who was by this point our buddy, gave us a sample of Madeira to go with the bread pudding and it was delicious.
After dinner we headed over to Woody’s for an evening of miniature golf! I haven’t been mini golfing since I was a kid, but it used to be kind of corner stone of my 10 year old social life down the shore. I loved it! Mike was sure I was going to win because I actually play golf. This was not the case. In fact, he beat me by many, many strokes. We’ll just add that to the growing list of things that Mike is better at 😛
This picture of Mike putting was incidentally RIGHT before he shot a hole in one (show off). It was a fantastic night! I’m curious… does anyone else plan special date nights with their significant other? What’s your formula?? I’m already busy thinking about our next one… which will be my turn to pick!
christinazimm
Pennies on the Run 