Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Surprise Dog Days in D.C.

The Friday before Labor Day Derrick texted me in the middle of the day and told me to clear my schedule for the weekend. He wouldn't tell me anything else except that Crosby could also be excited. Friday afternoon he came home, told me to pack, and we hit the road to some secret place. It was awesome!

Finally, after we'd been driving for over 3 hours, he filled me in that we were heading to D.C. for a dog friendly weekend with the Cros. It was such a sweet surprise. We stayed in the Carlyle Dupont Circle hotel. It was pretty nice but it raves about how dog friendly it is online. I don't think the hotel experience actually lived up to the dog friendlyness the website said.. When I asked for two dog bowls the front desk lady looked at me like I was crazy and had to get the manager. It was still a good hotel though and a great location!


This was Crosby's first time staying in a hotel and it took a while for her to settle down and realize we were here to stay.


She eventually managed to relax though.


Saturday we got over 35,000 steps. We walked EVERYWHERE and it was awesome. Derrick found a canoe rental that allowed dogs so that was our first stop of the day. Our hotel was on embassy row so it was pretty neat walking past all of the various embassies and seeing which ones got shafted compared to Canada! Canada's embassy is amazing!!!! 



We settled on canoeing since we could both do it together and we thought it would be most comfortable for Crosby. There were tons of other boats on the water but not many motorized ones so it was so serene while we were out there.


I wish I'd taken my phone and gotten a picture of Crosby on the canoe but we weren't sure if we'd be at risk for dropping it in the Potomac. Turns out we could have easily taken our phones or even my big camera. I at least snagged a picture of Crosby in her lift jacket before getting in. How cute is she!?



After canoeing Derrick found an online scavenger hunt right around the area we were already in. It had us hunting down all sorts of answers to clues including the artist of this giant mural on the side of a building.


And this other mural where we were instructed to get a photo under the painted arch.


This was about the time when Crosby tuckered out. We decided to head back to the hotel and drop her off before our next adventure at the Smithsonian.


All of the escape rooms were kind of far away and we knew we'd have Crosby with us on our way out of town so Derrick did some research and found another, better, scavenger hunt for us in downtown DC. It was so good....there were actual puzzles to solve, ciphers, and logic.  The average team finished in 3 hours and we were gunning to beat that time.

It was about 3 miles of walking and took us everywhere from monuments, to museums, to the home Lincoln died in.




Everything was submitted over their website and once we submitted a correct answer we were given directions to find the next clue.





We finished 6th all-time and we'd argue it could have been better! It keeps rolling stats as people complete the hunt. We stopped to chat with some friends, which hurt our time, and one monument was under construction so it was required that we use a hint, which hurt our point total. We finished in just over an hour and 55 minutes which I think is pretty good!

Derrick found a nice restaurant only  a 10 minute walk away. We headed back to the hotel to get Crosby and head to dinner. It was delicious and they had an all sides option which was the obvious choice. The three guys sitting next to us were enamored with Crosby and even stole my bowl of french fries to try her tricks.


That night we crashed hard and slept in leaving just enough time to walk for bagels in the morning before we needed to check out of our room.


I'm so glad Derrick planned this little get away. It was the perfect length for a long weekend and we still made it back home in time to rest up for our Monday scrimmag the next day. I loved staying in a different part of  D.C. than I'm used to and we discovered what a dog friendly place the city really is. So many shops had dog bowls sitting outside which was much appreciated during our 35,000 step day.

The whole way home and all day Monday looked like this for the Cros. Signs of a great weekend!



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