Barb, Matt, Rene and Kate in Washington DC
It took me 4 hours to get to Matt's apartment in Herndon Virginia (which is near Washington DC) from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. The directions I got from Matt were good since I did not get lost or make any wrong turns on the way there. I arrived around 5:39 pm on Friday February 15th.
I had a great time while I was visiting Matt. On Saturday Matt and Barb (Matt's Wife) went to do some role-playing at a friends house for around 6 hours. I stayed at Matt's house since the game was already in progress. I managed to keep busy playing Final Fantasy X for the Playstation 2. That is an awesome game. The graphics in the cut scenes are almost up to par with the movie. Also it has a great storyline and I like the way they have it set up for gaining levels and building up abilities. That evening we went out to dinner at a Chinese Restaurant that had an all you can eat buffet. The food there was pretty good.
On Sunday Matt, Barb and I took the subway to Washington, D.C. and met up with Kate (My childhood friend that I have not seen in almost 10 years) and her husband Rene. We were looking around for a place to eat, but being Sunday a lot of places where closed. The ones that were open were very crowded and one that we checked out had around an hour wait. So we finally found a place that was not crowded. It was an Ethiopian Restaurant. I never have eaten Ethiopian food before, but saw a Chicken Sandwich that I thought would be good so we decided to eat there.
Matt and I in the subway system in Washington, D.C.
Turns out they no longer served the Chicken Sandwich and nothing else on the menu spoke to me all that much. So I got some other chicken dish. When our order came we found out they put all of our food on one big platter that we all ate off of. They brought out a plate of what looked like dirty napkins, but it turns out it was this weird bread stuff to use to eat the food off the platter. A few of the things on the platter were edible, but most of it was not. There was this one egg on the platter and we were not sure if it was a chicken egg or what kind of creature it came from. So none of us touched that.
After that we walked around a bit and Kate showed me around the area some and showed me some spots she hung out at. It was good seeing her again after so long. I found out she is two months pregnant and she and Rene have found a new place to live that is a little further from the city and will be a nicer area to raise a child.
That night Matt, Barb and I went out to see a movie (The Count of Monte Cristo). It started out kind of slow, but sped up and turned out to be pretty good. Then when we got back we had hot dogs for dinner.
Barb had to work on Monday, but Matt had the day off since it was a federal holiday (President's day). That was kind of kewl that I got to spend an extra day with him since when I planned the visit I had no idea he would have the day off. At that point I was hooked on Final Fantasy X so we drove around looking for a Memory Card for the Playstation 2. Once I had that I would be able to take my saved game with me for when I buy a Playstation 2 and that game. It turns out there is a massive shortage of Memory Cards. We went to 9 different stores before we finally found one. I did not mind since it gave me a chance to see more of the area. When we got back we ordered out for some Papa John's Pizza online. Then we played a new version of Risk that has a lot of new features and involves a lot more thinking and strategy. That game lasted around 5 hours. Thanks to all my experience playing the original Risk with my mom and Greg I had no problem beating Matt :)
On Tuesday both Matt and Barb had to work so I spent most of the day playing more Final Fantasy X. I put about 20 hours into the game the whole time I was there. That evening we watched some TV and looked up a short cut that would bypass Washington, D.C. to get to I-95.
I left for Kissimmee, Florida Wednesday morning February 20th around 4:30 am.
