Santiago de Compostela

We had a fantastic weekend celebrating our anniversary and The Mister's birthday.  We headed to Santiago de Compostela, in the northwest corner of Spain, for a relaxing weekend.

They're known for making some of the best octopus around, so we played along.  We've had octopus, but it's been here in Andalucia where the fried kind is popular, so of course it's good.  You can fry practically anything and it's got a 93% chance of being delicious.  Unfortunately we ended up preferring the fried version, because the fatty, almost jello-y texture on a few of these pieces got a little intense, and we ended up stuffing a few pieces in our napkins so the waiter wouldn't get offended that we weren't exactly swooning over their signature dish.

Overall though, a fabulous time and a fabulous birthday.  We wandered around parks, took naps on the grass, had leisurely lunches with good wine, and slept in late.  I was with my favorite person in the world, and the spring daffodils are blooming in Spain.

Not too shabby overall.

In Which I Geek Out

So yesterday was my birthday.  The Mister whisked me down to DC, in a sweet chariot called "the DC metro", and took me to lunch at an awesome little Italian place in Chinatown.  The pasta was handmade and so delicious.

Then, we went to the National Museum of American History.  I tend to really, really geek out around museums.  I love them so much that I once spent a summer interning in Death Valley because it involved working in a museum (let me repeat: summer. Death Valley.).

And the crown jewel of the entire Smithsonian is, in my humble opinion (not! If you say another museum is better I will fight you) the National Museum of American History.  Did I mention that I also interned at this particular museum for six months when I was in college? I did. I got to wander around on my lunch break and see the attics of this museum - Seinfeld's puffy shirt, the original Kermit the Frog, C3PO, the star-spangled banner.  I get tingles thinking about it.

Anyway, The Mister is a smart man and knew that this would make my day - and it did.  We took the metro through my old commute, walked along the mall and through the city, weaving our way around the monuments.  It was a beautiful fall day - and a perfect day for celebration.

My old stomping grounds - this is the view from where I used to work.