Labor Day weekend was a blur of plane trips, beach days, board games, grilling, boardwalk treats and breweries. It was a pretty amazing way to celebrate 10 years of friendship and mutual weirdness with 16 of the coolest people I know.
What is Floor? It's hard to explain, but take 10 college sophomores, put them on one floor in an isolated part of an isolated dorm on campus and let them spend way too much time together, and you get a tornado of inside jokes, Arrested Development references, a little intermarriage, and ongoing friendship. You can be adopted or marry in, but so far no one has tried to leave.
On the way to the beach we stopped at Dogfish Head, then headed to Rehoboth where we had rented a ginormous house. I don't think I wore shoes for two days, since the beach began 30 feet from the front door, though I did learn the hard way to at least carry flip flops to the boardwalk. We grilled burgers twice, played many board games I had never heard of, and hung out on the beach. I learned to body surf and almost broke my nose on a boogie board, and when I got too much water in my ears, I sat in the sand and read Voracious in its entirety. I made two forays to the board walk for french fries and ice cream. We played a few arcade games and won enough tickets to trade in for friendship bracelets, and on the way back in the dark I saw the most giant jelly fish washed up on the beach, which looks normal in the photo but was at least 10 inches across. I made cinnamon and lemon rolls for breakfast one morning in our understocked kitchen and thriftily used a rum bottle to roll out the dough. I also made a giant taco feast for everyone on Saturday and took zero photos of it except for the key lime pies I made in the morning because cooking for 18 people is kind of all consuming.
My trip started and ended in DC, where I was picked up at the airport at 6am by my friend/chauffeur, who was wearing a suit and holding a sign with my name and this blog on it. Gotta love the free publicity! Before I flew back to CA, I had an entire afternoon to hang out in DC, and so we headed over to H Street for lunch. We decided we were too hungry to wait an hour at Toki Underground, so we checked out Maketto instead, where we ate outside and where I stupidly ordered a spicy, hot soup and then embarrassingly sweat right through the front of my t-shirt in the heat. After lunch we headed over to H Street Country Club for some indoor mini golf to cool down, then we had just enough time for more board gaming and caipirinhas on my friends' roof deck before heading to the airport.
Here's to 10 more years with you crazy weirdos!
Good Eats (and Drinks):
Dogfish Head Craft Brewery We accidentally went to the Milton, DE brewery instead of the Brewpub in Rehoboth, but it was worth it for the tree house sculpture and the free beer tasting. I was a big fan of the 60 Minute IPA but the 120 Minute IPA was a wee bit too much at 11:30 am.
Dogfish Head Brewing & Eats Where we meant to go when we stumbled upon the brewery, a brewpub in the town of Rehoboth, DE with a shaded outdoor deck and all the beer on tap you could want. They also had a decent crab cake burger which turned out to somehow be the only shellfish I ate all weekend.
Thrasher's French Fries A must on the boardwalk! I went twice. Their fries are gloriously crispy and I absolutely doused mine in the vinegar they provide (they don't serve ketchup). They also have three locations all seemingly in the same place, which is super fun and not at all confusing when you are trying to meet your friends at a specific one.
Fractured Prune We hit this place on the way out of town, for piping hot donuts hand dipped in a variety of toppings. Delicious in the moment but get ready for a sugar rush and that coated feeling on your teeth.
Maketto This is a new place on H Street in DC, located in the back of a retail store. The food was a mix of Asian foods, and we tried the pork buns, Cambodian soup, Cambodian sandwich, and Chinese donuts. Sit inside when it's hot out.
H Street Country Club Indoor miniature golf and good beers on tap. The holes aren't anything crazy but the decor is decidedly funhouse DC, with Star Wars gargoyles, Zombie Presidents, the Lincoln Memorial, and King Kong climbing the Washington Monument.