Day 4...relative rescue

(From Tuesday)

6:35am....wake up and take a shower.

6:55am....take Mike and Laura to the Metro station.

This morning Mike was leaving for LA, but he just had to go to the Metro so the day started like any other.  I drove Mike and Laura to the Dunn Loring Metro station so that Natalie and I could have the truck for the day :).  I proceeded to Starbucks after depositing them at the station.  I grabbed a strawberry-banana smoothie and did some reading. It was good to just spend time doing that.  The smoothie was nothing amazing; I would definitely recommend the chocolate banana smoothie if you were going to buy a vivanno from Starbucks.  

I drove home and had some breakfast, watched some tv, and decided what to do for the day.  Well, I was thinking about going to a park of some sort, so I googled to see what I could find.  Natalie and I ended up visiting the Manassas National Battlefield Park.  This was, of course, after missing a turn on the beginning of the trip and having to turn around to get back on track.  Then we wanted to grab some lunch to take to the park.   So we explored our options and eventually found a Firehouse Subs, which is what we had wanted.  With lunch in hand we traversed back to the park and parked at the Visitor's Center.  I bought my pass and Natalie was free(!)  We drove (it's a big, big park) to a picnic area and gobbled down our subs.

After a filling lunch, we headed back over to the Visitor's Center where we began a one mile tour/walk with information along the way about the First Battle of Manassas.  There was some interesting information and lots of cannons (it was a battle after all).

Well by the time we left, it was about 3 o'clock.  This would have been fine.  I mean it should have only took us 30 minutes to get home.  We did need to stop by a supermarket, but that should not take too long.  After I would pick up Laura from the Metro station sometime after 4 o'clock.  This was the hypothetical situation and probably the best way to accomplish this.  Well, turns out that's all it was: hypothetical.  

We left the park in the right direction, though I was uncertain.  So, after turning around and turning around again (because I was originally correct) we headed towards home.  Everything would have been fine if we just went home.  However, we were going to a Super Giant (VA supermarket) for some food for dinner.  I did not remember where any of the Giants were so I went on a wild goose chase.  This took Natalie and I on a tour of norther VA (ok, that's a but of an exaggeration).  So, we finally found one that I had been too before.  Ok, that was not too bad.  The worst part was me trying to get home.  That's when we began our long drive to no where.  So, after much reluctance I contacted Laura for help(!)  After talking with her, one of her co-workers, and a friend, Natalie and I were finally able to get home (relative rescue!).

We picked Laura up from a Metro station and headed to McDonald's to pick up some dinner.  We did this because we did not want to take the time to make lasagna and Laura had a Bible Study to go to, so we went for some "fast" food.

Tomorrow Natalie and I are heading into DC again.