Things I Liked About 2010, Pt 2.

Barcelona

Despite the volcano in Iceland and the British Airways strike to worry about, Eagan and I made it to Barcelona this summer. We had a fabulous time there (and at Cadaques). We loved all the parks, the museums, the beaches, the architecture, the food. It was so great just walking around different gorgeous neighborhoods and stumbling upon cool stuff. It has become one of my favorite cities.

Tuck

My family got a new dog this year! He is very lovable, cuddly, and energetic.

Fenton Street Market

This year our neighborhood started a weekly arts and crafts market to complement the farmer's market down the street. Every Saturday, from Spring to Fall, local artists and vendors set up tents to sell and showcase their stuff. There's often live music and food vendors, as well. Along with the farmer's market, it has become a great Saturday tradition for Eagan and I. We've found some really cool stuff there and met some neat people.

(Photo by thecourtyard)

Sports

Between the Winter Olympics (in Vancouver!), the men's soccer World Cup (in which one of my favorite teams won!), Stephen Strasburg fever surrounding The Nationals this past summer (great while it lasted), The Capitals winning the President's Trophy/being the best team in the NHL (only to choke in the playoffs...), and interesting change-ups for The Redskins, this made for an exciting year in sports.

Food Truck Madness

DC keeps getting more and more awesome food trucks. They drive to different locations each day and tweet where they're stationed for the day. Oh, that beautiful food truck siren call. There's a food truck for just about everything: wraps, sandwiches, Indian food, Ethiopian food, Vietnamese food, Cuban food, Korean food, mac & cheese, BBQ, pizza, grilled cheese, tacos, crepes, lobster rolls, fries and poutine (yes, outside of the boundaries of Canada!), empanadas, cupcakes, pies, popsicles, frozen yogurt. On and on it goes. And this is not boring, average food. This is foodie food. The grilled cheese truck, for instance, isn't American cheese on white bread. It's brie, fuji apples, and honey on multigrain bread; goat cheese, tomato, and tarragon; goat gouda and caramelized onion.

This year they even had a food truck cook-off event. They had all the food trucks in one centralized location and you could hit up whatever trucks you wanted. Delicious overload!

(Photo by Mr. T in DC)

DC Events

I continue to love living in this amazing place. I love all the exciting things that happen here. This year we tried to continue taking advantage of all the great events (often free) that DC has to offer. We really enjoyed events like the Cherry Blossom Festival, the Embassy Tours, the 4th of July fireworks show (my first! I was out of town the previous year for my brother's wedding and I missed it), the Silver Spring Jazz Festival,  the Takoma Folk Festival, different neighborhood street festivals, The National Book Festival, The Book Arts Festival, The New Yorker discussion events, and all the great exhibits at the area museums (my favorites were the Running Fence exhibit, the Lego exhibit, the Lists exhibit, and the World's Fair exhibit).

(Cherry Blossom Festival, car decorating contest at the H Street neighborhood festival, National Book Festival, Lego exhibit at the National Building Museum)

Daily Show Events

When The Daily Show came to DC for a week, Eagan and I luckily snagged free tickets to a taping (I literally got the last two tickets)! We attended the first show of the week. It was a really fun experience.

Then a few days later was the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. It was really cool being there in person, and we had a really fun time. It was neat seeing so many people on the Mall (it was packed!). I really liked seeing all the witty and clever signs.

Finally, I loved being able to see my friends and family so much this year. I loved all the visitors we had this year.