Cultural weekend

I had a fun and full weekend, with lots of arts and culture. Friday night I went down to First Friday with my friend Kate -- all the galleries along Santa Fe stay open late, and usually there's music and snacks. We cruised up and down the blocks and picked out the art we would buy if we had a spare couple of thousand dollars. It was full of people, and such a variety of people! Not your typical NYC art scene at all....

Saturday I met Dad and W for a nice 18-20 miles bike ride, mostly on bike paths, out towards Golden and back. The weather was perfect, not too hot, clear skies. We came back, showered, and headed across town for some lobster. Our realtor (she helped both W and I buy our houses) likes to throw a lobster and margarita party every June. She flies the lobsters in from Maine! It was a fun night -- I'm not sure I'm such a huge fan of lobster, really, but it's pretty entertaining to eat. S'mores to finish off the evening.

Today was really a big culture day -- I managed to hit two festivals and a concert! It all started with breakfast downtown and a cruise through Piazza dell'Arte, a chalk art festival. They closed off about four blocks and marked out sections of pavement for artists to work on their masterpieces. Some were definitely more used to this medium than others, and the good ones were really amazing. The rain last night wreaked some havoc, but most of the artists took it in stride and were busy fixing the smears and runs. I think there should be some pictures here. (I didn't bring my camera.)

In the afternoon, I met some friends for the People's Fair, an annual tradition put on by the Capitol Hill Neighborhood Association. Being run by Capitol Hill, there were the expected number of stalls selling tie dye, henna, and crystals, as well as your more run-of-the-mill turkey legs and funnel cakes. We made the rounds, watched the end of the drag divas performance (also an annual tradition, here in the gayborhood), and ate some yummy tacos for lunch.

By the time I got home, there was just enough time to make a big picnic dinner for the Cake concert, held in the Botanic Gardens just blocks from our house. We made a big pasta salad with feta, cucumber, bell peppers, and tomatoes, grilled some chicken breasts, and had strawberries for dessert. Plus a few pieces of amazing chocolate cake, begged off of the family sitting behind us! The concert was great -- they are such a fun band, and the atmosphere was really nice, sitting in the middle of these amazing gardens, everyone picnicking and drinking wine. They sang most of my favorites -- there were only a few songs I didn't know. What a fun weekend. I love summertime.