If you know me at all you know that I like to have fun, to try new things and to spend time with people. This past weekend was full of that and I loved it all.

Saturday I went to the H Street Festival with some friends from church. What is the H Street Festival about? I still don't know. It was just a festival to have a festival I guess and it was perfect that way. The weather was beautiful and the street was full of interesting food, people, sounds, and smells.

Eating Thai food and a snow cone, all from the same booth

We mainly spent our time walking around, seeing what yummy food we could eat and watching the interesting people. There were people doing crazy things all the way from singing in a gospel choir to having hula-hoop contests to having a dance/paint party.

I think this car was trying to grab us

There was also an art car exhibit which was cool to look at and admire their work. I was so impressed! I seriously felt like I could have stayed at the festival all day just looking at people go by, wondering why they were dressed in costume and what they were thinking about the festival. There were people of all ages and all races, some with dogs, some with kids and some just having a good time. It was great!

Lots of people there enjoying the festival

Sunday was a a wonderful surprise, not that I did not know what I was going to but that I did not know I would enjoy it so much. I went with friends from church to what is called Opera in the Outfield. It is an event located at the Nationals baseball stadium. The Opera that is being performed at the Kennedy Center is simulcast to the stadium for everyone to watch. For free!!!

So after church on Sunday we headed down to the stadium. I drove and got us there and back safely with only a little stressful moment when I had to parallel park with cars driving by. Ahh! Anyways, we took our lunches in and got seated just in time to not pay attention to the screen that was telling us the story line. I felt a little lost throughout the whole thing but not so lost that I did not enjoy it. We worked as a team and figured out what was going on.

Beautiful day to sit at the baseball stadium and watch an opera don't you think?

It was sung in Italian and they had English subtitles for us to read. In between each act we would read a little more of the story so we would know what was going on. They gave away the ending before it ended but I guess knowing that the main character is going to die in the end is not that unusual for an opera so I just went with it and tried to be surprised anyways.

The singing was AMAZING and so was the set and costumes. I just loved every bit of it. I also was impressed how easy it was to see and hear it all sitting in that bright, open baseball stadium but it really was not a problem.

I am not sure of the official reason for the opera but as I told my Spanish class about my weekend they asked me why they had a free opera. I thought about it and attempted to respond that I think it was so that those of us who knew nothing about opera can now appreciate it a little bit. I feel a little more educated about the opera and think it is something that is great. There are probably a couple thousand other people who feel the same way. Unless they didn't appreciate it I guess but I just cannot see what you could not appreciate about it.

Obviously we did not have to dress up for the opera

Anyways, it was a really fun weekend and I was so thankful to spend time with such wonderful people, enjoying the beauty and culture of DC.

Oh yea, and the Houston Texans beat the Washington Redskins. They were playing here and I really enjoyed trash talking my Redskin fan friends. Go Texans!!!