Washington, DC (USA)

[all day at work, the girls were texting me about getting together - so I asked Nicky to drop them off at the Metro and have them come down to go to Mass and have dinner - only Brenna and Mollie ended up showing up at L'Enfant (1600) but I was still happy - we took the Metro farther (to Foggy Bottom) and then walked over to St. Stephen Martyr - like my last visit to the parish, it was great to to listen to Kim's concert ("Prelude") before Mass and the girls enjoyed the Homily - after it was over, we wanted to meet up with Kim but she had to race to another service - I had wanted to take the kids to dinner but we figured out (too late) that almost all the restaurants were closed (before 1900!) - OK, I realize that it was Christmas Eve, but really? - ended up trying several (Pentagon City, etc.) and eventually headed back to my car at Huntington - we drove down US-1, looking for more restaurants but had no luck until we located a TGI Friday's (2015) - we were immediately told that they were closing at any minute but we sat down anyway - our food took about another hour and a half (!) and we had to wait on some domestic abuse that was going on in the bar - until then, the music had been blaring so loud that I could barely think - once the guys from DC finished beating up their woman friend (and all the people in the place got out their smart phones to document the drama) the music stopped - the police and paramedics eventually came by - we had a good meal, despite the troubles, it was a good visit and I was sad to have to drop them off... - got home very late]