I'd never been able to go to the H Street Festival, much to my chagrin, but the dates aligned this year and I made it out this Saturday. I always get so excited for festivals, but when I get there and people are shoving past me and I'm waiting 20 minutes for a crappy gyro, I wonder why I was so excited for this. Is this really a good time?
Nah, it was. Perhaps the fact that the H Street Festival was so crowded means it is victim of its own success. Even though I only lasted with the crowds for a few hours, I'm glad I went out and saw what there is to see.
Click the link for more H Street Festival pictures and Joe's new biking adventure!
Namely, art cars. Peace.
Could it be? I think it is! We meet again, weird car.
The Taylor Gourmet sub-eating contest was by far my favorite part of the afternoon (second favorite: snagging a table outside at Granville Moore's). Can you guess the who tied for the win? Hint, it's the men who look like they are really and truly going for this, personal health be damned. Props to you, gentlemen! A Black Eyed Peas album provided the soundtrack for the contest, strangely enough. "Can you meet me halfway....Dirty bit...I wanna rock right now."
Another exciting part of the contest: the emcees hurled Taylor's subs into the crowd, each with a $5 gift card attached. They made excellent projectiles. Everyone could not have been more excited about this development, and with my hands outstretched to the heavens, I tried to lock eyes with the sub thrower and will him to toss a breaded chicken sub my way. It would've made up for the crappy gyro and everything would've been right with the universe. We almost got one, but almost ain't good enough.
And the next day, I woke up before 6 a.m. to drive with Joe and our friend Alex to their very first cyclo-cross competition ever. "Woke up" might be an overstatement. I stumbled into the backseat and fell back asleep, only to wake up in a field on the PA/MD border.
Have you heard of cyclo-cross? I hadn't. It's almost like a steeplechase. As you can see here, there's a twisty course set up in the grass that includes barriers that riders have to hop or carry their bikes over, and hills they may have to carry their bikes up. Joe can explain more, I'm sure.
One day I hope to have a dog I can bring to these events. I could play with the dog instead of sitting in a chair reading the Blake Lively/Ryan Reynolds issue of People magazine.
Alex said I was the worst spectator ever. I did cheer. On occasion. No one else was cheering and I felt weird. Next time I will bring a cowbell and ring it victoriously. Even this baby being toted around by his armpits had a cowbell.
Kids get in on the cyclo-cross action too! Their race is called the "Lil' Belgians" race. Love those lil' Belgians! Drinking beer is another big cyclo-cross tradition, but we wondered if we could in good conscience drink our beer while watching the kids' races.
Here's part of the hills on the course.
Another big hill that was impossible to ride up. We watched two riders crash hard on this hill. One was splayed out on the ground, laying still for a moment. He must've gotten the wind knocked out of him. Thank goodness, he seemed ok.
As a spectator, this sport looked really tough. I'm so proud of Joe and Alex for finishing their first race, they were awesome! Everyone finished and no broken bones, and that's what I was rooting for the whole time. Silently, and without a cowbell. Next time, I will make this right — I'm pricing them right now on Amazon. Stay tuned!
