Weekend with the FAM

My sis [Shelly], her hubby and their four kids met Steph and I in DC around NOON on Friday. I closed the audit in the AM, went to the hotel, ate some pizza, and met up with them. We went and walked around the White House, then visited the Smithsonian, where we saw both the Natural History Museum and the Air and Space Museum. It rocked. Even with the sweltering heat, it was a lot of fun.

We went and had dinner at the ESPN Zone on Friday night by my hotel before making the jaunt back to Sykesville, MD, where my sis and her fam lived, and it was easily the worst dining experience I have ever had. Mind you, I had visited this restaurant alone on Sunday night, and had some great food. However, I was alone and sat at the bar. This time, our group of 8 sauntered in and asked for a total, where we were told there was a 30-minute wait. We went down to the lower level and watched some people play some duck-pin bowling, which only my friend Scotty had played before of my friends, and drank some beers [just the adults]. After 45 minutes, my brother in law went to inquire as to the wait, especially since all tables were open. That's when the real fun began....

Steve [brother in law] was told that we were the next table in line. Then, another couple came up, and were also lied to and told they were the next table in line. The hilarity ensues. We were then promptly seated, the 8 of us, at a 6 person table in a room filled with empty 8 person tables. After switching to the correctly-sized table, we sat down to order, which we did fairly quickly. After our appetizer, we sat alone, with no contact with the waitress for a good 20 minutes with empty drinks. After 1 hour and 15 minutes [total time in restaurant, 2 hours], we still had no food. Finally, they brought 3 meals from the downstairs [not from the empty kitchen next to us] and waited another 10 to bring up 3 more plates, bringing our table to 75% served. My sis and bro-in-law simultaneously asked for a manager. We were then brought the rest of our food, but none of the salads. My sis again asked for a manager. They then told my sister, after about an hour and 25 minutes, that they were out of baked potatoes. She promptly [and rightfully] lost it on our waitress, Bonisha, and said she wanted a manager. We still didn't have forks for about half the people, mind you....

We finished the meal, where my sister's successful arguing got us 50% off and asked for a To-Go box, which took another 20 minutes when the manager told me the whole staff was working on finding them, and if he had to buy them himself, he would. Why wouldn't the To-Go boxes be readily available? We then left after another 10, easily a horrible experience.

Outside of that, we had a great Saturday. We got up, had some breakfast, then went to the Inner Harbor of Baltimore. Saw Camden Yards and the Potomac, and had some ice cream on the water. Went home and had a GREAT crab cake and tomato pie dinner [all of you will be trying this at my house soon, as it was DELISH], followed up by the weekly movie night at the Mertz household. Saw Night at the Museum, which was pretty good and I recommend it.

Sunday, went to church, hung out at the house, played some cards with the kids, worked on some baseball pitches [theirs, not mine], and headed back to the airport. It was a great weekend, they have an awesome house with a perfect backyard for a family with kids, and had a ton of fun. Big UPS to my sis and her fam for taking us around DC and Baltimore, and driving to/from DC twice for us. It was a ton of fun.

Should have pics up shortly....