Marusan

Despite the restaurant being convinced we were celebrating a birthday or something, we really were just out to have a good time and celebrate Steve being able to snag the only one available a night reservation for The Experience at Marusan. It was an amazing '15 course' (with lots of extras that apparently didn't count!) omakase experience with the most dramatic being the tempura soft-shell crabs that we saw crawling around at the beginning of the evening!

Opera War

Part two of our every other Thursday Spring 2026 concert series was Andrew Bird's tour for the 20th anniversary of A Mysterious Production of Eggs with the National Philharmonic Orchestra at the Strathmore.  We had box seats, which felt very Gilded Age opera war given we're looking to support other musical establishments given all that is happening with the Kennedy Center these days. Andrew Bird went to Northwestern with Elaine, though she didn't know about him until Dave gifted her this album when it came out a couple of decades ago. Funnily enough, Tracey was friends with Andrew at Northwester, though didn't know he had a music career after college, so she was thrilled to find out about how well he was doing for himself when Elaine shared our concert experience with the J1 crowd.

Tarps Off

The PNNL DC group sponsored an outing for the Nats v. Marlins game and Owen and I had to take the opportunity to go to a home game together before he started his Summer job with the Nationals. It was a gorgeous night, and the Tarps Off section was in full effect, but the Nats succumbed to their Marlins curse and lost 7 to 3.