Hands in the Air at Merriweather Post Pavilion

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I thought my blog about my visit to the Merriweather Post Pavilion was going to be about spots to eat, drink and grab some shade at the outdoor music venue north of the Beltway in Columbia, Md.

But as I stood in the dark of the crowded amphitheater last night, the light-show spectacle of the band Queens of the Stone Age exploding in front of my eyes, their bass drum thumping against my chest and making me sway and shimmy and shuffle my feet in the 1-by-1 foot space in front my seat, I realized that this blog needed to more than a "tips" article. It needed to be a call to action. This visceral jolt of an eye-dazzling light show, music beating against your body, the summer heat against your skin, and the undeniable urge to dance in public is something we as middle-aged, responsible parents and partners don’t experience very often anymore.

So do this. This summer. Claim your 1-by-1 foot of space and dance.

“We’re here to drink, dance, party and have a good time,” Queens lead singer and guitarist Josh Homme told the crowd. “There ain’t no time for anything else.”

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Josh Homme, Queens of the Stone Age

Homme is a big, broad-shouldered red-head who swivels his hips like Elvis and smokes while he plays guitar. He’s the hottest Agent Brody ever. If there is any man to inspire a crowd to embrace a good time and the inherent sensuality of a concert on a summer night, it is this man. I saw grown men air-guitaring along with him. A middle-aged woman waved her hands like an orchestra director while he sat at a piano and sang about vampires.

But say intense, alt-metal isn’t your thing. Every flavor of band -- from Beck to Phish to Huey Lewis and the News -- is playing at area outdoor venues this summer. Columbia, Md., feels too far to drive? You’ve got Wolftrap just outside the Beltway in Vienna, Va., and Jiffy Lube Live in the far-out Northern Virginia 'burb of Bristow, Va.

So go. Dance. Move. Clap along. Air drum along with the drummer (the Queens drummer was hottie and Baltimore native Jon Theodore). But claim that space and enjoy it.

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Merriweather Post Pavilion

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A full bar with shade and fans inside Merriweather

This outdoor music venue set among 40 acres of trees in Columbia, Md., has a quirky, natural charm with lots of tongue-in-cheek statues, barns used as restrooms and food shacks, and a small deck at the top of the sloping lawn selling $5 beers. It also has incredible acoustics, famed architect Frank Gehry as its designer and a stage that saw Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and the Grateful Dead on its boards. For eats, head to the Jerry's Crisp and Toasty Grilled Cheese stand in the northwest corner for a cheddar, applewood bacon and tomato sandwich on honey wheat. For drinks, go to the 9:32 Club on the west side, a mini-9:30 Club with a full bar, table and stools, fans, and TVs streaming the show. You may never leave.

Click to see Merriweather Post Pavilion's summer schedule.

So Many Choices at Capital Fringe Festival 2014

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One of 23 venues for Capital Fringe Festival 2014

Trying to choose which performance we were going to see of the over 150 acts taking part in the Capital Fringe Festival 2014 was like trying to choose one chocolate out of the world’s biggest box.

Were we going to enjoy the nutty delight of a ballet that mixed the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" with Twitter? Or the dark chocolate-y goodness of an interactive whodunit featuring Edgar Allan Poe? Maybe we’d go for the blatant, chocolate-covered cherry of a comedy called “Giant Box of Porn”? Or take a lick of the mystery chocolate, a tour of the National Mall where the secrets of the Freemasons are revealed?

In its ninth year, the Capital Fringe Festival has every amalgam of drama, comedy, dance, solo performance, interactive theater you could hope for playing at 23 venues through July 27. The constraints of a busy summer schedule meant that we could only see one show. Which sucks. With a $17 ticket price (after a one-time purchase of a $7 Fringe button), and performance start times that stretch from early afternoon into late night, there’s no reason you couldn’t see multiple shows in one night.

What delicacy did we decide to enjoy? A dance murder-mystery called “Intrigue, a mystery on marley…” Below are others that tickled our fancy. 

For more insight into shows, check out the DC Metro Theater Arts reviews.

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In-Between Tip: Hang onto your Fringe button even if you're lame like me and can only make it to one show. It will qualify you for a bunch of discounts all year long. Many restaurants on H Street, including Granville Moore's, Sticky Rice, H Street Country Club, and Biergarten Haus, are giving discounts to button holders through July 27. 

Out-of-the-Box Date Night at the Mosaic District

There are times when going out for dinner and a movie with your significant other can be as depressing as spending a Saturday night at home. It’s the predictability of the event, entering a boxy restaurant for food, then a boxy theater for entertainment. A late night yawn, a tired drive home, then bed.

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Strawberry Park at the Mosaic District

Dinner and a movie at the Mosaic District in Fairfax, Virginia is a wide-open, exploratory event with lots of opportunities for surprise, whimsy and fun. One of the biggest surprises is its location: this vibrant, architecturally interesting, walkable “urban district” is just outside the Beltway off Lee Highway, among one-story industrial parks and retail centers that need a facelift. The developers -- who also developed Union Market in D.C. -- had a vision when they pictured this place here.

Chock-full of distinctive restaurants, interesting retail stores and opportunities for fun – a piano on the sidewalk, a giant chessboard, an outdoor movie screen – the Mosaic District makes sure that once you’ve parked your car in their multi-story lot for your dinner-and-a-movie date, you won’t need it again until you’ve thoroughly enjoyed yourself.

Dinner

Romantic dining – Put on your fancy clothes and head to Four Sisters Vietnamese Restaurant or Sea Pearl for an elegant meal with a nice bottle of wine. Call for a reservation at Four Sisters if you intend to be on time for the movie; its 23 years in business and move from Seven Corners hasn’t detracted from its popularity. With ocean-blue walls and lovely seafood presentations, Sea Pearl is a pretty date spot.

A cocktail at Matchbox

Fun dining – Matchbox and Cyclone Anaya’s Mexican Kitchen offer a meal that’s a little more raucous and booze-oriented. While Matchbox restaurants are proliferating like bunnies all over the DMV, I have yet to find one that disappoints with their inventive cocktails, great beer selection, re-interpreted bar food and super-cool interiors. Cyclone Anaya’s have margaritas as big as your head.

Casual dining – The Mosaic offers lots of quick bites that are easy on the wallet: Cava Mezze Grill (referred to as the “Chipotle” of Mediterranean food on Yelp), Sweetgreen (salads), and Taylor Gourmet (subs) are all interesting grab, eat and go food options right across the street from the movie theater. If you want to go even more casual, have an impromptu picnic on the green in front of the theater. Go to Red Apron Butcher for truly astonishing sandwiches or to Le Pain Quotidien for a baguette and other picnic fixings.

Movie

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Indoors – The Angelika Film Center throws the tired idea of a boxy movie theater with sticky floors and insolent teen employees into the trash. A three-tiered cinema temple of glass and gleaming wood, the Angelika honors the fact that adults are shelling out big bucks to see a movie these days and makes it a true experience. The theater offers a coffee bar and pastries downstairs, beer and gourmet hotdogs on the theater level, and a bar – yes, a bar – on the top floor. You can buy an entire bottle of wine at the bar and take it into the theater with you. You select your seats ahead of time and take your time getting there, rather than fighting to snatch a seat like animals. And when you amble into your movie with your bottle of wine and your gourmet hot dog, the theater – generally filled with adults – is as quiet as a tomb. My love for this place knows no bounds.

Outdoors – Or maybe you’re not as crotchety as I am and would enjoy a little people watching and children laughing and summer breezing as you enjoy your movie. The Mosiac hosts summer movies every Friday night on its ginormous outdoor screen at Strawberry Park, the wide green space just outside the Angelika Film Center. Apollo 13 is playing tonight.

After the Movie

The fact that the Mosaic District has provided so many incentives to stroll, relax and wander is my favorite aspect of the place. Don't head to your car after the movie. Take a second to enjoy this area and the amazing partner at your side.

• Have a delicious drip coffee at the glass-enclosed coffee shop, Dolcezza in the Park.
• Stroll the wide sidewalks and window shop at stores like Anthropologie, South Moon Under and Paper Source. 
• Get you feet wet in the rainbow-colored fountain in Strawberry Park.
• Enjoy post-movie gelato at Dolcezza.
• Play the piano on District Avenue.
• Indulge in the cocktail you didn't have before the movie at Matchbox or Sea Pearl.
• Play a game of chess on the giant chessboard in Strawberry Park.
• Dance to the bands playing in Glass Alley every Saturday evening from 7/26-8/23 at the Summer Block Party, with food and drink provided by Red Apron Butcher.

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Take this handy map with you to explore all the fun of the MOSAIC DISTRICT

In-Between Tip: If you’re approaching the Mosiac District from the East, you’ll be tempted to turn left at Gallows Road and then right to enter the shopping area. Don’t! You’ll be snarled in pedestrian traffic that makes everyone testy. Instead, stay on Lee Highway until you hit the next light at Eskridge Road. This left and the next two lefts into the Market Garage are effortless and will prevent you from starting your night out in a bad mood.

Have favorite dinner-and-a-movie places? I would love to explore places that make this tired date night fun. Tell me about them on my Facebook page or in the comments below.

A Stroll Through the Hirshhorn Museum

This is the first time I've said this in this blog, but it won't be the last: We in the DMV are spoiled rotten. Why? Because, should we have the urge, we can wander down to the National Mall and take a gander at ... I don't know ... the only Leonardo da Vinci painting in the United States, the Declaration of Independence, Dorothy's ruby slippers. For free.

On a recent Saturday, I did just that: Drove down to the Mall, found a two-hour parking spot on 7th St. SW, and took a slow walk through the second floor of the circular Hirshhorn Museum, through the "Speculative Forms" exhibit. The Hirshhorn has always been a favorite museum at the Mall because of its contemporary art, its outdoor sculpture garden and its general lack of crowds. It feels like the museum you can breathe in.

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Reading the placard of the "Speculative Forms" exhibit, I was completely confused about the objective: "The exhibition highlights the importance of installation and the viewer's eye and body in relation to the object." And then I saw this:  

The exhibit is about the interaction between a sculpture, the space that it's exhibited in and the way the viewer views it. This metal sculpture, "6-68" by David Lee Brown, reflects the light and arc of the Hirshhorn hallway. And I could only see that by standing at a certain perspective. 

The Hirshhorn Museum made me smarter. In about an hour's time. For free. See, I told you we were spoiled rotten.

Speculative Forms at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden

At the corner of 7th Street and Independence Ave. SW, Washington D.C.

In-Between Tip: Avoid the overpriced and unimpressive Smithsonian museum cafes and enjoy a quick, interesting bite al fresco at the many food trucks that gather on 7th Street SW. During the weekdays, you will find them south of Independence Ave at 7th and D Streets SW. On the weekends, the trucks line 7th on the Mall.

Terror-Filled Fun in the Trees at Adventure Park

The Adventure Park at Sandy Spring

I was about 20-feet high in the trees at The Adventure Park at Sandy Spring, barely balancing on a wood board shivering beneath my feet, when I remembered, “Oh yeah, I’m terrified of heights.”

This was my family’s fifth or sixth trip to the tree-climbing and zip-lining adventure land in Montgomery County, and we’d ended every trip covered in sweat, showing off some impressive scrapes and bruises, and seriously psyched about our ability to look a leaf-strewn death in the face. Visiting The Adventure Park at Sandy Spring is like being in labor – the end result is so cool you forget about the screaming and crying that preceded it.

The Adventure Park is an elaborate, up-in-the-trees obstacle course. You choose one of the 13 courses (the level of difficulty is marked like ski runs from purple to double-black diamond), and then you work your way along the course by teetering from tree to tree across different challenges or “elements.”

A view of the "elements" at The Adventure Park

Sometimes you’re walking across sturdy boards with a tight, steady rope you can grip for balance. Sometimes you’re on logs swinging beneath you while the grip line sticks out at an awkward angle. Sometimes you zip line across. Sometimes you rope swing across. Sometimes you climb down an endless rope ladder that has you swearing, when you’ve kissed the platform at the bottom, that you will never again skip the arms when you’re at the gym.

None of these elements, the young and impossibly cute staff assures you, will result in your leaf-strewn death. Cinching you into your harness, walking you through a detailed training, and being readily available for the cries of “Staff help!” are all ways this young and impossibly cute (as well as friendly, patient and competent) staff insure your safety.

A staff member demonstrates safety equipment

They also help you believe in the “tweezle.” The safety of this park is dependant on the two locking carabiners on your harness, a “life line” that runs through every course, and the tweezle. The tweezle is a locking mechanism – you lock one of your carabineers onto a course’s life line at the beginning, and you are unable to unlock until the end. This way, should you slip off the insane tightrope that you’re supposed to be walking across, your harness will catch on the life line. Boosting yourself back onto the element is easier with the adrenaline-surge of your heart pounding.

If I can do it, you can do it

So why am I recommending this place so obviously meant for the young and fearless to In-Betweeners? Because, at our age, it’s easy to get too damn comfortable. I’m not presented with many risks anymore. And with two kids and a husband, I’m not interested in truly looking death in the face – ie. skydiving, mountain climbing, jogging. Staring at my feet (never the ground!) at Adventure Park, realizing that I’m actually balancing myself on that tightrope, and conquering an element that I was sure would defeat me leave me feeling exhilarated, powerful and capable.

And the view is fricking gorgeous.

Beginning

You must climb up to this platform to begin every course.

Course difficulty

Adventure Park has a course for all ages and fear levels

Course markings

All courses are clearly marked.

Starting out

What, me worry?

Platforms

Platforms between each element give you a place to have a nice, peaceful heart attack.

Ladders suck

In the trees

Locking

How you use the tweezle to lock your carabiner onto the life line.

Some of the elements...

...A sliding board

...Logs

...A Net

Over and under

Zipline

Most off the courses end with a zip line.

End of the line

Adventure Park staff suggests you run to get a good landing at the end of a zip line.

Beautiful views

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The Adventure Park at Sandy Spring Friends School

 

Cost: $49 for ages 12+

Twilight tickets: $29, Mon-Thurs.; $39, Fri-Sun. (Available 3 hours before closing.)

In Between Tip: The park -- strewn with twinkling white Christmas lights -- is open for night climbing until 8 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays and until 10 p.m. Friday and Saturdays. I imagine it would be really fun with a group of adult friends. I can feel another blog coming on...

Hillwood Estate: A Day With the Most Glamorous Woman

Stepping onto the grounds of the Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens in Northwest D.C., is like being invited to take your time checking out the glittering jewels, gleaming furniture, sparkling objets d’art and beautiful gardens of the wealthiest and most glamorous woman you’ll ever know.

And it is a true invitation.

Marjorie Merriweather Post. From Hillwood Museum

Marjorie Merriweather Post, heiress to the Post Cereal Company and one of the founders of General Foods, bought the home in 1955 intending it to be a museum for the 18th-century French and Russian imperial decorative arts that she collected. She wanted my girlfriend Paige and me to covet the 18th-century French dinnerware in the light-and-flower-filled breakfast nook. She wanted us to take a long walk through the hillside gardens, laughing just a shade too loud for such an elegant place.

She wanted us to absolutely drool over her Cartier jewels, currently displayed in the exhibit “Cartier: Marjorie Merriweather Post’s Dazzling Gems,” in the Adirondack Building, one of the charming buildings hidden among the forested walks.

Marjorie Merriweather Post began collecting 18th-century French furniture and art to decorate her home. When she accompanied her third husband to the Soviet Union, where he served as ambassador, Marjorie became entranced with Russian imperial art and began to truly refine her collector’s eye. The first piece she purchased from Cartier years before her trip was prophetic - the amethyst Fabergé box connected her love of Carier, Russian imperial art and Fabergé, of which she would go on to collect 90 pieces.

In Between Tip: We'd tried the café at Hillwood Estate in the past, and hadn't thought much of it. It has apparently improved, because there was a 40-minute wait at lunch time. Get reservations!

Cartier exhibit in the Adirondack Building

In the small Adirondack Building is a green emerald once worn by Mexico’s Maximillian I and smuggled out of the country by his wife, an Indian pendant brooch with a 250-carat emerald, and a diamond clasp meant to be worn with the diamonds dripping down Marjorie’s back.

There’s also a story.

During the Great Depression, Marjorie Merriweather Post put her diamonds and emeralds in a safety deposit box. With the money she saved on insurance, she opened the Marjorie Merriweather Hutton Canteen, a soup kitchen in New York. She made sure the canteen had flowers on the table and blue-checked tablecloths, because she believed everyone deserved a little elegance.

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Cartier: Marjorie Merriweather Post's Dazzling Gems

Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens

Tuesday- Saturday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

On display until Dec. 31, 2014

'80s Dance Nights in the DMV

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Millennial enthusiasm for '80s alt-rock

On a recent Saturday night, my husband and I were at Black Cat in D.C., to dance to music we danced to when were dating two decades ago: the ‘80s-alternative music of The Cure and The Smiths. I was shocked at the number of Millennials crowding the place. When the first guitar strums of The Cure’s “Boys Don’t Cry,” sounded, there were cries and a mad rush to the dance floor, kids dancing and jumping and shouting along to a song that came out in 1979, 35 years ago.

Why was I so amazed? Because I couldn’t have imagined dancing to music that was 35 years old when I was in my mid-20s. That would have been music of the 1960s, and would have sounded something like this (I’m not kidding; this was the No. 1 hit in 1960):

Percy Faith, "Theme from A Summer Place"

Eighties and '90s-retro dance nights are plentiful in the DMV and would seem like the perfect option for a fun night out for us In-Betweeners, a chance to embrace our past and dance like we did at prom. However, the popularity of these nights with the under-30 crowd has made me feel a little old and silly at them. And a little…annoyed, like the event has been co-opted by people who think we went around wearing neon all the time.

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Steve EP, The Cure vs. The Smiths, Black Cat

I spoke to DJ Steve EP about this phenomenon. Steve EP, known as Stephen Petix in non-DJ life, was one of the DJs for the Cure vs. Smiths Black Cat event and spins at retro-focused dance events around the area, including the very popular Eighties Mayhem nights, also at the Black Cat main stage.

Steve, who shocked me when he told me he is my age, believes that we didn’t dance to music of our parents because it was so bad. “The music sucked,” he said. “There were pockets of cool stuff – Motown and soul – but for the most part it was really lame. Popular music was terrible before rock and roll.”

The blandness of the music that preceded it is what made the birth of new wave and punk in the late-‘70s and early-‘80s so revolutionary, he said. “These people weren’t trying to be rock stars, they were breaking all the rules." Steve remembers the hardship of being a punk kid in a straight world, of being called ‘faggot’ all the time. A friend pierced her own nose because -- unlike the handy mall kiosks today -- there was no place she have it done. That angst and rebellion and even newness of that music still speaks to kids 30-plus years later.

“When I see a 12 year old wearing a Black Flag t-shirt, I think that’s awesome,” he said. “I’m not in that camp that thinks, ‘I discovered it.’” He's talking about my possesive camp.

In Between Tip: Stephen Petix's dark synth-wave group, Technophobia, is having their cassette release party Saturday, July 19 at Black Cat.

My 80s ensemble. I know. I'm pandering.

Of course, ‘80s alternative isn’t the only thing playing at retro dance nights. Steve thinks its sacrilege to mention Madonna in the same breath as the Cure and Depeche Mode and New Order, but I liked “Oh Father,” and, in retrospect, find her stuff groundbreaking, too. When she came on the scene in her bustiers and rosary beads, nobody had displayed their sexuality like she had. Except Prince.

The concept that the music of the ‘80s was groundbreaking, and that maybe the ground has been broken so thoroughly that it has yet to be supplanted, helps me understand why its been embraced by those younger than me. Helps me elbow my way in and dance along.

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Retro Dance Nights in the DMV

A list of upcoming '80s and '90s dance nights in the D.C.-metro area

(Links aren't working on iPhone 4 and higher. Squarespace says they're working on it.)

Tonight: The Legwarmers: D.C.'s Biggest '80s Retro Dance Party, The State Theatre, Falls Church, VA

Tonight: 10th Annual Pretty in Pink '80s Prom, The Ottobar, Baltimore, MD

June 28: No Scrubs: '90s Dance Party with DJs Will Eastman and Brian Billion, 9:30 Club, Washington, DC

June 28: '80s Dance Party, Tropicalia, Washington, DC

July 2 (Every 1st and 3rd Wednesday): Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Little Miss Whiskey's Golden Dollar, Washington, DC

July 25: Start Making Sense, Talking Heads Tribute w/ HMFO: a Hall and Oates Tribute, The Hamilton, Washington, DC

July 26: Purple Rain 30th Anniversary Party, Black Cat, Washington, D.C.

August 29: MJ Day 2014 - 5th Annual Michael Jackson Dance Party, 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C.

Know of other fun '80s and '90s-inspired dance nights? Let me know about them in the comments below and I'll add them to this list.

Restaurant Review: Rose's Luxury

The sign says: "awesome."

I intensely dislike the no-reservation trend at popular new restaurants. I know that many restaurants complain about the money/time/effort wasted on no-shows, but I never did that. I was the good girl, the one who stressed about getting to the restaurant in time, the one who always canceled a reservation if I wasn’t able to make it. Why should I be punished for the screw-ups?

So when my husband and I walked into the no-reservation restaurant Rose’s Luxury on Barracks Row Saturday night and were gently informed that it would be a two-and-a-half hour wait, I reacted with an eye roll and a, “You’ve got to be out of your…” My vastly more-patient husband slid in front of me and said, “That will be fine.”

The wait, he’d guessed, was not going to be as long as they'd estimated. He was right. Damn him.

After an hour-and-a-tad, his phone received the text that our table was ready. Once we sat down in this fairyland-like restaurant with its playful food and deep-down-to-the-root-of-my-taste-buds flavors, I knew even a longer wait would have been worth it.

Rose’s Luxury has embraced that nostalgia-for-a-simpler-time look of exposed brick-and-concrete walls, garden lights strung indoors and a quirky ‘50s refrigerator behind the bar. But there was something more fanciful and unexpected than many of the chalkboard-infested restaurants – Rose’s gives you a high, Spanish iron window to look out from the second floor and offers you your silver dinnerware from a beautiful polished wooden box. Servers announce each plate with mouth-watering detail, and gold leaf decorated our rice.

The cocktail menu was interesting but we were unfortunately unimpressed with the two we ordered. The White Manhattan was almost oily with a heavy eucalyptus flavor; my husband’s drink was cloyingly sweet. Would we give it another go? Based on how impressed we were by the food, definitely.

Potato bread and potato-skin butter

Rose’s offers small plates and a couple family-style entrees. When our meal began with a small, Potato brioche loaf – crackly, crisp crust and a soft, steaming interior – with a side of potato-skin butter, we began to really look forward to the rest of the food we’d ordered. The Jonah crab claws were tasty yet unmemorable. But the grilled asparagus with pineapple aioli and the strawberry tomato pasta – I can still taste them. I wish I was tasting them. Right now. The grilled asparagus, sprinkled with bright bits of pineapple, crispy fried jalapenos and a neon-green chive oil, was the answer to that question: “If you could only eat one thing for the rest of your life?” The strawberry tomato pasta was as appealing as the name is unappealing. A sweet pasta? The sweetness balanced the heat and spice from black pepper and red onion.

Smoked brisket = meat butter

For our family-style entrée, we ordered the smoked brisket, which came on a silver platter with slabs of charred Texas toast. The brisket was like butter, rich and smoky and spreadable on the bread. The sides – horseradish and cole slaw – were delicious, but I really didn’t want anything to intrude with my meat butter.

Seating is sprinkled throughout Rose’s Luxury – outdoors, upstairs, along two bars and fronting the kitchen, at two-tops lined up side-by-side and at four-tops with a little more elbow room. We were at a two-top and, unfortunately, the more the threesome to the right of us drank, the more they were certain their jokes were entertaining the rest of the restaurant. By that point, however, I’d lost the bad attitude I’d begun the night with. Rose’s Luxury had imparted its fairy dust of conviviality, and I laughed right along.

A bit of whimsy at Rose's Luxury: Gold-leaf in the rice, my excellent dinner date, the bathroom mirror, fun receipt

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Rose's Luxury

Mon.-Thurs.: 5:30-10 p.m.

Friday and Saturday: 5-11 p.m.

They don't take reservations; don't ask. But they're really nice.

Hershey Park for Adults

I used to love, love, love amusement parks. As a child, I love the exhilaration of the rides and the promise of cotton candy. As a teenager, I loved the constant whiff of hormones and the excitement of the music blaring out of the Himalaya (aka Music Express, Matterhorn, Thunderbolt, Flying Bobs). As an adult, I loved it for my children -- surprising them with trips to amusement parks on their birthdays, shepherding them around, taking pictures of their glee-filled faces on the mini rides.

But now that my kids are older, all they want from me and my husband is the ride. And the money. We went to Hershey Park recently to celebrate my youngest becoming a teen, and after a couple of turbo rides, the kids kindly asked us to leave them alone. They wandered off and we were left with a serious case of wooziness and a mild sunburn. What we were going to do with ourselves the rest of the day?

Until amusement parks decide to install a napping spot like this one we enjoyed in Tulum, here are some suggestions for enjoying yourself at Hershey Park:

• Go to the back of the park first -- It's a good rule for any amusement park visit: Start at the back and work your way forward. People rush the gates and run to the first, largest, craziest roller coaster they can find, lending to an hour-long wait and an otherwise empty park. At Hershey, two great wooden roller coasters, uncrowded pathways, plenty of benches and state-fair styled food stands greet you at the Midway America section in the back of the park.
• Ride the wooden roller coasters -- Most of the rides with their loop-de-loops and twirls will make you nauseous. It just happens when you're older; I think it's an inner ear thing. But Hershey Park has three great wooden roller coasters (Wildcat and Lightning Racer in Midway America, the Comet in The Hollow) that will give you the exhilaration you remember while keeping your guilty-pleasure amusement park food in your stomach.
• Eat guilty-pleasure amusement park food -- If I'm going to put the calories on my hips, I want it to be worth it. Two food stands we enjoyed were:
  • Bricker's Famous French Fries (Midway America) - They cook the fries when you order them and let you salt and season them yourself.
  • Dippin' Dots Sundae Shop (Kissing Tower Hill) - The Cookies and Cream Sundae was big enough for two, although I wanted to order another one. Around the corner from the Sundae Shop is a quiet and relaxing area with shade trees and tables with umbrellas.
• Don't eat guilty-pleasure amusement park food -- Sometimes the body has had enough. The light-filled, quiet and air-conditioned Gourmet Grille on Kissing Tower Hill offers salads, paninis and wraps as well as the standard hot dogs and chicken tenders. Choose it over the Overlook Food Court, also on Kissing Tower Hill, which was a zoo the day we visited.

• See a show -- We needed to figure out a way to while away the time, and stealing the place of lady who was laying back on a shaded bench and reading her Kindle wasn't an option (although we did consider it.) So we entered the Aquatheater and -- although we've seen such shows a hundred times before -- we still were oohed and awed by the seal and sea lion show, Our Friends from the Sea. A piano duel and hard-working young entertainers singing and dancing in a country-music revue were also some shows we considered.
• Take a quiet stroll -- Believe it or not, it is possible to take a quiet stroll in the midst of an amusement park. There is a long path alongside a manmade lake that connects The Hollow with the Main Entrance, winding beneath the Coal Cracker and Sky Rush, and on a busy, hot Saturday, we felt like the only two people who knew about it.
• Ride Tidal Force -- What I loved about Hershey Park when I was a more enthusiastic rider was that it felt like all the rides had been turned up to 11. Tidal Force is an epic log ride that puts all other log rides to shame. And while the line is long (but in the shade), and although you will get to-the-skin soaked, the mammoth fall and the endless whoosh is completely worth it.

Truly and intensely soaked after riding Tidal Force at Hershey Park

In Between Tip: Hershey Park has a great app for iPhones and Androids that provides locations, GPS navigation, show times and menus. The park also has free wifi. 

#NoAlcohol Blogs

I like the sauce.

I like cocktails and Bourbon neat and a nice Pinot Noir and a cold Bud on a hot day. I like to make herb-infused simple syrups and visit whiskey distilleries and take classes that help me distinguish between a Rhone Valley Syrah and a South Australian Shiraz. I have an academic appreciation for alcohol as well as an appreciation for its soothing effects at the end of a long day.

Part of the reason I started this blog was to give potential employers in the wine, spirit and hospitality industries a sampling of my writing ability. So I’m going to be writing a lot about alcohol; four of my seven blogs have already focused on it. But I've also embraced this mission to discover fun activities for those of us 40-55, and I don't want to give the impression that our fun is dependent on having a drink in hand.

I was in the produce section of Trader Joe’s once. The scent of the limes hit me when I passed them. Instantly I thought of margaritas and relaxing Friday afternoons, and I was flooded with happy endorphins. And while that seems like a fun story, the fact that the smell of a lime made me think of a drink, and the fact that the drink signaled happiness to my system freaked me out. I took a month off of drinking.

There are those In-Betweeners who – because of health or moral reasons, or sometimes, because of a long, hard fight – have decided not to drink. I want this blog to give non-drinking In-Betweeners options as well

My grandmother, the bad-ass drug and alcohol counselor, Mary Lopez

My grandmother, Mary Lopez, is almost two-times her in-between years, but she likes to have fun. She likes to garden and go fishing and play the slot machines and every now and then, she’ll have a beer on the back deck. She's not a teetotaler, but she has every right to be: My grandfather’s alcoholism pushed her into raising six children essentially on her own. She ironed shirts and cleaned houses until the counselors at the Al-Anon meetings she attended noticed she had a real knack at getting people to listen to her. They helped her get her GED and then her degree. My grandmother became a powerhouse drug-and-alcohol counselor in the southeastern Kansas town where she lives.

In honor of my bad-ass grandmother, Mary Lopez, I'm launching the hashtag #NoAlcohol, which will signal blogs that are alcohol-free. (This blog, technically, does not count since I lavishly describe drinks above). Some will be blogs about locations where alcohol is available but not the point of the place, like the 9:30 Club, and I'll need your help in determining if that's okay. I figure I have to give myself that caveat -- we went to Hershey Park recently and they serve beer -- or I'd have very few #NoAlcohol places to recommend. Which reminds me again that In-Betweeners who have chosen to avoid a drinking lifestyle might feel they have limited options. I want to make sure this blog gives them some.

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Favorite #NoAlcohol To-Dos in the DMV

Check out my Pinterest board for more #NoAlcohol to-dos

Union Market - This newly launched indoor urban market near Gallaudet University is brimming with people and vitality, and while some of the cool eateries serve beer and spirits, there are tons of other things -- mini pies from Ris, spices from Bazaar Spices, the incredible Bulgogi Steak Tacos at TaKorean -- to try.

U.S. Botanic Garden or U.S. National Arboretum - While the many free museums of the D.C.-metro area are an obvious choice for an engaging and alcohol-free to do, these two plant-focused museums are a feast for the senses. The Botanic Garden's many-stories-high Conservatory allows you to enjoy the warmth and plants of the tropics in January, and the U.S. Arboretum in northeast D.C. is a 466-acre sanctuary of tree groves and herb gardens and koi ponds.

Victory Comics - This big and bright comic book store in Falls Church is a great way to appease your fandom for a day. Check out the retro-toys near the front celebrating your favorite characters, spend hours perusing through their massive collection of comics and graphic novels, or wander back into the large game room and join a Dungeons and Dragons game.

1st Stage Theatre - 1st Stage doesn't serve alcohol. We know; we headed to the lounge at intermission and were disappointed. But what this theater tucked into an industrial park in Tysons Corner does offer is some fantastic drama and comedy in a black-box setting. We saw "Never the Sinner," a play about the murderers Leopold and Loeb, and were completely awed at the power the play produced with so few actors and props. "Bat Boy: The Musical" runs until June 22. 

Billy Goat Trail - You will find that this 4.7-mile hike along the Potomac River in Potomac, Maryland, is aptly named as you climb up and clamber over rocks like a billy goat. The trail is close-in, easy to get to, very popular, and usually crowded. And totally worth doing. 

For more #NoAlcohol options, check out my ever-expanding Pinterest board #NoAlcohol To-Dos in the DMV