I am so used to waking up at 7am that I am now incapable of sleeping late on weekends, and this Saturday was no exception. I woke up, worked out, ate breakfast, and took my shower - all before 8:30am. After fruitlessly attempting to relax and be lazy, I hopped in my car and headed into Old Town Alexandria.

My goal was to poke through the galleries of the Torpedo Factory Art Center, but I arrived a bit too early. So I wandered across King Street to Starbucks and procured myself one Tall Caffe Mocha, which I took with me on a walk along the Alexandria Waterfront.

I spent some time watching the ducks on the ice in the marina, and I observed a funny phenomenon - ducks slip on the ice just like we do! They did it in sort of a pattern. Waddle, waddle, sliiiiide. Waddle, waddle, sliiiiiide. Rest, then repeat. This entertained me for a few minutes while I finished my coffee.

Once inside the Torpedo Factory, I started on the first floor and worked my way up to the top galleries. For the most part I wasn't very excited about what I saw, I'm sad to say. There were a few amazing shops along the way, but for the most part it was a lot of amateurish watercolors and oil paintings featuring such tried and true subjects as the national monuments, pets, and lots and lots of hearts in preparation for Valentine's Day.

My secondary motive for visiting that morning was that I still had a bit of money left on my Art League gift certificate (from the ever-handsome and always charming Mr. Baldwin for Christmas last year), and the Art League supply store just happened to be open on Saturday. :) So I wandered through the tiny room like a kid in a candy store, picking out paints and pre-stretched canvas.

I spent the rest of Saturday blissfully painting away in my living room in front of a roaring fire. ;)