Wow, what a weekend!! I knew going into this weekend that I would have lots of chances to overindulge. My personal challenge was to enjoy myself and all the wonderful food before me, but not to over eat.
I don't think I did half bad.
Let me back up a smidgen and just say this weekend really did morph into a laid back weekend at home to a birthday extravaganza. I was born on opening day of the Orioles 26 years ago (when did I become 26?). Once I realized opening day was the day before my birthday, I called up my dad and insisted he take me to the ballgame. Since my younger brother and I have birthdays within a week of each other, my dad decided to get him a ticket too. All of a sudden it's almost family day at the yard.
Little did I know that this years opening day is also the 20th Anniversary of Camden Yards. As you can imagine this made it probably a more crowded and exciting opening day.
I started the day by cat sitting, running (see making healthy decisions) and working from home before picking my brother up from work and heading to the yard. Believe it or not, I have never been to Pickles Pub (a Baltimore must) before an Orioles game. I was pretty excited to start the day with a new experience with my little brother. Unfortunately, it was really crowded at Pickles. We drank two beers, ran into a few familiar faces before grabbing a hot dog and finding our seats.
My brother wanted to be in the yard no later than 2:30 so we could catch all the pregame highlights. Since it was opening day, there were quite a few!!
One of my favorite opening day things was the special 20th Anniversary can of Natty Boh. I may or may not have smuggled my can out :)
Saturday was very relaxing. Jay and I went on a short run, we got Jay's wedding pants altered, mom and I went shopping (and I bought nothing for myself) and we relaxed until dinner time.
For dinner, my parents took my brother, his girlfriend, Jay and me to dinner at Fogo de Chao. It was delicious!! but I am not sure if can eat very much meat afterward. Everything was delicious except for the mashed potatoes. They were ok, but nothing to write home about. But really, who goes to a steak place for mashed potatoes?
We were seated right by the kitchen which meant that our meat came out still sizzling. My only complaint about the meat was that we were offered lots of cuts of beef and lamb, but not as much pork and chicken. Jay got some delicious garlic pork at the beginning of the meal that we never saw again (he was nice and let me have a bite). Besides that we had a great meal and a great time. I wouldn't recommend Fogo de Chao all the time, but it is a fantastic place to go for a celebratory dinner.
The next morning the celebration continued with brunch with the extended family. Brunch is another all-you-can-eat affair. I think we were all still stuffed from the night before which caused me to be extra picky at brunch. I love our Easter brunch, but after eating a really nice meal the night before it made me realize how sub par this brunch can be. Don't get me wrong, it was good, but not as delicious as Fogo de Chao.
