November 1, 2025

Alexandria, VA

Up really early this morning about 01:30. Work on Judges biography for about two hours. Managed to get back to sleep and sleep in until nearly 07:00. Got dressed, went downstairs to the lobby where they were serving breakfast and helped myself to some scrambled eggs and bacon. While I ate, I shared a table with two middle school lads from Utah here on their 8th grade field trip to Washington DC. They seemed to be having a good time despite the government shutdown. They seemed particularily impressed with their trip to the Holocaust Museum yesterday.   

After breakfast I walk over to the Starbucks in Courthouse Square. This morning, I ordered not only my normal cappuccino, but I also got a coffee for Mary and an English breakfast tea or myself later. The traffic was eerily light, but it is Saturday and after a “party night”.

I returned to our room and spent another couple hours working on Judge’s biography. Then we took a walk through the Courthouse Farmers’ Market which is only a couple blocks from the hotel. It was pretty good. Lots of fresh vegetables, meats and other food stuffs. There were also a number of vendors selling antiques and household items. We went back to the room. Then I walked over to Five Guys, just across the street from the hotel, and got a burger for myself and a grilled cheese for Mary.

It was about 14:00 when we left to walk to Arlene’s house. We chose to follow google maps rather than the route Kathy drove yesterday. It only took us about twenty minutes to cover the whole ½ kilometer distance. Arlene’s neighborhood is going through gentrification. The smaller old homes being replaced with large gaudy homes. That is the way it goes.

We then spent the afternoon being introduced to another form of canasta called Super Samba. Very similar to the game of canasta we usually play but with a few twists. The first thing, which appears impossible, is that the games called for seven decks of cards; our canasta is only two decks. One of the twists is a feature called a “Samba,” this is a seven-card sequence of the same suit. For example, 8 through Ace. There are no wild cards allowed in Sambas.

Then there is a Super Samba. This is an eleven-card sequence (4 through A). You need one Super Samba per hand and to go out. You also a seven-card canasta of all wild cards, and another canasta of all “7’s”! You need one of each to go out.

However, that is not all. You also need five “regular” or normal canastas with not wild cards. You can have additional (black) canastas in which you have used wild cards, but you need those five regular (red) ones to go out.

There is a lot more thinking and a lot less luck that our regular canasta. We spent three and a half hours learning the game and playing. Honestly it was lots of fun and a much better exercise of the brain than regular canasta. It also burns though a lot more time. Of course, those are just the very basics of the came.

After the game we hopped into an Uber and went to J. Gilbert’s in McLean for dinner. Apparently, Joe Gilbert was, at one point, a fairly famous Kansas City restaurateur. This restaurant is a stand alone in a shopping center. It is upscale with a richly dart wood decorated interior. We had asked to be in the “fireplace” room, but even at 18:00 the tables there were occupied. Our table was just a few from the fireplace and it still had a very friendly warm feel.

As we walked in there was a framed notice about a signature cocktail; The J Gilbert Barrel Aged Manhattan made with Maker’s Mark Bourbon, Italian Sweet Vermouth, orange bitters, Amerada cherries, aged in-house. Immediately I knew this was an Ingegni type of place.  Arlene and I chose the slow roasted Prime Rib dinner with creamy horseradish, au jus, salted baked potato and grilled asparagus. We both chose the smaller 12-ounce version, and we both couldn’t manage to finish the whole thing. Not that it wasn’t good, but because it was simply too much. Arlene loved the horseradish; it was too week for my taste.

Mary chose to have the maple plank salmon with a bourbon glaze. It appeared very interesting, but you know it is fish, so I just don’t care. Mary did say it was very good.

For dessert we all shared a crème brûlée. Not only was it excellent but it was served in an 18-inch-long and 3-inch-wide dish. The sugar glaze will on the top was wonderfully Carmel colored. On top of that were various season berries. It was outstanding, and one was more than enough to share.

After dinner we took an Uber back to Arlene’s. We went inside for a minute to pick up a bag we had left before going to dinner. Then we called and Uber to take us back to the hotel. In an Uber it is all of a ten-minute ride back, and we could have walked but it was dark and being old we didn’t want to risk a fall.

Buonanotte e Ciao,

Enrico e Maria