segways, yo

after laura, darlaina, and i went on our lighthouse cruise we walked around annapolis and saw a segway tour and decided that we needed to do that. imagine my delight when i found a living social deal the very next week!

it took us a long time to be able to get our schedules lined up but we finally made it happen on friday and it was so fun!

 

our tour guide adam gave us a quick safety demonstration and then we each got a turn to try out the segways with one-on-one supervision. after we each got our individual lesson we all zipped around the little lot. it looked pretty funny, these 6 grown adults segway'ing our hearts out around this little square. 

it was really cold! we were all bundled up and still chilly. good thing it was so much fun!

 that's one bad action segway gang right thar.
 
there was only one dark spot in our fun day... my near death experience. (i knew i was going to be the remedial segway'er!) so to operate the segways you use your feet. if you put your weight forward you go faster, then to slow down you go back on your heels. if you get going too fast the bar pushes back on you to tell you to slow down. so. we're going slightly downhill towards the lincoln memorial when i start speeding up. my segway starts pushing back on me and i really felt like i was going to tip over backwards. there were a few scary moments when i could just see myself falling right over backwards and the segway falling on top of me! and since the bar was pushing me back, i felt like i couldn't lean back on my heels or i'd for sure topple backwards. so, i zoom past laura, i zoom past darlaina and jeff, and at this point i start saying (loudly) "i can't stop! i can't stop!" i zoom past a crowd of people who thankfully got out of crazy segway ladies way. i zoom past matt and finally past adam all the while loudly warning "i can't stop!" thankfully i didn't fall off! adam very calmly told me to put me right foot back a little bit and stick out my bum, which i cautiously did (didn't want to fall over, you know) and finally my runaway segway slowed down. then we were all able to have a good laugh over my idiocy, but holy moly, it was scary while it was happening. hilarious afterwards, scary during. so let's review. if you are ever meandering down the mall and a crazy chubby lady is screaming "i can't stop! i can't stop" it's probably best to just get out of the way. and think of your very special friend. 

 after my harrowing experience. ;)
 
did you know there is a special marker for the spot where martin luther king jr gave his famous "i have a dream" speech? we did not until adam told us.

 helmets are the coolest.
 
segway nerds. people loved us though. we felt like total celebrities. people on buses waved, children on field trips pointed, teens on class trips high fived - it was pretty incredible.
 
our tour took us up the middle of pennsylvania avenue, stopped at the navy memorial, fbi building, capitol, washington monument, lincoln memorial, vietnam memorial, and the white house. it was really, really fun. i highly recommend it! just try not to go downhill. no seriously.

after our tour we went to fogo de chao and oh.my.gosh... that's the kind of meal that dreams are made of! it was sooo good. it's a very high end buffet and brazillian bbq.

there are 16 different types of meat and when you turn your red card over to green the chefs come around and offer you the temperature of meat that you like. matt and i wanted to try all of them so we shared and they were so good! we ate at 1, shared each cut of meat, and weren't hungry till the next afternoon. holy smokes, that was a lot of meat and delicousness.

it was a super fun day and we are all excited to do it again in annapolis this time.