Weekend Report: If I were Batman I could have climbed out of the pit.

The rock gym where I climb in Alexandria can be ridiculously crowed on weeknights. Peak time is around 8 pm, and it can be almost impossible to find an open route. Tuesdays appear to be the worst, but that whole Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday chunk is pretty popular.

Fridays, however, are comparably empty and excellent. I went this past Friday night, got in my preferred number of 10 climbs easily by 8:30, climbed quite a few 5.10s, and attempted a 5.11 (I didn’t get far…at all…but at least I tried!).

And then my friend and I went to the best fried chicken I’ve ever had. Ever. (Bold statement, I know, but it’s one I’m very willing to make.)

BonChon is a Korean restaurant in Annadale promising to "make sure that he who seeks BonChon shall always find it.” Win. Apparently they fry the chicken, then let it soak in spicy sauce for a while, then fry it again. (I will have none of your deep-fried judgement – chicken and kimchi and radishes for the heat – it was totally worth it.)

Then on Saturday I ventured deep into the depths of Maryland to go hiking at Rocks State Park. We started with a very brief out-and-back to a waterfall, and then drove a few miles to another trail head for a longer hike.

The second part actually involved rocks, but more in the stand-on-top-and-peer-over-the-edge sort of way than the climb-them-with-ropes way. Overall, Rocks State Park was nice, but the driving to hiking ratio was not ideal (I think we hiked maybe a total of 5 miles…and it took all day), so I don’t think I’d recommend it to DC dwellers.

Sunday was wet, so I SpeedyKate and I donned our hats (aka umbrellas for our eyes!) and went for a rainy long run around the Mall, Tidal Basin, and all the way to Stadium/Armory. We arrived home at awkward eating o’clock (3:45 pm on a Sunday – is it lunch? Dinner? Whatever it is, I need to eat now!), and decided to solve out problems by getting early take-out dinner from Tortilla Café (my new favorite local place, and it was on DDD!).

We needed an early dinner because at 7pm we saw The Dark Knight Rises in IMAX. The movie was long, but pretty great as long as you don’t look for plot holes…(anyone else notice that when they rob the bank it’s daytime, but the subsequent car chase is middle-of-the-night dark?).

Also, as I said in the title, I could have climbed out of that pit prison thing!!! (Slate agrees.) That whole section took a lot of suspension of disbelieve on my part because that was the grippiest-looking rock face ever and I’m pretty sure any rock climber could do it.  Just saying…

This is the end of this Batman trilogy, which is a-ok with me because (not to give anything away) I strongly suspect that Joseph Gordon-Levitt will be starring in movies of a similar nature in the future…

Hope you had a great weekend too!