Washington -- Redmond Farmer's Market

While home, I went to the local Redmond Farmer's Market a couple of times with my family -- this is such a great and convenient market! The market is held on the weekends and local growers bring their produce to the market to sell. A wide variety of fruits and vegetables abound at really great prices. Some things we bought: tomatillos, corn, jalapeños, lemon cucumbers, and pear tomatoes. There are also some places here to buy lunch, crafts, cheeses, and bread. I really wish there was a nice farmer's market near where I live here in Miami, but there is only a lame expensive one far away that is filled with yuppies and you have to pay for parking -- BOO. At least I could enjoy the Redmond Farmer's Market a couple of times while I was up in Washington!

Washington -- Capitol Hill with Molly

I spent a day in Seattle with Molly while I was home and it was so much fun! Molly lives in the totally rad neighborhood of Capitol Hill where there are tons of cool shops, movie houses, art museums, coffee shops, and thrifting places. I took the bus from Redmond and met Molly at Westlake Center downtown where we ate an awesome brunch at one of her regular hang-outs.

After some nice brunch, we wandered to Molly's house to drop off stuff before heading back out to the Fremont Farmer's Market.
We gazed at all the crafts and vintage stuff -- Molly bought the best necklace of a salmon named Curt ever -- and snacked our way through town. After that, we bussed back to Capitol Hill and visited some of my favorite thrift stores (Red Light), then enjoyed the beautiful weekend weather in a nearby park.

That night, we saw a cool movie about advertising at a little movie house near Molly's neighborhood. After that, we crashed at Molly's place, ate some chilaquiles, and watched Kids in the Hall before going to sleep.

The next morning, we stopped for coffee at a cute coffeehouse called Stumptown on our way to Molly's office building. We parted ways here and I walked back to Westlake Center to catch the bus to Redmond. It was so great to see Molly again after YEARS!!

Washington -- EMP/Muppets/Sci-fi Museum

Ack! I am really behind on these Washington posts, but I only have a few more to go before I can post about more current things. Anyway, Mom, Dad, Carlos, and I visited Seattle one morning to see the Muppets Retrospective exhibit in the EMP (Experience Music Project). I had never been inside the EMP or the Science Fiction Museum (in the same building) so this was a great chance to see both while visiting the Muppets. Unfortunately, no pictures allowed, but I did manage to take a photo of one of the police cars ("spinners") from the movie Blade Runner.

The Muppets exhibit was nice but a little small. I saw an original Kermit, Ernie, Bert, along with a bunch of sketches and storyboards from many of Jim Henson's projects. After seeing the Muppets, I spent a little while looking at all the sci-fi stuff -- there were some really great things there! My favorites were the costumes from Dune and Blade Runner and the prop weapons from Star Trek and Aliens!

After our museum visit, we all walked past the Space Needle and ate some lunch at Westlake Pavillion before heading home. We had a really fun time!

Washington -- Wedding cake party

While I was home with my family in Washington this summer, we all had a little wedding party with a fancy cake and sparkling apple cider. My sister made a carrot cake layered with cream cheese frosting and covered in fondant and candy flowers that she made -- it was so great! We had our little party as a family and enjoyed the cake with our cider -- what a nice night!

Washington -- Keepsake Cottage

During my trip home, my mom took Shannon, Carlos, and me to Bothell where she works in a craft/quilt shop from time to time called Keepsake Cottage. The store is located in a larger complex of stores called Country Village and the area is really cute. We visited the communal garden behind the store (which is a converted barn!) and looked at a few of the stores. We also fed the crazy ducks in the pond -- my favorite duck was a little smart one that stood underneath the food dispenser when people put coins in to get the food. Invariably, everyone drops some food pellets when they try to take them out of the machine -- and the little duckie gets a snack!

Birthday fun!

Yesterday was my 28th birthday and I had a nice day. I received a big box of goodies from my parents the day before, but I restrained myself and waited until my actual birthday to open them. I got some really great stuff from my family and Carlos too -- thanks everyone!

Carlos also took me out to lunch at my favorite restaurant in Miami: Lan Pan (it is really just called Lan, Pan Asian Cuisine). This weekend I will have a little birthday party with a few friends and we are going to go bowling -- I can't even remember the last time I went bowling! Another year older and another year...wiser? I hope so!

Washington -- Woodland Park Zoo

While in Washington, mom, dad, Shannon, Carlos, and I all drove to Seattle to visit Woodland Park Zoo -- one of my favorite zoos! There are so many things that have changed since the last time I visited (3 years ago). Most notably, there is a huge new Humboldt Penguin exhibit that gives the penguins a lot more room to swim around and play than their old exhibit. My favorite sections of Woodland Park Zoo are: the tropical rain forest, tropical Asia, Komodo dragons, and the reptile and nocturnal house.

It was nice to see that the zoo is still really popular and obviously doing well -- the animals are really treated well here too and their habitats are large and naturalistic!

Washington -- Crossroads & Uwajimaya

One of the first places I visited after returning home to Washington was Uwajimaya -- an amazing Asian food and craft market that is one of my favorite stores near Redmond. I always stock up on Asian snacks there and I just love to look at all the goodies. I bought a few Asian snacks there which I will talk about in later "Asian snacks"-themed posts -- woo-hoo!

In the neighborhood, mom, Shannon, Carlos, and I continued our adventure to Crossroads mall. The main draws of Crossroads are a Half Price Books (excellent discount used book store) and the food court. The food court is always packed with people and the choices available for lunch are sometimes overwhelming: Thai, American BBQ, Vietnamese, Mexican, Japanese, Italian, Soup...etc. I decided to get a chicken Pho noodle soup (so good, but HUGE!), mom had Vietnamese noodle salad, Shannon had a tostada, and Carlos ate some BBQ. After stuffing ourselves, we visited the bookstore and Old Navy. Before leaving, I also had a watermelon smoothie from a boba drink place. This smoothie was really good -- made with fresh watermelon; it was so fresh and creamy. I will definitely try another smoothie from here in the future!

We had a fun time on our excursion and we also visited Trader Joe's before returning home. It is really fun to visit all of these places in Washington since they don't exist anywhere near where I live in Miami; I think the nearest Trader Joe's might be in Durham, North Carolina!

My wedding ring

I am not usually one for tradition so Carlos and I, although married, hadn't really given much thought to wearing rings. I have a pretty engagement ring from Carlos that I wear from time to time, but now I also have an actual wedding ring that my mom gave me during my trip home. It is very beautiful and made from Alaskan green gold that was mined by my great grandfather in the early 1900's. He melted down some nuggets to make this ring for his mother -- my great, great grandma. Now my mom has passed it down to me and I really like wearing this memento of our family history!

Washington home trip

So now that I'm all done posting about my trip to Germany, I thought I would try to catch up a little more and do some posts about Washington. Carlos and I traveled up to Washington right after returning to Miami from Germany. We ended up having a nice time and doing a few fun things during the couple of weeks we were there. Although I am back in Miami now (and have been back for almost 2 weeks), I will just post a few highlights from my trip home. Among the things we did were:

• Visit my favorite Washington stores -- Uwajimaya and Half Price Books
• Make some nice dinners with the whole family
• Enjoy some of Shannon's expert cooking
• Spend a day at Woodland Park Zoo
• Play with Remlington
• Have a small wedding celebration (with cake and sparkling cider)
• Visit the farmer's market (twice) in Redmond
• Visit the Experience Music Project, Sci-Fi Museum, and Muppets exhibit in downtown Seattle
• See my friend Molly and hang out near Broadway and Capitol Hill
• Take a day trip to Leavenworth -- a Bavarian town in Washington
• Make wedding announcements
• Eat my favorite cake for an early birthday

Whoosh! We did a lot in the time that we were there and of course time flew by much too fast. I will start posting about all the fun in a day or two!

Germany -- Day 15, Frankfurt again

After returning from Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Carlos and I had one final night in Frankfurt before we had to leave for Miami early the next morning. To pass our time in the big city, we visited the downtown area again to see the Goethe Museum. This museum mostly highlighted the artistic influences on Goethe and I was a little disappointed that there was no mention of his scientific contributions -- only his poetry and art were discussed. Goethe’s house was also on display and while it was more interesting than the museum, I was still a little let down by the pure focus on Goethe’s poetry and plays.

After visiting the Goethe Museum, Carlos and I stopped at a nearby sweet store where we bought two small macarons: raspberry and pistachio. I had wanted to try macarons for a long time and they were pretty good! I especially liked the pistachio one (Carlos preferred the raspberry).

We relaxed for the rest of the day and packed our bags. The next morning we got up early, walked to the Hauptbahnhof, purchased our train tickets, and rode the S-bahn to the airport.

Well, this FINALLY brings my Germany journal to an end. I had a really great time visiting this beautiful country. I know I will be able to visit again and see all of the amazing places that I didn’t have time to see during this trip!

Germany -- Days 11-13, Rothenburg ob der Tauber

From 3-5 August 2009, Carlos and I stayed in Rothenburg ob der Tauber (in Bavaria) after traveling by train from Bacharach and saying goodbye to Danielle in Frankfurt. The train system in Germany, based on my experiences, was fantastic -- every train we took arrived and left on time and the system was easy to navigate (even for a non-German speaker!).

We arrived in Rothenburg on the afternoon of 3 August and checked into our cute, old-fashioned hotel (Gästehaus Raidel). I really loved this place -- it was in an excellent location, was inexpensive, and had a lot of quirky charm.

During our three day stay in Rothenburg, Carlos and I had a lovely time wandering the beautiful streets of this well-preserved medieval town (probably the best in Germany). We relaxed, ate great meals (including some picnics in the scenic castle garden park within the city walls) and just enjoyed our time together. We bought some souvenirs at a couple of the famed year-round Christmas markets here and visited most of the city’s sights. I especially liked visiting the convent garden and Kriminal Museum (basically a museum detailing crime, torture, and punishment) and walking around the city exploring. We also toured the city by walking along the stone walls that line Rothenburg’s perimeter. I think Rothenburg ob der Tauber was by far my favorite city that I visited in Germany (although it was slightly full of tourists).

Sadly, Carlos and I had to leave Rothenburg on 6 August to return to Frankfurt where we had a day before flying back to Miami -- a day which I will detail in the next (and final) Germany trip post!