Space shuttle Discovery

Yesterday, Carlos and I walked over to the National Mall to get a good view of the space shuttle Discovery taking its final flight over the mall before heading over to Dulles airport to stay in its new home at the Udvar-Hazy Center. The shuttle was attached to a specially-outfitted 747 plane and it was such a cool thing to see! We arrived at the mall (in front of NMNH) around 9:50 am and that was when we saw our first sighting! A little jet was also flying next to the 747/shuttle. The shuttle made a few loops over the mall and it was really neat (I think I saw it 3-4 times) -- I couldn't get any really good photos with my little point-and-shoot, but I think they turned out OK.

Stay tuned for another blog entry about our family vacation out to the Udvar-Hazy Center (where Discovery will be on display soon).

DC family vacation 2012 - Day 2

Shannon, BJ, Carlos, and I all woke up at our apartment and got ready for another fun-filled day of family vacation! We all went over to Union Station to meet up with Mom and Dad for a quick breakfast at Potbelly to fuel the day’s adventures. From Union Station, we walked over to the Capitol for our tour at 10:20 am. The weather was really gorgeous and we took our time wandering to the Capitol visitor’s center, enjoying the flowers and flowering trees and taking photos of the architecture in the area.

We waited in line for security screening before standing in another line for the tour. I really enjoy the Capitol tour. I’ve taken this tour four times now and it has been interesting and slightly different each time -- I highly recommend it!

After the end of our tour, we took the underground tunnel to the Library of Congress. I really like the Library of Congress -- it is one of the most beautiful buildings around. I also have a library card (which anyone can sign up for) to work in the Jefferson Reading Room -- claimed by some to be the most beautiful room in the world.

We were getting a little hungry for lunch by this point and wandered over to Good Stuff Eatery for burgers, fries, and shakes to refuel. This was a great lunch!

We walked down Pennsylvania Ave. to Eastern Market and although it was pretty crowded, it was a nice day and fun to look around at all the goodies (we bought a little chive plant for our window garden). Too bad we didn’t also take home the free kitty chair we saw on the sidewalk!

After a little rest break in our apartment (we walked home after visiting the market), we walked back to the Eastern Market area to have an early-ish dinner at Matchbox. Dad, Carlos, and I had eaten at the new Matchbox in Rockville, MD and we all loved it. This Matchbox is a little smaller (it is Capitol Hill after all), but the food was just as good. We enjoyed a bunch of tasty foods, cocktails, and even dessert!

From Matchbox, we wandered back to the Eastern Market metro station where Mom and Dad took the metro back to their hotel and Shannon, BJ, Carlos, and I tried to walk off some of our meal on the way back to the apartment. Tomorrow would be another big adventure: Dad’s birthday and driving to the Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum near Dulles Airport!

DC family vacation 2012 - Day 1

Shannon, BJ (her fiancé) and my parents all arrived into DCA on the night of Thursday 5 April 2012. Carlos and I went to the airport to pick up Shannon and BJ to take them back to our apartment via the metro. Mom and Dad arrived late at night and took a taxi to their hotel (Phoenix Park -- a great little Irish hotel right next to Union Station! We couldn’t have asked for a better hotel).

The following day (6 April) we started by going to the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) to get badges for everyone so that we could all bypass the long bag check and security lines and go behind the scenes in all the Smithsonian museums. We were at the NMNH about a half hour prior to opening and it was great to wander around before the hordes entered! We visited the Hope diamond, minerals, and gemstones with no one else around. We also visited the dinosaurs, ocean hall, mammals, and lots of other things in-between. I took everyone behind the scenes to see the National Herbarium (tons and tons of plant specimens) and the entomology department. We had a fun time seeing the museum and looking at how different it is behind the scenes!

After NMNH we visited the Old Post Office Tower food court for lunch. We had planned to go up the tower for a view of downtown, but there was a gigantic line and it just wasn’t worth it (this was one of the busiest tourism weekends in DC).

After a little lunch we visited the Smithsonian Castle on our way over to the Air and Space Museum where we spent the rest of the afternoon. This is one of my favorite museums (after NMNH of course) but it was just so crowded that day! We still managed to see almost everything before heading out for the afternoon.

We made our way back to Mom and Dad’s hotel for an afternoon break (eating some home-made oatmeal cookies that Shannon brought and some astronaut ice cream that I had picked up at Air and Space). For dinner that night, I had made reservations at Zaytinya -- such a popular place! We enjoyed a leisurely and delicious meal. Some of the highlights included: butternut squash hummus, labneh, tzatziki, scallops (2 orders!), cheese plate, salmon, shrimp, calamari, and spanakopita. I had a great apricot tea drink too that I highly recommend!

After stuffing ourselves with delicious Mediterranean tapas, we made our way back to Phoenix Park to drop off Mom and Dad before Shannon, BJ, Carlos, and I walked back to the apartment for the evening. We had an eventful and fun first day of our family vacation!

Family vacation over now

Well, our family vacation is now over -- my Mom and Dad left this morning while Shannon and BJ left last night. We all had a great time and I will be downloading my pictures in the next couple of days so that I can start posting about everything that we did while they were here. It was really great to have everyone together again and the good news is that we will all be together again very soon (less than 2 months) in Washington state for Shannon and BJ's wedding (Carlos and I have bought our tickets already -- woo-hoo!). Stay tuned for details about the DC trip!

Family vacation!

Tonight my family is coming into town for a week-long DC vacation! My sister and her fiance are coming in to DCA around dinner time and my parents arrive a little later -- I am so excited to see everyone all together again. It's been a while since the four of us have been in the same place (I think the last time was Christmas of 2009) and it will be great to have time to relax together and enjoy DC. So far this is what we are planning for the trip:

- Visit the Natural History Museum (of course!) behind-the-scenes
- Go to the top of the Old Post Office Tower
- Visit Air and Space and the Udvar-Hazy Center (where they keep the huuuuge planes and shuttles out by Dulles)
- Capitol Tour
- Visit the Zoo
- See Eastern Market
- Go to the National Archives and have afternoon tea afterwards
- Wander Georgetown (and find the Kennedy residences)
- Visit Arlington Cemetery
- Wander the monuments/memorials (Lincoln, Jefferson, etc.)
- Eat at Zaytinya, Matchbox, Founding Farmers, Good Stuff Eatery...we are going to eat ourselves silly~

We have a few things planned but our schedule is pretty mutable depending on how we feel on a given day. The weather promises to be great and I can't wait to see my family again tonight!

Fox x-stitch

I made this little red fox cross-stitch quite a while ago (for my friend Jennifer as her secret Santa present last Christmas!) but I don't think I ever posted about it. I also made an elk for my friend Molly (but I never took a picture of it). I really enjoy making these little animal stitches inspired by the art of Charley Harper. They are pretty small so they don't take forever (like some of the other cross-stitch projects that I've been working on...I will post about those a little later).

When I went back to Washington for Christmas, I made sure to stock up on lots of cross-stitching thread, cloth, and even Sculpey clay to make sure I can work on crafts here in DC -- the land of no craft stores -- until I can get back to the Ben Franklin craft store in Redmond!

Zaytinya food-fest

This happened a loooooong time ago, but I had not had the time to post about it until now. Carlos and I visited one of our favorite restaurants for a celebration dinner and (thanks to a birthday gift certificate from my good friends Christina, Michele, and Erin Kado) were able to go all out for a fantastic meal!

Carlos and I had wine with tons of little plates of food: calamari, shrimp, scallops (my favorite), hummus, tzatziki, pitas, and an incredible cheese plate!

One of the best things I had during that dinner (aside from the scallops) was the cheese plate -- there were so many delicious varieties of cheese with interesting accompaniments (honeycomb, candied walnuts!). This was a really great dinner and I might be going back again this Friday for a friend's birthday celebration. Also, I am bringing my family here when they come to visit in about a week (I've already made reservations because this place is very, very popular). If you ever want to come and visit me, we can eat here~

Hello again bloggie!

Hi all!

Sorry for the little blog hiatus, but as most of you know, I have been away in Costa Rica for the past couple of months teaching the grad OTS tropical ecology course. It went really well and I am now back in the states again.

Things are pretty busy and there is a lot of stuff that I need to write about (including some things from a while back that I never got around to posting!). The cherry blossoms are blooming now (Carlos and I had a picnic lunch under some of the coolest trees near the Capitol) along with lots of other pretty flowering trees. DC is really awesome in the spring (and I'm glad that my family will get to visit soon to see the coolness)!

I am still busy with post-course stuff (writing reports and putting together the course book) but once things settle down a bit, I will get back to posting more regularly~

X-mas vacation in WA -- Seattle with Molly

While I was home for X-mas in Washington state, I was able to take a couple-day trip out to Seattle to visit my good buddy Molly! We had a great time (doin' cat stuff -- WHUT!) eating lots of great food, wandering around, and hanging out! We wandered Molly's stomping ground of Capitol Hill (the OTHER Capitol Hill) where we found some tasty (and inexpensive) pho for lunch (free cream puff too!).

We visited our usual awesome thrift shops and tried on crazy 50's dresses. From there, we popped into Grim's for super-cool fancy drinks.

We met up with Molly's boyfriend Andy there and found our way to Lil' Woody's to murder some burgers. I tried one called "The Pig and the Fig" -- it has fig paste, bacon, and gorgonzola cheese and it was amazing!

We meandered back to Molly's radical apartment to hang out and play with her roommate's cool kitty Nina. Nina was really funny and I loved how she liked to sit on the tops of chairs like a little flounder.

I had a great time spending time with Molly in Seattle and I can't wait to make a visit out to see her in San Francisco now!