Ta Da!!!

I know you have all waited on pins and needles since reading my previous post from the pumpkin patch to see our carved pumpkins....well.... Ta-daaaaa!! Here they are! Sam decided to go the fierce, monster route, while I settled on a friendly, goofy looking one. We scoured the internet for pumpkin patterns thinking we would do something elaborate but when it came down to it, the traditional art of carving a face won out. Sam added the extra 3D effect of not only carving teeth but also shaving away the outer pumpkin skin....I promptly copied it with my pumpkin eyes and then hollowed out the middle to give even more depth. Top notch pumpkin carving!

The so-called National Zoo

Some kind of weird bird with a cone on it's head and massive cankles!

Adorable little bird! I wanted to put it in my pocket and name him Fluffers!

Finally visited the zoo! I think it's funny how everything in DC is called "The National____" just because it's in the nation's capital regardless of how good it actually is. When I hear a place is "The National___" I naturally think it must be amazing to be something that represents the entire country. In reality, we should have a voting system to determine what gets to put "The National" before it's name so that when tourists go there, they are wowed and think what an awesome representation of all zoos or aquariums or art galleries found in America. I'm sure you can tell where I'm going with this whole rambling......... the National Zoo in DC should not really be the zoo that represents the US. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice place and very pretty but here are a few points as to why it should have to change it's name to just Zoo:

1) It's built on a hill making it very un-handicap friendly. Immediately upon entering the zoo you start going downhill, so by the time you have visited all the exhibits, you have an extremely long uphill climb back to the entrance/exit. As tired as I was by the time I hiked back up to the exit, I can only imagine how exhausted someone pushing themselves in a wheelchair going uphill would be! Geesh!

2) There are no hippos --- a national zoo should have the largest variety of animals and I know there are other zoos in the US who have hippos.

3) The zoo is free - which is great!! - but parking is $20 for 3+ hours. I'd rather pay admission for the zoo and have free parking because at least that way you feel like you're getting something for your money instead of paying to borrow a square of asphalt for a few hours. The mindset of that whole setup is flawed.

4) I didn't see any animal topiary sculptures. There were pretty plants and gardens but I wasn't wowed. A nice elephant made out of a bush would have been nice.

So, overall the zoo was nice and I liked going to a new place in DC. One more to cross off my list :) But was it national zoo worthy??? I didn't think so.

A Hiking We Will Go

Sam and I tried out a new hiking spot last weekend. This one is in Virginia - only about 15 minutes away. Gorgeous weather, beautiful scenery....and then I see the snake sign AND the drowning sign! Nothing says welcome to the park like two deadly warnings. Ha! But the real kicker was that as we were leaving the park, we stopped in the visitor center (this next part is why you should go there on your way IN to the park!) and met Park Ranger Frank who proceeded to tell us the signs are exaggerated to scare people. No joke!! Although there are copperheads in these parts, they are scared of people unless provoked and the few they have seen, actually live on an island in the park where people don't have access to it. As for the drowning sign, Frank said they just want to scare people into staying off the rocks ~ only 2 people have actually died. So there you have it --- lesson learned: ignore posted park signs! :)

Fall Fun!

October is here which officially means it's time to do all the wonderful things I love to do when the weather cools off and the leaves change color - drive in the country, walk through the woods, drink apple cider, sit around a bonfire roasting marshmallows, and carve pumpkins. I can check off driving in the country and walking through the woods, need to go to the store and get some cider yet, might have to count lighting a candle in the apartment and microwaving a marshmallow for the bonfire one, but pumpkin carving is going to happen!

This past weekend was one of, if not the, most beautiful weekend I've seen since moving to DC. The temperature was 68-73, blue sunny skies, little wisps of clouds, and a slight breeze. I wore jeans and a long sleeve shirt with a short sleeve one over it (my favorite fall look!) and was perfectly comfortable. Ahhhhhh....so nice to go outside and not start "glistening" immediately! I'm definitely NOT a sun worshipper! So to take advantage of the gorgeous weather, Sam and I decided to head to Butler's Orchard in Maryland, about 45 minutes from DC. It's a pretty orchard and they have a Fall festival every weekend in October - hayrides to pick pumpkins in their field, a corn maze, petting zoo, lots of little kid activities like face painting and craft tables, hay loft, giant slides, a pumpkin launching cannon, and great open-pit BBQ. We had a terrific time going up and down the slides and finding our way out of the corn maze! The hay loft on the other hand was a learning experience ~ I learned never to jump and play in hay unless you are wearing a full jumpsuit because hay down your pants is not a pleasant experience nor is trying to get it out of your pants in a crowd of people an easy thing to do!

It was a successful outing with 2 large, beautiful orange pumpkins to show for it. Now comes the carving next weekend!! Stay tuned!

Wish I was Latina!

Who would imagine that the best birthday party ever would occur at an orphanage in a Third World country??? Not me! I had always heard Quinceaneras were great parties ~ music, dancing, cake - the usual, but let me tell you, nothing could have prepared me for my sister's 15th birthday this past weekend! My sister Cara, being adopted from Guatemala many years ago, wanted to return to her orphanage and celebrate the traditional "Quinceanera" that Latina girls have for their 15th birthday with all the children, nuns, and nannies in Guatemala. It was unbelievably amazing to say the least!

The birthday began at 7:30am with firecrackers and a mariachi band waking everyone up. All the children came out of their rooms and we danced for a half hour before getting ready for church. Quinceaneras traditionally have a theme color that is spread throughout - dress, flowers, cake, decorations, etc. Cara's favorite color is orange, so naturally that's what she chose, much to the chagrin of many people who tried to talk her into toning it down to a peach or salmon....she wasn't having it :) Anyways, Cara wore a gorgeous orange ball gown with a tiara fit for a queen! She had dressy white high heels for the church service and then changed into comfortable orange All Star shoes, which she bedazzled with rhinestones on the front. Adorable and very much "Cara style." After the 3 hour church service, it was off to the dining room in the orphanage for a delicious meal of Pollo Campero fried chicken, french fries, black beans, rice, fruit kabobs, coleslaw, rolls, and the best cake I've ever eaten! As the meal progressed, we were once again surprised with another round of firecrackers and yes, the mariachi band returned for more dancing. Unbelievable! There were guests from Russia, Guatemala, the US, and the Philippines all celebrating Cara's birthday.

The only thing that would have made the day complete is if my brothers had also come with us to Guatemala. Hopefully after they see the pictures and videos, they won't be such chickens :)

Welcome to the Outer Banks!

Sam's skim boarding attempt

My fleet of turtles guarding my sandcastle.

The best part of living in DC is that it is close to so many awesome places I've never been! The list keeps growing but most recently I took a road trip to the Outer Banks in North Carolina with Sam's family for a couple days of ocean fun. It's only 4.5 hours from DC!! I've always wanted to experience the Outer Banks for a number of reasons (namely that I drive by dozens of cars everyday with OBX oval stickers on their windows!) but being 12-14 hours from Ohio makes for a waaaaaay to long car ride!

Anyways, it was a great mini vacation with the exception that it rained every single day --- thank you hurricane Carl or Earl or whoever it was out in the Atlantic! But even with the rain, the ocean was still beautiful and the sand very clean and neat to walk on. If you ever think of going to OBX, go during the off season ~ the community and beach were deserted, no traffic, and no wait at restaurants! Perfect!

So, to start off with, I learned how to catch a Blue Crab using chicken necks, proceed to kill the crab in boiling water, followed by a very stinky and messy process of removing what little meat actually is found in crabs. I'd like to hear anyone dare call me a city girl after that process!! The only thing that would have made the whole thing easier would be if I had brought my dissecting kit from college biology ~ would have made cracking the legs, prying off the shell and separating the lungs from the meat much better. At first I felt bad for the crabs because they are a beautiful bluish color and really quite pretty, but after they stared me down with their beady, roving eyes and attempted to snap my finger off, I didn't blink an eye watching them boil! Ha!

My ritual tradition when I'm at a beach is to build a sandcastle....sounds pretty routine, huh? Well, a couple years ago I went to Lake Michigan with my cousins on vacation and my cousin made a sand turtle to conquer my sandcastle. It turned into a turtle vs. sandcastle fight with the turtle prevailing. Ever since then, I always build a fleet of turtles to guard my sandcastle. I like to think it's an intimidation factor to deter people from squashing my castle --- they either think the turtles are too cute and they leave it alone, or they think only a crazy psychotic person would make turtles to guard a castle and they leave for fear the builder is lurking around :)

Another fun part of the trip was learning to skim board. Sam, his brothers, and I found some wooden skim boards at the house they rented, so we decided to give it a try. Let me tell you, it's a lot harder than a YouTube video makes it look!! The basic idea is to run parallel or at a slight 45 degree angle towards the ocean and when the tide comes in, throw the wooden surf board in the water and jump on it to skim along the surface of the water. What the video didn't tell you is that A) there's only a few seconds to throw the board down and jump on to skim before the tide retreats taking the board with it, B) falling on wet sand is very painful, and C) don't try it for the first time when the ocean waves are strong enough to hit you in the back causing additional pain from face-planting in the sand. Otherwise, it's a very fun sport!

I can now check the Outer Banks off my list of places to see, although I would love to go back!

Long overdue

Hello my faithful readers....at least, I hope most of you are still reading after my long hiatus from writing! I spent the last 2 weeks sick in bed, then in North Carolina, and then in Guatemala, so I promise great pictures and stories to come of everything except me being sick :) I intended to write and post pics tonight but after looking up at the clock, I've decided it's time for bed. Unfortunately DC traffic does not allow for extra snooze time in the mornings!! Check back tomorrow for a fleet of sand turtles, Blue Crabs that really are the color blue, and an attempt at skim boarding along the ocean. Adventures galore on the East coast :)

Check This Out!

I just discovered a really cool feature to my blog! Starting in July, my blog keeps statistics on how many times people view it (page views), who my audience is (broken down into page views by country), and which post has been viewed the most. So, for everyone who thinks no one but my family reads my blog, this post is for you!

Just from July 2010 - October 2010:

Total page views: 1,916

Page views last month alone: 659

Page views by countries (yes, that's right - I have multiple countries reading my blog!!)

US - 1,806

Luxembourg - 43

Canada - 17

China - 16

United Kingdom - 7

France - 4

Australia - 3

Denmark - 3

Sweden - 3

Germany - 2

Most popular post: "If You Give a Baby a Lemon" on July 2nd.

Any day now I'm expecting a call from Good Morning America and the Today show :)

Off the beaten trail...

Everyone knows DC is full of monuments and memorials - Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, WWII, Vietnam, etc. But what I bet you don't know is that there are tons more beautiful memorials/statues that don't get the main recognition the others do yet are just as cool if not cooler. I present to you the Albert Einstein statue and the Signers of the Declaration of Independence memorial.

Let's start with Big Al - one of the all time greatest, most influential scientists to ever live. His name alone (Einstein not Big Al) is synonymous with "genius." His statue is so much better than Lincoln's statue because there are no guards around him, so I was free to stand on Big Al's lap and give him a kiss :) Surrounding his feet are little dots on the ground, which at first glance seem like only decorations, but upon closer inspection is actually a picture of the solar system and the dots are all stars! Another cool thing you can do is stand directly in front of the statue, sort of close to it, and when you talk your voice echos back. Poor Al is tucked away in a grove of trees on Constitution Ave. without any signs pointing tourists his way, yet I thought his monument was awesome! In fact, I think on the next nice day I'm going to take a book and sit on Big Al's lap and enjoy reading with the most intelligent physicist!

So the second memorial that also doesn't get any recognition is the Signers of the Declaration of Independence. It is tucked away on a little island near the WWII memorial only accessible by a wooden footbridge. All the signers have their signature on a marble stone along with their printed name, where they were from, and their occupation. I think the fact that this memorial is on an island makes it way better than Washington's monument which is simply a tall, cement pencil stuck on a hill!

Next time you're in DC be sure to visit these 2 spots!

New Perspective

I'm on crutches now for the next week with a bum foot. I strained the tendons/muscle from my heel to the side arch of my left foot, although I'm still not quite sure what I did to it. My heel started hurting last week and got to the point where I couldn't put weight on it and was using only my tip-toes to walk, so Sam convinced me it was time to get an x-ray. The irony of going to Urgent Care is that a visit there is anything but urgent! I think my first mistake was filling out a "3" the little "pain chart" upon checking in....should have put more like 8-10 for amount of pain and perhaps then I would have been seen in less than 1.5 hours! That's how long we waited in the waiting room to go back and get x-rays and then after those were taken, it was another hour to read them. Thankfully I didn't have any broken bones, so rest, ice, and Advil for the swelling should be all I need to heal.

In the meantime, I'm realizing how crooked all the sidewalks in this city really are! I had a heck of a time walking to dinner last night trying to use crutches on uneven brick sidewalks, and forget about the sidewalks in front of my apartment! Whew! It's like trying to walk in high heels through a muddy field of dirt, crumbling cement, and grass stubble ~ when you're not sinking in the mud, you're stumbling on the cement or running into pods of tough grass! Now imagine doing all of that while balancing on one good foot and 2 metal sticks that are rubbing your armpits raw. Such a hazard living in the city!

Peep Peep

Sam and I visited the National Harbor this weekend to go sailing. Well, we got to the marina and the wind was non-existent, so we decided rather than spend the afternoon on a sailboat paddling it around the harbor, we would wait for a windier day to give it a try. Stay tuned for hopefully a sailing post yet to come!

However, the National Harbor is such a cool place to visit anyways and it was fun to just walk around looking at shops and eating dinner......AND visiting the Peeps store!! An entire store dedicated to my favorite colored sugar coated marshmallow bunnies and ducks! Wow! I bought a pack of the pumpkin holiday peeps and they are sitting on top of my tv as I write this with the package open so that they will be ready to eat in about 3 days - Peeps are best when stale and chewy and I can't leave them on my kitchen counter incase any rouge bugs get in through my kitchen window looking for a Peep treat! I take my Peep staling process very seriously :)

So, even though sailing was a no-go, the Peeps store made up for it!

Raise the flags!

Do not adjust your computer screen! What you see is an actual photo of my vegetable drawer in my refrigerator. No photo enhancements were used - those really are all MY veggies! My drawer has never been this full since I moved here. I have a bag of celery, 1 garlic bulb, 2 onions, 1 carrot, and a broccoli tree. Oh, and I even have 2 real potatoes on my countertop and a can of peas in my cabinet but they are not shown in this photo. The carrot only cost 22 cents! Next time I may splurge on 2 of them, but for now, I wanted to stick to my grocery list and I only needed one :)

Some delicious recipes on the agenda this week - chicken pot pie, chicken / broccoli / rice casserole, lasagna, and who knows what else I might decide to whip up :) My freezer is low on food, so I'll be making all these dishes and freezing a good portion so I have meals handy when I'm short on time. Tonight I made lasagna and froze 2/3 of the casserole into 2 dinner portions. I'll make 2 chicken pot pies and freeze one, and at least half of the chicken broccoli casserole will also be frozen. Homemade meals sure beat Lean Cuisine!

Eating with my fingers

I tried Ethiopian food for the first time after putting it off for almost 6 months. Sam has talked about how good the food is since the first time we met but I always found a different restaurant to eat at :) However, I decided to give it a try this weekend and determined that I actually liked it for the most part ~ a little bit spicier than I typically care for, but the flavor was very delicious, so it wasn't just a mouth-on-fire spiciness.

We went to "Zed's Ethiopian Cuisine" in Georgetown. Lots of famous people have eaten there including the senior President Bush and his wife, so that calmed me down a bit since I knew famous people wouldn't keep eating there if the food made everyone sick. So, for those who have never eaten Ethiopian style, first, there are no utensils ~ eat with your fingers! Second, the food is served on a giant piece of sour bread called Injera and more bread is served on the side for you to tear off and pick up the food with....the bread served on the side looks exactly like rolled up ace-bandages and you unroll it exactly like that to tear off the pieces. So cool! It is the most unique kind of bread I have ever tried - flat with a sponge-like consistency and is slightly moist yet not sticky. Imagine a sponge you would find in the ocean - slice that into thin pieces and that is what Injera looks like. Okay, so you order your entrees and they come on this huge piece of Injera along with lentils, a slice of carrot, and something that looks like corn but I think it's chickpeas maybe. We ordered a chicken dish with rice a shrimp and vegetable dish. Yummmm!!! Spicy but delicious! I would definitely go back to Zed's and anyone who comes to visit me and is up for a culinary adventure, Zed's is the place we will go!

Oh, and p.s. Ethiopian's have really great desserts as well :)

Daddy, I'd like a pony please

Blue skies, 75 degrees, nothing but trees and open land as far as the eye can see, the smell of farm animals....am I in Ohio?? Not quite - more like the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia. Ahhhh life is grand! Sam surprised me with horseback riding last weekend and it was awesome!! It's been years since I was last on a horse....I think Walloon Lake, MI would be it and that was at least 10 years ago if not more, but I love horses. I've always loved riding them and pretending I was a cowgirl in the wild west tearing across the open plains in the middle of some kind of suspenseful adventure....guess it would be my love of reading that planted that seed! Ha! If you've never been on a horse, I suggest you find the nearest riding stables and sign up for a trail ride. Even if you're scared, just do it; I think horses have a calming effect ~ they meld to their rider's style and before long, your body is moving in tune with your horse and you're relaxed, gliding through the forest or meadow.

My horse's name was Bunny (should have been "Stop-to-Eat-A-Lot") and she was beautiful....ran my knee into 2 trees, but still, she obeyed me pretty well and even let me kick her into a trot for the last part of the ride ~ Bunny was "lagging behind" and I thought it best to urge her along :) It was a peaceful ride over bridges, through small creek beds, and on many winding trails through the base of the mountains. What an amazing surprise and it was the perfect weather to be outside enjoying nature. Really looking forward to Fall and hopefully the cool weather to come!

Going Green!

I figured to be a true Washingtonian, I should embrace the "Go Green" movement....my contribution is scootering :) From now on, I'll be scootering around DC in style to reduce air pollution ~ pink Barbie scooter with glitter wheels for me and silver and red Razor for Sam. Although, I haven't quite decided where scooters belong in relation to traffic ~ pedestrians don't exactly want me on sidewalks and bikers really don't want me in their bike lane, so where does that leave me and my scooter??? We've already rode about 12 blocks around town and decided it's a lot harder than 5 year old kids make it look! Ha! Perhaps this is my first step towards a cupcake car :)