The Last Few Days

Friday August 28: A fairly low-key day with a trip to the grocery store. There we happened upon this gem of a cake. It's always appropriate to present your 3-year-old with Elmo's Road Rage. The only reason I even look at the grocery store cakes is this website. This woman collects images of professionally-decorated cakes gone horribly wrong, and shares the love with the internet. Good for some serious laughs.
Saturday, August 29: We started the morning off with a trip downtown (in Bethesda) to our favorite bagel place. They make real bagels--chewy, crusty, absolutely delicious. We picked up some toasted everythings with homemade chive cream cheese and headed next door to get some locally roasted coffee. Quartermaine doesn't mind if you eat your bagel with your coffee. Bethesda is hopping on a Saturday morning--families, joggers, dogs. Also on Saturday we went downtown to Natural History to the Ocean Hall, which was kind of disappointing. Although, I really do like marine life. Reading about them on giant placards, not so much. And going to the Mall on weekends makes me want to tear my hair out--lots of whiny touristy families. So we went to the Old Post Office and rode the elevator up for a view of the whole city. It was cool to see how much I could recognize just from my knowledge of where things are and what they look like. Sometimes I feel like I belong to this city.

Sunday, August 30: Nora was in town for a bit, so Sarah and I met up with her for Dim Sum. Nora and I managed to dress the same, so we thought we'd get some nice photos. But I couldn't resist tickling her, so we also got one of these:
Apparently, the National Hillel chose Chinatown for its home, which resulted in this awesome sign:

In other news, I am starting my new job tomorrow. AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!! I will be the H1N1 Specialist in Prince William County, in Virginia. Basically I'll be their swine flu go-to girl. I think it will be really cool, and what an opportunity!!! I will have a long commute in my car, so I am taking any and all suggestions for books on CD, including but not limited to juvenile and young adult titles.

Fish Wharf and National Cathedral

Thursday, August 27: Fish Wharf: Down by the Potomac River, in an area picturesquely framed by interstate 395, lies a hidden fish market. These permanent stalls stand on floating barges, and have every imaginable shellfish (at least on this coast), and dozens of male fishmongers who want to know "if you ladies need anything." I got a great deal on crab legs from a man I didn't even know I was bargaining with! For lunch, we followed the crowds to Jimmy's, where you order from what literally looks like a hole at ground level. I had to squat down to yell out my order. We followed what other people were ordering and ended up with giant shrimp stuffed with crab meat and baked with lots of butter (yum!), a crab cake, yeast rolls, and an Arnold Palmer (mix of iced tea and lemonade). This last item was essential, as the heat coming up from the parking lot we were standing in was doing us in. We ate standing at a railing over looking the boats, fending off very assertive pigeons and unknown seabirds.
Wednesday, August 26: National Cathedral. Sarah and I drove to the National Cathedral, where we took a tour. It looks a lot like an English cathedral. I am not really moved by the gothic style, but it was cool to finally see up close what I have viewed many times from Miriam's rooftop.

Bethesda and the Zoo

In a shop window while walking to the zoo. At least it wasn't "Kosher."

Monday, August 24: National Zoo. As the weather promised to be below 90F for a day, Sarah and I headed to the zoo. We were there at lunch time for the pandas, so we got to see them consume mass quantities of bamboo leaves. They are much bigger than I would expect. We also saw a baby gorilla who started patting on the glass in response to the human children doing the same. But my favorite, of course, were the capybaras. They were hanging out in the water with their well-positioned noses, eyes and ears above it. I know some people think they are just giant rats, but really capybaras are very friendly.


Sunday, August 23: In downtown Bethesda, by the Barnes and Noble, there is a fountain and some benches. When the weather is nice, lots of people hang out there, listening to teenage street musicians and eating shaved ice from this cart. For $2, this man will freshly shave you an overflowing cup of ice and cover it with any of his syrups. I love watching people eat this--it's impossible to be sad when eating shaved ice. On days when I don't want to get on the metro or do anything big, I walk or take the trolley here and people watch.

My version of Project 365

So there is this thing in blogland called Project 365, where you take a picture every day for a year and post it on your blog. I thought I'd do something similar, but probably won't do it every day. I want to document my few weeks of vacation with Sarah before I start my job and all memory of free time vanishes.



Wed August 19: Montgomery County Fair. We enjoyed lots of goats, bunnies, ducklings, and pet a bison. He wanted us to. We also ate funnel cake (Sarah's first!) and very soft serve twists dipped in peanut butter or chocolate shell. I will spare you these photos, as they basically show me covered from wrist to elbow in ice cream.

Tuesday August 18: Ben's Chili Bowl with Rosalie. We feasted on vegetarian chili, cheese fries, and Rosie had chili-cheese fries and a milkshake. We were fortunate enough to be in a back room with about 25 Japanese tourists who were on a large group plan. We were treated to a history of Ben's, which was really cool! A great snapshot of DC history around the time of the race riots. Ben's was the only business on U Street that stayed open the whole time. Then Rosalie was recruited to take a photo of the group.


Monday August 17: A tour of the Capitol was short, but allowed us a great view of the inside of the dome. One of the murals on the dome features Posiden and assorted underwater people in togas laying the transatlantic cable. We also got to see the tomb where George Washington was supposed to be buried (he isn't). I mean, he is buried, but not there.

Library of Congress 8/15

Sarah and I took a trip to the Library of Congress. We saw a Gutenberg bible, and an exhibit about Bob Hope and Vaudeville. We enjoyed admiring the lovely architecture of the LOC. Then we shared a picnic on the lawn of the Capitol, which is across the street. We started under a tree, where we were relentlessly pursued by a squirrel that may or may not have been rabid. When he started edging closer and closer to our carrots and would not be dissuaded by Sarah's shoe, we moved to another tree. There, we met another picnicking family who agreed to take our photo in front of the Capitol. Unfortunately, they didn't manage to include the Capitol in the photo, so I bring you this picture we took ourselves.