North Carolinaaaaa!

...come on and raise up, this one's for you, this ones for who? Us, us, us, us!

In case you are too old or too young to know, these are lyrics to the masterful song by Petey Pablo. Circa 2001 Boston College.  Maaaaany impromptu dance sessions occurred because of this song. It's the song that pops into my head whenever I read, hear, or speak "north carolina." Do you experience anything like that?

Feel left out because you didn't go to college with me and want to hear this amazing musical display? Check out the music video!


Now back on track... last weekend I visited my good friend KL in North Carolina, with whom I went to high school. It was a regular old reunion with her family...2 of her sisters and her mom, who was generous enough to rent a waterfront beach house in the OuterBanks, near Duck and Kitty Hawk.

The early morning haze is burning off, and its starting to warm and lighten up!

 This kind of creeped me out. Doesn't it look like something on one of those religious cult booklets? Or a brochure about palliative care? Or a framed picture in a delivery room? And why does ocean evoke birth and death symbolism for me? These thoughts I will ponder.

 

I'm really glad to have reconnected with her; 

we hope to stay in touch better, and perhaps schedule a visit up to Boston soon!

Downtown DC Day 2

I woke early for my final day of touring and sight-seeing. My day started off by walking to the FDR Memorial, followed by a 2 mile stroll to the Botanical Garden.

FDR Memorial

This is a beautiful memorial with several water features and inspirational quotes. 

Highly recommend visiting this in the future if you can.

Botanical Garden

This is my favorite shot.

 I love this idea for a crawling, creeping roses or clementines. 

It's much more elegant than a regular arbor or flat lattice.

These are really popular lately, especially in the design and decorator circles. 

I think they're called Stag ferns or deer ferns. They grow well when mounted on a wall.

I love this seersucker plant! I looks just like my favorite summer fabric! 

I wonder which came first-- the plant or the fabric?  

This reminds me of something from Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

 

I can't wait to go back and visit the sites that I didn't find time for!

Downtown DC Day 1

I started Thursday out in DuPont Circle. I visited a couple of exhibits at the National Geographic Society, and then tried one of Chipotles new ventures out for lunch: ShopHouse, a noodle house that also offers bahn-mi. It was such a sunny and breezy day that there was plenty of seating in the actual DuPont circle grassy park so I ate my lunch there. I took a short walk down one of the big avenues to Dumbarton house, a beautiful old home from the 1700s that was built in the Federalist style.

 

There was an ample sized private garden were I sat and planned my next stop. Vendors were setting up for a wedding that weekend- how lovely!

 

My next stop was the Newseum, which gave me a grand view of the Capitol, looking down Pennsylvania Ave.

 

The Newseum hosts a Tim Russert exhibit, featuring his desk and pieces of his office.  Born in Buffalo, Russert was known as a fair interrogator of both liberals and conservatives, and made questioning political pundits entertaining and informative for me. During our time at Boston College, we were excited to hear that he would be giving our commencement speech, and that his son Luke was accepted for the next freshman class. Some creative joksters made a short video series called "The BC" a spoof on the now-cancelled FOX show "The OC." As you may remember, Russert was cool enough to oblige the student producers with a cameo appearance. You gotta watch it. It's especially poignoint considering Russert died of a heart attack just weeks after Luke graduated.

 

Adventures just outside of our Capitol

 

Last week, I took a short vacation trip to Washington DC with Nate who was traveling for work.  On my first full day there, it was rainy and drizzly, so I rented a car to get me to Frederick, Maryland which is about a 45 minute drive outside of the city. I was on a mission to visit a museum I had read about years ago. On my way to the museum, I spotted this historic hotel.

 

 The National Museum of Civil War Medicine. I had pretty high expectations, but unfortunately they were not met. It was a fairly small museum, and seemed a bit out of date, and more geared towards juveniles. Midway through my tour the fire alarm went off, and I decided not to stick around.

 

Fresh with irritation and disgust, I forged ahead to visit Antietam National Park, a historic battlefield of the Civil War. It is known as the bloodiest battle, but I have to do a bit of research because it seems like Gettysburg also makes this claim. Stay tuned.

 

As you can see, it was a dreary, rainy late afternoon by the time I drove through hill and dale in the Maryland countryside to this battlesite. I was pleasantly surprised at the Maryland countryside, it really reminded me of upstate New York. Trees, cornfields, and lots of farms. I never considered this side of Maryland, the only exposure I had was the "metro-suburban" towns just outside of DC.

 

After listening to a half hour ranger-led talk about the history of the battle, I drove through several of the tour stops on the map. It really reminded me of Gettysburg. The acreage is so expansive that it would tucker you out if you decided to walk the route.  And I was alone, so I didn't want to look like a loser history dork. And the skies were about to open up and drop a can o' whoop ass.  Did you know that Clara Barton served during this battle, tending to the wounded?

Moral of the story? Don't mess with the North. We won this battle.

Cocktail Tree

Now that Sis has a large patio, one thing she had been hankering for are some dwarf citrus trees. As part of her Christmas gift, I "future-gifted" her a citrus tree. The trick with this was finding a local nursery that sells dwarf citrus in the local Miami area. It is illegal to ship out-of-state citrus trees into Florida because the state has had a bad bout of citrus blight. You're only allowed to buy from local nurseries.

So, I found one such lovely establishment called Spyke's Citrus Grove, that is located not too far from the Fort Lauderdale airport where we were flying into. We stopped there and picked up a tree for Sis's patio. It's called a "cocktail tree", isn't that cute? Its a dwarf, and it is a hybrid Meyer lemon and key lime tree. The employees there were so helpful and friendly.

Won't it be perfect for garnishing a cocktail? I hope it is bearing fruit next time I visit!

SOBE part trois

My sister has some lovely and shockingly large aloe plants on her terrace in SOBE. These look like they are from "Little Shop of Horrors" they are so large and intimidating!

On day two, I noticed that N had a medical need for some aloe, and why not use some fresh aloe to ease a red burn from the hot Miami sun?

Sis cut a large arm of the aloe right near the base so that it could still regenerate later.

She quite dangerously shaved off the thin but tough aloe skin to reveal the cool, gooey aloe entrails. We tried a vegetable peeler, and it wasn't sharp enough!

She drops the aloe into a small blender. It smells wierd, and not at all like the "beach" smell that commercial aloe offers.

Without any water, the aloe was blended into a light, frothly mixture.

Check out the lobster red skin that is practically screaming for some fresh aloe. Can you hear it?

The application of this "organic" aloe was not at all like what you find in a bottle. It was very light, and had a plant-like odor. The effect was the same; soothing and refreshing.

Have you ever tried real aloe from a plant?

Miami creature

This is a picture of a real person who attended SOBE. Nate and sister were wine tasting in the special wine tent, and we stumbled upon this creature. If you look closely, you can see he matched his crocs with the rest of his outfit.

Only. in. Miami.

SOBE part deux

Cape Cod potato chips had a booth at SOBE, and they were handing out samples of their new flavors: rosemary, sea salt and feta (delicious, and I don't even really like rosemary!), and cracked peppercorn.

They were also giving out these awesome 80s sunglasses (very reminiscent of Miami Vice, don't you think? Coincidence?) I think I shall keep them, to round out my small but ever useful "costume wardrobe" which currently consists of: leather pink stippled kitten heels, acid washed Guess jean jacket, and 8" gold hoops.

As you will see here, if I wear them, I need to leave my mouth agape.

My round Slavic cheeks have no mercy and leave room for no one!

Ironically, they fit N and his (self-admitted) monster head and Scotch-Irish cheeks perfectly!

SOBE wine and food fest

Ever since my sister moved to Miami Beach a couple of years ago, I knew I would one day want to attend the SOBE (southbeach) Wine and Food Fest. They set up grand white tents on the equally white beach sand, and feature culinary demonstrations and tasting events, many taught by Food Network personalities.

This year N and I were able to plan a trip down in late February, and purchased tickets along with my sister to the event. The tickets were pretty pricey but we decided that it was probably a once in a lifetime event to attend.

Here, we've already entered the event, and are able to visit the tasting village.
Did I mention that I almost passed out? My excuses are heat and dehydration.

The event hosted several well known chefs.
We stopped and watched Andrew Zimmern cook some octopus.

I was disappointed to see that they changed the demonstration agenda, and Giada was not on the Saturday lineup!

Overall, it was an interesting experience. We got to sample cheese, chocolate, sliders, beer, liquor, all while trying to walk among a pack of wolves who had never seen food before. Seriously. These people paid $200+ per ticket and were acting like it was a free buffet. We quickly channeled are our inner calm, and vowed that we wouldn't need to return to this event!

Check back this week for more adventures from our trip to Miami.

MLK day... nerd alert

The temperature has finally plummeted and it feels like winter, eventhough it doesn't look that way. This entire weekend we enjoyed a bright blue sky and sunny weather. Since I had Monday off from work for the MLK holiday, I knew I didn't want to waste a day inside, and thought I could get a different type of exercise outside of my regular gym routine.

Being of hearty, cold-weather stock (upstate New York and Maine), my friend, A and I decided to hit up some local historical areas to enjoy the frigid winter and bright sunny weather.

Our first stop was Walden Pond in Concord. Our plan was to hike around the pond, a short 1.7 mile walk. But after the first loop being rather flat, we decided to take a higher ridge trail around the pond. All in all, we walked around the pond twice, which logged us in at 3.4miles!

After that, we drove a short 2 miles to the Concord town center to visit The Old Manse, which is a house that is "the most important historical home in America."

This home belonged to the Emerson family since the 1600s. You might recognize the family name from Ralph Waldo Emerson. Over the years, the home hosted new-age thinkers who spawned the Transcendentalist movement, including Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Here, if you look closely, you can see writing etched into the glass, using a diamond.Can't see it? Look in this second picture, in the area around the tree trunk. You'll see etchings from the Hawthorne's and Emerson's. Old school graffiti, or as the young-uns call it today: tagging.

This is a view of the Concord River behind the home. Beautiful clear water with icy patches near the shore.
This monument commemorates the "Shot Heard 'Round the World", or, where the American Revolution started. For some reason, I thought it happened at the Lexington Battle Green. Hermmm.
Although it was a beautful day, I look forward to returning in the summer months to explore more of the Minuteman Trail that runs nearby.

Atlanta

I traveled to Atlanta for the National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media in early August. My employer paid for the trip, and I earned CEUs towards my health education certification, so it was a win-win. Although, with all of my recent traveling, it admittedly left me more tired than I had anticipated.

While I was there, we were able to have a private viewing of the Georgia Aquarium, which is the largest in the world, and I was also able to sneak off and view the World of Coca-Cola "museum".

My view from the Omni hotel at the CNN center.

Look! Two of my favorite things: mini Coke!
I stopped for lunch at the TacoMac near the CNN center. It's a popular chain in the southeast, and is owned and run by a member of N's stepfather's family.

Look at all of the different Coke products on the menu! I tried diet raspberry coke. Very disappointing; it tasted medicinal. Yuck!I snuck off and managed to check out the "World of Coke."
Look at this cool soda fountain that they recreated!

Proof that my people in the old country love Coke too! It's in my blood!

Final stop was the tasting gallery, where you can taste Coke products from all across the globe.
Delicious and disgusting. I swear I tasted windshield washer fluid and maybe even licorice.
My favorite: diet cherry coke! I can't find it anywhere anymore!
Next onto the Georgia Aquarium, the largest in the world! Very new and beautiful.

Look at these cuties! They're nuzzling!

No more traveling until mid-September when I go to Orlando for another work conference!