Celebrate DC

This month we learned that we will be moving to Texas in summer 2013, giving us 18 months to enjoy the DC area. With this in mind, we are prioritizing seeing everything we want to see and doing everything we want to do. The beauty is that there is always more to do.

After visiting the DC temple in the morning we took the metro to go see an exhibit on Andy Warhol at the National Gallery of Art. We also saw another exhibit on early bronze sculpture in Italy by a guy named Antico. There are always special exhibits rotating through different museums allowing diversity even when you visit the same museum multiple times. We have been to the National Gallery of Art at least 5 times since in the area. We ate lunch as a place called Merzi, which I would describe as an Indian Chipotle. You add whatever you want to a plate of rice and eat with Naan bread. Of course we are boycotting the real Chipotle and everything resembling Mexican for the next 18 months since we'll get plenty of that in Texas. We will miss the diversity of food here!

Our museum tolerance is usually only a few hours, but as we were walking back to the metro, an exhibit called "What's cooking Uncle Sam" at the National Archives caught our eye. It was an exhibit showing the impact of the US government on food and food consumption. Looked interesting so we went to have a look. The development of the food pyramid or wheel was interesting. So was all of the food propaganda from World War II.

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things...

It seems like we never take pictures of those things we enjoy in everyday life. We only bring the camera when we travel or go on a date. Over the next several months, we have decided to make a point of taking pictures of things we enjoy regularly. Today was a pretty regular day doing regular things... these are a few of our favorite things.

On Sundays we enjoy taking walks near the temple.

We also enjoy cooking together and sometimes trying new things. This wasn't anything new and exotic; just plain Hawaiian pizza. We were trying to be creative with ingredients that we already had in the kitchen.

Playing games together is a fun way to spend time together. While watching movies you often don't talk as much. We definitely still enjoy watching movies, but games are just another fun thing.

Leigh is busy studying in her new program, but fortunately we were able to take time away for each other on this 30th.

One Hot Date

HOT FOOD: We tried this Vietnamese restaurant and ordered some extra hot noodles in addition to some excellent Pho soup.

HOT SHOW: We read Fahrenheit 451 and went to this local production at Roundhouse Theatre.

HOT DATE: She doesn't have to work hard :)

Chocolate!!

This 30th was centered around chocolate. We had samples of chocolates from different countries including Greece, Germany, China and America. Friends brought us back the chocolates from Germany and Greece. We picked up the chocolate bar in China while we were there. Finally we had chocolate ice cream with chocolate syrup from America. The results weren't surprising... Germany had the best chocolate with America placing second. Both Greece and China were pretty bland and tasted a lot like wax.

In order to continue with the theme, we checked out Chocolat from the library and watched it together.

Relaxing Evening in Taipei

The first half of the day was unfortunately spent traveling. We had just spent a week in Shanghai/Hangzhou and were now moving on to Taiwan for my upcoming medical rotation. Although the rotation was in Pingdong in the south, Taipei is the cheapest airport to fly into and also where I served my mission. So chalk up the first half of the day. No matter how you spin it, hauling bags on the subway and around the airport is only so much fun.

We arrived in Taipei around 1PM and took a taxi to the hotel to drop off our bags. Then we hopped on the subway to explore the city. As mentioned, I lived here as a missionary for 2 years and for the most part I knew what I was doing. Our destination was the Taipei 101, the 2nd tallest building in the world. It was the tallest during my time here and was only surpassed in 2009 by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Along the way we stopped at Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. Dr. Sun is considered the Father of China by both Taiwan and mainland China. He helped overthrow the last emperor of China and establish the first Republic. Despite my previous visits I was not aware of the art exhibits on the upper floors. So we enjoyed the exhibits and also were able to see the changing of the guard.

Afterwards we walked to the Taipei 101, but the wait time to go to the top was about 2 hours since it was Saturday night. Instead we opted to walk around the world-class shopping mall on the bottom floors and do some window-shopping. The A/C was very refreshing compared to the last several sultry days spent in Shanghai. We also found a very good German cafe in the mall. We ordered sandwiches and iced chocolate. Once again, the sandwiches were very refreshing after several days of mostly fried foods. Overall, it was a relaxing evening in a new city.

Crisis Averted!

Our plan was to enjoy a nice dinner down in Georgetown. With the help of Groupon we were going to be able to try Hook, a restaurant we have often heard wonderful things about. The reservation was made. I got home I bit earlier than anticipated and thought I would look up their website menu to allow my palate to start watering. Upon pulling up the website I see a message "We regret to inform you that Hook is temporarily closed due to a fire". Odd, I thought. I researched it for just a minute and learned that Hook had a fire just the day before, June 29th! The place is closed indefinitely. Sad day for them. Happy day for us that I got off early and we didnt just drive down there. Instead we went to a new place in rockville Town Center. The food was good though not life changing. There was live music in the background. It was indian music which I enjoyed but Chris was not a huge fan. Overall a relaxing date.

By Land, Sea and Air

When Chris changed his OB rotation to Hawaii it was to allow him to relax a bit more than than the local hospital would have. Hawaii offered good training and every weekend off. He says the decision was quite easy. :) I would love to tell you about our entire trip but our date this month was so jam packed that I would like to focus there.

With the help of Memorial day, our one day anniversary turned into a weekend of enormous adventure and fun! We splurged and went to Kauai for the weekend. Camping is not my idea of a romantic anniversary weekend but if it meant we could go to Kauai, I was in. Landing very early in the morning, we drove until we hit a local fruit stand for breakfast and then onto the Na Pali Coast Line. This is a hike that is listed in many travelers magazines as a top ten hike in the world. It is an eleven mile hike in and eleven out. I was a bit nervous but excited. Luckily, Chris was unable to camping permits for the beach at the end so we did not have to carry anything on the hike. The views were almost describable at times--- colors that I could not seem to pick up on camera. And the hike wasnt really that bad. (We remembered our hiking poles which helped a ton) Two miles in we stopped at a beach where we actually met up with someone I worked with in Tampa! Crazy. Then we hiked another 3 miles to a waterfall whose water was colder then the cold plunge in the spas we have been to! But with much coursing from my friend, we both got in. I swam for a few minutes but was honestly too cold to notice if Chris was by my side. Sorry babe! After the waterfall we headed back where I learned that the hike to the waterfall was "not so bad" because it was mostly all down hill which meant that the hike back was mostly all uphill. All three of us were dying by the end of it!

Our camping grounds were not far from the hike. We ran to set up the tent while it was still dry as we could see storms approaching. We successfully set it up in just enough time. The best part about this camping ground was that most of the campers were part of a family reunion. As a celebration they hired a local band so we got to hear live Hawaiian music while falling asleep that night!! I absolutely love live music-- any kind of live music- and this experience made camping so worth it.
The next morning we got up quite early to join a group on the appropriately titled "Mount Everest of Kayaking". My husband thought it would be fun to kayak 17 miles in ocean water along the Na Pali Coast. Somehow I agreed. Although many of the views were similar from our hike the previous day, we were able to work harder for such views this way. We were also able to go into some of the caves that were not accessible by land, which, I have to admit, was pretty cool. :) During lunch, I found what seemed to be the only beach in the state that had some cool shells. No worries- I didnt take too many. I just enjoyed the beach combing. There was also a mother and baby seal who beached themselves while we were there. After lunch we got on the kayaks and headed off again. Marital distress occurred around mile 15 as we were both exhausted. We made it though and although I am so glad we did that trip, I can say I never want to do that again. :) At the end of the trip Chris suprised me with a hotel for the night. I think we both fell asleep within minutes of walking in the door and without changing our clothes. Ew.

Finally, the 30th arrived. Our three year mark! We woke up refreshed and walked around the hotel grounds and found a hot tub for our sore muscles which was oh so wonderful. We drove around the island stopping to take pictures or go for a short walk whenever we wanted. At 3pm, we exchanged our gifts- a helicopter ticket ride! I bought his, his bought mine. I dont think it was a totally new experience for Chris but it was for me. The helicopter had no doors on it, the weather was beautiful, and the cold air was so refreshing. The views were amazing and we got to wave the Na Pali Coast line goodbye from the air.

After the ride we went for a quick swim in the ocean, found a local mart for some dinner, and went to a blow-hole sight where en joyed our evening. We ended our night by boarding the plane and heading back to Oahu, where Chris had to be back at work at 6am the next morning. I took a book and went to the beach.....Chris worked 6-6 everyday.... I read lots of books.

Just some extra pictures.......

Groupon 30th in Jacksonville

I was in Jacksonville, FL for this 30th on my Family Medicine rotation. Fortunately, this 30th fell on a Saturday allowing me to do whatever I wanted. There were so many options since we would be in FL. Eventually I decided to use several Groupon deals for our 30th activities. We started off by going to Jacksonville Beach, which was beautiful. It was long and wide with clean sand, and there was a good breeze and good waves. We took a walk and laid out for a little while in the AM.

First on the list, I purchased a Groupon for a kiteboarding experience for the both of us. But this was at another beach so we drove, got stuck waiting for a ferry, and ultimately there was not a whole lot of wind. Leigh tried for a little while and then we just called it quits. Strike on the first Groupon.

So we went back to Jacksonville Beach and used the 2nd Groupon to rent bikes and boogie boards. We rode almost the entire length of the beach. A lot of beaches aren't amenable to riding bikes, but if so, this turned out to be a wonderful way to see a lot of the beach. Afterwards we went boogie boarding. Despite Leigh living in FL and loving to play in the waves, she had never actually been boogie boarding before. We got thrown around a little bit by some good-size waves, but caught several and had a blast.

Finally, our 3rd Groupon was for dinner at a French restaurant a couple of blocks from the beach called The Brasserie. The flounder and pasta were wonderful. And thus we spent enjoyed our day thanks to Groupon.

On a side note, I left my wallet in the kiteboard instructor's car and so we had to meet him somewhere to pick it up later that evening. They met us at a local restaurant and treated us to a piece of cake and guess what? They used a Groupon to pay for their meal! Crazy.

Dinner and a movie

The morning of this 30th started out kind of sad. I did not realize that March 30th fell on a Wednesday and so, without realizing it until it was too late, I was on the schedule at work. Thankfully I have a wonderful husband who said he completely understood. I believe his words were, "I can certainly see myself making that mistake". I told him to learn from my mistake. :)

Anyways, In all the fun we have had on the 30th of each month, we have never done the typical "dinner and a movie" date. In light of my schedule at work (they scheduled me on the 30th and I did not notice until last week!) we decided it was perfect timing. It would be a late night as the movie did not start until 920 pm. I was a bit nervous about this; however, Chris was all for it.

The good news of the morning was that we were able to drive to work together. The day only got better from there. I didn't hate my job that day (quite unusal for me) and at 220 PM I was told I would be leaving at 3. We were going to be able to have a real (early) date after all! After getting off, I called Chris who was just leaving his class as well. What perfect timing! We went home, decided on a movie (Adjustment bureau) and the decided to cook a meal together. I wanted to try baked jalepeno poppers and Chris suggested a Spinach salad. The best part of this entire cooking experience was two fold: A. we actually worked as a team quite effectivly and B. we had all the ingedients that were needed. I absoletly hate going to the store for one ingredient for a meal so I was very happy about this. The meal turned out very tasty. At one point we nearly fought over the milk though as the jalepeno poppers were quite spicy!

Despite us both loving the homemade meal, the original plan was to grab some pizza before the movie. We left early for the emovie to grab one slice of pizza. Thank heavens we did as traffic was awful! It was raining and we all know that DC drivers lose all driving ability in any amount of rain. nearly 40 mintures later we finally arrived at the theatre in time to scarf a peice of pizza and arrive just time time for the previews to start. The movie was good- one that I would see again once out of DVD.

Our perfect timing of the evening allowed us to get to bed by 930- our usual time. Another succesful 30th to add to our list!

Valentine's Day

We postponed the celebration until the 19th since I am on General Surgery and pretty busy. Tuesday this week Groupon offered a deal to SpaWorld in Centreville, VA. I had been wanting to try it since I heard of it, so this was perfect timing. It is modeled after Korean bathhouses, which are similar to Japanese onsens and even Roman-Irish baths. Basically the idea is a series of showers, hot tubs, pools, saunas, and steam rooms designed to be relaxing. The unique part of SpaWorld is the many different poultice rooms. These are saunas with different minerals imbeded in the walls such as salt, charcoal, red clay, or amethyst. They even had an ice room. Each mineral is supposed to have different healing properties, like improving memory, decreasing hysteria, removing toxins, etc. Just to be safe we went in all of them :) Although the experience wasn't quite as relaxing as Friedrichsbad, it was still very relaxing. If you consider going, be forewarned that the first part is separated male/female and everyone is au natural. You meet in the middle at the poultice rooms wearing an issued outfit.

I also remembered (yes I listen sometimes) that Leigh had said that Dinner Done was in Centreville. This is a kitchen where you can go and make meals to put in the freezer for a quick meal in the future. Leigh had been in Tampa and really enjoyed it. So I thought we could do both at the same time. We made delicious meals including; Pesto Bruschetta Chicken, Shrimp Jambalaya, Argentinean Filets, and Parmesan Crusted Mahi Mahi. Yum! I can't wait to eat them.

Chinese celebration

This 30th fell on a Sunday and it's cold outside, so we stayed inside. Chinese New Years is this week, so I decided on the Chinese theme. First we woke up and I made danbing (literally egg cookie in Chinese). It's more of an omelette on a green onion pancake. This combined with soy paste made living in Taiwan heaven. So logically I wanted to share it with Leigh, but I'm not as quite as good a cook as the Taiwanese. After church, we tried a new Chinese dish. It was a stir-fry with water chestnuts, snow peas, peppers, and chicken. The key ingredient was a hot chili sauce that we bought at the Chinese market. It turned out to be really good. Finally, we decided to spend some time learning Chinese. Leigh's brother, Zach, bought us something called a Buddha board for Christmas, where you can write with water and then as it evaporates it disappears. So I taught Leigh a few basic characters and also a more advanced one as above :)