Power's Out!

The night before we went to bed with thunder and lighting and ferocious winds howling outside.  The power went out sometime around midnight, but the cool air stayed in the house long enough to let us sleep through the night.  Previously our building had never lost power for more than a few seconds, even during all the snowstorms in the last few years.  And this time our building's back-up generator didn't work either so not even the elevator's were working.  First order of business was to get ice from downstairs and put it in the refrigerator.  Not an easy task when you live on the 11th floor!

Once the food was taken care of, we started planning the day.  Previously the plan was to go down to DC and go on a walking tour and visit the Library of Congress.  But since we couldn't shower and we wouldn't have a cool house to come home too, this wasn't an attractive option any longer.  Instead we decided to drive to Hersheypark in Pennsylvania where everyone else would be hot and sweaty too and there would be some water to jump in.  So we drove the two hours to get there.  And the water felt great!

On returning to our home, we discovered the power had been back on since 10AM, just after we left!  We were incredibly fortunate.  Many people went several days without power.  We had some people over to offer a respite from the heat.

4 Years Ago...

Time passes so quickly but at the same time it feels like we have been married much longer.  This is the first year we were unable to getaway for our anniversary.  No, the love or energy is not fading.  Leigh's school is keeping her very busy.  Besides, most people just go out for dinner for their anniversary, right?  Either way we resolved to make it extra special in two years.  Next year we're both likely to be busy again since I'll be in intern year and she'll be in clinicals for her school.

Tonight we went to Seasons 52, which is a chain restaurant, but a very good one.  They have really good, fresh food that is also very healthy.  And they have live piano music after 6 pm.  What could be better?  Our review?  We loved it.  The appetizers, entree's, and desserts were all delicious.  It was simple yet fun.  Rather than a bunch of things to do, we just spent the whole evening on dinner and enjoying conversation (and the piano music of course).  

Crossing off that DC Bucket List

Since Chris just finished his last clerkship last Friday and Leigh just finished classes, we both actually had the whole day off to have our date.  We are still trying to do the things we haven't done yet in DC.  Today you could say our theme was "American History."  We started at Ford's Theatre:  visited the museum, listened to the ranger talk, and watched the short production called "One Destiny."  The museum was small enough to absorb it all, but not so small you get bored quickly.  We also visited the Peterson house across the street where President Lincoln died after being shot.

For lunch we wandered down to the mall and the Museum of the American Indian.  We tried a buffalo burger and pulled buffalo sandwich.  They also had good sides including frybread.  We recommend it for lunch for those at the mall during lunchtime.  And if you're a federal employee you get 10% off.  On the way home, we went to the Museum of American History for the first time and viewed the exhibit on the presidency and first ladies.  Finally, we went home and watched "The Conspirator," a recent movie about the plot to kill Abraham Lincoln and the trial of Mary Surratt following the assassination.  Based on my reading it was very historically accurate.  It was really fun to see the scenes filmed at the places we had just visited in the morning.  And since it is recent and filmed by Robert Redford it isn't boring!

Another Dinner Date

Another restaurant we have always wanted to try is Addie's.  It is one of Rockville's more famous restaurants and is annually in the Washingtonian's list of best places to eat.  It is run by the Black family who have several restaurants throughout the DC area.  To be honest, we weren't that impressed.  It was very good, but did not leave us dying to return.  We would recommend Newton's Table over Addie's.  Still good though and we crossed it off our list of restaurants to try.

Valentine's Day

February has no 30th, but conveniently it has Valentine's Day.  Since our lives are busy and we can't always take the day off, this was a relatively quick date.  Just dinner.  We are leaving DC in a little over a year though, so we want to try all those restaurants that we always say we want to try.  Tonight we went to a small restaurant in Bethesda called Newton's Table.  Every dish we ordered was amazing!  We highly recommend it to anyone.  Since life is busy, forgive us for the short entry.  Enjoy!

Rockville Warehouse District

Ok, this isn't the official name of a specific place, but we felt it was appropriate. There are trendy neighborhoods close by in Bethesda and even within Rockville. Walkable, master-planned communities are all the rage as evidenced by Bethesda, Rockville Town Center, Reston Town Center, the new North Bethesda area, and the upcoming White Flint development. But underneath it all is decades of history. Many neighborhoods are lined with cookie-cutter brick homes from the 1950's. And Rockville has always been a place to come for shopping. Not trendy boutiques, but furniture, mattresses, and car dealerships. It is the land of strip malls

lining congested Rockville Pike.

As we have lived here we have discovered many wonderful businesses in a run-down strip mall or based out of an old warehouse. So for this 30th our idea was to experience this not-so-pretty, authentic Rockville. For dinner, we went to a Vietnamese restaurant named Pho Hoa recommended by a friend. We tried to browse an adjacent thrift store called Nami, but apparently they are closed on Mondays. Also, there is a nearby art store called Huckleberry Fine Art in an old warehouse that has wonderful originals and limited edition prints by artists like Rob Gonsalves. Finally we headed across the street to another strip mall and tried the Blu Water Day Spa for pedicures and manicures. It is very inconspicuous but receives top awards and reviews from the Washingtonian magazine.

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.