Pics from the FDR Memorial

I was giving Frankie a nice little massage here:


I totally made Brian pose for this one... What a good sport. :)

Seriously...

What else could I have worn to make me look more like a tourist? Perhaps a camera around my neck?? (Ah, if you could have seen me when I wasn't having my picture taken with MY camera).

Wedding Update!

We are now under 200 days from our big day! 199 to be exact! AND... I got my dress today! Too bad I don't have anyone around to help me put it on. I tried to try it on, but it's a bit involved, as most bridal gowns are, to "zip" it up. I'm so excited.

Another AND... My mom will be here in exactly one week- I can't wait!

One down...

Four more to go... Weddings, that is. We returned from our Baltimore/DC weekend last night and I am still completely exhausted. The weekend was a blast and full of drinking, eating, and much merriment, and because of that, I am still recuperating and will be for a day or two more!

We arrived in Baltimore Thursday early evening and after getting our rental car, we began the drive to Alexandria, VA to Brian's friend Jason's apartment. With our flight being delayed a bit and of course having to wait for our luggage and get the rental car, we were running a little behind schedule, so upon arrival at Jason's we modified the evening's plans a bit. Instead of going into DC for dinner, we had a quicker, but most definitely just as delicious dinner at a chili restaurant in Olde Town Alexandria. It's a small chain in the DC area and with Brian having lived there in the not-so-distant past, he was due for his fix and also to introduce me to the yummyness that is called Hard Times Chili. I had 4 Way Cincinnati Chili and a couple local brews- it was so tasty and totally hit the spot after a long day of traveling.

After dinner, the 4 of us, Jason, Dawn, Brian and myself headed down the street (Jason thankfully drove the couple blocks because it was so insanely cold in DC this weekend) to a bar he made reservations for us at. Yes, a bar that requires reservations... It's what you would call a speakeasy- no sign on the exterior, just a door with a blue light over it. You have to ring a doorbell, and someone comes to answer, and provided if you're dressed appropriately (men are required to wear jackets) they may let you in. Being that we were all dressed so tastefully well, they let us in, had us read the "rules of the house" posted in the stairwell and the doorwoman led us up a flight of stairs to the bar area and then into the front 'blue' room where we had 2 swanky couches reserved for us. In addition to our 2 couches, there were two other couches, each with a couple sitting on each, the couches all faced each other, one on each of the 4 walls with a small square stool/table in the center. After being seated and checking our coats, we began to peruse the menu... The whole menu was full of classic cocktails made with homemade ingredients and also some other cocktails that I had never heard of before, but all sounded good. My first drink was a homemade ginger ale and ketel one vodka served in a copper mug. The drink was really delicious and the ginger ale was spicy and delicious. We all tried different drinks and after 3 rounds, we had nearly tried all of the drinks on the menu (some more tasty than others... Brian ended his evening on a not-so-good one). The atmosphere of the place was very cool- it was chill with jazz music playing in the background, until a different group got sat in our room and kind of made it a little rowdy... The service was lacking- I was brought the wrong drink first and it took basically until the rest of our group was ready for their second for me to get my correct drink. The whole thing with this place is that it's not supposed to be fast paced, but you'd think if you screwed up, you might make an exception and bust that one cocktail out a little faster than the rest. Another thing that bugged me was the supposed dress code. We got all dressed up, with the boys in jackets and the girls in skirts and when we arrived, one of the men seated in our room had on jeans and hiking boots. So that was a bit disappointing. I just figured if they are trying to get this whole reputation built, they might actually enforce their rules. If you want to check out the place, you can access their website through: http://www.eamonnsdublinchipper.com/ You have to click on the blue "PX" on the bottom right of the screen to actually get to the right website. So mysterious. Anyways, it was cool and we got to try a lot of good drinks and overall had a great time.

After the bar, we went back to the apartment and stayed up till 4am talking, drinking green apple martinis, and eating baked cheetos (they are really good!).

The next morning, we obviously woke up later than we had planned since we had such a late night and after getting ready, we began our little tourist day in DC. The last time I was in DC was probably when I was in the eighth grade, so I was looking forward to seeing the sights again. The one downside of visiting this weekend was the weather and it was under 30 degrees with some mean winds and it literally hurt to walk for any length of time outside- not something that is easy to avoid when sightseeing in DC! We headed into DC and made our first stop at the FDR Memorial... After walking the short block to the memorial and checking it out- which it was very cool- I'll post pics soon, we decided that being outside was absolutely miserable. On top of that, I didn't bring a hat, so I was very gingerly wrapping my scarf around my head and neck hoping to cover as much of my head as possible with very little luck. About midway through the memorial, my toes began to feel like I had been outside sledding all day. At this point, Brian was ready to hop on one of the trolley tours and just see DC that way... I was ready to get back to the car and get warm.

We ended up going back to the car and decided to just hit the memorials that had parking close and we wouldn't have to be outside for any length of time. Pathetic, I know, but if you had been there, my guess would be you'd just want to head home or to a bar for some drinks. Oh, and also, I forgot to mention that DC had been hit with a nasty snow/ice storm the day before we arrived so most sidewalks were not cleared and were just 3 inch thick sheets of ice. No joke. Every other step we took, one of us was sliding and nearly falling. We did a couple loops around the Jefferson Memorial area and after not being able to find any parking any where close to the vacinity of it, I decided I had seen enough of it from the comfort of our rental car. We then began to loop around the Mall area because one thing I really did want to see was the Lincoln Memorial. Brian found a killer parking spot basically right next to the Mall and on the end that the Lincoln Memorial is. It was also conveniently located next to a street vendor selling hats, so we stopped there first before trekking across the ice laden sidewalks and up the icy stairs of the memorial. I got an awesomely cheesy pink hat that says "I DC" on it and proudly wore it the rest of the day. I think Brian was a bit embarrassed, and honestly, I was too, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I have an awesome pic of me in the hat I'll have to post. On the walk to the Lincoln Memorial we slid down the sidewalk next to the Vietnam Memorial and saw that which was cool to see. And after seeing the Lincoln Memorial (basically the only one that we went to that had any sizable of people there- at FDR, we were all alone), we walked over to the Korean Memorial and saw that as well. We decided it was much too cold to try to walk over to the WWII Memorial, so we headed back to the car to warm up. It was getting late in the afternoon and knowing that we had to drive to Baltimore that evening, we decided to get some dinner. We drove to Adams Morgan to have dinner at one of Brian's favorite places, an Ethiopian restaurant, Meskerem. It was my first time eating Ethiopian food and I must say I was impressed- it was very, very tasty and warming and just overall a fun experience.

After dinner, Brian took me on a quick driving tour of his alma mater, American University, and then we headed to Baltimore... in the middle of rush hour traffic... on a Friday... on a holiday weekend... in DC where almost everyone gets President's Day off. Yay. I was soooo tired and after only going a few miles in what seriously took over an hour, I had to close my eyes and sleep a bit. I felt bad that Brian was driving, but I just couldn't take the heavy eyelids anymore! All-in-all it took us 2.5 hours to get to Baltimore that night. We arrived at the hotel around 8pm, checked in, and pretty much had to get ready to go meet up with people right away- no rest for us!

We met up around 10pm at a bar in Fells Point where I got to meet some more of Brian's friends from DC and of course the bride and groom and also got to catch up with some friend's of his that I had already met when we were in Hawaii last year. We called it a semi-early night, or I thought that, but discovered on the elevator ride back up to the room it was past 1am. So much for getting to bed a bit earlier!

Saturday morning we slept in... I swear I have never slept in such a comfortable bed, though I think it was just because I was so tired and it felt so good to sleep in general. We didn't make it up for breakfast, but did have just enough time to walk to a restaurant for lunch. My one goal was for a crabcake. Well, my goal was to eat as many crabcakes as I could the entire time we were there. We ate lunch at a restaurant named Bertha's in Fells Point and I had my first crabcake of the weekend. It was absolutely divine. Bertha's is apparently known for mussels, which they did sound fantastic, but we didn't get any and I didn't think mussels were an appropriate food to cure a mini-hangover nor prepare for another long night of partying and drinking! By the time we were done with lunch, it was time to head back to the hotel and get ready for the ceremony.

We carpooled with Dave and Paula to the ceremony, as we were all staying in the same hotel. The ceremony was really beautiful and made me think lots about our upcoming nuptials, of course! It was also a Catholic ceremony, so that was good to see, since ours will be too, and it's been a while since I've been to one. After the ceremony, we headed back to the hotel to hop on the shuttle that would take us to the reception. We made a quick pit stop in the room and then headed back to the lobby to wait for the shuttle. And waited we did... The reception started at 4pm, and it wasn't until about 445 that the shuttle arrived. By the time we actually got to the reception, we nearly missed the entire cocktail hour- oh no!

The reception took place in a really beautiful ballroom with gorgeous chandeliers and a cool old school wooden bar. We started the evening off by grabbing a drink, Van Gogh Double Espresso, Double Caffeine Vodka on the rocks, the signature drink of the happy couple (I later heard that's what the groom used to woo the bride when they first met). It was so yummy and smooth, I was amazed it was simply vodka on the rocks. We had a few hors d'eourves including tasty shrimp, baked brie, and of course crab cakes (my second crabcake of the weekend, actually 2nd of the day, as well).

We all took our seats for dinner and were served a delicious meal of filet and black bass, asparagus, and mashed potatoes accompanied by a salad and bread. After dinner, there was a dessert buffet with the wedding cake and fresh fruit. All of the food was really good. After dinner, there was dancing and we all had a good time busting our moves on the dance floor. The reception ended around 9pm and we headed for a bar via cab to all hang out. The bride and groom even joined us all later on in the evening. We stayed at that one bar for a while and then decided to call it a night, but not before stopping at the 'sip and bite' for a little food before heading back to the hotel. I had a cup of crab soup there, which was quite tasty, though I was a little frightened of it when it was served with half a crap hanging over the edge of the bowl! It was seriously just sitting there looking at me. The soup was good, and I had a gyro, which didn't compare to a Doggie Diner Gyro, but it was all good. We split a cab with Brian's friend's Eveline and Rich back to the hotel and were treated to a true party cab ride. Meaning, this cab was equipped with a disco ball, strobe lights, other various dance lights, and some bumping music. All we could do was laugh hysterically... But there was really no better way to end a night!

Sunday morning we slept in as late as we could, packed up our bags and then headed out to meet up with some more of Brian's friends from college who weren't at the wedding, Tim and Meghan. We met them at an Irish restaurant not too far from Fell's Point along with their adorable kids. When I say adorable, I mean it... Their son, Liam, is about 4 years old and entertained us with a performance of Kelly Clarkson's "Since You Been Gone" pre-lunch and as a post-lunch performance, he dazzled us with his vocal stylings while singing "Breakaway". He knew absolutely all the words, the intros, bridges, endings- it was quite impressive! They also have a daughter who's about 1.5 or so and every time she looked at Brian she started crying- that was pretty awesome (and okay, it wasn't every time, it just happened twice). Let's hope our kids don't have that same reaction to looking at their dad! As with all of Brian's friends, Tim and Meghan were both awesome and so nice and I also got to hear some good stories of Brian's college days.

After lunch, we headed to the airport to begin our journey home. Oh wait, I forgot to mention that for lunch on Sunday, I had a crab cake sandwich- so that was crab cake #3 of the weekend- not too shabby!! Our flight home was fairly uneventful, though because of southwest's unassigned seating assignments, a little 6 year old boy got stuck sitting next to me and not his mom (who was a few rows behind with a even littler one). I basically had to entertain and babysit this kid for the 4 hour flight, including disposing of his garbage, requesting drinks for him, playing some crazy tic-tac-toe game he made up in which I never won, the 'crayon' game where I had to guess what color the crayon he drew was and of course he was the only one who knew the answer and I was, of course, never right. It was a little annoying, but the kid was actually pretty cute and we had a good time. Brian was on the other side of me and was I think on purpose ignoring me for most of the flight so he wouldn't have to start playing games he'd never win. Brian is much too competitive for that.

We got home Sunday evening and pretty much called it a night- that was a lot of partying to recuperate from!

No, you may not play scrabble.

I do not allow you to have fun. There is no boardgame playing on my watch. End of story.

I said no. Now, stop looking at me.

-Lola the Cat.

The Long Trip Home

So, I was able to get out of Hong Kong on Friday afternoon. I spent the morning running around TST, the area the hotel was in, grabbing souvenirs from street vendors and the 7-Eleven. I also took a quick walk along the promenade on the bay while drinking my Starbucks. ;) I finished packing and we were off to the airport in a mad rush- the car that was picking us up was late by about 1/2 an hour. After getting to the airport and going through immigration and security, we had just enough time to hit up the Cathay Pacific club for a quick lunch at their noodle bar, accompanied by some (much more normal looking) dim sum-esque dumplings and a coke light. After eating, we made the 20 minute trek to our gate (Hong Kong International is HUGE), and I might add that those 20 minutes also included a tram ride, several escalators, and a series of moving walkways. Upon arrival at the section of gates departing to the US, we had to undergo another security checkpoint. This one was where they physically go through your carry-on bags. Oh, I might add, when we went to the first security line, I kept looking to throw out my bottle of water, because of the US security rules, but didn't have to- they allow that through the initial checkpoint and to all gates departing NOT to the US. It was only during this second security line that I had to get rid of the water. I think... I threw it out during the middle of the line just in case. I never actually saw any signs referring to the whole liquid thing, but didn't want to get yelled at.

The long-haul flight, again, was fairly empty. Chris and I were in the 3 seat section that included an aisle and window which was nice, and then it was even nicer when Chris moved to another aisle seat up a few rows so I could lay across all 3 seats. I got some pretty decent sleep on that flight. In fact, I barely read anything or watched any movies. I even slept through the Cup-of-Noodle snack, though I do faintly remember smelling it as the flight attendants were walking by with them.

I think the only thing I was not prepared for was the whole coming back to the US and waiting in a gazillion lines. The first was immigration, then we had to get our luggage, then we had to wait in another line for customs. Then there was another line to return our luggage to get checked back in. Then, since they couldn't print my boarding pass from LAX to Denver in Hong Kong, I had to wait to check in in LA. Then of course there was the security line at LAX. Thankfully there was plenty of time in between our arrival and our departing flights. We went to the Admiral's Club to wait for our connecting flights and to have a bit to eat. My flight from LA to Denver was very relaxing and comfortable, as Chris was kind enough to upgrade me to First Class for this leg of the trip. I arrived into Denver around 4pm and after meeting Brian at the airport and getting my bags was on my way back home. We got home around 6pm because of traffic and I immediately laid down on the couch. In the time it took Brian to walk from the family room to the kitchen to see what we could eat for dinner, I fell fast asleep!

I ended up waking up around 10 pm or so and we stayed up watching TV for a bit, then I fell back to sleep around 11 and slept straight through the night till about 11am Saturday morning! I attribute all that sleep to getting be right back on Denver time and back on schedule.... Though I have to admit, the nights of Saturday and Sunday I found it hard to stay awake. So that pretty much finishes up my tale of traveling to Hong Kong!

More travel tales to come, especially over the coming months, as we're going to Baltimore next week, Seattle in April, Dallas in May, Florida also in May, and Chicago in June.

Trip Update

So, our first full day in China was good. We had some work to do in preparation for the meeting, but also had time to walk around the area we're in. I bought some cute little tea cup/pot things, Chris had some custom shirts made for himself. This is insane: it was $30 for each shirt (4), and when we asked when they would be ready, they said, is tomorrow okay?? I couldn't believe it.

We were the epitome of lame and went to an English pub for lunch, and for dinner ate at the Italian restaurant in the hotel. Though I ordered normal items - chicken fingers and gnocchi, they are definitely different that what you might get when you're in the US. I'm also so freaked out about having any water, vegetables and fruit and realized ordering around those items is damn hard to do. Chris is apparently fearless of those things and has been ordering salads left and right. We ended up staying up late working, finishing the presentation for Wal-Mart.

The next morning, I slept in a bit. After having coffee and getting ready, we went for lunch. This time, I said we need to have real Chinese food. So, after sitting down at what we thought was a Chinese restaurant and discovering it totally wasn't, the Chinese guy suggested a place across the street. So we head over there, get seated in this large dining hall type of place. The waitstaff at this restaurant speak very little if any English, so we were given this scan-tron sheet of paper with dim sum items on it, which we were to circle what we wanted. After going through the choices, we found about 5 items that sounded fairly good and safe.

Our first item arrives. We aren't quite sure what it is. It was some sort of shrimp in rolled up rice stuff. Not real rice, but like picture a huge rice noodle that is thick. It was accompanied by soy sauce. This one was pretty good. The shrimp looks odd though- it's more yellow than orange like the ones we're used to. Next comes the fried rice with chicken and salt fish- very yummy. Though we couldn't figure out how to eat it with chopsticks, and I was looking around the rest of the restaurant to see how the locals were eating the rice, and it didn't seem that anyone else was actually eating rice. Oh, and I forgot to mention, we were the absolute only white/American people in this place, so I am confident that we truly did have REAL Chinese food. They next brought out the rest of our items. Some sort of shark fin soup which tasted pretty decent and pork rolls or balls or something like it. The pork rolls were my choice and were wrapped in this odd yellow stuff that made my imagination run wild as to what it was, I tasted it, avoiding the yellow wrapper like the plague and it was okay- nothing I wanted to continue eating. I think that if the menu had explanations of what each item was, it wouldn't have been so difficult to figure out what to order. All in all, it was a good experience but we left there knowing in an hour or two we'd be hungry again and in dire need of something a little more American. Wow, I sound like a total ignorant American about this whole experience. Don't get me wrong- I'd go back again, I'd just try some other things and maybe do a little research beforehand.

We spent the afternoon in our conference room setting up for the big meeting. Aside from just setting up the room, we had to do a lot of shuffling on our gift sets- in regards to pricing and changing things out. In the end, we lucked out and Wal-Mart was going to be running 45 minutes late so that bought us the perfect amount of extra time to really finish it all up. Wal-Mart arrived at about 5pm in a flurry. They literally come in with an entourage of about 8 people, sit down and say ok, let's get this thing moving. It's really quite intimidating at first, but realizing they are going to numerous meetings like this one after an another, I'd be wanting to get them over with too! The meeting went very well, in our opinion and it sounds like they will be taking almost all of the giftsets we showed, if not actually all of them.

In desperate need of some solid food, we went to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for dinner, only after picking up the custom tailored shirts that were made in less than a day for less than $30 a piece. I'm still in awe of this. Dinner was good and so filling. I have to say I have had such an odd appetite here. I'll be all sorts of hungry, put two bites in my mouth and then am full.

It's now about 6:30am Friday morning, and with nothing else left to do, we're going to try to leave today. So, I'm about to hop in the shower and get ready, so I have some time to pick up some souvenirs and goodies for everyone. At first I was thinking I'd stay on till tomorrow, but with a hectic day planned at home on Sunday, I'd rather get back and have Saturday to recuperate. Plus, I am almost certain I'll be back in October to start working on our Holiday '08 sets.