Old Town Alexandria

A group of us went on a tour of Old Town Alexandria for Betsy's birthday. It was the Ghost and a Graveyard Halloween tour. It wasn't scary, just a cutesy little family-friendly activity. We had a lot of fun. Betsy's little sister came. She lives about 3 hours away. I rode over to Old Town with them, and I have to giggle every time I remember us pulling up. Betsy went to parallel park and was freaking out. I asked her if she wanted me to get out and guide her or I could park if she wanted to. She switched me seats.

I loved the area. It was really colonial feeling and almost felt like traveling back in time. I took some pictures, but because it was at night, I didn't have many that turned out very well :/

My New Favorite

There's this place called "The Kabob Palace" just around the corner from my apartment building. I went there with my friend, Betsy, a couple of weeks ago (when this picture was taken). I took Laura there this weekend for a grand adventure of over-excited taste buds. I LOVE it so much!

I've never had Pakistani food before this, but I'm telling you...it is BOMB!! Much like Indian and other Middle Eastern food, if you've had it. Kabob palace has delicious kabobs, but I LOVE the naan bread (nice crisp softness...I know...how does that happen? It's magical!), cucumber dip, and chickpeas on rice. Mmmm!!! It's 24-hour, and I'm considering going there right now.

Blast from the...Ogden, Utah

What a small world we live in, really. There's a girl from Ogden named Laura Butler that just moved to Baltimore (about an hour away from where I live), and she came to visit me this last weekend. Her and I both went to WSU at the same time. We were in the same ward for a short time and went to a lot of the same social gatherings, but we were only acquaintances really. It was so much fun to get to know her better this weekend. I'm really glad she came out.
We went to Mt. Vernon, and I showed her around the National Mall, just the main monuments. Sunday we went to Arlington Cemetery. It was all so much fun, and the weather was so nice this weekend which just made for a really great time.

Keeper's house (now gift shop) of George Washington's Distillery and Gristmill at Mt. Vernon.

Saturday they were grinding corn. The meal drops into the shaker from the giant water-powered stone wheels that grind it above. The shaker then separates human-grade and chicken feed. The whole process is actually really amazing. Washington was an innovator in more ways than one. He incorporated a lot of cutting-edge technology in his business and came up with his own share of new processes.

This is the distillery. They actually still produce limited quanitities of whisky and sell it at the gift shop. This process is very interesting as well. About halfway through the tour of the distillery, the guide mentioned slaves...and it never struck me before that, but Washington was more the brains than the labor. I started looking at all of it much differently after that. I think we all often experience everything from our own perspective and forget how things can be and are very different.

 

This is one of the many gardens at Mt. Vernon.

 

This is a courtyard that separates the garden from the slaves' quarters. The building has some repair shops and slaves' quarters on either side, male on one, female on the other.

Slaves quarters. It may have been a step up from prison since there were no bars, but it was really just a place to lay their head at night.

The Washington home. There's and arch-lined walkway on either side of the home that connects it to the two buildings surrounding it immediately. The one on the right is the kitchen. The building not pictured, located left of the home, was a guest house of sorts. The Washington's always housed their guests right in their home with them, but any slave or servant brought in tow with the guests would stay in the guest house.

 

Laura and I met a really nice Australian woman that took our picture while we waited to walk into the house. It was actually really busy and had a line. The woman had just come from Hawaii and was fixing to leave to New York soon. She's on a 2-month tour visiting family and friends. What a brave lady!! All on her own.

The Wharf. The river is literally in the back yard of Washington home. They have a big boat, the Spirit of Mt. Vernon (or some cliche boat name like that), that you can take a ride down the river if you'd like. We didn't. 

Washington innovated this barn to process the separating of the wheat grains from the chaff. The upper level was rigged for horses to walk in a circle on a bed of unprocessed wheat, straight from the field. Holes in the flooring allowed the grain to be pushed to the base floor after being knocked free from the stems. The bottom floor was then swept into big piles that were sorted through with various grate sizes of woven baskets and plates before they were taken to the distillery for grinding.

Washington tomb. Martha and George were moved here several years after Martha's death. 1805 maybe? George died in 1799. He wrote in his will for this tomb to be built, but the marble coffins he had requested did not fit through the metal door (as you can see behind the wreath), so they were left outside of the tomb and left enclosed by the three walls with a gate on the outside.

 

They had a flag ceremony at the tomb.

 

The home from across the front yard.

 

Laura was modeling the Washington Monument, and I thought it was so funny, I couldn't resist waiting to tell her it was on her other side before I snapped the picture.

Laura and I at the base of the Washington Memonument. That's right, you've been saying it wrong all of these years. It had been a long day. It just came out 'memonument'.

WWII Memorial

Arlington Cemetery

Lt. Lee's home at Arlington Cemetery. He was married to one of George Washington's granddaughters, or great granddaughter. I didn't know that before. The Lee and Custis family's (Martha Washington was a Custis), were two of the founding families in Virginia.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. We watched the changing of the guard.

If all goes as planned, I'm visiting Baltimore this weekend, and Laura will show me around. I'm excited to eat some crab, visit the aquarium and see Inner Harbor. I'll post! Until then...

View from the Top

I live on the 11th floor of my building. It's not really THAT high, but I think we have a pretty nice view of the area from our balcony.

 

If you can see that church just left of center there, our's is kitty-corner from it. The LDS church building for singles that we go to is ironically an old office building and not a chapel. My first Sunday, I thought I was lost until I read the sign. I LOVE that it's such a close walk. We're lucky :D

Labor Day

We had Monday off so I invited Dani and Sam to go to the National Mall with me. I decided that I wanted to go catch those things while it was still nice weather, before it's bitter wind and snow (if that happens--I think it will--eventually). The weather has still been really nice and hardly jacket-worthy though.

 

Washington Monument.

Washington Monument from nearby park. Loved this view :D

Lincoln Memorial. Not copper and SO much bigger in real life than on the back of your penny ;D (I know, but being corny is fun!)

Do I look like a birthday cake? It kinda looks like I have a candle coming out of my head. haha!

Reflection pool. They've actually drained this several times this season. They're having problems with algae and can't get the pH level quite right. You can't really tell in this picture from so far away, but it's only half full in this picture and doesn't even go all the way to the edges since it curves from the sides to a point at the bottom.

 

We went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. It's like a lifeless zoo, but it puts you right in the action (look down). Just like Night at the Museum.

We walked through Africa and the Geology section. We saw the Hope Diamond and a buncha other rocks. We had time to walk through the ocean too, but just quickly since it was getting late. You could literally spend years in each of the Smithsonian museums. The thing is, they only have something like 10% of what they own on display at any given time. Always something new though.

More Work

Work isn't all work, all the time. We get free food sometimes which is nice :D Omar offers me lunch money every week, but I usually only eat out once a week. Last week, Patsy, one of the higher-ups in the company offered to order me lunch along with her meeting, so I got this delicious Thai BBQ chicken with sticky rice and papaya salad. It was SO good :D

No picture with this one, but Megan Steel (one of my co-workers) and I went out to lunch last Wednesday to this place called Pho-75 just up the street from our office building. SO, so good :D I've never had Vietnamese food before, and pho is basically just noodles and broth..but somehow, it's so much more! They serve it with limes, mint, bean sprouts, and basil (at least at Pho-75), and they put cilantro and mint in it. I put hot sauce in mine too. It was heaven in my mouth, and the mint actually felt really soothing in my stomach afterwards as it digested. So amazing!!!

So....this is where I sit every day. I have my own little cubicle. It's not much, but it's mine. :D

Lastly...a view from my office building. I walk into a tower on the corner, and walk across this "bridge" to my office tower where I get on an elevator.

This is the view I see every day coming and going across the bridge. It really is so pretty. I was looking out Omar's office window today during a meeting, and it's no wonder he picked that one. He can see all the monuments clearly and the Smithsonian. This area really is so scenic and pretty.

Happy Birthday Dani!

It was Dani's (my roommate) birthday on September 29th. Ya, I know...it was a while ago. I'm a little behind on my updates. She turned 19. Such a young'n! We had a week long celebration, sort of. I did something for her each day as my gift to her. I made her lunch, made her breakfast, took her to a play, and just stuff like that.

 

David came over and him, me, Dani, and Kylee all went to this really disgusting frozen yogurt place. It's called Frozen Yo (or something like that). It was not tasty...worst frozen yogurt I've eaten in my life. lol! I've eaten a lot of frozen yogurt too, so I like to consider myself knowledgable on this topic ;D

This is what I refer to as our "Ketchup and Mustard" picture (not planned). I made Dani breakfast one morning, and she insisted we have a picture taken. It wasn't until we were later reviewing the pictures that I noticed we are complimenting condements. haha! That is definitely the new title of this photo, "Complimentary Condiments." Love it!

I took Dani to Synetic Theater to see their production of "Jekyll + Hyde." It's right near our apartment, and we pass it every day on our way to our apartment. We'd been building up anticipation to see the show, but it was somewhat of a let-down. The night we went was a special production for young professionals, and everyone (besides Dani and I) had just come from happy hour or brought happy hour with them. The whole place wreaked of alcohol. That was the first unpleasantry. Now...to the show.

The theatrics, set, costumes, and acting were amazing! It was everything else that sucked. The play was silent which was fine, it even made it more poetic seeming. It was all the provocative scenes and violence in it. It was set in modern New York City. There was rape, murder, and manipulation of a dead man's body to have him perform a marriage. The way it was all portrayed and some of the graphics used were disturbing. Art as free expression can be dangerous! Then again...I'm not sure what we expected when the story line is about a man torn between good and his 100% evil half.

Happy Birthday Dani! Sorry, Dani :S haha!