We, the Pizza

Sam and I went to We, The Pizza for lunch by the Capitol this last Saturday. iMuy buenisimo! It was SO delicious. We got their buffalo chicken pizza. Blue cheese, buffalo sauce, chicken wings, mozzarella…now that’s what I call a pizza!! :D Plus, the crust was perfect. Best pizza I’ve had in a while.

Happy Halloween!!!...weekend

Friday night, this last weekend, there was a Stake Halloween Dance in Maryland for all of the D.C. singles. I went with my friends Vanessa and Karen from my ward. It is so funny because at Institute on Tuesday night, Karen told me we were all gonna go as zombies, but about 10 minutes before that I’d talked to Vanessa and she said they’d been discussing it and had no clue what they were gonna go as. I asked Karen if she was sure. Karen said, “Oh yeah! We’ve been planning it for days.” I had a feeling Vanessa wasn’t quite convinced. Haha! Anyway, the next few days I made preparations to go as a zombie. I loved that it was such a simple costume because I could easily just buy make up and tear some of my clothes up. Cheap, cheap, and didn’t I mention cheap? I have hardly the money, let alone the means to go shopping for some extravagant costume, and then there was the matter of time. Friday afternoon Vanessa texts me—though I didn’t get it until later in the evening after I’d already started ripping my clothes up—and she tells me that they’ve decided we should all go as Two-Face, from Batman. I was a little ruffled because I’d just started ripping up one of only three T-shirts I brought out here with me, the one I decided I cared least about. I was determined, since I’d been building up brain-eating excitement all week, to go as a zombie. So I did. The girls looked great. I looked gruesome. All was as it should have been. I met up with Sam there and met a lot of his friends. I did very little dancing, mostly just the mingling that goes on so rampantly here that I usually can’t stand. I used to LOVE (no understatement) dances, but since I started partner dancing earlier this year, I find it hard to enjoy just letting loose on the dance floor. A girl I met from Sam’s ward is in a Salsa dancing club, and she invited me to go this week. It’s on Wednesday though, so we’ll see how the weather holds up with Sandy hitting the shore this week. 

PROMISE I'LL ADD PICS of MY GRUESOMENESS LATER. THEY'RE ALL ON MY ROOMIE'S CAMERA.

Baltimore, Maryland

I went to visit Laura a little over a week ago, the weekend we had planned. I just went for Satuday and Sunday. It was a BLAST!!! The only slight problem...her roommate has 3 cats. Not so bad, right? For me, yes. I'm allergic. But, luckily we only spent time there sleeping mostly. We went did so much in one weekend, it's amazing. We first went to her house. She lives in a 4-story row-home. They're so interesting and compacted in these little neighborhoods. She kind of lives in a shady neighborhood (ghetto) so I was nervous. But...her block really is probably the nicest in that part of town. We took the Circulator (a free public bus that circuits around Baltimore) to Inner Harbor. We walked around and went into a few of the shops.

GIANT Barnes & Noble.

Historic Ships in Baltimore Inner Harbor.

                                                                   Ultimate candy store!!!!

Memorial for 9/11. Piece of Twin Towers.

Lunch at Desario's in Little Italy. Crab cakes :D

Laura's neighbors across the street. Their row homes are really no wider than 

the length of their car! That astounds me. 

We went to the Cylburn Arboretum. It was beautiful...and FREE. We had planned to go to the National Aquarium at Inner Harbor, but it was $30 entry, and it took me until noon to get out there. We decided not to spend that kind of money to go for only a few hours, so we referenced my 'to do in Baltimore free' list.

So many pretty gardens at the Cylburn Arboretum. There was a 

wedding going on in one of them while we were there. 

Haha. I love the little Laura and Michelle head shadows at the bottom of this pic. lol!

Before touching the plant.

After touching the leaf. This is a really cool plant! It is sensitive to touch

and shrinks up when you touch it. I guess that's some sort of defense mechanism.

Imagine if this were your yard!! I'm envious!

Mr. Tyson, the original owner of Cylburn, planted this Ginkgo tree in his front yard.

The Tyson mansion is built with stone from one of the many quarries he owned 

in the area. He traveled all over the world and brought seeds back with him

that he planted in his yard. 

Saturday night we went to this place called the Book Thing. It was actually a really cool concept. You can go and donate books and take any book(s) you want. You don't have to donate to take a book. It's really low-scale, loosely categorized, signs made of paper and marker, hodge-podge shelving. You just sign out when you leave and put the number of books you took and any comments you have. All the books are stamped as free Book Thing books that brand them so people can't come take them to resale. Books are expensive, so I love that it helps those who can't afford it, to educate themselves and enjoy reading. They have a lot of text books, books on wellness, history, the world, recipes, novels, and even books in other languages. Anyway...to say the least, I was impressed. I'd love to help them get a better operation going, possibly even make it nation-wide. 

We went to Potbelly sandwiches for dinner. I was somewhat relieved because early in the day Laura had suggested we go to L.P. Steamers. It wouldn't have been such a bad idea, but I was really intimidated by the fact that they just serve you an entire crab. You get a bib and tools to crack it and just go to town. I know it would have been "an experience", but I wouldn't have even known where to begin. Laura sensed my discomfort though I told her I was willing, plus she said we already ate crab for lunch so we should do something different for dinner.  Oh yay! I'll save that adventure for another day.

The singles ward there was surprisingly small. Everyone was really nice though. I enjoyed it a lot. It was a nice change of pace from the bustle of my ward that's huge and ever-changing. 

We went to Fort McHenry after church. It's where Francis Scott Key got his inspiration to write "The Star Spangled Banner." 

Nice, windy day for sailing.

                   I overheard a tour guide saying this cannon is the biggest in existence of its kind.
                             If I understood correctly, it can shoot accurately up to 3 miles away.

Entrance to Fort McHenry. It is a star-shaped fort. Reference map below.

                                                The inside of the fort is like its own little village.

This is a punch bowl that was given to a commander after the war of 1812 to commemorate the victory. It's made to look like a cannon ball from one of the British cannons.  

The flags flown at the fort had their own storage room. Wow!

The ramparts of Fort McHenry

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...