Savannah, GA

Right after I got back from NYC I headed down to Savannah, GA. I was really excited to go, because I was heading to my ancestral homeland. My maternal grandmother grew up outside of Savannah in Jesup. I have never been to this part of Georgia, so it was exciting to get an idea of my Grandma AJ’s background. One of the people I met said that they knew some Odum’s (my grandmother's maiden name) from Jesup and commented that they are some fun-loving drunks. I am glad I come from a line of people that know how to party.

The highlight of the trip was the night I spent in Savannah. There is a new Hampton Inn downtown that is really nice. It is located right in a lovely part of Savannah and is a good deal, although you do have to pay for parking. One benefit of staying a Hampton Inn is that they usually have a decent selection of cable channels. Sadly, I ended up spending way to much time in the hotel room as I felt the beginnings of a cold coming on.

Before I crashed for the night, I headed to Paula Dean’s restaurant, The Lady & Sons. I love to eat at local places and I was especially excited to eat the food of someone that appears on my beloved Food Network. Things actually went my way as I was able to find a free parking spot close to the restaurant and I got in without a reservation (because I was willing to eat at the bar).

There was a lot on the menu that looked very, very good. The only issue is that I have some weird preferences when it comes to food (my dad continuously mocks me, and rightfully so). I don’t like to eat meat on the bone. This means that I don’t really care for roasted chicken served on the bone or ribs. In fact, if it meant eating ribs or not eating at all, I wouldn’t eat. I don’t care to gnaw on bones and when you eat chicken on the bone, you don’t just get the meat, you end up eating gristle, tendons, and other nasty parts of the animal. Yuck. I also don’t care much for fish. I have never really enjoyed fish, aside from the fish stick or Filet-o-Fish variety. I also have issues with shellfish. I oftentimes have strange reactions to crab and lobster, so I just tend to avoid the whole group all together.

Now for the important part – Savannah is a southern coastal city - meaning that they are famous for their seafood and fried chicken (not necessarily together). So when I had to pick a meal, it was pretty much fish or fried chicken. Here is how I played it: The Lady & Sons has a meal called the “Southern Buffet.” It is all you can eat for $17.99 of pork loin, fried chicken, biscuits, corn bread, macaroni and cheese and a lot of other typical southern foods. The bartender recommended the Southern Buffet since I was only in town for the night and it was the best way to sample Paula Dean’s cooking.

The buffet was fantastic, aside from the pork loin which I found to be dry. I also didn’t love the peach cobbler – and I typically love peach cobbler. It just seemed a bit bland, as if there wasn’t enough cinnamon.

I may not eat much fried chicken on a regular basis, but it was the best fried chicken I have ever had. I even went back for seconds. The macaroni and cheese was totally decadent and the homemade corn bread was to die for – I had to force myself not to just eat carbs the entire time. Before you even head to the buffet, you are served garlic and cheddar biscuits – those biscuits prove that this is an inherently good world, as nothing that delicious could ever exist in a world of pure evil. I even tried some black eyed peas that were pretty tasty. But that fried chicken – oh man, that must be what fried chicken in heaven tastes like. Mom – you have to go.

Given the opportunity, I would happily go to Savannah again. Maybe this time I would be able to take a tour of the city, go to the Odum stomping grounds, and see that statue on the cover of the book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

New York City, NY

Well, I did pretty well on my blog in August, yet like most of my efforts in life, the progress was short-lived. I am going to get back up on the blogging horse and try once more. Thanks for sticking with me.

In May I had the awesome assignment of going up to NYC for a three-day training course. It was especially nice because my good friend, Frank, was assigned to teach. Road Trip!

Frank and I decided to take the train up to New York instead of flying. I haven’t been on trains very much, but I like the concept. One argument for the train is that it takes you right from Union Station in DC to Penn Station in NYC, which is really convenient. While it is about a three hour train ride, you don’t have to arrive at the train station 1.5 hours early so you end up saving a fair amount of time. It is a much more laid back affair and it really was nice to not have to deal with taxis to and from LaGuardia or JFK. I would totally take the train again (although it not any cheaper than flying). Frank did not have such a fantastic experience. I came home a few days earlier than Frank as he has friends up on Long Island. On his way back someone jumped in front of his train and died, delaying it for hours. The exact quote from Frank was, “I wasn’t annoyed while I still had 30 Rock to watch, but once I finished with the DVD’s I got mad.”

Now I may come off sounding spoiled, because of where I stayed in New York, but I am not. Frank and I were lucky enough to book rooms at the Waldorf-Astoria. I never in a million years thought I would get to stay there. They were running a huge special and it was cheaper to stay at the Waldorf than it was to stay at a Hilton Garden Inn in Chelsea (I am not lying: $259 at the Waldorf compared to $269 at the Hilton Garden Inn). It was an amazing hotel with an absolutely beautiful lobby and a great location in Midtown. I will say that my room wasn’t remarkable, it was actually quite small. The hallways in the hotel also creeped out Frank, who said they reminded him too much of the “The Shining.” Judge for yourself...

The Waldorf is just a couple of blocks from Rockefeller Center. Naturally, Frank and I headed over there to try and stalk Tina Fey, but she was no where to be found. While there was no Tina, there was a Magnolia Bakery. For those of you that know I love tiny cakes, they don’t get much tinier than cupcakes. Frank and I went back to Magnolia several times and I fell in love with the chocolate on chocolate and the red velvet. Frank is weird and eats his cupcakes without frosting. Who does that?

Frank had never been to the Empire State Building so we totally had to go there. Now they try to upsale you with a special trip to the 102nd floor for an extra $15. It is not worth it. At that high up, the perspective is about the same and the entire floor is enclosed and slightly confining. Otherwise, it was a beautiful day to go and I as usual, the view was spectactular.

I talked Frank into going to Serendipity with me because I love their frozen hot chocolate (as stated in an earlier blog). I totally got us lost going there, but we arrived and I enjoyed my sandwich and my awesome frozen hot chocolate. I don’t know if Frank enjoyed it or not.

The building where we were training was located in Chelsea so I was able to go to the Chelsea Market for lunch. I loved that place, especially Hale and Hearty Soups. They have amazing corn chowder and wild mushroom soup. I also enjoyed their turkey cranberry sandwich. I ate there several times and really enjoyed the food and surly service.

I also had my first authentic New York Style pizza at Gotham Pizza. It was very yummy and not at all greasy. I typically like a thicker crust because I love bread, but I am becoming a thin crust convert. I my have to eat a lot of pizza to fully change my mind but I am up to the challenge.

There are some fantastic restaurants in Chelsea by chefs whose names I actually know. There was Tom Colicchio’s place, Craft, which had some delicious steaks smells coming out of the building and Iron Chef Morimoto’s Morimoto New York. It is at times when I am surrounded by fine dining that I really wish I had a lot of money.

I had my first, “let’s get some drinks at the Waldorf” experience and it was expensive. I paid $20 for two virgin daiquiris. What in those drinks cost $20 because I know there wasn’t $20 worth of booze in there? It was still a lot of fun and I totally downed a ton of the Chex mix-like food they had on the tables. I hope I ate $20 bucks worth of that mix.

Since I am not very familiar with New York I don’t know of a lot of places to eat that were within our price range. After wandering around and getting hungrier and hungrier Frank and I just gave up and picked a place to eat off Times Square. I had heard of Maxie’s Delicatessen before and for some reason had heard it was delicious. I was very, very mistaken. The food was totally disgusting and flavorless. I think that they take every order and just deep fry it. My southwestern egg rolls tasted just like my Ruben hamburger that tasted nothing like a Ruben. Everything ultimately tasted like old oil. Do not eat there – EVER!

Frank did figure out where the mistake came, there is a 4-star restaurant in New York called Maxie’s Bar and Grill. We were so close to goodness but yet so far…

On the way back from Maxie’s we passed a restaurant called Alfredo’s of Rome. Frank and I stopped to look at the menu and someone that was outside smoking told us the place was really delicious. Since she was dressed all in black, we assumed she was a waitress but she insisted she was not, just a happy customer. We went back the next day and I had the best fettuccini alfredo of my life. It was so creamy and simple. The sauce actually tasted like cheese and not like a cheese sauce derivative that came out of a can – I accuse you Olive Garden. It isn’t cheap, but not overly expensive. I would happily eat there again.

On our last night in New York we went to see The Lion King. I was totally jazzed to see the play as I had heard so many great things about the costumes and set design. I should preface the following by saying that I have never seen the movie The Lion King so I didn’t really know the story. Frank was a really good friend because he wanted to see a different play, but I insisted on The Lion King. The first number with the “Circle of Life” song was breathtaking. I was in shock at that creativity and imagination it took to make the savannah and its wildlife come to life so beautifully on stage. Needless to say, I was impressed.

Then things started going down hill. The jokes were lame and the kid actors had the emotional range of a rice cake. I went to the theater with higher expectations from the whole production. There were some stand out scenes for the costumes and sets, but the overacting and pathetic jokes just really took a great play and made it unfortunate. As Frank later reminded me, “it is a kid’s movie.” I owe you an apology Frank.

The day I was leaving to travel back to DC was my birthday. Frank and I decided to go to the Today show. According to internet sources, you should arrive at the Today show at about 5:30 am if you want to get onto Rockefeller Plaza. 5:30 am is early, but Frank and I were up until almost 1:30 am watching scenes being filmed for the upcoming movie, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice with Nicolas Cage so 5:30 am was really early. It took forever for them to do anything which made my failures to enter the movie business on the production side seem less like failures. We did get to see a garbage truck ram a car at about .5 mph in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral. So if you see the movie that is part we saw being filmed.

We got to the Today show at about 5:30 and proceeded to stand in line for an hour until they let us onto the plaza. Frank made a sign for me to hold up (since he is more artistic than I am) wishing my Uncle Roger a happy birthday (we have the same birthday). It was the first installment of the Today summer concert series with Jennifer Hudson. We were able to listen to her warm up which was really fun.

One of the ladies standing next to us was chosen for the Ambush Makeover series. She was just so nice and if you watch during the fourth hour of the show, you can see Frank and me standing behind her and jumping up and down like idiots. I have to say that the guy who does the makeovers is Botoxed beyond belief. Yikes!

By 7:00 am we had seen Al Roker, talked a fellow visitor through a break-up with her boyfriend, heard Jennifer Hudson, and had aching feet. We both went back to the hotel and crashed.

Before I caught my train back to DC we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was amazing. I absolutely adore their collection of Greek and Roman statuary. It was especially wonderful having Frank there because he as a strong background in art and art history. I would highly recommend inviting Frank to any art museum you visit. I just wish we would have had more time to explore. I could spend days there, and I know nothing about art.

Next Trip: Savannah, GA

Opera at the Kennedy Center

For growing up in a suburb of Paris, my friend Mathieu has had no exposure to the opera. It is shameful. Are you sure you are even French Mat?

Now I can’t really say much because I have only been to 3, maybe 4, operas in my entire life. My wonderful friend Michelle Kirby arranged for us to go see La Traviata in California when I was in high school. I really enjoyed it, especially because they provided supertitles. I don’t understand anything about singing or composition, but I know I liked what Verdi put together.

In Austria, Seabreeze, Shelley, Elise, and I watched about half of an opera (something in Italian) at the Vienna State Opera House (we only watched half because we had to make the three hour drive from Vienna to Maria Alm) and it was a beautiful production. If you are visiting Vienna, go to the opera house about an hour before the performance and you can get standing tickets for 2 Euro. It is a great deal and the Vienna State Opera House is beautiful.

What might count as an opera is a Spanish form of operetta and folk opera called Zarzuela. In Madrid Seabreeze, Shelley, Katie and I saw a Zarzuela performance that was fantastic. It isn’t as heavy as opera and often introduces some comedy. I would say it falls more on the Gilbert and Sullivan side of theater. I was impressed that I understood as much as I did of the performance. Poor Katie had to have one of us translate for her. I bet she missed a lot of plot points because Seabreeze, Shelley and I all speak cheap, gringo Spanish.

And my latest opera was back in May – Siegfried. Mathieu decided that he needed to see an opera and I am always game to participate in something that makes me sound cultured and smart. I don’t actually have to be cultured and smart – I am merely looking to appear cultured and smart. So Mat picked Siegfried. Siegfried is the third of a four part opera series by Wagner called Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). It is essentially part of the plot of the Lord of the Rings trilogy with less fighting and more sword forging. Siefried’s father had a sword that was broken and Siegfried has to reforge it so he can fight the dragon Fafner (best name ever) that has a ring that gives the owner the power to rule the world. Sound familiar?

Overall it was a great night and good performance. Let's fact it, any night at the Kennedy Center is a good night. At four hours, it was definitely on the long side, but I still felt like I learned something - mostly that German isn’t a very pretty language. Also, if I have to listen to a story about “One ring to rule them all…” it is going to be on DVD and have Viggo Mortensen fighting orcs.

Anyway, here are some pictures of our night at the opera.

Mathieu and Andrew


Emily and Me


Andrew, Mathieu and Emily

Tiffany Visits!

In April one of my oldest friends, Tiffany Cook, came out to visit. It was such a joy to have her come because, as usually happens when my friends have kids, they can never leave home for very long. Luckily Tiffany had an “ace in the hole,” she was pregnant with her third child at the time as was able to garner enough sympathy from her husband, friends, and family earn a brief getaway. Nice job Mike, you earned a lot of husband points!

Tiffany served as a missionary for our church here in the DC area. As a missionary, you rarely get to have any fun, so this was Tiffy’s big chance to do some of the things she couldn’t do before. Of course, at seven months pregnant I don’t know how much fun you can have, but Tiffany was bound and determined to try.

And now, the many adventures of Tiffany in DC:

Tiffany went out to dinner with single people.
I consider this a brave move for someone that has been married for over 8 years. I must say that Tiffany was a total sport as we talked about love, jobs, dating, and places to get good Mexican food. We ended up eating at El Paso Café, which is probably the best Mexican and Salvadoran food I have had on the East Coast. While that isn’t saying much, I would definitely eat there again.

Tiffany let me be a history nerd at Monticello.
Tiffy did not have a long list of places to see, but she did want to go to Monticello and Mt. Vernon. It is about a 2.5 hour drive down to Monticello from Reston, but it is a lovely trip. I had never been to Monticello in the spring and it was, as always, delightful. Sadly, it was the busiest I have ever seen because everyone was in DC for the Cherry Blossom Festival and made daytrips to Monticello. Regardless, it was a lovely day and I totally wish I was a Jefferson descendent so I could have more access to the place and be buried in the family plot.

Tiffany survived a trip to Baltimore.
It wasn’t actually supposed to be a trip to Baltimore, but boy did it end up that way. We attempted to go to Mt. Vernon, but it was so crowded and just sitting in traffic was totally annoying. Being the wild girls that we are, we decided to drive up to Philadelphia. The trip started off so well…we found a Krispy Kreme, traffic was light, and the weather was fantastic. Then we passed through the Harbor Tunnel outside of Baltimore. Just as we excited the tunnel my car just lost acceleration. It was awful.

So what happened was that my timing belt broke and busted up the engine in the process. I ended up calling AAA for a tow and the Highway Patrol set up flares to make sure no one hit my car as I was blocking a merging lane. The Maryland roadside emergency guy actually pushed my car with his truck so we could get to a shoulder. The tow truck guy took us to his shop, as it was a weekend and most shops were closed. Then Tiffany and I walked down the street and hung out at a McDonald’s in Baltimore until Seabreeze kindly came and rescued us. There was so much crying on my part. For those of you that know I have issues with Baltimore, my car dying and getting stranded in a town I don’t know didn’t help Davis-Baltimore relations.

Things did not go well for my poor little Ford. The repair costs were to range between $1,500 to 3,000 at a minimum for a car that would fetch $1,200 if I could get it running again. I ended up selling it to a salvage yard in Baltimore for $100. I have to say, that if you need a mechanic in Baltimore, go to Curtis Auto Shop in Dundalk. The mechanic was fantastic and didn’t try to rip me off in my fragile state. I would gladly have him look at my new car – a Nissan Sentra that I adore. Seabreeze was an absolute treasure when I didn’t have a car. She let me borrow her car every day so I could take Tiffany around and go car shopping. Seabreeze, you went above and beyond. Shelley and my mom and dad deserve Medals of Valor for kindly putting up with about 15 phone calls a day regarding taking out loans, car shopping, insurance, negotiating, etc. I also still owe Jason a dinner for helping me negotiate buying a car. He is very, very good. Below is a picture of my sweet Ford getting towed away. Sniff, Sniff…


Tiffany let me be a history nerd at Mt. Vernon.
Thanks to Seabreeze we did make it to Mt. Vernon. I love to go to Mt. Vernon and Monticello in different seasons because you really get to see different vegetation and animals. Tiffany has been starting to garden, so it was nice for her to buy some seeds from her trip that she could then plant in her garden at home. I like seeing all the baby animals (I also like how I am 5 year old girl when it comes to baby animals). I even got to pet some baby sheep that were so darling. The new museum at Mt. Vernon is great and I would highly recommend a visit.

Tiffany spent 5 days with me.
I love that Tiffany knows me so well. It was fantastic to spend time with someone that knows when I am full of BS. I just love her to death.

Come back any time Tiffany!

SPORTS!

Since March I have attended more professional sports games than I have in my entire life. I am not quite sure why that is, but I have a couple of ideas. I think one reason is because it is much easier to get to the arenas and ballparks here in DC than in the Bay Area. Also, my parents weren't that interested in sports or attending games. The one team I would LOVE to see play is the San Francisco 49ers. If only I could afford those tickets. Sadly, they totally suck so it would probably just be depressing to attend a game.

Anyway, here are some pictures of us at the games.

In March my friends Seabreeze, Mathieu, Jenny, Shanna, and I saw the Washington Wizards play the Orlando Magic. Naturally, the Wizards lost.



In May Jenny, Shanna, Shelley, Ben and I attended a Washington Nationals game. I don't remember who they played. Naturally, the Nationals lost.



At the end of May a group of us drove up to Baltimore to see a game at Camden Yards. Aside from the Inner Harbor smelling like a combination of raw sewage and rotting fish, it was a wonderful night with AMAZING weather. It was also Mathieu's first baseball game so it was extra exciting. The Baltimore Orioles played the Detroit Tigers. Naturally, the Orioles lost.



In the picture above, from left to right, is: Jen, Ben, Shelley, Mathieu, Seabreeze, Andrew, and Christine.

To top it all off, we went to the batting cages in Herndon, VA to confirm our baseball genius. My friends Frank and Laurie joined Mathieu, Shelley and me.







Who knew I enjoyed going to games? I sure didn't. Although it is one of the few times that I will eat a hot dog - so maybe it isn't an appreciation for athleticism, but rather a desire to eat meat by-products. I am going to have to think about this one.

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

I thought that blogging would be an easy way for me to keep track of the vaguely cool stuff that I do. How wrong I was – blogging is time consuming! That must be the reason why people do this as a full-time deal. I think my real downfall is that I want to do these blogs in chronological order. If I could just blog at the moment I might be better but I am so neurotic that I there is no way I could actually abandon linear time.

That being said, in February I headed up to Calgary, Alberta. I had never been to western Canada before and I couldn’t believe that my first trip was going to be in February. I am not a snow person, and from what I hear about Canada (the Great White North is not a joke after all) I would definitely be out of my element. Luck was in my favor the week I was there, not much snow, just a lot of cold. I don’t think I have been that cold since I lived in Logan, UT. To make matters worse, I don’t even know how cold I was because they use Celsius. As much as I detest the metric system, it was cool to drive 110 kph – I felt drunk with speed and power.

When I arrived in Calgary, I saw a lot of steakhouses. And since I am my father’s daughter, I decided to eat steak. It had been a long day by the time I reached Calgary and I was ready to eat. I ended up going to Cattle Baron, which I guess is pretty well known (at least according to the framed articles in the lobby). I ordered a 6 oz filet and it was adequate. I honestly expected a little bit more from the famous Alberta beef – although I am not sure it is the cows fault. I must admit that the bread they served was amazing. Is it sad that I remember the bread?

I did eat at the hotel (Embassy Suites to be exact) on a couple of evenings because it was cold. I know that is so pathetic but once you get ensconced in the warm hotel, why would you leave? The hotel food was passable although after I ate I wish I had gone out.

One of my students recommended a restaurant called Moxie’s Classic Grill. It was very nicely decorated and trendy but I still felt comfortable eating by myself. I don’t remember the entrée (oops) but I do remember the avocado spring rolls that were super yummy.

Another student recommended a place called Thai Boat. It was nice and they had a pretty good pad thai. I would have liked something a bit more robust, but for the price it was just fine.

My students decided that we all needed to go out to lunch on Thursday. Olive Garden was chosen because it is good for a lot of people. Fortunately for me, one student told the waiter it was my birthday and the wait staff brought out a cake and everyone sang “Happy Birthday.” It was so hard for me to just play it naturally and not crack up. My students were the nicest group of people that I have met in quite some time.

The coolest thing I did was drive up to Banff National Park and see Lake Louise. I have wanted to go to Lake Louise for a while and for a couple of reasons. One, I once saw an episode of the Jeff Corwin Experience (I love Jeff Corwin) at Lake Louise and it looked stunning. Two, I have Webshots on my computer and one of the rotating pictures is of Lake Louise. I guess I just wanted to say when the picture rolled around on Webshots that I had been there.

Banff is about 1.5 hours away from Calgary, so I took off after my class finished around noon on Friday. I drove up to Banff and it was just lovely and even better, it wasn’t snowing. I was a bit hesitant to make the drive up into the Canadian Rockies as I didn’t have any snow gear aside from a glove, scarf, and hat set that my brother got me for Christmas. I definitely didn’t have shoes that would work well. I ended up taking my sneakers and hoping for the best.

Lake Louise is stunning. For overnight guests there is Château Lake Louise which sits right on the lake. I would love to stay there, although I don’t think I make nearly enough money. The alpine beauty of the Château and the lake reminded me so much of Austria.

I walked over to the lake and it was totally frozen. They had ice sculptures, as well as a skating rink, and a hockey rink. I was watching people walk across the lake and I was dead set against setting one foot on that frozen mass of water. I had always thought people hanging out and having funtivities on frozen lakes was an urban legend. It just seems unnatural.

After realizing that this was my one shot to walk on a frozen lake, I decided to take the proverbial plunge. I figured I have had a good life, so if it ended then so be it. I loved walking across the lake. I only made it about ¾ of the way across until the sun dipped behind the mountains and it became very, very cold. Needless to say, I lived to tell the tale. It is, perhaps, one of the most memorable experiences I have had.

On the way back to Calgary, I stopped in the town of Banff, which can only be described as picturesque. I walked around the main streets of Banff with the distinct feeling that someone took Park City, UT and moved it to Canada. I had a hard time finding someplace to eat as everything looked really cheap or really expensive. I finally decided to pick a place and just go – I was on en expense account so what did I care? I would ask forgiveness when I got back to the office.

I ended up eating at the Maple Leaf. It was amazing! They let me sit by the window with a panoramic view of the mountains. What made it even better was that I got to watch the sunset as I ate. The New York strip steak was perfectly cooked and tender. The mashed potatoes were so creamy and the vegetables were just the right and perfectly al dente. I cannot think of one bad thing to say about the place. The wait staff was outstanding and even let me join in their conversation about Lost. For those of you that like wine, they have an extensive selection. If you are ever in Banff, do not skip the Maple Leaf.

And now for two side notes: First, the Canadians are not kidding when it comes to hockey, as every other channel covered some hockey game. And second, I did find a used bookstore called the “Wee Book Inn.” Sadly, it was going out of business because of rising rent prices.

Next Trip – New York City

Language Guide

I can swear by what this video says. While in Moldova the one phrase I could remember was "Take Cover!" and people always found that endearing. Enjoy!