Asian Supermarket

My friend, Sid, took me to an asian supermarket. It is called Great Wall Market, and it was awesome. From the outside, the place just looks like a normal grocery store. But on the inside it is like a black market full of asian food. It honestly does not look all that legit, it doesnt smell all that great, its kind of dark, dingy, and dirty. 

Its also piled floor to ceiling with various and strange looked food. I ended up spending a lot of money there and bought a ton of groceries, everything was actually pretty cheap tho. There were a lot of things that Sid suggested and I said "uhhhhh not today". I ended up making a delicious stir fry with yakisoba noodles one day with it. There are so many items that I have no idea what they are in the stir fry.

I also made some sugar snap pees and cabbage another day, and it was fantastic. If you havent had sugar snap peas... you must learn to make them. They are easy to make and super delicious and great for you. Same thing with Edamame. 

The Boardroom

Yesterday we had a pretty awesome day in DC. We met up with some friends at the BoardRoom which is now my favorite bar. Cheap drinks, bring in your own food (yeah and there is a Chipotle right down the street) and rent/bring some board games and have at it! We played Settlers of Catan for about 2 hours, which was surprisingly fun. Afterwards we went to a place called Cafe Luna (I think) and it was meh. Sarah read Erin's Tarot cards and that was pretty cool. 

Afterwards we wondered around for quite an extensive time debating where to go. We ended up seeing a lot of DC as we kept picking a place and finding out it was closed. We ended up at Ford's Theater, which was interesting, we should definitely see a play there in the future. But more importantly we found a place called Crumbs Bake Shop, which I just found out is a chain. I dont even care. They had the best cucpake I have ever had in my life, the caramel coconut girl scout cupcake. So delicious. 

Afterwards we headed back to our apt to play with the cats and watch Shaun of the Dead. And. Tequila Shots. Always a good time.

US Science and Engineering Festival

Today we went to the USSEF and it was awesome! We got to see a plethora of booths, the most exciting one had live bugs that were crawling on the people at the booths. There was a really awesome praying mantis from south Asia that looked exactly like a dead leaf and was crawling up a lady's arm. There was also the largest beetle ever, like size of a rat large.
We also got to see Bill Nye! We were two rows back and we could easily see and hear him and he did some pretty awesome demonstrations. He mostly talked about the importance of space travel and of taking care of the Earth we have. He showed us a Sterling motor which was pretty sweet, with a push and no more energy it ran off its own power for the entire hour. I also now want to join the planetary society, which he is the head of.
After the Festival we went to a Japanese ramen shop! It was AWESOME. I posted a picture on Facebook, but omg the noodles were so delicious. Same with the soup. It was totally worth the wait, and we got to sit at a ramen bar and be right by the cooks. So delicious.

Japanese Cherry Blossoms

The cherry blossoms are beautiful, amazing, and very transient. They are only around for about a week. We saw them on friday (best day off ever) and they are already falling this morning, saturday. Its still beautiful when they fall. 

If you stand on the Jefferson Memorial and look towards DC, the entire bank is covered in the cherry blossom trees. They look like Pink clouds. 

Even better, we decided to make it an even better outting. We then went to the Sackler Musuem to see the Kiyochika gallery, https://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/current/kiyochika/. We couldnt take pictures, but these were amazing. Beautiful prints, and a lot of them. We then walked around the Smithsonian Gardens and looked for a restaurant for probably 2 miles until we settled on Lime, again. Lunch time anywhere near Smithsonian is a nightmare. 

The National Botanical Gardens

The Botanical gardens were pretty awesome. Very beautiful and separated by Biomes. It is definitely a great place to go (especially with a date) in the winter. During the summer I dont think one would appreciate it as much, but in the winter it is extremely refreshing. The its really humid and a perfect temperature and there are lots of benches to just sit and enjoy the jungle, dessert, anything. Also when we were there, there was an Orchid exhibit and it was beautiful. 

The jungle biome was probably my favorite, it is rather tall and has walkways going up and a beautiful creek going through the center of it. But the dessert had this awesome spike plant. 

Sporadic Running in Alexandria

I had a great run, 3.1 miles. Second run of the year. I ran to King street and back and that clearly was not enough distance. Only about 1.3 miles. So I kept running and wondered where it would get me. I ran a nice little loop around a park. It was pretty nice, rather cold and I saw these adorable sidewalk prints that I followed. I also saw ones that said "leap like a deer". All in all a great morning! I came back and made some awesome brunch! 

Hard Times Chili Bowl: Veggie friendly!

Chili places are really not our thing. This is the first one I have ever been in that had a veggie option at all. This one's veggie option was pretty good, it had soy flakes, a tomato base, and mushrooms. It was a little strong on the tomatoes, but over all quite tasty for a vegetarian option. Also its great on the chili fries. And great on my veggie burger, although it was just a morningstar veggie burger. The fries were particularly good too. All in all had a good southern comfort vibe.
After work we just walked over and met up on King Street, grabbed some chili and walked home. All this walking is pretty fantastic for us!