Raleigh, NC: Mellow Mushroom

Welcome to North Carolina! Super excited to see Gary Morris, a fellow ESSEC exchange student I met while in Paris.

First stop - need some grub! Jacky Hood suggested Mellow Mushroom so off we went! (Pics of Gary to come soon...no, he hasn't cut his hair yet)

Great beer selection! I had a Sweetwater Brewing's 420 (from Atlanta) and Gary had Highland Brewing's Gaelic Ale (from Asheville). I love trying local beers - stuff you can only get regionally.

Pizza was called "Philosopher" - steak, portobello mushrooms, artichokes, olives, provolone, feta, mozz and garlic. Super yum.

After pizza, there was trivia night at the restaurant so Gary and I tried to play.

• What town was Michael Jackson born and raised?


• Michael Jackson's hair caught fire when filming a commercial for what company?


• Name all of the Jackson 5


• What is the name of the plane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima?

There was a little wooden guy making the asian girl sign. I couldn't resist taking a picture with him!

Life is a Highway...

Being on a road so much, I'm starting to notice lots of interesting license plates. So, I decided to take a few pictures...

In addition to a new GPS unit, I also bought a cheap XM radio for those long country roads. It's been pretty good so far - live ESPN coverage of all the World Cup games too!

Virginia Beach, VA: Last Day in VA

I spent my last day in Virginia going shopping at the local mall. For lunch, I stopped by a restaurant called A.W. Shucks in Norfolk. I had a few pints of Magic Hat #9, a seafood combo platter, a crawfish and crabcake sandwich and watched the Spain vs. Portugal World Cup game. Where are pictures of the food, you ask? I was so hungry, I forgot to take pictures! It was good though...

Shirley cooked a yummy Italian meal for my last dinner in Virginia. Super fresh salad (leafies from her own garden), caprese salad (basil also from the garden) and pasta with fresh homemade pesto. About halfway through dinner, the electricity went out due to the storm. We finished dinner in candlelight. Shirley, Gordon, Ya Ya and I then sat around with some candles and had great conversation with lots of belly bursting laughter. Good times!

Virginia Beach, VA: Local food, home food and some kung fu!

You can't go to the mid-Atlantic region and not have crab cakes! Pics of fried clams, hush puppies and baked crab cake at Surfriders. Pretty good and very fresh but more of a purist kind of place - no seasoning of any sort.

Shirley lives near an naval air base. There are really cool (but loud) military planes flying around all the time.

Shirley made dinner tonight. Three cup chicken (sanbeiji), cabbage with pork and Taiwanese sausage, and veggies. Nothing beats a home cooked meal. SOOOO GOOOODD!

Venus, their 15 year old cat, likes fresh laundry!

Shirley's brother, Gordon, runs a kung fu school. We went to see Charlie practice with the class. Shirley's great-uncle, Yip Man, was Bruce Lee's kung fu teacher. There's even a movie about him, Ip Man! This year, they also released a sequel, Ip Man 2! Pretty cool stuff. Yes, we are Chinese. We all know kung fu.

Norfolk, VA: Dim Sum and Chrysler Museum

Yummy, yummy, in my tummy! The dim sum wasn't knock-your-socks-off but it had been so long since I'd had dim sum, I forgot to take a picture until it was all gone. =)

After lunch, we hid from the dreadful 100+ degree heat in the Chrysler Museum.

The museum had all kinds of different things including modern art and more Buddhas for me!

The chest has glasses in it of different sizes so you can rub the rims and get different notes. It reminds of the scene in Miss Congeniality.

Joseph drew one of the marble busts. It's pretty good!

Here's a collage of other things I liked at the museum from my favorite Mark Rothko to Jackson Pollock, Tiffany lamps and stained glass windows.

We tried to go to a famous ice cream place called Doumar's but it was closed. "It's Sunday. It's the South," I was told.

Consolation prize - Dairy Queen Blizzard!

Virginia Beach, VA: BBQ with Family Friends

I came to Virginia Beach to visit Shirley, an old family friend. Shirley's mother and my mom were friends when they were young and Shirley often babysat me in LA (when I was little of course!). Her boy, Joseph, is six years old and is quite the reader!

Charlie, her husband, the master griller. Brand new grill, first use!

Shirley plants a lot of fresh vegetables and herbs in her backyard. There is eggplant, all kinds of basil, cilantro, tomatoes, turnips...and other things I don't recognize.

Shirley's brother, Gordon, and his wife, Ya Ya with Joseph (and the amazing spread of BBQ).

Shirley, Joseph and Charlie (left) and their cat Venus trying to steal a bite of yummy BBQ (right)

Arlington, VA: Tapas Bar - La Tascas

For my last night in town, I went to dinner with Erez, my couch surfing host. (No worries sis, I'm writing this blog from the safety of Shirley's house in Virginia Beach - yes, I'm still alive.) He picked a nice tapas restaurant in Arlington called La Tascas.

First, we started with Jambon Serrano with Manchego (yum!) and then we feasted! Note the giant pitcher of sangria to the right...

A little bit of albondigas, seared tuna, patatas bravas (of course) and chicken skewers. This makes me miss Ramblas in the Mission.

Washington, DC: More Famous Buildings

Jewish hospitality. I woke up to find Erez (my couch surfing host) tiptoeing around in his own condo so he wouldn't wake me. Since I woke up, he cut some fruit for me before leaving for work. I don't think I'm having the typical couch surfing experience here... He's the world's sweetest guy.

I've been using the DC Metro to get around town for the past two weeks. Most stations look like the below picture with this 70's modern architecture. Even more interesting, however, is that the trains are exactly the same funky ones we have in SF for BART.

Desperate for a greasy spoon, I looked to Yelp for some recommendations and this is what popped up. Pete's Diner near the Congressional Library. Greasy, yes. Ann's Soup Kitchen it is not - not even close.

Fountain in front of the Library of Congress (left) and front of the Library of Congress (right)

Beautiful architecture and detailing in the Library of Congress

United States Supreme Court building (left) and US Capitol building (right)

Union Station exterior (left) and interior (right) - one of the busiest train stations in the United States

Replica of the Liberty Bell

United States Postal Museum!

There was a display about lost mail in the Postal Museum. Back in the day, sometimes people didn't know exact addresses so mail that couldn't be delivered was sent to the Dead Letter Office. There, the postal workers would either try to figure out what the sender meant or was trying to describe or they would open the letter to find clues where the letter was meant to go. One of the examples in the exhibit was the one below to Cornell University, post dated 1883!