Sunday, June 24, 2012

Kitschy Kitschy Kistch!

On our way back from Smith Mountain Lake, we stopped at Natural Bridge, VA for an afternoon of serious tourist fun.  First stop, The Caverns at Natural Bridge!!

Here we go, cave time!!

Cave stuff!

The guide told us to be careful so much I really thought I would fall!  She also complained the whole time about having to walk so much for her job...but the cave stuff was cool! 

A dry part of the cave.  An interesting tour!  On to the next stop....

Next up, Foamhenge!!

This full scale foam model of Stonehenge was awesome.

Looks so real!

Yikes!!  That's Merlyn trying to zap us!!

Rawr!!  Eric is holding up Stonehenge!

Gorgeous flower!

Next up, the Natural Bridge itself!!

Yay!  Say Queijo!

The Natural Bridge in all of its glory!

The view of the under side of the bridge.

On our way out we saw this awesome King Kong and decided to stop for lunch.

The only thing cool about this place is the outside.  Never eat there.  I should have guessed that it would be bad when I saw the sign "If you have a problem with the way I do things, BUY ME OUT."  To have enough complaints to necessitate this sign should have been a big red flag.  Oh well, at least we got to see King Kong!

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Smith Mountain Lake...A Little Break from the City

A some of you may have heard, we are having some weather back here.  Crazy hot and humid weather.  The kind that kills people and animals.  That bad.  In an effort to beat the heat, Eric found us a tiny piece of paradise in the Blue Ridge Mountains called Smith Mountain Lake.  It was a 5 hour journey from DC, but well worth it.  The lake was very clean for swimming, the sun was out an the humidity was down.  Que perfeito!!

On the way out Friday night we ate at one of the best restaurants I have been to in a long time.  It was called Southern Inn Restaurant in Lexington, VA.  If you ever find yourself there, do stop.  It is so good!!

Good morning lake!  We're ready for you!

Cheers!  That would be 29 weeks (7 months) pregnant right there.

There's Eric, enjoying the sun.

Finally, a much needed dip in the refreshing lake!

Look at that set up!  The perfect way to spend a day!

The fish are coming for Eric on his fun noodle float!  Oh no!!

 A little snake friend.  We looked him up and discovered he is a Northern Water Snake.  Not poisonous, just snakey.

Eric had enough sun and had to cover up before he burned to a crisp!!

Happy Lake Day!

 The most perfect dinner to wrap up the most perfect day.

With an equally perfect dessert to go with!

Oops! Forgot to mention an awesome restaurant that we stopped at on the way here!
 The Southern Inn! Delicious!

Sunday, June 17, 2012

NYC!

This weekend we went up to NYC for a little getaway. On Friday, we hopped aboard a shuttle bus to the big apple based on the recommendations of many of friends. That was a mistake. 

The driver was swerving in and out of traffic the whole way, singing loudly along with his iPod, dropped off one of the passengers at a random truck stop in New Jersey, and even stopped the bus in the MIDDLE of the freeway to ask us, the passengers, how to get to the Lincoln Tunnel! Plus, neither the interior lights, nor the WiFi worked. It a ridiculous ride to say the least! As soon as we were freed from our 6+ hours of bus-torture, we made a pact that we would never set foot on that bus again, and would find some other way to get home...
...more on that later...

We checked into the hotel, went out for a slice of pizza and had a great night's sleep.

The next morning, we had an amazing breakfast at Sarabeth's Kitchen followed by a nice walk through Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We wandered through the galleries for a few hours and paid a visit to a special exhibit on Byzantine art, Autumn's favorite. Next up in our action-packed day in Manhattan was lunch with Jake at another fave, SushiSamba! It was great to catch up with him and chow down on some good Japanese food, which doesn't appear to exist in the greater D.C. area. After lunch, we hit up Momofuku Milk Bar for an afternoon treat. Autumn has been making cookies, pies and cakes from their cookbook since last Christmas and needed to have a taste-test-comparison to verify her home-kitchen results.

We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping and chatting with Jake until we parted ways before dinner. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at Sardi's before going to see Anything Goes, our very first Broadway show. The food was good and the show was hilarious and amazing! The music was really loud and our daughter-to-be gave it her kick of approval! We dragged ourselves to bed around midnight (which is late for us, since we are now old!). Before bed, I reserved tickets on Amtrak to avoid the much-despised bus in the morning.

We got up bright and early for bagels and cream cheese before we caught the train back to DC. It was wonderful and worth every penny!

Upon our arrival in DC, I received an email from the bus company that the bus that we would have been on that morning had suffered a tire-blowout on the freeway and was delayed for over an hour! I replied saying that was exactly the kind of thing that I would have expected from their sub-par bus company, and that our trip had been so terrible that we had to buy train tickets to get home. I also mentioned that I wanted a refund. A few hours later, they called me and offered two more tickets for my inconvenience. I said that I wouldn't be caught dead on their bus ever again and that I wanted my money back. To my surprise, I already got a refund! Wow!

In spite of the bus-related havoc, we had an amazing time and want to move to NYC as soon as possible, as usual!

Now that I'm done with my bus-rant, here's the day in pictures:

 Good morning Manhattan!
If you look closely, you can see the new World Trade Center Tower!

 Central Park stroll...

 The Met...
...we may have been lost on more than one occasion inside it's vast labyrinth.
 Byzantine bug-eyes!

 Autumn and the bump!

 Mmmm...sushi!

 Candy bar pie at milk!

 Autumn and Jake

 St. Patrick's Cathedral and Rockefeller Center

 Brazilian specialties in Little Brazil
Who knew?!

 Fun in Times Square before the show

 Look! It's Parson's, just like on Project Runway! 
Where's Tim Gunn and the Heidi?

 I found the terrible photoshoppiness and the nickname "Bam" to be hilarious on the front page of the New York Post today.

Goodnight New York!

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Baby Shopping Extravaganza!!

We spent almost the whole weekend shopping for baby stuff. Thanks to everyone from Mexico City for donating to the cause at our going away party!

Just look at that pile of cute loot!

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Taco-Fever!

We were craving Mexican food today, so we tried out an "authentic" DF-style Mexican restaurant for breakfast today. Overall, not bad, but it still wasn't the real thing!

We had high hopes for the chilaquiles at Super Tacos & Bakery, but it wasn't 100%.

Friday, June 1, 2012

Chick-fil-a!

We're getting a Chick-fil-a in Falls Church!!

Autumn's counting the days!