caracolina

John and I stayed home for the long weekend for the first time in quite some time, instead of heading to the Oregon Coast and its yurts. While that felt a little strange we also had our fun with the mini vacations to the East Coast and the Florida Keys and I was looking forward for a few days of unadulterated fun at home.

It all started on Wednesday when I attended a Thanksgiving tradition at my company – an afternoon at a local casino. This has been going on for the last three or four years but I’ve never been able to go since we’ve always bailed at the soonest opportunity. I was worried about the gambling – but it was fun. I learned how to play Black Jack and was able to walk away with just a little less money than I started out with. 

On Thursday we met with Elizabeth and Alfred (Mr. and Mrs. Little Rangoon) and their daughter at lunchtime for a sumptuous feast at China King in Chandler. We hadn’t ever tried dim sum before so this was very cool, new experience. The food was great and we ate so much that I didn’t feel hungryat all for the rest of the day.

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I managed to get lots of quality spinning time in and also found time to straighten out my work area a bit. All in all I spun 3 skeins of chunky churro singles (around 6oz in total), and spun and plied 4 oz of some wool roving I dyed at home last year, plus 2 oz of alpaca/merino combed top. Then I cleaned my carder and carded a bunch of my black alpaca fleece. I’m nowhere near done with that one though, all the batts need at least a second pass and I’m less than halfway through the bag of fleece. In between, I mended some clothes that had been on my to-do list for a while.  And, I prepped and uploaded a bunch of photos from our January 2009 Yellowstone trip to Flickr.

All in all a very productive long weekend at home!

A month or so ago new people moved into two of the apartments in the building next to hours. They enjoy socializing on their patios and talking loudly at all hours. Last night though they took the cake and ran with it. They were apparently partying with another neighbor who, allegedly, flipped out after drinking a few too many and busted a glass sliding door on the second floor. We woke up to screaming madness at about 1 AM and after listening for about a minute, called 911. Police showed up and eventually took the other neighbor with them. The joys of apartment living.

I’m having a hard time coming up with titles for these blog entries!

Today was Rachna’s (Sonal’s niece) engagement. We arrived at their house around 8 AM and nobody was ready! A bunch of guys were hanging out downstairs while the women were getting ready upstairs. Finally, all sarees and odhnis were pinned down properly and all make up applied and the procession got on the road. We arrived at fiance Niral’s house and were greeted by family and friends. First though, Rachna had to step into a tray of red liquid and walk onto onto a piece of white cloth, leaving red foot prints. Her first steps into her future home as a bride were thus preserved. Then, the ceremony went underway. Mrs. Rajaguru did a great job and talked the young couple through the many steps it takes to get engaged in the Hindu universe (as usual, nuts, strings, and flower petals played center roles).

Finally, it was time to move on to the reception which took place at a location near Desert Ridge. After a few (emotional) speeches and a dance performed by Hemu, Kushboo, Saachi and Purvi, the guests descended on the food (which was delicious).  John was in overdrive, only taking a short break to eat, then returned to the mingling guests. At the end of the party he took a number of group photos of various combinations of family members and friends with the happy couple, then it was time to go home and relax.

Both of us were tired but did not want to give in to an afternoon nap considering we had to prepare for our own evening entertainment. We did some housecleaning chores then John took off and picked up Raynee. The two of them got dinner (pani puri) going but we didn’t eat until Joe arrived later. After dinner we watched Kamikaze Girls.

We got up and out early to spent most of today with our farm friends Rob and Jerry in honor of Jerry’s birthday. After arriving at the farm around 8 AM we had some breakfast, then, after getting various chores done, the four of us piled into our tiny Kia and drove to the movies (Where The Wild Things Are). Back at the farm, John saved the day since Rob’s adopted kitten Junior had been missing all day and Rob was preparing for the worst – until John spotted the little critter out and about just before dinner. Junior (who was born to a stray cat on Rob’s property) still hangs out with this biological family in the daytime but fearing for the kitten’s safety Rob wants him indoors at night – I can see housecat written all over Junior’s future.

For dinner we had a celebratory barbecue with steak for the guys and a veggie burger for me (Rob had one as well, actually) along with mac and cheese and some broccoli. For dessert Rob had made a gigantic apple pie with apples from New Mexico – delicious! Even I had a second helping. Needless to say we had a tough time staying awake on our way home.

I’m now over 6 months behind with this blog: the last entry was May 19th! Every once in a while I made some half-hearted attempts at writing entries but without publishing them because I felt I needed to publish entries in chronological order. Well, no more of that! What’s the point in having a blog when there’s no entries for people to read?!

I vow to improve and promise to start blogging again from now on but will still post the occasional past entry to fill in the gap, so I apologize to my 2.5 readers for possible confusion with dates.

Friday night John and I drove to Tucson because I was going to attend a spinning class and spend some time (and money, ha!) at the Southwest Fiber Festival in Amado. Like last year I was going to stay over the weekend with Elaine (former president of the AZ Federation of Weavers and Spinners Guilds) who also taught my class. John had originally considered going to the festival but  didn’t feel like it and pushed on towards Willcox. He spent Saturday at Brown’s Orchard picking apples and making cider while Elaine and I got up early and drove down to Amado. In the class (which was about spinning mohair goat fiber) I spun some mohair roving, then tried a plying technique involving sliding locks of mohair into the plied twist as you go along. Kinda cool when it is done right – of course it will takes some practice. Afterwards Elaine and a couple of other women did the skein contest judging and another gal and I did the fleece contest judging. At first I was really nervous about it but I learned quite a bit and had a good time to boot. And… I also submitted a skein of handspun and walked away with a red ribbon! I might have gotten a blue ribbon if I had used proper ties to fix up the skein but I’m still very pleased since I didn’t expect to win anything.

Totally forgetting about lunch (I think there was some food but all the vendor booths and critter pens had me completely distracted), I managed to spend a little bit over my allowance, but not too much. Elaine and I left around 4.30 PM. She snagged the first shearing of the cutest little mohair doe, only 5 months old and so soft! We picked up dinner on the way home and spent another fun evening chatting (and spinning). Although I was so tired I went to sleep pretty early. These festival weekends are like sleepovers! John picked me up on Sunday around 11 AM, carrying over 9 gallons of delicious cider he had made from apples he picked all by himself, yum!

We got up early, had bagel sandwiches for breakfast and walked to the United States Capitol, which looked splendid against the blue sky. Our first appointment for the day was the first “courtroom lecture” of the day at 9.30 AM in the Supreme Court Building, which is situated across the street from the Capitol. Using a side entrance (and a healthy portion of chutzpah) we managed to sneak into the building before 9.00 AM and were able to look around a bit, throw a glance into the Supreme Court Chamber and be first in the rapidly expanding line for the lecture. The Supreme Court Building dates from 1932, until then the Court was using space in the Capitol. Still, the building fits very well with the surrounding and there are numerous interesting details in the friezes, ceiling, and door panels. Courtroom lectures are held in the Supreme Court Chamber on weekdays when the Court is not in session. They are 30 minutes long and very educational in regards to the history of the Supreme Court and the building. Find out more here.

After the lecture we hurried over to the public tour of the neighboring Library of Congress. Entering that building was a huge surprise to me since I expected the interior to be somewhat similar to the Supreme Court, serenely white or ivory, but instead our eyes met with a riot of colors. Our tour guide led us past an original Gutenberg bible on display in a massive case. I’d like to know who gets to turn the page every once in a while to avoid fading or stress on a particular page. Then we got to see the Main Reading Room, truly a temple in its own right, and of course, we admired the beautifully painted walls in the Great Hall and Galleries. One could spend days or even weeks in this building and still keep noticing more details! 

Our tour ended just in time for us to hurry through the tunnel to the Capitol Visitor Center. Someone from Mr. Shadegg’s staff had suggested we could have lunch at the Senate’s dining room before our appointment for the Capitol tour, which is what John explained to a gentleman at a help desk who appeared sceptical but intrigued. Apparently not many people ask about this! He gave the three of us visitor badges and directions to the Senate help desk. Excitedly we hurried into the Capitol building, through the Crypt and turned towards the Senate (past the signs saying “No visitors without tour guides”) until we found the help desk. Sadly, the women there saw through our bluff (why would we want to eat in the Senate if our appointment is with a Congressman?) and politely suggested we use the cafeteria in one of the Congressional buildings. However… as a consolation prize we received additional visitor badges and were allowed to use an elevator in the Senate and the underground tram to the Rayburn Building (confused yet? I was completely disoriented!). We rushed through lunch and made our appointment to the tour with minutes to spare. Our guide Sara was fantastic! She took the time out of her incredibly busy day to show us and another family the major sights of the Capitol. I was afraid she’d rush us through to get back to her desk but she was extremely patient, gracious – and most importantly, knowledgeable. I hope we get to come back and visit the Senate some day.

After our tour there was still one more big item on the schedule – visiting the National Archives for a peek at the original Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, Constitution, and the Magna Carta. However, we were supposed to show up at a specific time and we were early, so we detoured through the National Botanical Garden, which was small, but beautiful. I especially enjoyed the scent exhibits which featured spices, herbs, and dried flowers in flower-shaped containers. Our feet were becoming mighty sore, but with so much fun and excitement, who could complain?

Our time in the National Archives was almost anti-climactic at this point. We had to push ourselves into the front to see the country’s most famous documents on display and because of the throngs of school children, it was difficult to linger and take some time gazing at the handwriting, signatures, etc. We were beat and our feet so sore! We rested a bit outside of the National Archives when we noticed the extremely disciplined and well-behaved group of school kids next to us. We complimented their chaperone on running the best behaved group we’d seen so far and found out about the St. Marcus School of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a private school that mostly serves children from low-income families with school vouchers. They rely on sponsors and donations to allow the students to go on field trips like this one to DC and New York City. Seeing how well-mannered and mature for their age these kids are, John and I are planning to donate to ensure that more of these children get a chance to get out of their environment and see these places. After chatting with the teachers and Tatyana, one of the students, we dragged our tired and hungry selves towards dinner. We found good food at Nando’s Peri Peri (around the corner from Chinatown) then limped back towards the White House one more time before finally crawling back to our hotel room.

Today’s breakfast at the Old Chickahominy House included a real treat, the best homemade biscuits I’ve ever had. I like biscuits in general, although I rarely eat them and never have them with gravy. The biscuits at Chickahominy House are rectangular, not crumbly and just wonderful. What I couldn’t eat I wrapped in a napkin and brought them with me for a later snack. After breakfast we walked through Colonial Williamsburg which was just waking up. Cars with maintenance crews were moving around the empty streets and it just made me want to stick around and wait for the period folks to reappear. Alas, after a round in the gift and book stores it was time to move on, since we had our sights set on Mount Vernon.

On our way northeast, clouds and gray sky gave way and when we arrived at George Washington’s home it was sunny and hot. We purchased our tickets and audio tours and made our way past workshop and maintenance buildings to the mansion. A long line had formed in front of the building and we figured we’d tour the rest of the grounds first, in the hopes that the lines would be shorter later, when the school kids were done with their field trips, which turned out to be a correct assumption. When we were had completed our round the wait was minimal. Visitors walk through the building in a continuous line while guides offer information about the individual rooms. Sadly, that doesn’t give the individual time enough to linger but it was nonetheless a great experience. Afterwards we spent some more time in the museum which was also very interesting. One thing we couldn’t do here today was a boat ride on the Potomac, but I hope we’ll come back for that another time. By the way, we could have done without the audio tours. They didn’t offer that much more information than was available on signs and it was more fun to talk about things than walk around with headphones on. Funny, the only other place we ever gave audio tours a try was Graceland, the home of another American legend, and that was only because they were included in the price of admissions and we gave up on the headphones pretty quickly there as well.

From Mount Vernon it was only a short skip across the Potomac to Washington, DC. It didn’t take us very long to find our hotel, the Hotel Harrington, check in, and park the car. After a quick bite of pizza we were on our way to explore. We walked past the Washington Monument, through the World War II Memorial, past the Reflecting Pool, and up to the Lincoln Memorial, where we lingered until the sun was gone. On our way back to the hotel we stopped to admire a few buildings, including that of the Organization of the American States, and, of course, the White House.

It was still raining as we got up. Since our Days Inn was situated right next to a Waffle House we mosied right over for a breakfast of pork chops, waffles, and hash browns. The itinerary didn’t give any detailed instructions for the drive to Richmond, so we decided to avoid the freeway and stay on country roads, and good thing we did because a few miles south we saw signs to the “Stonewall Jackson Shrine” and decided to follow them. A five-mile detour later we stood in front of the house with the very bed in which this famous confederate commander died from pneumonia after being wounded by friendly fire. Who knew! I have been vaguely interested in the civil war for years, but knowing it is such a deep subject, haven’t given it much more attention than watching the PBS documentary.

It kept raining all throughout the day but that didn’t bother us. We kept meandering through small town after small town in the direction of Richmond, briefly stopping to take a look at the historic courthouse of Hanover (my mother used to live in Hannover, Germany, for years so this was an amusing coincidence). Shortly thereafter we joined the freeway to bypass Richmond and found our road to the James River Plantations. The itinerary suggested checking a couple of them out. After visiting plantation homes in Louisiana we’re kind of spoiled, though, and it seemed that the price that was asked for visting only the grounds in one case, or only part of the house in another was just too high, so we skipped them and drove on to Jamestowne, the National Historic Site (not Jamestowne Settlement which is a living history park).

It was still raining and got rather cold, making for an atmosphere suitably miserable for imagining the plight of the early settlers. The museum with the artifacts found in the digs was particularly interesting and we spent a lot of time there. From Jamestowne we drove on to Williamsburg where we had dinner reservations at the King’s Arms. Basically, this is fine dining, period style. There were only candles to supplement the fading daylight and the servers tie huge napkins around the patron’s necks. We tried soup, entrees and desserts and it was all good, but the peanut soup and the pickles that were served between courses were my favorites. After dinner we headed to one of the stores down the street which was the meeting point for our lanthorn (=lantern) tour.

Joy, our guide in period clothing, led us through several of the town shops illuminated only by several candle lanterns and told us about the artisans working at the shop, how things were done in the old days, explained different techniques and had the group marveling with her at the craftmanship displayed. It was great. After the tour we drove to our hotel to throw the bags into our room, then returned to the old capitol to attend a harpsichord concert which was held in a pitch dark room lit only by candles, which we also greatly enjoyed.

We had breakfast at the hotel in Frederick, Maryland, dubiously eyeing a mostly grey sky. By the time we reached the northern terminus of Shenandoah National Park’s Skyline Drive a few hours later, the clouds had opened up a little but the big surprise didn’t arrive until we saw blue sky a few miles further on, after gaining a little more altitude. For the rest of the drive  we alternated between fog-like clouds creeping through trees and hanging over the road, and glorious sun. In short, it was gorgeous and in the end the weather staid sunny. We ran into a real treat when we spotted a couple staring at something by the side of the road and pulled over to investigate – a tiny fawn, curled up in the grass! Definitely a first on our wildlife viewing chart.

At another roadside stop John tripped and sprained his ankle. Luckily he was able to go on walking and driving (and, very importantly: the camera didn’t hit the ground).  A few more miles south, entranced by the beautiful scenery, we realized time was running away from us and we breezed through the remainder of the drive before heading to Charlottesville for a quick bite. At this point it was obvious that we wouldn’t be able to make all three remaining scheduled stops and decided on the one that seemed most interesting and easiest to reach – Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home.

At Monticello, just southeast of Charlottesville, we found there were a couple of hours left before the next open slots for a house tour, so we reserved our spots, jumped in the car, and checked out scheduled stop number two, Ash Lawn-Highland, the home of President James Monroe, which lies just down the road from Monticello.

We really enjoyed the drive up to the grounds, with beautiful trees and meadows. But as we got closer we could hear the sounds of music – a wine tasting festival was underway. We purchased our tickets in the gift store and walked up to the front of the mansion, where a woman dressed in period clothing entertained folks waiting for the start of the next tour with historical tidbits. When it was our turn to enter the house we were terribly disappointed by our tour guide. He was talking so fast it was hard for John and I to keep up, let alone my mother. After being rushed through a few rooms we left the tour and headed back to the gift store where John complained about the guide and successfully asked for our money back. We returned to Monticello and joined a grounds tour until it was time to get in line for our house tour. Both of the guides were very good and we really enjoyed the tours. After we were done with the mansion interiors, we explored the remaining “dependencies” (outlying facilities such as storage, kitchen, stables) that we hadn’t seen yet and visited Jefferson’s gravesite.

From Monticello we beelined to Fredericksburg and arrived just in time for our dinner reservation at Poppy Hill Tuscan Kitchen. The food was fine but we felt a little underdressed for the place. Funny enough, as we left the restaurant, it started to rain and within minutes the heavens opened up to a torrential downpour. Good thing all that was left to do now was to find our hotel!