Kennedy Ate Here... but who cares?

from the DCist.

Walking around in Cleveland Park yesterday, I noticed that Yenching Palace had a business closed sign up on the door! While I have heard the rumors and known that Yenching would be closing, I was always hoping that it wouldn't be true. I love that place! The owners were always so nice and were always happy to see me and Gordon order our take out.

It's amazing to me that a place that is so rich in history could be closed down. And for a Walgreen's... when there's a CVS down the street.

Don't know about Yenching Palace? From their menu:

"During the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, the Yenching Palace was one of the meeting sites of the personal intermediary of President John F. Kennedy and the Emissary of the Soviet Premier, Nikita Khrushchev. It was at the last of these meetings held at the Yenching Palace that final terms were agreed upon which ended the crisis and avoided war."

See. This place was so cool! The food was great (their spare ribs AWESOME) and the staff and owners were super nice! The building itself is pretty - very frozen in time art deco with classical music playing inside.

After reading this article in the Washington Post, it looks like the owners are getting out of the Chinese food business because of health/family stuff. However, they own the building and they'll be leasing it out to Walgreen's. So yay! At least the family will still get money from Walgreen's.

Yenching... I'll miss you!

Scavenger Hunt Winners... again

winners!

While some may think it is dorky (and I don't think it is)... Jenny, Gordon, and I are scavenger hunt winners again! We did another Watson Adventures scavenger hunt - this time in Fells Point, Baltimore, MD and came out on top.

We did one last year at the National Gallery and won - beating older and supposedly wiser teams. I'm sure they were wise, however, I like to win. And my team wins.


Jenny and Gordon think I'm very competitive and I'm sure others would say the same, but I don't think it's a bad thing. Who doesn't like winning?? And I don't mind if you want to play to just have fun, but I'm playing to win, so that makes it much better for me if you don't want to win.


Our scavenger hunt this time was a secrets of Fells Point hunt. There were, I think, 4-5 teams. We were given 2 hours and 22 questions. Joy likes to think that her hunt a few weeks ago was harder, because they had to solve a mystery. I say ours was probably just as hard since Gordon and I had never been there and Jenny probably didn't remember a lot of the places. Also, ours was harder because it was in a neighborhood and not in some museum that Joy has been in a thousand billion times.

We had to take a few pictures along the way. Luckily, Gordon and I like to be silly and don't mind taking weird pictures of ourselves... and Jenny plays along. So here are few that helped us win (the hunt judge liked our name - The Fast and The Curious - and our pictures).


Task 1: Act out a show/movie that has been filmed in B'more. Gordon and I acting out Homicide.


Task 2: Act out your team name. Gordon as the fast, Jenny as the curious.



Task 3: Act out a superhero deed. Gordon as the Hero (I let him be the hero) saving me from an oncoming car (not really, it was parked).



Here's a picture of one of the answers we didn't get. It was very much a hide in plain sight kind of answer... and we missed it! Even took the picture of Gordon and me by a car right under it!




They have hunts all over the east coast. I'm thinking of seeing if I can do one in Boston, or maybe even hosting a hunt myself. It seems easy enough and you get to see what everyone writes as the answers! You can check out their website here. It's a fun DC metro kind of thing and they have hunts in Philly, Boston, Baltimore, and NY.

Take Me Home... Country Roads

So a couple of weekends ago, Gordon and I roadtripped out to West Virginia. Not the most obvious of choices when one thinks of roadtrips, but we were looking to get out of the city one last time before I move up to Mass.

After ditching the idea of going to New York (because I dislike the place. Sorry, Joy.), we decided to head out to WV because we'd both only ever really been to Harper's Ferry with JrNYLC - every Monday. We went to Berkeley Springs, WV, because we'd heard that it was really cute. What's there to do in BS, WV? Well, not a lot. As the name implies, there are some springs - famous ones at that. George Washington liked to take in the waters in Berkeley Springs. I think that may be all it is famous for actually. But it IS a cute town.

Our first stop however was getting back to my outdoorsy roots and going hiking. Here's the odd thing about West Virginia: being close to DC (like an hour to an hour and a half), you get a lot of the "weekend warrior" types. You know the ones that think that outdoorsy is wearing rainbow flipflops and stepping outside of your car. The ones that are used to driving up to the panoramic vistas and thinking they've never seen anything better. It's one of the things I dislike about DC. Anyway, so Gordon and I went to the Cacapon State Park which was supposed to have great trails and a big lake. We thought, hey, we'll pick up a trail map at the park HQ and be on our way for a few hours. That's so NOT what happened. Somehow we ended up lost on the roads through the park... which somehow ended up at the lookout. The lookout where a platform was built to get a better look at the pretty view (seriously). A platform. Luckily the view was pretty good... though I don't think it needed an unnatural eyesore of a platform to see it:

view from the top

Gordon and I drove back down the mountain and said forget the trail map, let's just go. So we hiked for a little bit on the Ziler Loop trail. Now, I haven't been hiking in quite sometime. I'm not as young as I used to be... nor in shape. Even before I was a slow hiker, but this time I was making us stop every few minutes! We hiked up the mountain some more, however, and found a good lunch spot on some rocks. After enjoying our bought from Food Lion sandwiches (poor planning on our part), we decided we should probably head back because we didn't know how much time we'd have to check out town and make in time for our 4pm reservations at the springs. So we hiked out and went to discover town.

Gordon and I on the trail

The thing is... there's not a whole lot of town to discover! Their downtown which everyone told us was cute... WAS cute, but also only 2 blocks long. We stopped hiking for this? Now, I come from a pretty small town, too, so I was thinking cute, historic, pedestrian friendly. Berkeley Springs however was cute (and overpriced boutique shops and restaurants), historic in that Geo. Washington liked to go there, and there was all of 2 crosswalks on the main drag (which is also a state highway and busy with mack trucks). The springs? The center of town at the Berkeley Springs State Park - the smallest state park and where state park includes a public pool.

see? told you he was here.

I had my first massage experience after taking in the waters at the springs. The massage was pretty cool for being a person that does not like people touching her. The roman bath was pretty cool. The state park offers the best deal in the area on spa stuff - a 20 minute private roman bath, 30 minute full body massage, and 5 minute shower all for $45. I would do it again. What I wouldn't do again is get a pedicure. As much as I don't like people touching me, I like even less people touching my feet. I thought I'd use the pedicure as a way to get over my phobia... but no. I still don't like people touching my feet even if my toenails are now a cute silver color.

Lucky for Gordon and I for our night in town, we had reserved tickets for a local play. Lucky, I say, since there really is nothing to do in the town (you can only sit at the springs until dusk anyway). The play was The Nerd. It was hilarious!! So funny and not what I was expecting it to be.

The next day, I had that pedicure that I didn't like and then we left town. Stopped by the farmer's market on the way out -- all 6 tents. That took up like 2 minutes. With the car still our's until evening, Gordon and I headed to Charlestown Races and Slots and lost money. Seriously, a huge room with nothing but slot machines. It's like Vegas but without the high rollers. However, I did end up liking the place, because it was SO seedy, it was awesome!


We ended up going back to Charlestown this past Friday for the evening as well... and losing more money again. Gordon won some, but it doesn't count because he didn't give me any.

Who Says You Can't Go Home...

Though I don't call New Jersey home (I'll leave that to Bon Jovi), I do call North Carolina home! A few weeks ago, the three of us went down to visit the old alma mater UNC-Chapel Hill. Gordon and I just hung out and went to the zoo with his brother and around the old school. Jenny was busy writing a story. Check it out...

School's Out

And here's a couple of pictures from the NC Zoo in Asheboro (no pandas here, though still a good zoo.)

Spots that aren't in Jenny's article that shouldn't be missed in Chapel Hill:

- Pepper's Pizza (my FAVORITE place to eat in CH - has now grown up and moved to an actual real restaurant space on Franklin St.)
- The main quad on Sunday morning or pretty much any place on campus on a Sunday summer morning. Carolina is at it's second best without anybody around. (First best is bustling with college students before the 12 o'clock classes).

T-13 days

I submitted my letter of resignation today. While it's been known for awhile, it's still kind of weird to think that I am actually quitting. I'll be moving up to Massachusetts in July and then school starts in August. Whoa.

I'm not sure what I'll do once I move up to Waltham. I suppose to could try and get a retail job-- go back to my outdoor gear shop ways and try to beg for a job at REI. It looks like there's a couple within 20-30 mi of my apartment. There's also a couple of rock climbing gyms that could also be possibilities. I'm excited to get to know a new place. It'll be good to get the lay of the land before I start school so I won't be too freaked out. Maybe if I start climbing again, I'll make some new friends before school starts.

Statue at Brandeis

I'm not excited about moving... but I'm not moving too much stuff. Pretty much just clothes and a bed. I pushed my move in date so I could watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix here in DC. I'm a dork, yes, but it's much better to see HP5 with people I know than not. Besides... I want to see it at the Uptown (the best place to see a big movie in DC).

You can see the trailer here - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix trailer

i love this kid!

some Tai Shan footage... he's SO big now! He'll be 2 on July 9th. He's so cute.