Pittsburgh to DC by Bike

Biking the Great Allegheny Passage and C&O Canal from Pittsburgh to DC has been on our biking bucket list for a few years. At the end of October, after we said our goodbyes to our DC co-workers, we made it happen. We had incredible weather - highs in the 60s most days, only one morning of rain - and blissfully no issues along the way. 

Overview

To get to Pittsburgh, we rented a cargo van and drove straight to a friend's house to spend the night. In the morning, we returned the van, got the bikes loaded up, and biked through downtown Pittsburgh to the beginning of the Great Allegheny Passage trail in Point State Park, (complete with giant fountain and sports stadiums in the background. Mile 0 of the C&O Canal in Georgetown is considerably less grand; just a post hidden behind a boat house).

Left: Setting out from Pittsburgh on Sunday morning
Right: Arriving back in DC on Saturday afternoon

We averaged ~50 miles of riding per day; in PA on the Great Allegheny Passage, this meant we could stay in hotels/Air BnBs in towns for the first three nights. On the C&O Canal in MD, towns are 60-70 miles apart, so we tent camped for 2 nights and spent the last night of the trip in a historic lock house. Links to where we stayed, picked up food, and restaurants worth visiting are included at the end of the post.

Packing / Gear

Over the years, we've collected quite the arsenal of biking and camping gear. The only thing we purchased for this trip was our very own set of lightweight camping cookware, and now I think our collection is complete! We both rode steel frame touring bikes outfitted with racks for panniers, dynamo hubs to charge the lights, and flat pedals. My dynamo hub even has an adapter that charges phones!

Keizo rode with 4 panniers - 2 in the front (sleeping pads and jackets) and 2 in the back (food/camp kitchen and tent), and I had 2 giant panniers with our clothes and sleeping bags on the back of my bike. We each had roomy handle bar bags as well that held the map, snacks, sunglasses, gloves, etc. Insulated sleeping pads and tarps got strapped to the rear racks.

Setting out, it felt like we were carrying a lot of stuff and we were both curious to see if we had overpacked. At the end of the trip, the only things we hadn't used were some extra pairs of socks/underwear and most of the contents of the first aid kit (a very good thing not to need!)

While we used almost everything, certain things made daily appearances and worked as hard as we did:

• Spending that many hours on the saddle, the differences between a bargain pair of bike shorts and a nicer pair of bike shorts are quite noticeable. 
• Riding gloves. Necessary in the morning and late afternoon, as well as give a bit of extra padding on rougher surfaces.
• Buff. I wore a merino one in the mornings, as well as at night when we camped and it kept me nice and warm. Stays on better in the sleeping bag than a hat does.
• Layers. My base layer was bike shorts and a tank top; followed by a lightweight long sleeve shirt and leggings. My outwear included a packable down jacket and waterproof shell. I rode in pretty much every combination at different points of the trip - shorts and tank top on the warmest afternoons, and completely covered up in the cooler mornings and evenings.
• Our blue tarps came in handy the morning that it rained, as picnic table / bench covers, extra waterproofing under the tent, and as overnight bike covers.
• Extra velcro straps. Keizo has a bunch of these from work, and they got used a lot for attaching things like jackets and extra water on the outside of the panniers.

Riding / Camping

The first day from Pittsburgh to Connellsville was the was our longest. We rode the last hour or so in the dark, so coming around a corner and seeing the hotel straight ahead was a very welcome surprise. 

On the last day, I forgot to account for the 10 miles from mile 0 in Georgetown back to our house in Takoma Park, which made it our 2nd longest. It worked out fine and we got home just before dark, but I'd tried really hard to plan an easy last day.

Left: Last day on the GAP, heading downhill into Cumberland, MD
Right: First day on the C&O Canal, getting ready to leave Cumberland

For us, 50 miles/day on the C&O plus camping was a pretty good balance. It let us take our time in the mornings, have a mid-day break, and set up camp and start cooking before it got dark. If you don't want to camp, you'll need to do 60-70 miles/day on the C&O, which is not paved (but would be carrying less stuff than we did). As with lodging, the C&O Canal in general has fewer places to stop for food, especially along the eastern parts. Apart from one glorious takeout pizza dinner while we were camping, we relied on snacks and easy to cook (i.e. boil some water) meals like pasta with tuna, instant oatmeal, and tortillas with peanut butter. We also planned our days around a stop in a town for a big lunch, except for the last day when we closed out the trip with a gourmet pairing of Lunchables and mini-wine (bought the day before). We also ate a lot of trail mix and some Sour Patch Kids (instant energy) throughout the days of riding. 

C&O in the rain and along a stretch right next to the river

Camping just the two of us in somewhat isolated locations was right at the edge of my comfort zone as a city dweller, and I didn't sleep very well in the tent. During the day, the lack of other people on the trail was quite nice, but once the sun went down it felt a lot more remote. Setting up and taking down camp also sapped some mental and physical energy. With a multi-day trip under our belts, (we had previously only done one night bike camping trips), I totally get the benefits of credit card touring - what reasonable person wouldn't want less stuff to carry, a warm shower and a comfy bed at the end of the day!?! Regardless, I'm looking forward to our next bike touring adventure, whenever/where ever it might be! 

Stay

• Comfort Inn Connellsville (right on the trail)
• Rock Stop Air BnB (two blocks from the trail)
• 1840 Bruce House (uphill from the trail, but not too far. Easy walk back downtown for dinner/groceries)
• 15 Mile Creek Campground 
• Opequon Junction Hiker/Biker Campground
• Lockhouse 28

Eat

• Mitch's Fuel and Food, Confluence, PA
• Rock City Express, Rockwood, PA (cash only)
• Ristorante Ottaviani, Cumberland, MD (this was our splurge before 3 nights of camping started. I think we both devoured a whole pound of pasta each)
• Cafe Mark, Cumberland, MD (we're repeat customers here having stopped on previous camping trips)
• Buddylou's, Hancock, MD
• Tony's Pizza, Williamsport, MD (we got 2 small pizzas to-go and managed to put them on the bikes and bring them to our campsite for the night)
• Third Base, Williamsport, MD (beer to-go; cash only)
• Maria's Taqueria, Shepherdstown, WV (really good, very friendly owner)
• Beans in the Belfry, Brunswick, MD (didn't get to stop on this trip unfortunately)
• Corner Store, Brunswick, MD (the source of all our food the last 1.5 days; highlight was the wine in mini plastic bottles)
• White's Ferry Store & Grill, White's Ferry, MD (wasn't sure this was going to be open, but they had pretty good coffee!)

One Year Later

There's been plenty written about the anniversary of the week when the WHO declared the coronavirus a pandemic and the world suddenly changed. It's been strange to think back on the last 365 days - how much we didn't know at the beginning, my naive assumptions that things would look more normal much faster, and the sheer exhaustion and blur of it all.

Back in December, I started drafting a "year in review" type post, but obviously never got around to finishing it. I am thankful to have the draft to go back and look at though since it contains some details I would not otherwise remember. The post is broken up into 1-3 month segments, and for March I wrote, "went camping on Assateague after cancelling our trip to AZ at the last minute," and "started walking around the neighborhood...a lot."

This year, we didn't think for a moment we'd be able to celebrate my mom's birthday with her in person in Arizona. Instead, we celebrated her passion for birding by taking ourselves and our new binoculars to the Patuxent Wildlife Refuge for an afternoon of exploring. We saw and identified (!!!) at least 11 species of birds, which I don't think is too shabby for newbies not willing to get up at the crack of dawn.

I'm also going to take the opportunity to finally post the photos from last year's, last minute, local adventure: camping in Assateague. I had really been looking forward to a trip home and desperately needed a change of scenery. After cancelling our flights, I moped for a day and then decided we should check off a local bucket list item instead.

That early in the spring, campsites were plentiful, and spending time by the water and staring into the fire at night were a much needed break from work and thoughts of cancelled plans. 

As you can see, we got lucky with the weather and it's amazing to me that after a longer, wetter winter, we have almost the same weather this weekend as we did then - brilliantly sunny, but with a steady breeze that makes it feel cold in the shade.

The view when we arrived after the ~3 hour drive. As we drove, we listened to the news and promises of corporate America setting up testing centers in every neighborhood.

Exploring the next morning. Sunny skies and fairly quiet before the day users arrived.

We didn't bring bikes, so we ended up walking about 10 miles exploring the park on Saturday. We saw 6-8 wild ponies, including accidentally getting a bit too close to one at night.

It was only a 20-30 minute drive to get provisions and do an indoor beer tasting that would be our last one for a long time. 

Barring any unforeseen events, we'll be back camping by the beach again over Easter weekend, replicating a different trip that was cancelled by the pandemic last year. Hopefully we get repeat weather (60 degrees and sunny) for this one too!

RAGBRAI Retrospective

>10,000 bicyclists
~1,000 training miles ridden
469.1 miles biked across Iowa

It's not easy to find words that adequately describe our summer adventure of 2019, which was taking part in the Register's Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI). While it's certainly a ride - look at those mileage numbers - it's also a rolling party between food/beer stops and gigantic group campgrounds where we pitched our tents among the masses every night.

What might be even crazier than the concept is the mind-boggling number of people that do it. The numbers vary throughout the week with some people only joining for a portion of the ride. This year, the shortest day clocked in around 45 miles and happened to be just outside of Des Moines. The increase in daily riders was palpable, with sections of two-lane country roads full of cyclists from shoulder to shoulder. That evening, I overheard someone say there were upwards of 20,000 people out riding bikes that day!

But even on a "normal" day, you were never alone. There were lines for almost everything: showers, water stations, beer, food, and porta-potties. One quickly learned to get in line early, before it became an emergency or the previous beer had been drained. At the beer stops, it wasn't unusual to finish a beer in line for the bathroom before rejoining the beer line for the next one.

11+ beer stops = 1 $70 t-shirt
10 nights spent in a tent
7 days of consecutive riding

Several pieces of pie
3 pork chops served in paper towels

Preparing for and riding RAGBRAI required a lot of time, perseverance, and calories. There was no shortage of food and drink along the route, with homemade pie and ice cream and Mr. Pork Chop's pork chops (handed to you wrapped in a paper towel) holding the title for most memorable snacks. Mr. Pork Chop could be identified from a few miles out by the plumes of smoke and closer in by the old school bus that had been repainted to look like a pig.

While the numerous towns we passed through began to run together before the end of the first day, the hospitality we received at every stop along the way will not be forgotten. Some towns were more committed to their chosen themes than others (Donnellson stands out for having people wearing pickle costumes lining the streets and multiple pickle-themed snacks), but they were all gracious hosts.

2 river dips
0 days without hills

It's RAGBRAI tradition to dip your rear bike tire in the Missouri River before the ride and front bike tire into the Mississippi River when you reach the end. We did both and conquered many, many hills in between. Many conversations before RAGBRAI went something like this:

"Why are you going to Iowa?"
"To do RAGBRAI. It's an annual bike ride across the entire state."
"Well, at least it's flat there."

Not sure how that rumor got started, but Iowa is NOT flat. Certainly some parts were flatter than others, but the first day was all hills and the last day ended with a gigantic hill coming into the last town. I am perhaps more proud of myself for not walking my bike up a single one than I am for completing the entire ride. I learned a lot about gears and the basics of physics as I triumphantly muscled my way past larger men on the uphill portion only to have them bomb past me as soon as we reached the top. Same story on the next hill...and the next one after that.

In addition to hills, Iowa has a lot of wind and a dearth of shade (hence my spot in the wheel of that tractor above). It felt like we only had a tailwind for about 10 minutes all week, with the last day being nothing but headwind for most of the route. The lack of shade was also challenging, particularly on the hotter days. Out of the entire week, there were two days I found particularly tough: the first really hot day, which happened to follow the longest day of riding; and the last day, when the total sum of miles and early mornings really caught up to me. The excitement of finishing got somewhat lost in the mix of exhaustion, sun exposure, sweat, and grime. 

The end also marked the beginning of the post-ride blues. Returning to city life had its perks (no more lines for the bathroom or shower! Clean clothes!) but in general felt unbelievably dull. Biking all day everyday for a week releases a crazy amount of endorphins and coming down off of that high has been an adjustment. I don't think we'll be joining the RAGBRAI diehards that go every year, but I definitely want to do it again.

I'd like to dedicate this post to my "Best of the 80's" teammates: Mauricio, who proposed the crazy idea in the first place; Scott, who's love of adventure convinced us that driving to/from Iowa and camping extra nights on either end was a good idea (check out his take here); and Keizo for being overly prepared with snacks at all times and assembling our tent McMansion every night. 

Best of 2018

Best Views

Clockwise from top left: big sky sunset outside of Austin, TX; surrounded by a leafy jungle on a hike in Hawaii; late afternoon sun on a hike in Arizona; green mountain ridges in West Virginia; afternoon hammocking during a camping trip in western Maryland.

2018 was one of the wettest years on record in the DC area, so it's not too surprising that the best sunny views are from elsewhere.


Best Food

Clockwise from top left: Nutella Banana Stuffed French Toast - perfect fuel for the 35-mile bike ride that followed; Keizo's CSA ratatouille; real Japanese ramen from an un-fancy lunch counter place; Crooked Run Brewery, one of 2018's many beer flights; life-affirming nitro cold brew found in Austin during a boil-water restriction.

This category could go on and on, given my love of food and the bounty of our summer CSA. What can I say, the last sentence of the bio on the right still holds true. :-)


Best Biking

Clockwise from top left: Martha, a.k.a. Ma-chan, my new steel-frame touring bike; the W&OD trail; all smiles before a super soggy metric century ride in Delaware; participants on a social/educational ride I helped organize along the Rhode Island Avenue Trolley Trail.

Several of my favorite moments of 2018 occurred on a bike. I now understand why the ideal number of bikes is n+1 and can see why people quit their jobs/take sabbaticals to do crazy things like ride across the country.


Best Time Spent on the Clock

Left to right: preparing for fieldwork (also known as bike riding) in Baton Rouge; team selfie after another successful Open Streets event in May (Keizo volunteered); approaching Key West to present the bicycle and pedestrian plan to the public/city staff.

Work was certainly not all fun and games in 2018. In fact, it was a super challenging and busy year with several colleagues taking jobs elsewhere, an ever changing company culture, and taking a professional certification exam. Looking back on the year as whole, it's easier to see how much I accomplished and appreciate the fun times, but in the moment most weeks felt like an endless grind.


Best Travel

Clockwise from top left: hiking in Hawaii with Kim; soaking up the sun in Long Beach with Linda; Keizo's parents' garden plot; Keizo in front of his old high school; Boston Harbor cruise; on top of Bald Knob in New Hampshire with Alexis and Andrew; Boston Pops 4th of July concert.

It's hard to find the words to describe how awesome/important/meaningful/fun/different taking a month-long vacation was. We packed in seeing a ton of different people and places with minimal disruptions in the overall plan, and had a fantastic time. Can't wait to do it again.


Best Weekend Fun

Clockwise from top left: Friendsgiving with 11 adults and 1 toddler setting a new record for the number of people in our apartment at once; Memorial Day camping "tarp"-itecture; Wales vs South Africa rugby game in DC; Jason Mraz concert; the sled lift at Blackwater Falls State Park in WV (never dragging my sled up a hill again!)

As the photos above show, plenty of fun was had and good memories were made much closer to home as well.

Thanks 2018 - it's been quite a year!

2017 in a few words and pictures

January

• We bundled up and went on a cold hike in Harper's Ferry, WV. Little did we know we'd be returning in the fall (by bicycle no less!)
• I made a pussy hat and went to the Women's March. Seeing all of the the marchers who came in from out of town and the flood of photos from across the world on social media was really inspiring. 

February

• Got to catch up with my best friend from 3rd grade while she was in town for a conference. We met up at the National Gallery of Art before getting dinner downtown. I can't believe we've known each other for ~25 years (and have been pen pals since college)!
• Accepted two awards from the Charlottesville, VA Planning Commission for working on their street design guidelines. There was about five hours of driving involved for a two minute award ceremony, but hey, I don't win awards every day!
• Keizo made some delicious slow cooker carnitas. The last line of the bio on the right is still true - we eat really well.

March

• Started the month with a PR in the St. Pat's 10K.
• Spent a week at home in Arizona for a friend's wedding. Went hiking among the wildflowers and enjoyed t-shirt weather while it was still very much winter on the east coast.

April

• Checked out Artomatic, an enormous open art show housed in an empty office building.
• Spent time outside with Keizo and the air couch.
• Cooked traditional Japanese bento box lunches. Seriously, these things take the two of us about two hours to put together, so it's only a once or twice a year thing.

May

• Technically it was the last weekend in April, but I went to California for my 10-year college reunion. The reunion itself was not that special, but spending a long weekend with one of my best friends was one of the highlights of 2017.
• Literally hours after I got back from California, I flew to Key West for work. It's tough job, but someone has to do it.
• Plantar fasciitis derailed my plans to run a half marathon in early June. Before getting injured, I had made it most of the way through the training plan, including a 10-mile run from Silver Spring, MD to the Mall in Downtown DC.

June

• We hosted my parents and brother while they were in town for a cousin's wedding. We all cleaned up nicely and enjoyed celebrating on a rooftop in Arlington with fantastic views of the city skyline.
• I made the first of several batches of pickles. We could barely keep up with all of the cucumbers and radishes we received from our CSA this year.
• I went to Austin, TX for a contract kick-off meeting. This was just the first of four trips in 2017 for a big project I am co-leading at work.

 

July

• Patriotic breakfast on the 4th. Taking only Tuesday off from work felt a little weird at first, but turned out awesome in the end; truly a bonus day to do just the fun stuff followed by a short 3-day work week.
• We went to Open Farm day at Spiral Path Farm to see where our CSA veggies come from.
• Keizo and I took our first camping trip, just the two of us over his birthday weekend. It rained, but we managed to stay pretty dry.

August

• After the summer company picnic, 3:00 PM 'office planks' became a thing. We're still doing it a few times a week.
• We watched the solar eclipse from the top of a parking garage near my office.
• I saw 'The Hive' exhibit at the National Building Museum.

September

• We spent Labor Day exploring Ft. McHenry, Fells Point, the Inner Harbor and Federal Hill neighborhoods of Baltimore.
• I took a last ride on the Georgetown Branch Trail between Silver Spring and Bethesda before it closed abruptly for Purple Line construction.
• Keizo treated me to a day doing nothing and delicious, homemade chocolate cake for my 32nd birthday.

October

• I'm sure we did other things in October, but our first bike camping trip was certainly the most memorable. Four of us rode ~150 miles to Harper's Ferry, WV and back in a weekend. I was expecting to be sore and miserable afterwards, but finishing the last 15 miles from Great Falls, MD to the metro in cold rain was the worst part, hands down.

November

• My third trip to Austin took place in early November; this time I stayed for a week with several co-workers and actually got to see things other than the airport, hotel and conference rooms. Apart from one salad at lunch, I don't think I ate a vegetable all week.
• Not pictured: spending the week of Thanksgiving at my parents' in Arizona and meeting my brother's new girlfriend. 

December

• I started the month strong (perhaps because I had a week to relax at home for Thanksgiving), making holiday treats to mail to faraway friends in time for Christmas. 
• We enjoyed hosting my parents and brother for Christmas the second year in a row. Lucky for them, they left right before the polar vortex and two weeks of sub-freezing temperatures.
• The tree in Downtown Silver Spring had a sustainability theme this year, covered with bikes and LED lights. I still think the year it was decorated with food and giant faux take-out boxes was my favorite.

Seattle

Thinking back to our trip to Seattle last month, the things I remember most were the great weather and all of the fun we had celebrating Hannah and Nick's wedding with many of my friends from college. We kept our itinerary pretty relaxed; attending a few pre-wedding events and spending one day sightseeing, but otherwise sticking to the Othello/Columbia City neighborhoods near where we were staying and taking some time to relax. 

Top to bottom, L to R: Breakfast at Columbia City Bakery, Pike Place Market, taking a break at the Olympic Sculpture Park, our cute Airbnb, wedding reception fun, all dressed up, gorgeous centerpieces and Pitzer College alumni with the bride and groom.

Camping in the Smokies

There's nothing like sleeping on the ground and not showering for four days to make you appreciate the comforts of home. Comforts like warm showers and clothes that don't smell like sweat, bug spray and campfire. A soft bed, solid walls and no chance of waking up to bears rooting around for food in the kitchen. 

That introduction makes it sound like I had a horrible time camping in the Great Smoky Mountains over Memorial Day when I really enjoyed everything up until the last night. We had great weather the whole time, spent the better part of our days hiking surrounded by lush forest, and shared some tasty meals over the campfire.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the most visited National Park in the United States. We saw just a small portion of its eastern side. We arrived a little before dinner time on Friday and set up our home base in the Cosby campground. On Saturday, we set out from our campsite to hike part of the Appalachian Trail to the Mt. Cammerer lookout tower. The first part of the trail was very steep, but we were rewarded with an amazing panoramic view from the tower. We also saw a lot of wildlife: snails, birds, a rattlesnake and two black bears! The bears were in a grassy area on the right side of the trail when we approached, and the smaller of the two took off to the right as soon as he heard us. The larger (mama?) bear was much less concerned about our presence and ambled across the trail in front of us, ending up about 100 feet off the trail to our left. After a few moments of hoping both bears would end up on one side of the trail or the other, we got took out car keys, started clapping loudly and walked straight through the middle. In all of the excitement, no one remembered to take a photo.

Top to bottom, L to R: Our campsite; group shot; foliage; Clingman's Dome; view from Clingman's Dome; campfire; Mt. Cammerer lookout tower; view from close to the highest point in Tennessee.

On Sunday, we drove through Gatlinburg, TN to the park's main entrance and joined hoards of other people at the visitor's center. The main street of Gatlinburg is a boardwalk/Vegas Strip combination of shopping, motels and themed restaurants. We were very glad to have picked another place to stay, far from the crowds of people. After the visitor's center, we drove into the park towards Clingman's Dome, the highest point in Tennessee. About 3/4 of a mile from the parking lot at Clingman's Dome, we decided to join the other people parking on the side of the road and hiking the last bit. At the top is a space-age lookout tower, which we climbed in a heavy mist. We couldn't see much at all, but we did get to take one of my favorite photos from the trip: Keizo and I in front of a cloud (middle row). We did a short hike not too far from the base of the lookout tower which took us down below the clouds and through several different landscapes - rain forest, pine groves and grassy fields - before trekking back to the car and joining the line of traffic exiting the park in the late afternoon.

Our last evening proceeded like the two previous ones as we made dinner and s'mores over the campfire and turned in at very reasonable hour when watching the fire no longer held our interest. Around 3:00 AM there was a very loud, terrified scream not too far from our tent. I was instantly wide awake, but when I poked Keizo to ask if he had heard it, he hadn't heard a thing! We heard other people moving around in the campsites next to us, and after a quick trip to the bathroom where we met other campers who had seen two bears moving through the campsite, we tried to go back to sleep. Sleeping was challenging though, as further away people were banging on dumpsters and yelling.

Although tired from the lack of sleep, I was glad when morning came and we started to pack up our things for the trip home. We learned that the terrified scream was caused not by a run-in with a bear, but by a girl who had been spooked when she spotted a whole family sitting in their car and staring at her as she returned from the bathroom (the family had seen the bear and retreated to the comfort and safety of their vehicle). We thought this was it until we spotted the mess at a campsite about three away from ours. The food hadn't been locked up as instructed and the place was torn apart; we have no idea where the people went who were staying there, and can only guess that bears visited before 3 AM when we were woken up by the screaming. Surely we would have heard something otherwise? It was a rather sobering end to an otherwise great trip. I am looking forward to camping again, but hopefully in a place with fewer bears.

New Orleans

Back in January, I saw an ad for a Southwest Airlines sale and clicked through to see what they were offering. There were a few deals to cities I'd never been to, and after deciding on some dates and looking at the number of stopovers, Keizo and I purchased tickets to New Orleans.

We arrived around 9 PM last Saturday and left just after lunch on Tuesday, which ended up being a good amount of time to get oriented, learn a bit about the city's history and indulge in its rich food, drink, and music.

We stayed in a rental apartment a few blocks from the French Quarter in Faubourg Marigny, which aside from being located along the route the horse drawn carriages took from the stables to the Quarter worked out perfectly (I've gotten pretty used to living above the metro in DC, but horse hooves on pavement were pretty disruptive). We enjoyed breakfast at two neighborhood places, each less than a block from the apartment and were surrounded by traditional, colorful houses.

Highlights of the trip included watching and then participating in an Easter parade, a bike tour that took us to a cemetery and introduced us to a sliver of City Park, and the live music on Frenchman Street. Our last day, we saw a bit of the Garden District, but we'd love to go back to spend more time in City Park as well as experience more of the history and nature outside of the city.

Top to bottom, L to R: Streetcar near CBD, shrimp po'boy; enjoying our beignets, Jackson Square, shrimp and grits, hand grenades on Bourbon Street, cemetery and joining in the Easter parade.

日本Fall 2013--Part III: In the Kitchen

Tomorrow will mark 4 weeks to the day that I left for my Japan trip, so it's past time I finish the wrap-up with the most noteworthy things Keizo and I made in his kitchen: a zillion gyoza (potstickers) and a delicious, not too sweet apple pie.

I suppose a zillion is a bit of an exaggeration, but since I was the one responsible for filling all of the wrappers and folding them into dumpling shapes, it seemed like many more than the 50 that came in the package.  I asked Keizo for a refresher course in gyoza shaping, and then got to work while he made the chahan (fried rice) to accompany them.  Keizo has mastered the art of fried rice; even following his instructions, mine never tastes as good.

This was the day that we rode bicycles all over town, so we easily put away about 35 of the gyoza between the two of us, and froze the remaining few uncooked ones for lunch the next day.

When Keizo was arranging with my calligraphy teacher to attend class on Wednesday, I told him to tell her we would bring dessert.  We had a large number of apples to use up from our apple picking adventure, and "hokey pokey" (which I mistakenly thought was apple pie a la mode) is one of Keizo's favorite desserts so making an apple pie was the obvious choice.  I had seen the recipe for Apple Slab Pie on Smitten Kitchen a few days before, and it looked to me like it had the perfect ratio of lots of crust to the right amount of not too soggy filling so Keizo and I squeezed into his gallery style kitchen together after dinner on Tuesday to make it. 

A few notes about the pie:

• As far as I can recall, this was my first time making a pie crust from scratch.  It wasn't nearly as onerous as I expected it to be, but Keizo generously cleaned up all the flour from the counter where we rolled it out, so I really only got half of the experience (the fun part!  Jeeze, that Keizo guy is pretty great!)
• The filling came together in a snap, no pre-cooking required.  I think we used 5? apples and went easy on the sugar.
• After assembling the pie, there was a difference in opinion about which part of the egg should be used to give the pie a nice glossy sheen.  I had never heard of using the yolk, but since he did clean up the big flour mess, I let Keizo do it his way.  

On Wednesday evening, we enjoyed a delicious curry dinner with salad and kabocha with Naoko-sensei and Hirosuke-san before the other calligraphy students arrived for dessert.  Naoko-sensei also made her famous apple crumble in honor of my visit, so we had the pleasure of tasting two very different styles of apple dessert side by side.  Our pie was sweeter and kept its shape better, while the crumble had a little tang to it and melted right into the accompanying vanilla ice cream.


Thus concludes the highlights of my fall trip to Japan.  The timing of my trip worked out really well in relation to my responsibilities at work and my need for a change of scenery.  It was also really nice to have such great weather instead of it being cold and blustery, but it will be really different not being there for New Year's for the first time in four (!!!) years.

日本Fall 2013--Part II: Eating Out

From the very beginning, our mutual love of food has played an important role in Keizo's and my relationship.  The night we met, he bought me donuts and coffee before I caught my train home and on our first real date, Keizo admitted he was still hungry before we had even finished the dessert that came with our meal.  All this is to say that we eat very well when we are together, and this trip was no exception.

The food pictured above is a sample of some of the things we purchased:

• dog-shaped bread with chocolate cream filling.  Why is everything in Japan so darn cute?  These days when I visit, I can't resist animal shaped bread; over the years I've also eaten pigs, pandas and turtles.

• a Japanese take on Italian pasta with shrimp, avocado and wasabi cream sauce.  This restaurant is in a relatively new complex near Keizo's local train station that also houses two bakeries, an import food shop and a stone fired pizza restaurant.  I like to refer to it as "Little Italy."

On this day our lunches came with a bread buffet and drink bar.  On the drink bar were two pitchers of fruit flavored vinegars.  I mixed mine with olive oil to dip the bread into, but other people were drinking them straight!  I suppose they tasted more like juice, but I was still pretty put off by the idea of downing a glass of something called "vinegar."

• minced chicken between slices of fried renkon (lotus root).  This dish is from our dinner of small plates at a yakiniku place in Tenjin.  We enjoyed a lot of delicious things, but the presentation of this one caught my eye: the ceramic plate with woven basket and tiny twigs, plus the large dollop of mayonnaise and salt for dipping are all so lovely.

• I am ashamed to admit I don't know the real name of the little ice cream place near Keizo's training ground.  I just call it the "Cow Shop" since it has several dozen miniature bovines decorating the interior.  They have a rotating selection of some of the most unusual ice cream flavors I have ever seen including tomato and carrot. 

Ordering is always a chore for me; what flavor do I want to try?  And with a double costing only 50 yen more than a single, which two flavors will go well together?  This time I settled on chai tea and Sweet Potato, which were both quite good.  The chai flavor was pretty strong, but the Sweet Potato was a bit creamier and had small, yummy sweet potato pieces in it.

While we ate out quite a bit (especially compared to my normal routine) we also cooked together a few times.  More to come in Part III...

日本Fall 2013--Part I: The Sights

Where have you been?

I anticipate having to answer this question a few times at work tomorrow, when I make my first appearance in the office since the end of October.

And I anticipate more than a few surprised looks when I answer "I was in Japan visiting my boyfriend."  This response inevitably conjures up more questions and a bit of discomfort on my part.  While I understand their curiosity, my relationship with Keizo is far more complex and emotional than I feel like discussing with my co-workers. Additionally, what for many would be the trip of a lifetime has become an annual event for me, with sightseeing being less of a priority than just being together.  Hiking up a small mountain to see a giant reclining Buddha statue is great, but so is wearing sweatpants and eating pizza on the couch with someone you love, especially when you don't get to do it very often.

However, the former appeals to a wider audience and makes for much better photos opportunities than the latter, so without further ado, 日本Fall 2013--Part I: The Sights

I arrived in Japan on a Tuesday evening, and quite conveniently Keizo had the day off on Wednesday.  We drove about an hour from his house to the mountainous town of Sasaguri to go apple picking.  As luck would have it, Sasaguri is also home to a large reclining Buddha statue, so when our apple picking took only a short time to complete, we had something else to do to make the drive worthwhile.  We poked around the various shrines dotted around the bottom of the hill and traipsed up to the top to gaze at the truly large statue.  I am still curious as to how it was installed; I assume it was built elsewhere, but then puzzled as to how it was moved up the side of the mountain.  All of the interpretive signage was in Japanese, but Keizo appeared too too distracted by his rumbling stomach translate them for me.  We stopped for lunch at the bottom of the hill, and I enjoyed the udon noodle set pictured above.

After lunch we decided to continue our day of outdoor adventuring at Uminonakamichi Park.  The weather during my trip to Japan was unreal, in the high 60's-low 70's and sunny almost every day.  We have visited this park before, but arrived too late to rent bicycles to go exploring and only saw about half of it.  It's pretty big and has a real variety of things to do/see.

This time we arrived with plenty of time to rent bicycles and tool around.  We stopped at the field of cosmos flowers, spent a few minutes at the zoo checking up on the monkeys and rode nearly all the way around the perimeter to the amusement area in search of the snack bar where we could cash in our coupon for a 50 yen discount on ice cream.  After our snack, we ignored the signs reserving the play equipment for elementary school aged children (which even with my limited Japanese I could understand) and went down the long slides and tried walking on the white mound visible in the back of the top photo.  The mound was kind of squishy, and bounced a bit if you jumped on it (another thing prohibited by the signs and completed ignored by everyone, not just us!)  After that, it was time to return the bicycles and head home.



On Friday afternoon, Keizo and I took the train into Fukuoka City in search of a neko cafe.  Stepping off the elevator and through the entrance was a bit of an assault on the nasal passages, but soon we both adjusted to the aroma of 20 cats in a relatively small space and made a few furry friends.  I don't recall where I first heard about the cat cafe in Fukuoka, but it was one of the few things I really wanted to do on this trip.  The concept is intriguing, if not slightly unappetizing (this cafe served food and drinks) and observing the human social etiquette was nearly as fun as playing with the cats.   The cats pretty much came and went as they pleased, although there was a woman sitting on the floor who very popular with the most cuddly ones.  I tried to entice more cats towards me using a shimmery butterfly toy on a stick and had some fleeting success.  After about 90 minutes of feline fun, we decided it was time for some fresh air and gathered our things to leave, taking full advantage of the lint roller hanging from wall by the elevator.

We walked around Tenjin, the busy commercial district near one of the major train stations, browsed Forever 21 and H&M, two new additions since my time as an English teacher, took purikura and enjoyed a dinner of small plates at a yakitori restaurant.  The train back out of the city was pretty full, but nothing like the photos of the trains in Tokyo.

Saturday afternoon was spent watching the Japan vs. New Zealand rugby match on TV.  New Zealand won of course, but the final score represented the smallest spread ever between the two teams.  After the game, we made a visit to my favorite used clothing store and a stop at the new shopping mall, which on November 2nd was already festooned with Christmas decorations and playing Christmas music at much too high a volume (I am all for Christmas music in December...all December if you must, but am strongly opposed to it anytime before Thanksgiving, especially in Japan!)  I bought more smiling kitchen sponges for myself, and Keizo got a snazzy new pair of pants.

Keizo was out of town on Sunday for a game in Hiroshima, but got back in time for dinner at his favorite tempura restaurant.  It also gave him the day off on Monday, so we had lunch out and rented an electric assist bicycle outside of the local train station.  We biked around town and I never ceased to marvel at the complete lack of resistance when starting to pedal from a dead stop.  The bike was really quiet, and definitely helped on longer, less steep inclines.  I didn't notice too much of a difference on the steepest slopes, although Keizo begs to differ.



The following Wednesday afternoon was Keizo's last afternoon without work during my stay and we kept our adventures local before driving down to Kurume for dinner with my calligraphy teacher.  We had omuraisu for lunch followed by ice cream at my favorite local shop (see Part II of the recap) and a walk around Munakata Shrine.  The shrine happened to be in the middle of its kiku matsuri or chrysanthemum festival, a small portion of which you can see pictured above.  The flowers were quite lovely, ranging in size from the small bonsai to the softball sized blooms in the photos to large displays featuring various sizes, shapes and colors.

The sunset was from my last night in Japan, when we went to try out a new seaside restaurant in Keizo's city.  We had stumbled upon it earlier in the week during lunchtime, only to be turned away since we didn't have a reservation.  Keizo called ahead for dinner on Friday, which ended up being completely unnecessary to be seated since we were the first people to arrive, but was important since doing so informed us that sunset was at 5:30 and enabled us to witness what you see above.  While dinner was good, the crowd at lunch time leaves me to assume the lunch buffet is even better.  Since we ate so early, we had time after dinner to finish up my souvenir shopping, drop the car back at the apartment and walk to a quiet neighborhood bar for some drinks to round out the night.  Then on Saturday morning, it was up at 4:30 AM to catch flight one of three back to Charlottesville.

Stay tuned for Parts II and III featuring the culinary delights from the trip, coming soon!

July in AK

This is a very small selection of the photos I have from our Alaskan adventure.  It was a fantastic trip, and I would love to go back!

***

And since this is primarily a food blog, here's a glimpse of some Alaskan/cruise cuisine (again, a very small sample of everything that was eaten.  By the end, the elaborate meals began to feel obligatory, which is something that never, ever happens at home!)

On our last day at sea, we went to a culinary  demonstration that ended with a tour of the ship's kitchen.  The statistics regarding the number of pounds of certain foods were truly unreal.

I guess this is how you meal plan for 3,000+ people.