Afghanistan to Morroco in 24 hours

Disclaimer: Due to a houseful of guests and gorgeous weather this blog has been woefully neglected of late. The dates mentioned in the post may be less than accurate.

Wednesday evening Liam and I abandoned the troops at the bus stop and headed off on a date, technically I abandoned them to meet up with Liam, after loading them up with groceries and children to carry home....
Anyway, Liam had found some promising reviews on a Afghani place in Bethesda. The food was fantastic! So many flavors, spicy, savory, sweet, YUMMY. I am giving it a top ten rating (one of the 10 best meals I have ever eaten).
Liam sample slow roasted lamb and spinach, while I tried pumpkin stew with savory basmati rice. While we were oohing and awing over our plates Liam confessed that he takes me to these places so that I will reproduce the dishes at home.
Over the last three months I have decided cooking is indeed my favorite hobby. I love food. I love to eat.
Last night we were treated to a restaurant at home as Sheelagh turned out some dishes she sampled in Spain (though technically they are Moroccan), beautiful and interesting=perfect dinner. The girls turned their noses up initially but came around in the end.

*Since writing this bit we have returned to the Afgani places twice, first to celebrate Sheelagh's birthday, then to wind up our visit with friends from Germany. It is a small place and we were recognized immediately by the staff, when we were leaving this time the host said, "Alright well see you next week", this means of course we must take Papa Vic to sample the Afghani goodies!

Colonial Williamsburg

Grandma Stone had one request for her visit to Washington, a visit to Colonial Williamsburg. Liam rented cars, George researched BBQ on route and girls picked out stylish outfits. We were set.

Unfortunately mini-vans are crazy expensive so we had to travel in convoy. Car 1: Liam, Janelle, Ngila, Bea and Charlotte's Web read by EB White. Car 2: Grandma and Granddad Stone and...I can't speak for what went on in car two.

I am thrilled that our girls have graduated from kiddie tunes to audio books, I hadn't read Charlotte's Web since I was 8, I thoroughly enjoyed to 2 hour car ride to Williamsburg.

Should you find yourself within two hours of Colonial Williamsburg, make the trek. An entire working colonial city. They make yarn, die it, weave it and make clothes, they make shoes, silver pieces, farming implements, the whole thing. You get to wander around in their world, observe and ask questions. Of course it is a tourist trap, but the souvenirs seems less offensive when you can watch them being produced (ED Note: We were there on a sunny March day with the temperature around 26 degrees Celsius. Stones in Washington make no promises of good times in the summer when the temperature climbs to 40 degrees and the humidity increases. The parking lots were nowhere close to full which suggests that Williamsburg has the capacity to trap many more tourists at other times of the year).

Liam will not leave Washington without sampling real BBQ, for those of you south of us, we recognize we haven't really gotten there yet but The Wild Hog BBQ in Toana, VA is doing pretty good work. I struggled through what can only be described as pork chop smothered in apple-cherry pie filling , while the girls tried alligator, catfish and pink lemonade. Across the table their carnivorous Dad and Granddad did in a large platter of BBQ samples; ribs, chicken, brisket and I don't know what else. I paid dearly for the gluttony the next day, the rest of the Stone clan was fine. Almost 10 years in and I still can't keep up.

(ED Note: the use of the world "struggled" suggests that Janelle's dish was unpleasant. In fact, it was a delicious blend of savory and sweet and Janelle is being a bit of princess, demanding that her dinner and dessert come on different plates (and not stacked on top of one another). I guess it's like feeding swine to pearls.)

Gonna Change that Wolf

Beatrix was introduced to live theatre this weekend with a fantastic production of Peter and the Wolf. It was a rocky start, two train rides and a 6 block hike in the rain, she declared she would not watch the play. But the lights went down, the music came up and boom-a star was born. She giggled and danced through out. When the lights went down for intermission she refused to leave the theatre, eventually coaxed outside by the promise of a snack. She was still giggling while we walked back to the Metro station, 6 blocks is much shorter when you are dancing and singing, "Gonna Change that Wolf".

Shift

Today it is two months since we left Edmonton, it is warm and somewhat sunny and the girls are happily playing away while we listen to an audiobook.
We have become strangely at home here. We have a routine, know how to get around and this house feels less like a B & B but I don't think any of us really claim it has "home". Beatrix corrected Liam last night when he claimed ownership of a pillow on the couch, "Daddy that isn't your pillow, we can't take it home with us, it belongs to the house silly!". I made the bold move of removing a rather unappealing nude painting of a lady from our bedroom (it is now in a bottom drawer somewhere), Ngila commented, "oh mommy I don't think you should do that, the house people must really like it". Of course their deep concern for the house does not apply to their treatment of the carpet under the dining room table. So we are adjusting nicely.
What we have not found is a community, I know, I know, the word is overused and abused and often lacks meaning as a result. But in this case it works, we have felt the joy and struggle of being four people on a desert island. Not the worst situation, but the joy and struggle of having others views, needs and ideas in and out of your life, has become something we are missing. I am thankful for our virtual community through Skype, blogging, email and the old fashioned telephone.
Tomorrow things change here for us, we embark on a 5 week marathon of house guests, we anticipate many good times and short days and feel very blessed that we have wonderful parents and friends who are making the trek out here.
I am adding my favorite Washington picture to date. Beatrix on the bus heading home.

What we ate in Philly in 27 hours

27 Hours of Eating in Philadelphia (No children’s portions, no leftovers):

Chicken and Waffles: What is that? Well it is two pieces of fried chicken served with a waffle smothered in what could be described as chicken pot pie filling....L votes yah, J is on the fence.

Baked macaroni and cheese, no one is on the fence this was very, very tasty.

Scrabbler special- eggs, spinach, tomatoes, feta and, to Ngila's delight tator, tots. Yes our 5 year old ate fried chicken, gravy waffle and tator tots for lunch. (not much of the waffle though).

Philly Cheesesteaks(2): L-post cheesesteak declared his east coast adventure was complete, J-decided I don't understand the cheesesteak, canned mushrooms, soggy bun, I mean the meat was good but nothing....anyway not to tarnish Liam's dream.

Souvlaki Dinners(2): Reasonable Greek food

Bags store-bought popcorn: We always eat popcorn when we read Narnia

Crepe: Decent

Pancakes: Decent

Plumbs(2) and Nectarine: The Market has a fantastic array of goodies baked by the Amish, unless of course you can't stand the line on Saturday and decided to come back for breakfast Sunday, in that case to bad so sad for you. You will have to eat crepes and pancakes prepared by pagans. J,N & B conveniently like pagan food, especially when topped with strawberries, bananas and blackberries. L-sulked over lost Amish apple dumplings and ate a plum and nectarine.

Large Slices of Pizza(5): A distant cousin of dominoes, didn't make us ill, and went down quickly. Grumpy kitchen staff made the experience pretty enjoyable.

Cannoli: Nice way to end the trip

Liberty Bell, Ben Franklin's old place, Independence Hall and a smattering of arty shops made the grade as well, but as they failed to serve us food we can't discuss them here.