For the Fourth of July we commemorated our country’s 237th anniversary by going to Southside Park, eating Little League hotdogs, and watching fireworks.
Principle Gallery has a dog named Asher, and he has his own hashtag, #AsherAtPG.
National Harbor is a mostly bland, artificial environment of chain shops and restaurants, but the pizza at Fiorelli is pretty good, and the water taxi ride across the Potomac has some interesting views of Alexandria and the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.
Plus, we got to see The Awakening in its new location. I personally wish it had stayed in Hains Point, but the sculpture seems to be doing okay here.
Went to the National Zoo on Sunday after church and an Indian buffet meal at Rajaji. Bit hot out so we spent more time inside the air conditioned indoor habitats. I’ve always liked the Invertebrates. Baby anemones and sea urchins!
Outside the Invertebrate House, a stray deer had wandered onto the zoo grounds from Rock Creek Park.
We also checked on the reptiles, tigers, orangutans, and pandas.
And the small-clawed otters were quite playful and fun to watch, as always.
We didn’t linger as it was just far too hot in the summer sun, so we’ll probably go back some other time in the Fall to stay longer. Full photoset from our zoo day here.
The moon is at perigee, so it’s closer in its orbit and a bit bigger in the sky — a phenomenon popularly called “Supermoon.” Some nice ISS flyovers were lined up for the nights the moon was fullest, so I was able to set up the camera on the roof for a couple of 30 second exposures of the ISS streaking by the supermoon. First night was a closer pass, with the station fading to darkness as it entered Earth’s shadow:
Second night was cloudier, with the ISS passing farther from the moon, but I was able to expose the shot a bit better:
And if you want to see just the full moon or just the ISS (with Ursa Major to the side), I got those too:
These have been my best ISS long exposures thus far, but I need more practice with adjusting exposure for our specific night sky, especially as light pollution increases with local development. More of my previous ISS long-exposure attempts here.
Had a fun weekend visiting relatives in Connecticut for a mini-family reunion, and dropping in on Amy’s parents for Father’s Day. But first, a detour through Hershey, PA, to stop at Chocolate World.
Relegated these days to a marketing sideshow near the main attraction of Hersheypark, Chocolate World is home to the famous Chocolate Factory Tour , a classic dark ride through a simulated chocolate assembly line, punctuated by loud singing cows.
I love dark rides, and Amy hadn’t been there for years, so it was worth the extra hour of travel time just for the experience. And the chocolate.
Then it was up through Pennsylvania, through NJ and NY, over the Tappan Zee Bridge, and into Connecticut to reconnect with uncles and aunts and cousins whom I hadn’t seen for years, visit Stew Leonard’s, and ride a boat around Candlewood Lake.
Then it was down to New Jersey to say Happy Father’s Day to Amy’s dad and congrats to her brother Bob and now-fiancee Eli. We went to church at FBC Westfield and ate at Applebee’s and looked through one of Amy’s old childhood sketchbooks.
Full weekend photoset here. We drove down I-95 coming back, and that was okay, but I really enjoyed the ride up through Pennsylvania; I may drive that way again on trips up north; the mountain scenery (plus skipping I-95 traffic) can be worth the extra travel time.
I had a job interview down in the Richmond area a few weeks ago, and Amy came along for the ride so we could make a small day trip of it. First stop, the opulent lobby of Highwoods One in Innsbrook, a sprawling business park in Glen Allen, VA. (Amy waited in a nearby library while I interviewed.) After the interview we drove down to the Innsbrook Shoppes for some Hanami Sushi.
And then down into Richmond to visit the VMFA and see Rembrandt’s Three Musicians and Stone Operation, as well as some cool Art Deco/Art Nouveau work, an early Gauguin still life, some medieval pieces, and lots of horses.
Outside, it rained on the Confederate Memorial Chapel and Robinson House.
We didn’t have time to do anything else in Richmond, but it’s just a 2 hour drive south of us, so this is by no means our last visit. Full photoset here.
(Sadly while the job interview went well, the opening itself did not pan out, and I am still on the hunt.)
Seated, Tran and Lam order pho, the traditional Vietnamese soup. Then they squeeze a small amount of sriracha onto a plate beside their bowls. When I squirt a much larger amount of Huy Fong’s sauce directly into my soup, Tran’s eyes open wide. “I’ve never seen it that way,” he says.
I grew up Asian and to me the condiment was always a dipping sauce, not an extra ingredient. On the other hand, these days the pho restaurants where we eat never give us little side sauce dishes, so straight into the soup the Sriracha goes.
Sriracha is actually a fairly mild chili sauce that I would rate as “entry-level,” coming in at about 2,200 Scoville Units. When I want some real heat I usually go with Thai nam pla prik, or siling labuyo at patis in Filipino.
That’s rated at 50,000-100,000 Scoville units, and I’m already getting numb to that. I think habaneros may be the next step.