Yu Have Come to the Right Place.

East Coast Envy

The east coast - a place I'm not going to get to live in for a while. However, even during the winter, Wami proclaimed how beautiful the east coast was. We were lucky to see the area in different ways while we were there last week.

Upon arrival at Dulles Internation (IAD), we were told twice that we would have to wait on the plane for 20-40 minutes while de-icing of other planes occurred. We happened to land just barely south of a massive east-coast storm. Lots of grumbling ensued and Taisei started to get fussy. Mark had to wait for a long time before he could actually pick us up. But by the last day, I wish we had packed shorts.

The day after arriving, we headed to New York with Mark. The east is amazing. Just on the drive there, we passed through Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey - about a 4 hour drive. We parked in Newark and took a train over. Mark booked us a room in the fabulous Le Parker Meridien. Wow, definitely one of the fanciest places we've stayed.

New York was freezing. Literally. A storm had passed the day before and without the howling wind, it was 20 degrees F (-5 C) at night. Snow everywhere.

While there, we saw Times Square, the Manhattan Temple, Central Park, Fifth Ave, Grand Central Station, Brooklyn Bridge, Ground Zero and the Statue of Liberty from afar. There was more to see, but didn't want to take Mark away from his wife and baby for more than 2 days. (Thanks Bev!) Also, did I mention? It was cold.

Within the confines of a warm car, we decided to slightly detour for source of all Philly cheese steaks - Philadelphia. Based on restaurants featured by the Food Network, we tried Geno's and Pat's, rivals across the street from each other. Even though Geno's is totally decked out with lights, Pat's had the big line in front of it. We tried both and have to say that Pat's was definitely better. The one in this picture's got steak, "whiz" and onion from Pat's, with a few extra peppers on top. Yum!!


We had lots of good food on this trip. I'll try not to digress too much... So back to DC. We perfectly booked our trip to coincide with Matt Huang's B-day. So we got to surprise him at his house.


After learning our lesson in Florida, I made sure to book a suite with an indoor pool. This allowed us to hang out in the living room after Taisei went to bed. It also gave us an opportunity to go swimming in the winter-time. We had the Changs over for a dip. We had the whole pool to ourselves!


Oh, did I mention that this was a business trip? Yes, I did work for a few days. Even better, L-3 paid for the car, hotel and some food. But then work ended early and we had to do something. So we went to the International Spy Museum, Iwo (Iou - the correct spelling) Jima memorial and the National Mall, where we visited the National Archives and the Capital of the United States. We hung out afterwards in old Alexandria, founded around 1700. That's pretty much as old as it gets in the US.



The next day, the party started. We had an amazing opportunity for each of my last roommates from Kensington #1 of "Condo Row" to get back together. The Kaneyukis flew up from Florida and the Tangs drove up from Richmond. As a massive caravan, we saw more of the National Mall: the Library of Congress, the Botanical Gardens, the Air and Space Museum (which doesn't seem like it's changed since I visited in 8th grade!), the White House, WWII Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Korean War Memorial, and Chinatown. I've spent too much time now to post pictures of all those places. Maybe I'll have to break down and make an online album.


Before I end, I must thank the Changs for their hospitality and time. Mark spent the entire first weekend with us and Bev lovingly made meal after meal for us - even though we kept telling her not to. She threw an amazing birthday party/Asian 3rd reunion for Taisei that I will post over on his web page.

While I'm at it, I ought to whole-heartedly thank all our friends and family who always welcome us with open arms. We're blessed with incredible friends and family that love us as one of their own. You know that every one of you is welcome at any moment too, right?

Just call first, ok? ;)

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