Attack of the Pictures 2

My god, I love Plants. I really really really love plants. So I had a fucking field day when we went to the National Botanical Gardens in Washington D.C. I took more than 600 pictures there alone. Here are some of the better ones.

You can probably tell that the entire thing really excited me. These are the best of the best pictures. I tried to be selective. There are many many more though. Probably will be uploaded to facebook.

Picture Attack Part 1

First attack of the Pictures. Hehe. These pictures are from when we were in D.C. There's a part two, so keep up! These are from when we went to the Library of Congress and the Shakespeare Library.

Engage.

---------------------------------------------


Justice!! (Jake is really small in the background)


Very Pretty Ceiling. And Jake. Yay.

------------------------------------------------------------



MB walking into the Shakespeare Library! She's happy bout that.


Lord what fools these mortals be!!


Romeo, Juliet, and the Maid!


Bottom, Titania, and Rock.


MB and Puck!


MB loves all the Shakespeare that was about!


And MB LOVES Shakespeare!


We played in the trees in front of the Shakespeare Library. Jake hugs Diana and Ricky proposes to heroic-looking Jake.

Red Beans and Rice

I plan on making these blogs for the next few days about the food in New Orleans because one of the things I love about this city is it's food. Today for lunch we went to a place called Pierre Maspero's. We had wanted to go to a different place, Napoleon's House, but it was closed for vacation. I had red beans and rice, which is just what it sounds like and served with andouille sausage. It was kind of amazing. The sausage was a little crunchy on the outside and went really well with the beans and rice. After that we wandered the French Quarter and bought various things that caught our eye, I got a bottle of Dave's Ultimate Insanity, which is apparently this hot sauce that can burn holes through styrofoam cups and a bag of beignet mix, which should make Eugenie and Elisabeth happy. I also bought a scarf to spite the vendor who told me to stop playing with it, which sort of backfired when I realized I had just ended up spitefully giving her 19.00 for something I never planned on wearing, but I guess I can save it for a Pride festival or give it to one of my sisters. The adventure ended with a walk down Bourbon Street, which was just starting to wake up for the night time festivities. We looked into Galetoires, which is this famous restaurant on Bourbon Street, smack dab in the middle of the bars and sex shops. Tonight we are making dinner and plan on having salads. Till next I blog,

Ricky

the buff

hey guys

i know it seems early in the morning, 630 by your time, and 530 by ours, but this is so holyshit that it requires immediate blagging on my part.

so im sound asleep in my bottom bunk, opposite the wall from the nice and comfy arm chair, which i now vacate is i blag this. but anyway, im asleep in my cot, when i hear ricky calling my name in a bordering frantic voice. i was ripped from my dream state, staring up at the metal grid of the top bunk, which i soon realized was occupied by diana, which makes sense because thats where she was when i fell asleep.

again ricky called my name, so i vocalized, giving him my status and, more importantly, as i would soon find out, my location. which, for the record, is firmly in my cot. there seemed to be some confusion about where diana was. he kept calling diana in an escalating tone of alarm, until diana finally responded, above me, also giving ricky her status, and location...

ricky lays back down in bed somewhat satisfied, and then sits up again and says, 'wait, jake, you're in bed, right?'

so i says, 'yeah. why?'

'so who's that?'

i turn.

'o shit.'

its dark in the 530 light, so i cant completely make it out. but eventually, i can see a human figure, furled on the chair against the wall opposite me. ricky stands and looks into mbs bunk.

'is mb there?' says i.

ricky ignores me, and like a fucking man walks over and flips the light on.

from my cot, the room snaps into focus. the yellow walls stretch up to a turquoise ceiling. bags and clothes and flipflops are strewn about the floor. the naked man is sitting in the armchair, legs over one side, and head cocked into the contemplative pose. ricky, who is now standing next to this man, and pulling a shirt on, utters the following words.

dude.

youre in my room.

the man seems nonplussed, and says something which i presume to be a parrot of what ricky has said, but merely seems like the incoherent ramblings of a mind in distress.

fuck this.

and ricky leaves the room, shirt now on.

diana awakes, but clearly still thinks that the naked man is me, and is therefore not looking.

'jake. could you turn the light off?'

'no. hell no. nononononono... not with a naked guy in our room.'

'what?'

'i said "not with a naked man in our room"'

diana understands, finally.

the man is still contemplative until he realizes that the hairy one probably left to get help, and the longhaired one is prepping an iphone for picturing purposes, or perhaps the idea gripped him, or maybe the voice told him to go, but for whatever reason, he got up and left in a hurry, but not before your humble author snapped this picture.

at this point, mb awakes, confused, and ricky returns, with deskguy.

first, we celebrated his daring and his cunning, and congratulate him on being vigilant. then, we berate him on failing to secure the door properly before returning from his midnight romp.

well, its now 6 oclock, so i will say, goodnight.

jake

The much awaited visual effects

So, I know you have all been waiting for pictures desperately. I don't actually have them all at the moment because I emptied my card as it reached 1000 pictures. That wave is saved on Jake's laptop that I am not writing on.

I do have pictures ever since the Botanical Gardens, which were the last thing we saw in DC. But these are the really important/interesting pictures that describe what we have been doing the best.

Hope you enjoy.

... Engage.

(7/3) -- Scenery on the 8 hour drive.

----------------------------------------------------------

Fourth of July:

-----------------------------------------------------

(7/5) Coca-Cola, Chow Baby, the Dozier's dogs, and the Park

--------------------------------------------------------

(7/6) On the way from Atlanta to DeSoto

blag

hey all

it's been a while since ive blagged. a little over one thousand miles, actually. today we had hella good food. ricky took us to clancy's. for a while there was a slight panic on getting there, because the roads were ridiculous. for example, poydras street is the most schizophrenic street in the world. and eventually, we realized we were being tailed by the cicadas from deSoto caverns, which are the size of your fucking head, and wax a flippin' klaxon all night.

ok

if you are ever planning a road trip, do not, for fuck's sake, stay at deSoto caverns. despite the many signs calling the place 'awesome' it shit sucks. we were spitting distance away from a stagnant water pond that spawned all the armies of hell out of it. it was hot, the lights never turned off, and the bugs could cary a man bodily to his death in nearby trees. i myself saw a young albanian boy get swallowed whole by a bullfrog, which call all night to their mates, which do nothing but call back, frustrating everyone, and allowing no one to sleep. the only redeeming feature of the place is that we happened to watch julie and julia in it. that's about it.

new orleans is hot, humid, and the roads are insane. but are awesome room makes up for all that.

i thoroughly enjoy this city. i will certainly come back here someday.

we had a wunderbar time at the dozier's, and atlanta in general. i liked their dogs the most.

that's all for now from me i guess. stay cool guys.

jake

Something TIme Consuming and Meaningful

Wonderful People!!! I am in New Orleans and am, in the truest sense, extremely happy. I have not blogged as of late but now I feel impelled to because I love this city, especially its food, which I have just had the pleasure of experiencing. We went to Clancy's, a mini Galetoire's with amazing food and a wonderful local atmosphere. Everyone loved it, the experience was religious in nature. I had a veal chop with gnocci and roasted tomatoes in a herb demi-glace, Jake had veal liver, Diana the risotto with lobster, and MayaBea had yellow-tail tuna. For desert we ordered a bunch of dishes and shared them, it was heavenly. Tomorrow we go to Cafe Monet for breakfast. Another thing I noticed about New Orleans which I remember as having always loved is the humidity, it is a very peculiar kind of humid weather that is not oppressive but rather comforting, as well as the smell of the air and the architecture of the houses. Till next I blog,

Ricky

Where are the pictures?!

Sorry sorry sorry. I keep putting off putting up pictures, but to do so (you don't realize) requires so many stars to be perfectly aligned. We have to have enough Wifi to upload pictures to the interwebs, I have to have my camera card, and my SD-Flashdrive device, and the boys have to let me use their computer.

Right now we're all getting ready for dinner, and the camera is sadly in the car. Meaning the SD card is in the car as well. But after dinner, when I get my camera out of the car, I will upload the pictures. As you may have guessed, now that we are in the hostel in New Orleans, we have wifi all the time. So pictures are definitely going to be up later tonight.

Sorry for the wait, I'm working as fast as I can, and pictures should be up soon.

Have a nice day and a pleasant... later.

Day 6: In which the men become girls…

Today was the most chill of all chill days. We woke up at our leisure (I myself was awake and productive an hour before everyone else… see Dad, I do make use of my time not sleeping!) and spent the morning running various errands. We did some laundry, bought some clothes and flowers, watched some Pokémon, and generally relaxed. Diana and I took the opportunity of the free time and safe street parking to unpack and completely reload the car. Odysseus is once again clean inside! (or at least, he was until we set up camp this evening…) By 3:30, we’d said our goodbyes and thank you’s, photographed Phil’s bonsai trees, and were on the road once again.

En Route, we passed a Piggley Wiggley (which made me disproportionately excited), OMG DONUTS!, some crazy Alabama drivers (who go 25 in 35 mph zones, but then hit 85 on the highway), and lots and lots of depressing trees. I don’t know why they were depressing, but Jake says they were depressing, and sure he is an honorable man.

We arrived at DeSoto Caverns Campground, after following the signs way back from “DeSoto Caverns Ahead… 10 Mi- AWESOME!” until we reached the actual site. It is not awesome. I feel lied to.

There are lots of “attractions” here, including a petting zoo and climbing towers to create the most awesome water balloon battle ever, but we are probably not going to be partaking in any of them, because we would rather sleep in the morning and then we have 6 hours of driving. The only other things here are bugs and frogs. And boy, are there bugs and frogs.

Our site is right next to a stagnant pond of water that looks gross and is just an all-around bad idea. It led to lots and lots of flies hovering around our food at dinner, and a giant gazukus (sp??) bug getting inside the car as we were unpacking things. At this point, the men decided to remove the thing from Odysseus’ rear end. They poked and prodded at it with a stick, and with Jake’s iPhone (I have no idea why…) and as it moved jumped back. There may have been some girly shrieking involved as well. The greatest part of it all, though, was almost immediately afterwards, when they were looking at frogs in the so-called pond. After Jake and Richard had been watching one for a while, a 10 year old boy walked up and just went for the frog with his bare hands. He wins.

Dinner today included kosher hot dogs and kosher chicken soup. I was happy.

(The twice-baked potatos that Mary Ann gave us did not last all the way to dinner… we ate them within the first hour on the road!)

Safely in our bug-less tent, we watched Julie & Julia on Ricky’s computer. Now Diana and I are keeping him awake by writing this, so I suppose I’ll end here. I don’t really have any more to say anyhow.

(7/5) In which we drink too much

It was a glorious day! “Why?” do you ask? Well, I gladly inform you that we slept late. And as late as we pleased. In real beds, I would like to add. That is all it takes to make a glorious day.

We drove to Atlanta on the 5^th. Figured we would spend our time seeing the sights and whatnot! So our first stop, was….

Drumroll please….

A Parking lot! Well you don’t suppose we walked all the way there did you?

I was having trouble with my ankle, because I had twisted it at Rose Creek, and then slipped down the stairs at the Doziers, only making my ankle worse. So I wrapped it and off we went on our way to the Wonderful World of Disn… I mean Coca-Cola.

On our way (taking our time, I might add) we stopped at the Olympic Centennial Park. Mayabea wanted to frolic and play in the sprinklers, (as she did at age four) but Jake, Ricky and I maliciously held her back! Her tears did not sway our iron hearts.

We stood in line. A very long line, and got cokes in the nice, classic, glass bottles, but you’re not allowed to bring Glass into the Coca-Cola works. Oh well. They were left in the cold, red-tinted chamber of the recycling bin.

I would like to say that I thought the entire factory was really cheesy. Mayabea on the other hand, enjoyed it, because she is fond (overly fond) of cheesy things. Most of our readers already know that.

(Boy this is going to be a long post. Just what all our parents are craving right now… Other than cheese. Cheese and Coke.)

The part that I think all of us enjoyed, was the FLAVOR TASTING! Now, kiddies, Coca-Cola produces much more than Classic Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Cherry Coke, Diet (Zero) Cherry Coke, caffeine free Diet Coke, Vanilla Coke, (No Diet Vanilla Coke), Diet Coke with Lime, and Coca-Cola ZERo. Oh no. If you thought that was all, you are terribly mistaken.

We drank all 64 flavors of soda produced by Coca-Cola. And just so you know our pain, we drank the following:

Bibo Pine Apple, Sunfill Strawberry, Bibo Kiwi Mango, Spar-berry, Sunfill Mint, Krest Ginger Ale, Stoney Tangawizi, Fanta Exotic, Nestea Peche Blanche, Fanta Pineapple, Nestea Lemon, Kinley Bitter Lemon, Sweetened Raspberry Iced Tea Nestea (Mayabea’s favorite), Fanta Magic, Mezzo Mix, Beverly, Powerade Fruit Punch, Minute Maid Lemonade, Fanta Strawberry, Pibb Xtra, Fresca Sparking Citrus, Vault, Fanta Orange, Sprite, HiC Apple, Vegitabetta, Crush Lemon, Fanta Apple Kiwi, Nestea Ice Rush, Smart Watermellon, Thirst Quencher! Ice, Smart Apple, Nestea Mango, Delaware Punch (ppftt, Delaware), Ciel Aquarius, Simba Guarana, Nestea Light Peach, Fanta Kolita, Manzana Lift Roja, Inca Kola, and all of the mentioned (*cough* NORMAL *cough*) flavors above.

As you can imagine, by the time we got to plain old Classic Coca-Cola, we felt as if we had never tasted anything better.

And as you can imagine, we plan on drinking water for the rest of the trip.

From the Coca-Cola factory, we went to Dinner. We had found this cute place in Atlanta that reminded us of the old restaurant that used to be in town: J.P. Lees. It was called “Chow Baby.” And if you forgive my language, Hot Damn it was good.

After that, we figured we would try and find Little 5 Points, an area of Atlanta that we had been informed of and really wanted to see. By then, it was almost 10, and the surrounding town didn’t seem like the best place to be. So after about 10 minutes of wandering in a tight-knit group, Mayabea clinging to Richard’s arm the entire way, we headed back to the car to go home.

We were greeted by MaryAnn, trying to make sure we had had enough to eat. And my god, we had. This, however, did not stop most of us from eating Ice Cream (It did stop Jake). Then we watched part of a Horror movie, some House, and went off to slip into a glorious food coma in bed.