Donuts? Duck!

Duck Donuts may not have originated in Virginia Beach, but we do have TWO of them! Over the weekend, we took Stella there.

You can sit and watch them making the donuts fresh.
They only make ring donuts, hot and fresh, and you can
choose from several icings, toppings, and drizzles.

Originally from Outer Banks NC

Then, later in the day, we made some poke! If you aren't familiar, it's raw tuna marinated in onion, soy sauce, sesame oil and seeds, garlic, and some other stuff, then you serve it on top of rice with avocado (or any of a number of other things, that's just what we had around). It's a great meal for a rainy summer day.

Independence Day

Stella and I had a fairly quiet Independence Day (in the sense that not being busy is "quiet"... we heard a lot of fireworks so it was not that kind of quiet). It was a mix of being home after driving across the US, wanting to get some home organizing/cleaning done, and preparing for my husband to start clerkships today (the unpaid intern part of med school). Plus, it was rainy off and on all weekend.

This was the rain we were faced with, leaving work on Friday!

We made a mad dash for it (Stella had the benefit of hiding in

my purse, with a plastic bag around the whole thing, while I got

more drenched than I would have if I had just stepped into the

shower in my clothes!) and of course, the rain cleared up after

we got in the car and made it about a mile up the road!

It was fun though. I'm a firm believer in running through a good

downpour about once a year.

Not knowing what would be open for lunch on the 4th, we decided a safe bet
was our favorite sushi place, since they're open pretty much all the time.

Fireworks! (I promise Stella is in the photo,
it was just really dark.) We go to my in-laws' house
for fireworks, since there's a country club across
the water that does them every year, and that means
we don't have to worry about parking or crowds.

Cross-Country Drive Part 3 (KS, MO, IL, IN)

Next up: Kansas, Missouri, and a little bit of Illinois and Indiana!

Behind another rest area, and I'm
90% certain it's in Kansas. (It's either CO or KS.)

The only other picture I have of Stella in Kansas is at the Topeka Library,
because truth be told, we didn't stop anywhere in Kansas or see anything of
particular interest. We wanted to stop at the largest ball of twine, but it
would have added 2 hours to our already pretty long day so we gave it up.

Marriott in Kansas City... those lights change color and move in patterns.

And that's our hotel, the very art deco Aladdin
(operated by Holiday Inn).

Kansas City's Central Library was very high on my list
of "must see" places on this trip. This is actually their
parking garage, which they call the Community Bookshelf
because the people of the city voted on which books to
put on this giant one-block-long wall.
Do you see Stella?

There she is, right behind me!

And this is the actual library that goes with the parking garage.
We got too early a start in the morning for them to be open,
which is a shame, since I'm sure it's gorgeous inside.

Unexpected public art on our walk to the library

This probably isn't a big deal to many of you from other states, but Virginia
doesn't have White Castle. Stella told me that Michigan does have them,
and made some delicious recommendations.

Corn. Stella and I are convinced now that
approximately 80% of American soil
is being used to grow corn, based on what we saw.

I screwed up a little tiny bit on this one...
This is a Daughters of the American Revolution
statue outside the library we stopped at in Illinois.
Which is cool, but I didn't get a photo of
Stella with the library, which is this really cool
old building and the staff was really nice.

Entering Indiana!

The Harrison County library in Corydon Indiana.
Very pretty library, but they were closing when we got there
so we didn't spend a lot of time inside.

Cross-Country Drive Part 2 (NM, CO)

...And then, we were in New Mexico! We drove straight east to Albuquerque, then turned north in the morning and headed to Denver for Day 3.

Most of New Mexico looked like this.

We aren't big baseball fans, but we HAD to go to an Isotopes game in Albuquerque...
they named their team after the team in The Simpsons!

Do you see Stella balancing on the statue?
This is outside Isotopes Stadium.

Virginia Beach's Fuddruckers closed up a long while ago,
and we miss it very much. So when we saw that
Albuquerque had a Fuddruckers near our hotel,
that had to be dinner. Yum!

Go 'Topes!

Our library for New Mexico was the Zimmerman Library
on the University of New Mexico campus, which is beautiful!

The other side of Zimmerman Library.

I got into a weird habit of taking pictures behind rest areas because they're so
nice looking in other states. This one is, I think, New Mexico.

Our Colorado library was the Virginia Village Branch in Denver
(and it was just starting to rain, so we had to do this quickly!)

This neat display is just inside the door
to the Virginia Village library.

Another restaurant recommendation:
If you're ever in Denver, go to the Bull & Bush.
Excellent beer, excellent whiskey selection,
and great food, especially the Colorado fries
(with cheese and green chile!)

Cross-Country Drive: Part 1 (AZ)

My husband and I flew to Phoenix last weekend to pick up his grandparents' car and drive it back here to Virginia Beach, because they're moving here. So we had a few adventures! This is everything from Arizona (Day 1 and part of Day 2):

On the plane, ready to fly from Norfolk to JFK to Phoenix!

Hittin' the road, leaving Prescott AZ and heading north

I have several photos of just Stella looking out the car window... You can see
the landscape change as we cross the country.

We didn't know for certain until we stopped at our hotel
and turned on the news, but that smoke cloud back there
is a small grass fire that had been burning for a few days already.

If you ever visit the South Rim of the Grand Canyon,
I very highly recommend Plaza Bonita for dinner!
This chimichanga was DELICIOUS.

A Stella-sized cactus!

On the walk to the scenic views of the Grand Canyon,
this concrete design shows the different Native American
groups from the area (I couldn't get them all in the photo).

The Grand Canyon!

Yup, that canyon is pretty grand.

Stella and I enjoyed the visible lines of sedimentary rock. So pretty.

Whoa, it's a long way down!

The most dangerous picture I've ever taken of an LV
(if my husband had let go of here, Stella would have
been at the bottom!)

One last look before we go!

Pretty, right? This is behind an Arizona rest area.
I thought it was weird too. But so pretty!

We don't have rocks like this at home.
I was a little fascinated.

They actually have a "Standin' on the Corner" Park
in Winslow AZ, on Route 66, like in the song
"Take It Easy." Better yet, we had an Eagles
greatest hits CD in the car, so we listened to that
on our way there. (See Stella on his shoulder?)
Such a fine sight to see!

I have a personal goal of taking a photo of myself in front of a library in every state.
So we knocked out quite a few of those on this trip!
Here we are at the library in Holbrook AZ, "The Library on Route 66."
It was Sunday, though, so it was closed.

I really like this accidental photo my husband took there!

And that was it for Arizona.

Memorial Day Weekend

What a lovely holiday weekend! A few days off was exactly what we needed to re-energize us. We did a little bit of everything...

We did a little cleaning
(the stop motion gif is an idea I stole directly
from Haylie and Anana!)

We did a little sewing
(Stella made friends with my narwhal pincushion!)

We went to a friend's birthday party and ate a little potato salad
(She wanted a "theme" of potato salad: You're seeing SEVEN different
types of potato salad, plus a pork roast and bacon beans)

We did a little gaming
(My husband won... I haven't beaten him at this game (Pandemic: Contagion) yet!)

We did a little baking...

...and a little eating!
(Those are puff pastry pinwheels that should have been more loosely rolled,
because they didn't have room to expand and got really dense. Yummy though!)

We did a little rain-watching
(Tropical Storm (or Depression, I've lost track) Bonnie
came to visit for Memorial Day)

And we did a little cosplay touch-up
(you'll see what this thing is for in a few days!)

And with that, our three-day weekend is over. But we only have a three-day work week as well, because we're taking Friday off for Awesomecon in DC (which is also three days)!