Random Thoughts - Food Edition

Texas Toast might be the greatest invention ever. It's giant and it's buttery and it can be used for every sandwich. We <3 Texas Toast!

We have been neglectful in capturing the culinary aspect of our trip, mostly because we didn't think anyone would enjoy watching us eat burgers at 8,457 Sonics. We snapped a few photos of some of the more quintessential and delicious foods we've enjoyed.




Yum!

There might be nothing better than eating beignets at Cafe du Monde and drinking frozen cafe au lait first thing in the morning.


Before we left on this trip, co-worker Atticus told us to eat muffuletta (sp?) sandwiches after discussing the pros and cons of olives. We had our doubts, but cousin Vikki (you'll meet her later) got us to eat them and they were GOOD! Eat this sandwich when you're down in New Orleans.



Gale ordered some jambalaya at Pat O'Brien's. Sara had a hurricane. Fun times!

Sara: What would you like to say about the chili con queso we had in Austin, TX? Gale: That it was delicious, that's all.



More food to come...

QuickFire

Right now, at this very moment, we're eating burgers in the french
quarter & getting ready to explore the scary side of New Orleans on a
haunted sites tour.

We managed a walking tour of the french quarter, and saw some pretty
awesome places. They're really bringing it all back.

BTW - Sara continues to spill on nearly every outfit. Thank you, Tide-
To-Go.

FYI

Random Thoughts:

We've been asked what type of car we're driving on this trip. It's a Hyundai (spell that right? dunno) Elantra (spell that right again? dunno). Sara's been calling it a Escalante for some stupid reason.

We're only staying at one hostel the entire trip. ONLY ONE I PROMISE! And it has air conditioning and electricity, the 3 blocks we are staying on was having a moment last night, but now all is well. I'm positive it was due to the Death Rain.

We're having so much fun!

We're trying to blog as much as we can, but Internet cafes are not as plentiful as they were in Mexico. Go figure.

We love all the comments. Keep 'em coming! If you could sign your full name so we know who to thank that would be helpful (we know a few Mom's).

Love and miss you all!
Sara and Gale

Atlanta, GA

This city apparently doesn't wake up before 10:00am on Sunday's, but we do!

Up bright and early to spend a super fun morning walking around World of Coca-Cola, which sounds cheesetastic, but was actually quite interesting. We walked around some of the exhibits of old Coke paraphernalia and watched a 4-D movie that did not shoot coke out at us, but was fun, then we saw some of the bottling and did a little souvenir shopping.

Afterwards we relaxed by the Ring of Fountains in Olympic Centennial park. It was nice to sit for awhile and watch the kids play in the water while water jets shot up their bathing suited butts.

Then we met up with Gale's sister Heather's friend Tlhapi (pronounced "Clapee") and had a delicious lunch and nice conversation. We invited Tlhapi to join us for some historic Atlanta sights which he accepted and we had a great time. We went down to the Sweet Auburn section of Atlanta to see the historical area that commemorates the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. First stop, Ebenezer Baptist Church where MLK, Jr., his father and grandfather all preached. The church was undergoing restoration, but we were able to see the outside. Onto the King Center for Non-Violent Social Change which has many of his personal effects along with Ghandi, Rosa Parks and Corretta Scott King. In between the church and the center is the gravesite of King and Corretta Scott King. About a block down the street is Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthplace. It was truly a special area.

Back to the car...oh sweet car! We then traveled to the Margaret Mitchell House which is where she wrote Gone With the Wind in the basement. Cool stuff!

Right after we publish this post we'll be getting a gut-busting dinner at The Varsity. The world's largest drive-in restaurant. Yummmm!

Why Is This Happening To Us?

I knew this would be an interesting day, I just didn't know the exact reasons why it would be so...interesting.

After DC we then began the 10 hour journey to Atlanta (or Hotlanta as Sara's Mom calls it). Our DC hotel concierge told us a quick way to get to the highway without having to deal with those pesky roundabouts we were having trouble with. By taking this shortcut we realized that our hotel was literally RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER from the White House. Knowing this would've saved us about half a day of walking! *smacks forehead*

Anyway, we get on the highway and somewhere in Virginia we end up in some of the most awful traffic ever! A 10 hour drive was quickly becoming an epic drive. We never did get to see the cause of all the traffic, if this is what folks in VA have to deal with daily, I'm so sorry!

We stop for food at a place called Aunt Sarah's (tee hee!) It was good.

Then we get attacked with what Sara has been calling Death Rain and of course Sara happened to take the wheel at the time. Never ever had I ever experienced driving in rain like this. At one point we, and most of our fellow highway drivers, had to pull over and wait it out.

Obviously you can tell by the fact that I'm posting this, we made it out ok. We end up in Atlanta to be greeted by the fact that our hostel didn't have any electricity. Neither did 3 blocks of the neighborhood surrounding the hostel. We could look out the window and see buildings fully lit, mocking us. It was hot! We were sad! The power came on around 3am, but it made us think someone didn't want us in Hotlanta. Like it or not, here we come!

Washington, DC

You probably already know this, but DC is pretty impossible to do in one day. But we made a valiant effort and by calling for reinforcements (Leif and Mary) we were able to dominate the city.

First stop - Capitol Hill

We took the magical Metro (seriously this thing is clean and carpeted and it even tells you when it's coming and you can hear the announcements, it's everything a subway should be) to Union Station. We saw the Capitol Building, Supreme Court and one of the Library of Congress buildings and took many pictures.

Our next task was to store our stuff while we took a tour of The White House. Walked to the Natural History Museum, locked up our stuff and hoofed it back to the White House in time for our tour. They won't let you take lipgloss in there let alone a camera. The tour was self-guided which was a little disappointing because I need someone to tell me stuff like how Dolly Madison saved the George Washington portrait in a fire. Instead I had to read that and ick I mean whatever. After the White House we had to walk back to the museum and get our stuff. How come one mile in New York City is gravy while walking a mile in Washington makes me winded.

We had to stop and get a snow cone.

Natural History Museum - Saw the Hope Diamond. It's large and in charge.

Holocaust Museum - On the way to the museum, we snapped a few shots of the Washington Monument. The Holocaust Museum was very moving, very heavy, very in depth. Very emotionally draining.

National Archives - We got to see the Constitution, Declaration of Independance and the Bill of Rights. How cool is that? So cool to us geeks.

Pictures of White House and Treasury (we didn't have our cameras for the original tour, had to go back and get pics duh!!!)

Dinner - On our way to dinner took a quick detour to see Ford's Theater where Lincoln was assasinated and across the street is the house where he passed away. Then we met up with Sara's good friend Reina for dinner at Gordon Biersch Brewery and it was tasty.

At this point you're probably thinking dinner already? You guys haven't even seen many monuments or memorials and if you were thinking that you would be right. Enter our heroes.

Leif and Mary arrived at the end of dinner in A CAR!!! They drove us all around the monuments and even stopped for us to get out and get pictures. We saw the FDR Memorial, Jefferson Memorial and Lincoln Memorial. We can't thank them enough!














We weren't able to get to the International Spy Museum, WW2 Memorial, Vietnam Vets Memorial or the Korean War Memorial so we'll just have to come back for a full weekend of american awesomeness.

First Stop

We made it to DC last night and had a jam-packed day of sightseeing
and visiting with friends & family.

Sara's legs are falling off & I'm pretty much asleep while writing
this, but we'll be updating with pictures & some fun stories soon. We
promise!