Lainie & Jason in DC!

Better late than never, I think.  Finally, here are some pictures from Lainie and Jason's visit here in late April.  We had a great time, walked miles every day - museums, monuments, Mt. Vernon, etc... we also went to Philadelphia to see Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. (and taste the Philly cheese steaks!)  Here are a couple of pictures taken while they were here. For more, please click on the title "Lainie & Jason in DC!" above..

Sara, Coy, Brooklyn and Mason were here this last week - will post those pictures in a day or two.

DC in Bloom

We survived the amazing Cherry Blossom dinner, and here are a few pictures of the beautiful trees that are blooming everywhere right now.  I didn't know there were so many varieties of flowering cherries, the profusion of blossoms in some areas is absolutely breathtaking.

If you'd like to see more, click on the "DC in Bloom" text above.

Cherry Blossom Feast

Tonight Deb & I cooked the quintessential Cherry Blossom Feast!   

Brie in Puff Pastry with homemade Cherry Marmalade

Cherry Blossom Martinis

Spinach Salad with Dried Cherries and Cipollini Onions in Cherry Vinaigrette

Pan-seared Coho Salmon with Cherry-Port reduction

Cherry Blossom Fried Rice with Dried Cherries, Carrote and Pea Shoots

served with a Livermore Valley Petite Sirah

Cherry Clafouti with Vanilla Ice Cream

Cherry Heering Liqueur

Sorry everone wasn't here to enjoy the meal, however recipes are available upon request.... :-)

Cherry Blossom Time

 
 

Deb's here for a visit and we've been running around seeing the sights.  The entire city looks new and fresh, all dressed in beautiful pink and white blossoms.  The cherry trees and tulip magnolias are everywhere!  

The orchids are some of the many varieties we saw while visiting the Hillwood Estate and Garden.  The mansion is absolutely stunning, filled with French and Russian antiques, and I can't wait to go back a little later in the year to see the roses and other summer blooms.

On Friday, we're cooking a cherry blossom celebration meal.. more on that soon...

Flowers!

Spring can't be too far away if blooms like these are possible... on Thursday Peggy & I went to the Philadelphia Flower Show - Philly's about 2 hours from DC, so we made a long day trip and it was well worth it.  The theme was "Bella Italia" which was interpreted in many imaginative ways by various floral designers, landscape architects, gardeners, etc.  

We spent several hours walking through the beautiful displays, then felt inclined to follow the theme for dinner. We found a lovely little Italian restaurant, Portofino, just a few blocks away from the convention center, so we finished the evening with a delicious meal, then made the drive back to DC. 

Here are just a couple of photos, the rest are posted in my gallery, click on the word "Flowers" in the title above...

Snow Day!

Today we woke up to several inches of beautiful new snow!  We're not likely to have this much snow again this year, so we enjoyed it.  Schools were closed, and John and his co-workers were given nonscheduled leave, so he worked from home today.  We went for a walk, the neighborhood trees were lacy and sparkling, so beautiful.   We're looking forward to the Washington DC Cherry Blossom Festival at the end of this month, I'll post a little more about that in the coming weeks. 

Out and About

This seems to be the week for dining out, after staying home for ages... On Wednesday we went with our neighbors Nancy and Judy to a new wine bar, Enology.  Food was excellent, mostly small plates, lots of choices.  And the wine was great - we had a flight of reds that was outstanding!

Thursday was our friend Peggy's birthday - we took her to dinner at Bistrot Lepic, in Georgetown.  Another winner!  We'd like to go back to their upstairs wine bar sometime soon...

Last night we went to the Buddy Guy / BB King concert at the DAR Constitution Hall.  What a great show - Buddy was phenomenal, no other word for it.  We can't believe BB King is 83 years old and still belting out the tunes! The Thrill is definitely NOT Gone...

Before dinner we enjoyed dinner at the Old Ebbit Grill - a DC institution.  Impeccable service, 

and a separate menu just for the oysters!  I can't seem to stop ordering Maryland crab cake everywhere we go - coming from Dungeness country it's such a luxury to have so much real crab meat piled up on my plate.   Good thing we were walking to the concert afterwards, we needed the exercise after that meal!

Today, we're off to Alexandria VA to do a little exploring -