Friday, April 22, 2011

Atlantic Coast Roadtrip, Day 1-6 : Princeton (NJ), Arlington (VA) & Washington D.C. (DC)

We finally set off for our month-long roadtrip down the Atlantic Coast on the 15 Jan 2011.
We decided to track our mileage for the entire trip. We had started off at the 17,464-mile mark.
From our home in Southern Massachusetts, we drove past Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York without stopping. The very first stop of our trip was Princeton (NJ) and it took us slightly less than 5 hours to reach. After we had checked into Hampton Inn Princeton, we had a very quick lunch before joining the Princeton campus tour which was at 2.45pm.

Below are some of the sights during the 1.5hr walking tour around the campus.

On day 2, we spent the earlier part of the morning exploring the Princeton campus district where we saw many interesting sculptures and monuments.
We started heading towards Arlington (VA) before noon time on I-95.
When we reached Delaware, we decided to drop by the Delaware Tourist Info Center which is located on I-95 for lunch, refuel and to grab some maps/brochures.
By the time we reached our hotel (Hilton Garden Inn Arlington), it was already getting dark and we were a little tired. So we decided to just grab dinner at the nearby Ray's Hell Burger before turning in for the night.
We figured if Ray's burgers were fit for President Obama and the Russian President Medvedev, they should be really quite good.....and indeed they were tasty and very reasonably priced too! The sweet potato fries were especially addictive. The portions, as you can see, were HUGE. We both weren't able to finish our burgers.
On day 3, we left our car in the hotel and took the subway to Washington DC so that we don't have to worry about parking and being stuck in traffic. We spent the entire day walking around the National Mall and the memorial parks.
We also visited The Old Post Office Pavilion as we read that it's a good place to have a bird's eye view of the area from the Observation Deck.
Well actually, even the interior of the Old Post Office is a sight on its own!!
From the 270-ft Observation deck, we had nice views of the US Capitol and the Washington Monument.
A kind tourist helped to take a photo of me and RG.....the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool are in the background.
Since we didn't make an advanced request to tour the White House, we decided to just drop by the White House Visitor's Center to view photos of the White House as well as learn more about its history through the exhibits.
Of course, how can a trip to DC not involve taking a photo of the White House.
Right outside the White House, we saw people picketing for various causes.
We also saw the Obama motorcade!!!
Lincoln Memorial
Korean War Veterans Memorial
Sad but so true!
The Three Soldiers - Vietnam Veterans Memorial
War World II Memorial

We spent Day 4 exploring Arlington (VA). Despite the lousy weather (we had an icy storm the night before!), we stuck with our plan to visit the Arboretum.
To our surprise, the ice covered plants actually looked very beautiful!!
We also visited the Arlington National Cemetery.
Eternal flame at the grave of JFK.
Iwo-Jima Memorial
We were back in DC on day 5 to visit some of the national sights and museums. Our first stop for the day was the Library of Congress. It is such a magnificent building and a true piece of art!
We also made a stop at the Supreme Court.
Again, as we hadn't made an advance request to visit the US Capitol, we could only tour the surrounding grounds and took pictures of the building.
There were many people picketing (health care issue) right outside the US Capitol.
Next up was the US Botanic Garden.
It was amazing to see a "rainforest" within the building!
Ulysses S Grant Memorial
RG wanted to visit the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and so we did. We also watched the Legends of the Flight on 3D at the museum's IMAX.
By the time we were done at the Air and Space Museum, it was already quite late. While strolling through the park to get to our subway station, a brave little squirrel came up to us to say "hi"!
We managed to capture some of the pretty night scenaries with our cameras. Below is the silhouette of the Smithsonian Castle.
The sun setting behind the Washington Monument.
We chose to visit the Newseum on our last day (Day 6) in DC. Unlike most of the other DC museums that are free admissions, there's an entrance fee of USD21.95 (+tax) to visit Newseum. However, we figured it would be well worth our money.
The exhibits and shows turned out GREAT!!!
The below is a portion of the antenna on one of the twin towers.
The belongings of a reporter who was killed in 911 while trying to photograph the twin towers after the planes crashed into the towers.
Photos of a truck that reporters had used while covering stories in a war zone...the black dots are bullet holes!
All the reporters who had died while on their job.
There were exhibits that we could touch and play around with.
Here's a game where you try to take the best photograph that can capture the essence of the headline story. Here's my photograph (on the right)....not bad huh?! It was all great fun!
You can also try your hand at news reporting! No....we didn't try....we were too shy :P
I really enjoyed the Pulitzer Photograph Exhibition.
Hee hee.......a girl can dream right?!!
One of the exhibits is a huge World Press Freedom map...and it depicts the level of "freedom of press" in each country.
And here's how Singapore fare in the rating.....NOT FREE! haha
On level 6 of Newseum is an outdoor terrace where you could get very nice views of the US Capitol and the surroundings.
We also got to watch informative and tear-jerking documentaries on the Holocaust and Katrina. I must say my money was very well-spent at the Newseum and I'd recommend everyone to visit it if you have the chance.

After leaving the Newseum, we headed over to the National Gallery of Art which is just opposite the Newseum.
And with that, we ended day 6 of our tour in DC.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Zipper pouch from recycled Reese wrapper

I was loving the recycled Reese wrapper concept and decided to make a little zipper pouch today. I cut 2 Reese's logo out from 2 wrappers and then sandwiched each wrapper logo between 2 sheets of vinyl (cut in the exact shape).
I used an orange color zipper to match my wrapper!
It turned out to be so yummily cute! It can hold my change, cards and even my cellphone.
I would totally add a keyring to the pouch if I had one.....then I can swing this little thing around my finger.




Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Luggage tag from recycled Reese's wrapper

My blue suitcase is a very common one and I just hate it when I keep picking up someone else's suitcases at the conveyor belt 'cos theirs look so similar to mine.

I decided to make a bright orange big luggage tag so that I can spot my suitcase even from a mile away.

I sandwiched a Reese wrapper (which screams "ME!" 'cos Reese is my favorite peanut butter chocolate!!!) between 2 sheets of transparent vinyl, added a pink ribbon and sewed all around the edges. I also added a vinyl pocket to hold a name card or address label.

Here I'm just using RG's bag to "model" my luggage tag.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Maple banana chocolate-chip loaf cake recipe

I was drooling over Charmaine's banana cake the other day, so I followed the link that she had provided to Retromommy's blog for the cake recipe. And all thanks to this two fabulous ladies, I've now got a yummy loaf of banana cake sitting very temptingly on my dining table....waiting to be gobbled up during our afternoon tea session.

I'm reproducing Retromommy's recipe with some slight modifications to suit our tastes:
Oops....just realised that two ingredients were missing in the photo!

Anyway, the ingredients/measurements are:

- 2 large ripe mashed bananas
- 1 stick + 1 tbsp of butter (melted)
- 3 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 tbsp non-fat milk
- 2 eggs
- 1 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 4/5 cup of fine sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
- 1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips (coated with 1/2 tsp of flour)

Method:

Preheat the oven to 340F.
Combine butter, maple syrup, milk, eggs, sugar & vanilla essence together in a large mixing bowl.
Stir in mashed bananas.
Sift flour and baking powder into the wet mix and fold till well-mixed.
Stir in the flour coated chocolate chips and mix well.
Line the loaf pan with parchment paper.
Pour in the batter and smoothen the surface.
Place pan in the oven (middle rack) to bake for 1hr or until a toothpick inserted into the cake center comes out clean.

This cake is so easy to make and it tastes really light, fluffy and kinda crumbly. This recipe definitely goes into my "Bake-again-and-again" category!

NOTES: I like to lightly coat the chocolate chips with a little bit of flour so that the chips don't sink to the bottom of the cake. If the top of your cake is browning too soon, cover the cake with a sheet of aluminium foil to prevent the top from burning before the entire cake is cooked. Do not over-bake the cake if you prefer a moist texture (an inserted toothpick would come out with little moist crumbs instead of completely clean).








Thursday, April 14, 2011

Pork chop with mushroom gravy

Not exactly the healthiest meal but it's easy to throw together for a crazy/lazy mid-week dinner. I used low fat/sodium ingredients to make it less unhealthy.

Ingredients:
- 1 can of reduced fat/sodium cream of mushroom soup
- 1/2 packet of onion soup mix
- 1/3 - 1/2 can of low-sodium chicken/beef broth (or just water or even milk)
- a handful of sliced mushrooms
- 1 onion cut into thin strips
- 3-4 slices of pork chops (mine were 1/2" thick)
- seasonings (your choice. I used garlic powder, paprika, parsley flakes, chives)

Method:
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Combine all the ingredients (except pork chops) in a mixing bowl
- Brown pork chops on a grill pan at high heat for a couple of minutes (do not overcook)
- Place pork chops in a baking dish and spread the liquid mixture on top of the chops
- Bake in the oven for 50-60min

You can serve the chops with the mushroom gravy on rice, pasta or mashed potatoes.....or with just a salad or chips on the side.