The shape of weekends to come?

 

Burke Lake Park

So, after using my last blog post to bemoan the fact that we're currently bereft of private transport, and how that limits the things that we can do on holidays and weekends, for the second Saturday and Sunday in a row we had wheels. The reason for that is somewhat convoluted, but boils down to the MRI appointment I had yesterday (Monday). Being rather claustrophobic, and thus wanting to prefer a standing MRI as opposed to the confining, suffocating lying-down type; and with the nearest place doing such MRI's being inconveniently located in Rockville, Maryland and not near any Metro stations; and with Enterprise Rent-A-Car not having any vehicles available on Monday morning, but with some ready to be rented starting from Saturday morning, the choice was made to reserve a car for the weekend prior to Monday's date with magnetic resonance imaging. 

It was my wife who came up with the idea to go for a drive on Saturday morning. The last time we had access to a car she had used it to visit a friend who lives in Manassas. Shu-E has never enjoyed driving on American freeways, so she took a longer route through the countryside and found she quite enjoyed the scenery. So with my wife serving as the navigator, she suggested we retrace part of her earlier route, taking in the fall foliage along the way:

Along the way we made a brief stop at the site of the former Bacon Race Church, the first iteration of which was erected in 1774. The last version collapsed on Christmas Eve 1987, but the graveyard remains, with a number of tombstones dating back to the 19th century:

This part of Virginia is immersed in Civil War esoterica:

While the drive was nice, the real reason (and with Shu-E there's always an ulterior motive) for going out was to visit the Potomac Mills shopping mall in Woodbridge. It's a deceptively large retail outlet, but the food court butter chicken rice with naan provided some much-needed carbohydrates for all the walking back and forth we ended up doing:

In the FYE store I asked my daughter why Japanese, especially that related to アニメ, is so prevalent these days in designs and packages. Her answer: "Aesthetics":

My wife's favorite shop was Pepper Palace, a hot sauce lover's paradise. Shu-E took her time sampling the various chili-laden sauces and condiments, before eventually settling on a bottle of seasoning called "Reaper". Meals at our household are sometimes not for the faint of heart:

The penultimate stop of the day on Saturday was at the Maruichi Japanese Grocery in Rockville:

Only a part of what we bought there (see below):

The final destination was to a "secret" Taiwanese restaurant. Hidden inside a typical Sichuan eatery, my wife learned of its existence from a local Mandarin-language newspaper. This place (the name of which hasn't been revealed to me) specializes in Taiwanese dishes, which change on a weekly basis. In a scene reminiscent of a Prohibition-era speakeasy, Shu-E had to ask at the counter for the Taiwanese menu, which was brought out by an older woman working in the kitchen. Among the 台灣菜 she ordered for us were Dàcháng ròugēng miànxiàn 大腸肉羹麵線, which translates as "large intestine meat soup noodles"...:

…and Táinán wǎngāo 台南碗糕, or "Taiwan bowl cake":

The Taiwanese kitchen is inside this restaurant, which means I've probably already revealed too much and will now need to go into hiding. Rockville is known as "Little Taipei", and had I joined the Foreign Service much earlier, by now we probably would be proud(?) owners of a house in this area:

Back at home and admiring the haul from the Japanese grocery. The dango 団子 (Japanese rice flour dumplings) and Ramune ラムネ soda were among my daughter's choices; while my favorites included nattō 納豆 (look it up), UCC canned coffee, and the biggest surprise of all (for me), Skal スコール, a "fizzy milk soda" that's easy to find in places like Fukuoka 福岡 and Kyōto 京都, but hard to track down in Tōkyō 東京. In the paraphrased words of a certain general, I shall return (once our car is back, of course):

Unfortunately for Amber, personal transport meant not being able to lie around in her room all Sunday doing whatever it is a 15-year-old likes to do these days. Instead, I dragged her out to Burke Lake Park, where she had no choice but to join me on a 5-mile-long (8 kilometers) walking path around the lake:

The weather was fair, with temperatures around 15°C/60°F:

There's a kiddie train that moves surprisingly fast along the rails:

Checking out the fish in the clear water:

You can take the boy out of California, but you can't take California out of the boy. Decked out in my Sacramento River Cats cap and jersey:

Autumn colors:

In all it took us around 2 hours to do the walk. Afterward I rewarded my daughter with lunch at Yet jip BBQ. Amber is a fan of Korean cuisine (among other things Hanguk):

Now this is how we should be spending our weekends. I have a book on day trips from Washington, D.C. and another on hikes in the metro area, both are which have largely been gathering dust (well, not the latter anymore) since we returned to the U.S. in July. But until our Accord gets here (hopefully before Thanksgiving) we're back to relying on public transportation to get around if we don't want to be stuck at home. Unless, of course, I need to see more specialists in inconvenient locations, in which case Enterprise Rent-A-Car's profit margins will continue to improve.

So until next time I have wheels, here a few random photos from recent weeks, like this one of Amber posing with her school's mascot:

Lunch one afternoon at Borek G Turkish Mom's Cooking. As the weather was still warm at that time, we walked there instead of taking the bus or going by Uber:

Next door to the restaurant is the Henderson House:

You can take the girl out of Taiwan, but you can't take Taiwan out of the girl, especially when it comes to going out for some xuěhuā bīng 雪花冰:

Sunset scene from our balcony:

Deer are a not uncommon sight in this area. A few days after taking this photo, I saw a deer running on a busy road, bringing traffic to a halt in the process. We also saw a couple of the animals during our recent Saturday drive:

Tinner Hill Park:

Cherry Hill Farmhouse. I've been inside, but the girl couldn't at that time because she was eating a snow cone at the time (see here):

"How much are houses selling for in this area?!":

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting up with Mary, a friend from Davis, CA who was visiting Washington, D.C. with her husband Tony from their home in Georgia, and whom I hadn't seen in person since my Tokyo days. Facebook has been getting a lot of well-deserved negative publicity recently, but the social networking site has enabled me to reconnect with a number of old friends:

I'll end this blog post with this. I know a lot of Whitey McEnglish Teachers® who salivate at the opportunity to "explain" Taiwan and its people to anyone who will listen, but none has done as good a job as John Oliver. Enjoy: