Marc & I are now back in the big CHill after a week or so in DC. This morning we went drove out to the Umstead State Park where Marc did his 2-hr long run while Shuwen ran for ~ 43 mins (a record length for her) and hiked a little.

Our squash & zucchini plants did not survive the extreme 100+ heat last week while we were gone and they shrivelled up and died -- I'm sad, but at least we learned a little from this year's attempt. On the other hand, our okra plants are doing well as are our eggplant and cherry tomatoes (super 100 variety for those who are wondering). If you ever wondered what an okra flower looks like, this is it. It is a relative of the hibiscus, hence the resemblance. I had always thought the okra fruit hung down, but nope, it actually sticks up!

Our last few days in DC were nice as we got to connect with a few more friends. Wednesday evening we met up a bunch of his Swat friends for dinner at Lauriol Plaza. Yana's college roommate, Roxanna was also in town visiting before starting her new PhD program in FL, and I got to meet Seth & Trish as well. Phil Jones drove in all the way from Baltimore to join us (with no A/C in his car no less!) Ambrose really managed to round up a good crowd :) The place was jammed packed and super busy, but somehow ran pretty efficiently and the quality of the food remained high despite having been slammed with customers the past few years. Marc's roasted quail was incredible!

Marc & I decided to have a low-key Friday evening after so many evenings out, and caught the 5th Harry Potter movie "Order of the Phoenix" at the Georgetown cinema. I had forgotten how expensive movies are in DC! $9.50/ person -- and that was the student rate! wow! Anyway, I was rather disappointed with the movie, mostly because I felt many of the actors over-acted and there wasn't much subtlety at all. Daniel Radcliffe and Emma Watson were great as child actors in the first 2 movies, but I think have not developed their characters well enough. Marc was confused about some part of the movie since it isn't able to convey much of the background the books provide, so I tried to explain some of that to him -- but I agree, the movies miss out on lots of the details. The books are still 10 times better.
Yesterday morning we drove over to the Great Falls National Park to check it out. Lara had brought me to the MD side a few years ago, and this time Marc & I went to the VA side. It's rather neat and we saw a bunch of folks canoeing, as well as a guy abseiling down the rocky cliff towards the river. Our drive back to NC in the early afternoon was thwarted with bad traffic all the way to Fredricksburg. -- it took us over 6 hrs to make it back (but this included a brief stop at Ikea :P )

On Tuesday we will have my friend, Shaoquan over for dinner before he heads back to Singapore to work after studying and working in the US for over 7 years. Marc & I are planning to make some gumbo since Shao is a fan of Creole and will unlikely fun such cuisines back in Singapore (but will have access to so many other yummy foods...)