I've realized that I'm a bad relaxer. I'm constantly wanting to check things off my to-do list, or talk about what else needs to be accomplished. I hate having a list of "undone" items while relaxing. In contrast, DH can have all the things in the world to accomplish and still decide to take a whole day to do nothing. Yup, nothing. This drives me crazy for two reasons--first, because he could be helping with my to-do list (like house cleaning). Second and probably more importantly, because no matter how hard I try, I really can't seem to do the same.

Happy Thanksgiving! In the spirit of delicious food....

There are so many places to go, and sometimes it's hard to decide whether to return to somewhere you love or try somewhere new.  One of the places I've been to a number of times is Prince Edward Island.

If you've never been to PEI, you should go. It's fun to stop in Halifax on the way, if you are driving, it's a beautiful, charming, seaside town with a lot of history. You can arrive at PEI by driving over the bridge, or taking the ferry from Caribou, Nova Scotia.  You can also fly, though I never have.

Everyone says you can't go to Bangkok without checking out a rooftop bar. So we checked out a rooftop bar. Not because we like to listen to what everyone says, but because we (like many visitors) wanted to see the Bangkok skyline and grab a drink after another hot day of being a tourist.

We chose the Banyan Tree for one reason only: because it was next door to our hotel. If nothing else, we were consistently lazy after a day of sweating profusely and seeing Bangkok.  Fortunately for us, the Banyan Tree was just around the corner.  Unfortunately for us at the time, it was raining. In fact, it rained each night we were in Bangkok, which cooled off the city for just a bit in the morning. Considering it was still "rainy season" we counted ourselves as extremely lucky, and the respite from the heat in the mornings was also welcome! 

We wandered over to the Banyan Tree hoping that it wasn't enough rain to close the upper deck, but it was closed.  Good news, though-- they have another bar on the 52nd floor called Latitude, which is covered, but where you can still see the view. I have no idea if the view is "the same", though they said it was.  Everyone talks about the Moon Bar, but you never hear about Latitude--I'm sure the Moon Bar is better, but seeing as it was closed, we were happy there was an alternative. The view from the 52nd floor is definitely still impressive, and you can see the miles of Bangkok lights. 

We had one very expensive dinner while we were in Thailand, at Nahm in the Metropolitan by COMO. Since we were staying at the Metropolitan, and Nahm has been ranked as one of the World's Best as well as one of Asia's best, well, why pass it up?

We decided to do the tasting menu because who knows when we will return to Bangkok again. I'm definitely glad we did as it allowed (errr...forced) us to try some things I never would have ever dreamed of trying.

First, the service at Nahm was great. Attentive, but not annoying. Friendly and helpful, but not pretentious or condescending. Courteous. I'd definitely give it two thumbs up. 

Now, on to the food...

We visited DC Brau on Saturday, one of the larger breweries in the District right now, although the craft brewery scene is definitely growing quickly here. 

Of course we went to a Mexican restaurant after DC Brau. I don't have pictures of the food, as I was too hungry to bother, but if you are around H Street NE, the queso fundido and the enchiladas at Impala Cantina are delicious. I resisted ordering a second round of queso fundido...my health will thank me. My stomach still is angry about that decision. (Backstory...we are running a marathon in October, and now that our long runs have topped 14 miles, I suggest you read "the feeding" for a little more insight to my ravenous eating habits). 

On to DC Brau....

Ok...is it weird I'm still embarrassed to sit around a table taking pictures of my food and drink?  My friends don't care, my husband doesn't care, but I just feel so strange doing it.  Total aversion (face in hands).

Anyway, I went to Richmond on Saturday to visit a good friend.  I was really impressed by the food and drink scene--not so much by the impossibly horrible traffic getting down there from DC on a Saturday. I mean, yea I know I live in a major metropolitan area known for terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad traffic, but I really don't sit in traffic that much. Well, I got my full yearly dose yesterday.  I had no idea that 90 miles could take 4 hours, but guess what, it can!

Sigh.  But I have to say that the company and the beer (and the tacos) really made up for it.  Let's first start with the three breweries.  

After our boat tour, we were starving.  We had a few restaurant recommendations, between TripAdvisor (like anything else, use wisely), hotel recommendations, and my guide book. Because it was off-season, a few restaurants I was interested in were unfortunately not open yet.

So we took advantage of the many, many men standing around the dock trying to sell us a boat ride, and asked them where they would recommend.  Sure, they might get a kick-back from the restaurant, but we were hoping for something a bit more authentic.

One helpful fellow recommended Verginiello, and with some waving hands and general directions, we figured we could find it. I mean, Capri is a small island.  We aren’t that directionally dysfunctional.

After the Archeological Museum, we were starving.  It was about 5pm.  In our defense, we had flown in that morning and hadn’t stopped to eat anything but gelato.

But it was delicious gelato.  I had coffee and pistachio.  I’m preferential to coffee gelato, but the pistachio gave it a real run for the money.  

But let’s be honest for a second, I eat at 5pm every evening. And I turn into a hungry-grumpysaurus if my meal gets pushed to 7pm, much less 9pm.  I’m also in bed around 10pm.  Real question: how will I ever cope in Spain?

Anyway.

We stopped by a restaurant on my list to visit (sometimes its helpful to have some ideas, but not feel pressured to make it to every place on your list)—Osteria Il Garum, which was sort of between the museum and our hotel, on Piazza Monteoliveto.  Of course they weren’t serving dinner yet, but they offered to let us sit in their charming little restaurant (they also have awesome outdoor seating, but it was a bit chilly already that night).