Nicole on christmas morning.

Nicole’s mom made it back to Cincinnati around 3 in the afternoon and it was a good thing she hadn’t come home any sooner since we had finally just gotten showered and cleaned up just as she called. So we packed up all our stuff and said goodbye to Phil and headed over to Jean’s place. At Jean’s place we hung out for a little bit and then exchanged gifts with her. I think Jean really liked the wedding album that Nicole had made and finally given to her. For dinner we did snow crab legs because it was fast and easy to do since Jean wasn’t home for most of the day. After dinner we went downstairs and setup the Wii and tried playing some of the new games that Nicole got for christmas. Unfortunately the Mario Party 8 that I had gotten for nicole didn’t work which was a bit of a bummer for the day.

Ross opening one of the shirts he received from jean.

Jean and Nicole looking at the wedding album.

Our snow crab dinner. So yummy.

Saturday was another relaxing day. We started of the day by getting a little bit of shopping done. Surprisingly it wasn’t really that crazy while we were out shopping but that could have been because we were out early and were home by 2PM. After a nap and some video game playing and hanging out we went out to dinner. Jean wanted to do a special dinner for us and instead of cooking we convinced her to take us to Montgomery Inn since I had never been there. This place is known for their ribs and is a favorite of Sean’s. Unfortunately because they are so good and popular they only take reservations for 5PM and anytime after that you just have to show up and wait. We ended up just getting reservations and going to dinner early. The place was enormous and had a ton of different rooms where middle to small functions could be held. It was also kinda interesting since as you moved through the place the atmosphere changed from really casual bar dinning to a more formal dining depending on which room you were in. I of course got the ribs since thats all I had heard about from the place. I thought they were quite good and better than anything I could get here in DC but they weren’t no dinosaur bbq ribs.

Nicole and Ross at Montgomery Inn

Jean at Montgomery Inn.

The next day was the end of our trip and after a quick breakfast with Jean we headed out. Since we got a good start in the morning we made it back to DC just after it got dark which left us with plenty of time to unwind and to go to the grocery store to get food.

The next day was Christmas Eve and started off with a quick trip to the mall so I could pick up the last of my gifts for nicole. Originally I was supposed to get it the weekend before but thanks to snowpocalypse that didn’t happen. Luckily we got an early start in the morning and managed to get to the mall soon after it opened so it wasn’t too crazy while I got the shopping I needed done. Afterwards we went to the third place that nicole loves to go to when she is back home. We had an early lunch at Skyline Chili. I have to admit that the place has really started to grow on me over the years and now I really do like going there especially cause their cheese coneys are so yummy. All that finely grated cheese just can’t be beat.

Nicole and Phil outside Skyline.

After lunch we headed into downtown Cincinnati to go and see a model train exhibit put on by the local power company. When we got there we were greeted with a free warm cookie which was awesome. The train exhibit was a little small but still very good. The line moved quickly and we got to see the model train after only a few minutes. I really liked it and there was a surprising number of things going on.

The model train exhibit.

Nicole and Ross in front of the model trains.

Phil and Nicole in front of the trains.

The model train exhibit.

Look at the little construction workers. They even moved around.

After the trains we headed home and just hung out for the rest of the day. Nicole spent a little while trying to teach her dad how to play the Wii. Phil was a good sport about it and did a pretty good job playing. I spent most of the afternoon working on dinner since we were having prime rib and I was in charge of the meat. After dinner we headed out to catch midnight (10 pm) mass.

Phil playing the wii.

Nicole having fun beating her dad at wii golf.

Ross working on preparing his prime rib.

Nicole and Phil before church.

A few weeks ago, one of our family members (Jenn) was in DC for some training for work.  We were able to get together with Jess, Glenn and Jenn for dinner in DC at Capitol City brewing company.  It was great to catch up with Jenn — we hadn’t seen her since about the same time last year before she moved out to SanFran. While we were all sitting at dinner, we realized we completely forgot to invite another cousin, Sarah, to join us for dinner. Whoops!

The following weekend, Ross and I met up with Sarah to check out the newly renovated American History Museum.  It was one of our favorite museums before it closed a few years ago for extensive renovations.  Although it has re-opened to the public — they are not totally done with renovations and many areas of the museum were still closed off.

One of the biggest parts of the renovations were a new entry and Star Spangled Banner Exhibit.  I love the abstract flag that hangs in the main entry near the entrance to the Star Spangled banner exhibit — it was pretty cool.

My two favorite parts of the museum were/are the First Lady’s dresses and Julia Child’s kitchen.   Since the museum isn’t finished, the first lady exhibit is quite limited.  I was disappointed that Michelle Obama’s dress was not on display.  I did learn something new though – Did you know that the first lady was not necessarily the  president’s wife?  It was historically a hostess position, and was often taken over by the president’s daughter, niece or other relation.

Sarah and me checking out the dresses

Julia child’s kitchen was always a favorite of mine at the museum.  With the release of “Julie and Julia”, I think the exhibit got a lot of extra traffic.  It was fun looking at the layout of her kitchen (very functional), seeing her original stove (which she used for ~50 years), and all the cooking gadgets she had.

We went through a lot of the rest of the museum, but ran out of steam to go through it all.  We’ll have to go back and see the rest. Good thing the Smithsonian museums are all free =)

Ross and Nicole in Atrium

Sarah and Nicole in the atrium

Restaurant week means 3-course meals for $35.09.  Some restaurants offer a very limited menu, but Bistro Bis offered almost their full menu (with a small upcharge for some of the more expensive menu items).  Bistro Bis is a french bistro style restaurant in the Capitol Hill area of DC.  Ross and I took advantage of our metro-accessible location and took the metro to Bistro Bis.

Starters:

I stared with the caramelized pear, endive, blue cheese salad.  I would say the salad was okay – not enough blue cheese or pears for my tastes — and I learned that I don’t really care for endive.

Ross started with the mussel and liguica appetizer, in a sweet tomato broth.  The serving size was huge — almost a whole meal in itself.  He really enjoyed the mussels, the sausage and broth.

My monster appetizer which had a ton of mussels

Main Course:

I had the sea scallops served over a cauliflower mousse.  The scallops were huge and perfectly done – so yummy!

Ross has the pork belly served over polenta with a corn and butter bean salsa.  He really enjoyed the pork belly.

Dessert:

Ross and I were in such a hurry to eat our yummy desserts that we forgot to take pictures.  I had a lemon sponge cake with lemon mousse served with a blueberry sauce. Light and summery.  Ross had an apple tarte Normandie – traditional French apple tarte — also very yummy.

Because it was restaurant week, and the restaurant was full of people who wouldn’t normally splurge on such a fancy restaurant — Ross and I decided to play tourist and take pictures of ourselves and the food.  Hopefully we didn’t make too huge fools out of ourselves.

As we were finishing our main course, we ran into some of our friends at Bistro Bis — totally by coincidence.  Ross’ friend Aaron and his girlfriend Jenni  were seated  next to us — they had also made reservations for Bistro Bis that night for restaurant week.  It was fun running into them!  Although, later Aaron texted Ross saying they got a free 1/2 bottle of wine…we were a bit jealous.  Wonder how they managed that one.

Ross and I had a great time at restaurant week and will partake in it again in January.

We like doing the blueberry mountain hike because it has great views at the top of both Lake LaCloche and the North Channel of Lake Huron.  Thankfully, there was a nice breeze when we got to the top – and we all relaxed and enjoyed the view and breeze once we got there.

Hiking up blueberry mountain

Stopping to pick some blueberries along the way

Blueberries on the bush

Blueberries in the hand….on the way to the mouth…

Alex and Nicky on the way up the mountain (Lake Huron behind)

Ross and Nicole in split rock. A landmark on the way up — the rocks have grown further apart over the years.

View of LaCloche lake

Ross and Nicole at the top with Lake Huron behind

Ross with Lake Huron behind

Hanging out on top blueberry mountain

Ross and Nicole on top of the mountain

The first time we got in the water was swimming off of the boat back in spring bay.  (It’s called spring bay because it’s where the natural spring is, where we used to get our drinking water).  I initially got in without my life jacket, but then got back in the boat for my life jacket.  Life jackets are nice in the water because it ads a bit of padding, and helps keep you warmer in the water.  They also help you stay afloat if you’re lazy and don’t want to tread water. Ross was surprsied the difference in buoyancy between fresh water and the salt water he’s used to in Hawaii.

Swimming off the boat in Spring Bay

After a quick swim/bathe off the dock

The boys went out tubing a few times during the week.  They had gotten a new inner tube with a flat top which allowed 2 people to lie across the tube and ride at the same time.   Ross joined them their first time out – and according to Alex “he flew 10 feet in the air!”.  I wasn’t feeling great, so didn’t join them on that outing.  The boys certainly look like they had fun.

Sam and Alex get ready for their ride

Sam and Alex tubing

Another popular water activity on the lake is water skiing.  Aunt Carla loves skiing and looks quite graceful up on her single ski.  Getting up on skiis is not very easy, and usually takes many tries.  When I ski, I’m not nearly as graceful as Aunt Carla.  I just get up, and then hang on for dear life — and am proud of myself for getting up.  For some reason the boys were not interested in learning how to ski — oh well.  Ross, however, decided he would give it a try — even though he had  a cold and wasn’t feeling 100%.  Ross hung in there, and after many tries got up on the skiis!  Unfortunately, I was too slow to get a picture of him up on the skiis.  Apparently we did a good job of telling him how to get up, but forgot to tell him what to do once he was up — so he fell down.  I was pretty impressed he got up on his first time out!

Aunt Carla on her single ski

Uncle Lee up on skiis

Nicole on her way up and out of the water

Look — I made it out of the wake!

Ross ready to try skiing

Ross getting all set up

Ross on his way up and out of the water

In addition to swimming off the boat and the dock, we also went swimming off submarine rock.  Submarine rock is a small island in the lake the kind of resembles a sumbarine coming out the water.  The front of the island has relatively smooth rocky front that drops off into the water.  We also read and sunned ourselves on the rock after getting out of the water.  All of the boys were into their books, so we got a few minutes of silence  — which was really nice.

Ross on submarine rock

Swimming off submarine rock

Some quiet time on submarine rock