Hoppin’ John

I’m a low-level fan of Hoppin’ John and the tradition of having black eyed peas on New Year’s Day. I’ve tried various recipes over the years and never really landed on one I loved, but this year I stumbled into an easy version that tastes really good, inspired partly by a recent NY Times recipe …

China 2009, Part 8

Part 8 of our June 2009 trip to China with the Speizmans. Wednesday, June 17 – Bus to Stanley Market, Sunset at Four Seasons For old times’ sake, we took the #6 bus from the Star Ferry terminal across the island toward Stanley, passing our hold homes and haunts. This was a chance to show …

China 2009, Part 7

Part 7 of our June 2009 trip to China with the Speizmans. Sunday, June 14 – Xian to Hong Kong We split off from the Speizmans for the next few days. They headed toward the karst mountains and river valleys near Yangshuo and Guilin while Allie, Barb and I headed to Hong Kong. This was …

China 2009, Part 6

Part 6 of our June 2009 trip to China with the Speizmans. Saturday, June 13 – Xian The highlight and main purpose for visiting Xian was to see the Terracotta Army of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. I remembered being amazed by our first visit in 1988. I was eager to show Allie and the Speizmans …

China 2009, Part 5

Part 5 of our June 2009 trip to China with the Speizmans. Friday, June 12 – Beijing to Xian We got ourselves checked out of the Raffles and transported back to the fancy new Beijing airport. We had enough time to relax a little and explore the amenities. It beat any airport we could think …

Denver 2023

Our long-awaited trip to attend Sara’s wedding. Wednesday, November 8 Barb and I flew to Denver nonstop on Southwest without incident, departing at 12:45pm and arriving before 3pm, civilized hours on both ends. We arrived at the Denver airport which somehow seemed even larger than before. It took us 30 minutes from landing until we …

China 2009, Part 3

Part 3 of our June 2009 trip to China with the Speizmans. Wednesday, June 10 – Great Wall, Ming Tombs The next day was no less ambitious as we piled into a hired car with Henry for a journey to the Great Wall. On previous trips, I had been to the Badaling segment of the …

China 2009, Part 2

Part 2 of our June 2009 trip to China with the Speizmans. Tuesday, June 9 – Beijing, Forbidden City With dawn’s early light we rose with jet lag. Barb was delighted find that the Raffles offered a full breakfast buffet, as befitting a fine hotel in Singapore or Hong Kong. After filling ourselves with eggs, …

China 2009, Part 1

Part 1 of our June 2009 trip to China with the Speizmans. Sunday-Monday, June 7-8:  Washington to Beijing We flew non-stop from Washington-Dulles to Beijing on United Airlines. We departed on Sunday at 12:22pm and arrived at the impressive new Terminal 3 at Beijing Capital airport on Monday at 2:20pm the next day. The ultra-modern …