Pop Up Market Downtown & Point State Park

Last Friday afternoon, I read a few tweets from the local food trucks I follow that there was a pop up market happening downtown from 6-11 PM. I texted Adam to tell him we were going for dinner. We were looking for something quick, inexpensive, and delicious anyway.

I wasn't sure what to expect exactly and I was pleasantly surprised when we walked up to see about 20 vendors (about half of them were food, half were arts and crafts) in a small lot just a block from the Theater District parking garage. It was an amazing night, so there were tons of people out taking advantage of the market and the Gallery Crawl, which they run in conjunction with one another (we overheard someone say there was free beer at a few of the galleries, no wonder it was so popular).

Adam and I decided that we would be sharing our food (we didn't want to eat too much) and we got in line for the Meat and Potatoes tent, which had smoked pork tacos. We grabbed 2/$7. Not too shabby.

Another booth we visited was BRGR, which we've been wanting to try forever. We got an Average Joe burger to share. The bun was amazing and the burger was really good too.

I promised Adam we didn't have to stick around too long, so we grabbed a few goodies from Bluebird Kitchen to go. We decided on the banana dulce de leche bar and the campfire cupcake. OMG the banana bar was sooo yummy.

After the market, Adam and I decided to walk down to Point State Park, since we were in the area, neither one of us had been there and it was a gorgeous night (and sunset).

A lot of the park is closed for renovations and restoration of the fountain, which is supposed to be opening again this June after 2 years of work on it.

We didn't really stick around long, just walked down to the river and then headed back to the car. It was getting pretty late and we were tired. I can't wait to check it out again when all the fencing is gone and the fountain is working!

21+ Night at the Carnegie Science Center

On Thursday, I read a tweet from the Carnegie Science Center that said they were still selling advanced tickets for their 21+ night on Friday. I messaged Adam and begged asked if we could go. I wasn't sure if he'd be into it since it was, sci-fi themed (complete with Star Wars characters and a DeLorean), had booze and was full of people we didn't know. Miraculously he agreed, so I bought the tickets ($10 a piece in advance/$15 at the door).

Friday night, we headed over to the museum at about 7 PM and walked up to not only the DeLorean parked out front, but also the entire "cast" of Ghostbusters and the Ecto-1. 

Inside, we waited in a short line to get our wrist bands and then we walked around to see some of the exhibits on the main floor.

We passed through a wristband checkpoint and this cool gravity bungee jump wall on our way up to the other floors. I was surprised that they had all the floors open, minus the few exhibits like the planetarium.

The first floor we hit had all the robotic stuff, a really awesome model train set, and the live entertainment. Adam really liked this floor - I think it had the coolest stuff to play with. You could play basketball against a robot, use a robot to build a model from beads, and see how a robotic medicine dispensing machine worked.

On the third floor we found Nemo and Dory and I had my picture taken in a submarine. This floor also had a test kitchen where they were teaching how to make ice cream using salt and ice cubes, but they sped up the process using liquid nitrogen. They had two showings, one at 7:30 and one at 8:30. Adam and I hung around to check it out. It was actually the second time in a week that I've eaten ice cream made with liquid nitrogen, oh the life of a scientist! ;)

After the show, we went upstairs to the top floor and found that it was a huge play area (remember this is really a museum for kids ;) ). There was everything from stuff about weather to a giant operation game to a water play area. We also ran into the storm troopers up here.

I stopped at the bar on our way back downstairs and all they had left was mixed drinks and wine. I ended up getting their special drink the "Marty McFly", which was a jack and ginger ale. We also noticed that there was a theater up here where they were featuring something about Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, but we missed show time. Adam and I also found a few other things we missed on the first go, like this scale showing what you'd weigh on other planets and a few other astronaut related things.

We ended up leaving soon after, Adam and I were getting hungry. I think there were food options there, but the lines were kind of insane so we didn't stop to see, we did notice some people with trays of stuff though. On the way out the Ghostbuster guys were still there, flashing their lights on the Ecto-1.

It was a pretty fun night, it probably would have been better with a bigger group of people, but I'd definitely go again to another one - just Adam and I! 

Washington DC Trip

I just got back from a quick trip to Washington DC where I met up with my lab mates and attended the AACR conference. We didn't really have much time to spend walking around the city, but we did get to go out for a couple of hours one day and see the cherry blossoms (which happened to peak while we were there) and the Smithsonian museums.

Our first night, after the conference was done for the day, we decided to go check out the cherry blossoms down by the tidal basin. We stayed at the JW Marriott, right next to the White House and the mall, so it was a quick walk to get there. On the way, we passed the White House and the Washington Monument.

It was such a gorgeous night and the sunset was spectacular.

The next day, at 11 AM the conference shut down so everyone could go across the street to join the Rally for Medical Research. They handed out t-shirts and signs and we were joined by a number of other groups that were rallying for a specific cause, like breast cancer, heart disease, lung disease, etc and listened to speakers who talked about why medical research was important to them. We hung around just long enough until the sun started beating down (it was ~90º) and we were getting hungry. We did have some fun taking pictures though.

Best helmet ever.

Our last day, my lab mates Beth and Ashley and I decided to quickly check out the Smithsonian museums, we only had time to run through the Museum of American History and the Natural History Museum, before we headed down to the tidal basin again to see the cherry blossoms, which we read were in peak bloom that day.

The museums were much better than I remembered from 10 years ago, the were so packed though, lots of school groups out that day.

We were so fortunate to be able to see the cherry blossoms at peak. I don't know if there will ever be another time that I'll be able to get down there to see them like this again, but if I do, I'm definitely going to be bringing my tripod along for some early morning photos!