everyday eating during "unprecedented" times
Had a good night at the hotel—my room was big and my air purifier worked well.
Ended up getting fast food for lunch during my conference break. It was raining and most of the regular restaurants in the area didn’t open to noon and timing-wise that didn’t work.
Learned how to make Dorset buttons and color work.
Drove home, stopping for fancy popcorn in York.
Matt made us steak and a mashed potato casserole with spinach and cheese. He also got me a fancy doughnut.
I headed to PA for a knitting retreat/conference and spent the day going to getting local food at a local supermarket to bring home, tiny museums, including one about fly fishing before my class at 6 pm.
I didn’t really have lunch, I snacked on a corn cookie from Denim Coffee and a part of sticky bun from Mr Sticky and Goldfish.
After class I went to this fast casual egg Indian place that was open until 10 pm and got a spicy egg curry (eaten with chapati) and a “Bombay Grill sandwich” which was a triple decker with samosa filling one side and toppings/sauce on the other. Both were really good. I was so hungry—just the sandwich would have been enough for a regular day.
Today was another 7 hr weaving class. I could not find any thing to bring to lunch so I had some goldfish crackers and M&Ms I had brought in case of emergency.
I drove home after and Matt had gone to Costco and got the chicken taco kit. Costco also had castella cake which I love and he got a box. It wasn’t as good as fresh from the bakery but not bad!
He also made berry compote while I was away (we had some with the cake) and prepped food for our anniversary tomorrow.
Long day but the class was successful! I have this kind of specialty loom already so I’m looking forward to practicing more at home. I had tried a little after we impulse bought it but now I know exactly how to warp it and weave so I don’t imprint any bad habits on myself.
I think if the class was slightly further away and our anniversary wasn’t tomorrow, I would have stayed tonight in the hotel. It was a long two days! The crochet lesson on Friday seems like it happened a decade ago.
People were coughing every where but no masking! I masked in class and in common areas of the hotel of course but it was really an area where people stopped doing anything. Meanwhile here at home, I see people masking all the time and there are stores and events that require it.
I think the dinners were the most successful of any of the trips I’ve been to for weaving/spinning classes. Tasty, convenient and affordable. Lunch continues to be a problem; I really wish they would add a boxed lunch option to these things but they never do. Or provide any refrigeration. The gap of time between lunch and leaving the hotel is too long for something not to be refrigerated and the rooms don’t always have freezers for ice packs.
I thought the muffin was a good idea but it was so bad and I couldn’t find a bakery or store that was still open after class on Saturday or open on Sunday morning. The classes are pretty physically demanding and I bet even locals would be happy not to have to pack a lunch.
Spent a cold rainy day weaving in a dark cold room. It was fun and informative but not pleasant.
I had bought a blueberry muffin at the farm store after my crochet lesson to have to lunch and there was a blue stain on the wrapper but no blueberries actually in the muffin! It was very sweet so it was more like eating an unflavored, un-iced cupcake than a muffin.
For dinner I picked up some eggplant parm and it came with garlic knots and a salad, it was good! I wonder if there is a garlic bread/garlic knot divide, I rarely see garlic knots at home and if you get some free bread on the side, it’s always garlic bread. It was near a tiny airport which would have been interesting to peek at if it wasn’t very cold and windy.
I did not finished even half of this pasta! I wish I was able to bring it home but I am in class all day tomorrow and have to check of my weird old hotel.
Virtually nothing is open on Sundays here and I got out of class too late for the markets to be open (they all close at like 4-5 pm) so tomorrow’s lunch might be a little grim. I do have some snacks I brought with me so that might be it.
Hopefully tonight the heat will go on. It was really cold in the room last night.
I’m in PA and Matt’s home with the dogs. I got a pretzel dog and lemonade for lunch and then had a private crochet lesson at a yarn shop. I learned a lot!
I went to get new wiper blades because we realized mine are beat and it’s supposed to be horrible rain tomorrow.
For dinner I had lomo saltado from a food truck that also had arepas. I was tempted by the arepas but the lomo saltado was more of a meal, it came with beans and an amazing chimichurri on the side.
Long day! I got up early checked out of the hotel and got a turkey and Swiss sandwich at gas station/market and went to my all day spinning class. Packing a lunch when you aren’t coming from home is always tricky but I saw that place last time after class and made a mental note. They also have a cafe behind the market and I picked up a cinnamon we split when I got home.
Spun yarn for 8 hrs then drove home. Matt had made potato salad with horseradish earlier in the day so we had that with hot dogs and beans. I was so hungry! I really didn’t eat much earlier, I didn’t finish the sandwich and felt headachy.
Tried some of the popcorn I got yesterday and had half the cinnamon roll which I feel like had some coffee flavoring. Maybe in the icing?
Glad to be home! The hotel was fine but my room was super cold and the air conditioner kept going on despite me setting it on like 74°. The room temp was around 60°.
I have a class tomorrow morning so I’m spending the night in Pa today!
For lunch I got Hủ Tiếu Mì Xào Đổ Biến which wasn’t bad. I don’t think it quite had all of the seafood listed but I had awful luck with food last time I was in this city so I was happy to eat and have vegetables.
I ate it in front of an industrial museum and then went in and did a tour. It was really cute! Campy. There was a cow you could “milk” and some liquid actually was dripping out. Lots of niche industrial equipment like animal cracker molds and wallpaper printing.
After than I did some thrifting (no luck) then got fancy popcorn at the fancy popcorn store to bring home.
I hung out in my hotel for a while then picked up some drunken noodles. They were good! Actually spicy! The place was under staffed but pretty efficient.
I know some people think you can’t travel when you are Covid cautious but it isn’t too bad! I’m not dining in so everything is takeout which makes the weather is fairly important if you can’t just go back to the hotel/motel/house or don’t have a car to eat in.
I mask in any common areas and don’t get room service. I took this class because October is generally still pretty good weather so I spent most of the day walking around and then had a chill evening in. Not that there is anything do here anyway!
This trip it’s only for one night then I’m coming home since it’s a Saturday and I won’t be worrying about rush hour like I was last time. Hopefully we won’t run late.
I’ve had some mixed experiences with travel the last three years since most places seem to have really limited their hours no matter where I’ve been. Websites and Google are rarely accurate anymore.
Traveling on a Friday was the way to go! If I wasn’t in class tomorrow there would be plenty to do. Tuesday-Wednesday travel was brutal. I did run into a couple places I thought I’d go to that were unexpectedly closed which was unfortunate but not really a big deal.
Matt stayed home to work so he had some soup for lunch and then tried out a place he’s been wanting to try out in the suburbs. Aparently it wasn’t bad but no DC Bánh mì!
Today we went to Harpers Ferry, WV. It was a gorgeous day! We walked around a bit, went to the historic candy store there then drove out of the historic part to Bolivar Bread Bakery and got pretzel pepperoni rolls, a couple of cookies and a loaf of pickle rye bread.
Then we went to a yarn store and got some yarn and drove a few minutes more to Shepherdstown. It has a cute downtown area! Matt got a sandwich but I wasn’t hungry. I did get some more popcorn from a rival popcorn shop. We are swimming in popcorn!
We came home and had a pepperoni roll snack and tried some popcorn. I got “loaded potato” flavor from both shops and it was fun to see how different they were.
For dinner we made tuna salad BLTs on the pickle bread and it was so good.
We got up early, made pancakes and went to York, Pa for the day.
We went to the Weightlifting Hall of Fame Museum which I have always seen a statue from 83 and was intrigued by. It was well done!
We also went to the popcorn place I went to back in April and picked up like five flavors of popcorn.
Then we went to an event at a yarn store with a yarn designer which was fun.
On our way back we stopped and got crab cakes and Smith Island Cake for dinner. Both were good!
I’m back from Peters Valley! It took over 5 hrs to drive home. It was a horrible storm and I couldn’t find anything that was open on a Monday and near the highway to stop for lunch so end up snacking on Goldfish cracker and dark chocolate M&Ms on the road.
The above was a small wooden bridge I had to pay $2 cash (unexpected!) to cross.
I know people like to say that Covid is over but really nothing is back to totally normal, especially restaurants and businesses. I don’t know if it is a staffing issue or a safety issue but so many places no matter where I am or how busy or touristy the area have very limited hours. Like only being open for breakfast and lunch or takeout only or only open Thursday-Sunday or no Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays. I can see on their social media, websites and physical locations that this is a change. Or they have gone takeout only. This makes travel lot tricker than it used to be!
The plan was for Matt to have a real dinner at home I didn’t have to think about since I didn’t know what my meals away would be be like and might be takeout-ed out. He made steaks with roasted mushrooms, zucchini and potatoes. I was so hungry! No leftovers.
Rachel Eats Dinner 