Hangin' out with the girls

I had a bit of a "girls weekend" over the last few days, and caught up with a lot of the women I was long overdue to see.

On Friday night I met up with Jenn for drinks at Zola and then a restaurant-week dinner with some of her friends at D'Acqua Restaurant. I had not seen Jenn since election night and as always, it was fantastic to see her and catch up. She is starting a wine club so please let me know if you are interested in attending any tastings in the DC area and stay tuned for future posts about her events.



On Saturday I visited Freya and Jason who had a beautiful baby girl last week. Jolie Logan Markowitz was born on February 11th and could not be more adorable. She is very loved by her big sister Hayden.




sisters



The day turned into a mini college reunion when Lainee, Danny and Melissa showed up that afternoon. Freya, Lainee, Mel and I were in the same sorority in college, and it was great to see them. Melissa is getting married this summer and Lainee and Danny are due with their first baby next month.





On Sunday, Kathy and I met for lunch at Tabasco Restaurant in Rockville. This is a wonderful little family-owned and family-run Mexican spot on the outskirts of Rockville. I cant wait to bring David here.



Another fabulous lady I wasn't able to see this week but absolutely qualifies as long overdue for a get-together is Amanda. We picked a weekend to get together this spring and I cant wait to see her!

You may be asking, "Whats with the logos? Where are the pictures of Jenn or Kathy? Where on Earth is David?!" David (and the camera) is roughing it on a business trip in Hawaii this weekend. A 'guest blogger' post from him will come soon. He went on a hike and promised that he took many beautiful photos of the island. He will be home tomorrow night.

Presidents Day/Valentines Day Weekend 2009

We spent this Presidents Day/Valentines Day weekend relaxing with David’s family, catching up, hearing about their recent travels and eating. A lot. It was fantastic.

Fran and Dov arrived in Rockville early Friday night, and we went downtown for dinner at Fogo de Chão. Always a crowd-pleaser, the restaurant features a variety of roasted meats presented on skewers and carved tableside. Each guest uses a two-sided disk to control the pace of their meal. (The green side signals the chefs to bring out more food and the red side indicates a stopping point.) If you’ve never been, it is a unique and fun experience. The meats are cooked to varying levels of done-ness and we were all happily served cuts to our liking. No easy feat for this crowd.


fogo disks

In addition to the meat extravaganza going on around you, the restaurant also has an amazing salad bar and serves traditional side dishes of warm cheese bread, fried bananas, crispy polenta and seasoned mashed potatoes. Deeelish! Happy and full, we headed back to Maryland for a little more catching up.



Saturday was Valentines Day! In the morning, David’s parents went to temple and we ran a few errands. In the afternoon, Fran and Dov gave us a few cute things for Valentines day and some beautiful gifts from their recent trip to Israel. We got a Hamsa for our wall, David got a star and I got an amazing necklace made by Daniel Alsberg at Studio Alsberg in Jerusalem. Jerry really liked David’s stuffed valentines day monkey.


Jerry and his new pal



David the Peking Duck Expert (showing incredible patience as his wife takes a yet another picture while he is trying to eat)

Our ‘all time favorite places eating tour’ weekend continued at dinner that night at Mark’s Duck House in Falls Church on Saturday night and then brunch at Tower Oaks Clyde’s on Sunday. We eventually had to try something new – so for dinner on Sunday we went to Bacchus of Lebanon in Bethesda. No one knows appetizers better than the Lebanese –and their menu had three whole pages dedicated to them. We were joined by John, one of Dov’s friends from back in his Army days. It was fantastic to finally meet him and we had a very lovely evening.


all of us at dinner


Fran Dov and David

We rounded out the long weekend of eating and enjoyment with brunch on Monday at Houston’s. Then David went to the office and the Ehrlichs headed back north to Jersey

We spent lots of time with family, eating, enjoying and relaxing. Thanks for a very nice weekend- it was just want we needed!

Ski Trip 2009: Vail and Beaver Creek

As most of you already know, we spent the last week skiing in beautiful Colorado. It was an incredibly relaxing yet active vacation- one we look forward to each year. We spent six days at Vail Mountain and one day at Beaver Creek.



We arrived in Denver Friday evening, picked up the rental car and headed west to the mountains. A few hours later, we arrived in Avon (about 10 miles from Vail) caught up for a while with David’s friend Rick (who had arrived a few hours earlier) and his sister-in-law Diane (who is spending the winter teaching ski school) before passing out. Rick’s wife Carolyn is due with their second child in a month and could not make the trip.


The Beev

We woke up bright and early each morning – and VERY excited to ski. Each day went something like this: wake up, have breakfast, put on ski gear, head to the mountain, have an awesome day skiing, come home, take a HOT shower, have dinner, go to bed. Repeat.


Riding up in the Gondola


Dave- heading down to the Blue Sky Basin


Ali- Blue Sky Basin

I took lessons the first few days while David, Rick and Diane had some fun on their own. I joined them on Tuesday. Rick had to go back to his job and family, so we drove him to the airport Wednesday morning and took the rest of the day off- it was nice to give our legs a rest. We saw Gran Torino (loved!) and shopped a bit. Then on Thursday it was back to skiing! On Friday and Saturday we skied with Mike and his friends Brian and Francis who happened to be in town.


Look out below!


Mike, David and Brian

We found a few new restaurants to love; the newly opened Avondale and local hotspot Sweet Basil. In the week we were there, we actually completed the Thomas Salamunovich restaurant trifecta by eating at Larkspur at the Golden Peak Lodge, Larkburger in Edwards and Avondale at the Westin in Avon. In what has become a bit of a ski trip tradition, we made fajitas and watched the Superbowl.

Here is a very brief video I took of David coming down a run. Mike took much better videos and I will post a link to them later (probably some time next week). In the meantime, enjoy all 6 seconds of this:




As they say in Beaver Creek- we weren't exactly roughing it. The week flew by and before we knew it, we were packing up to go home. We spent Sunday driving back to Denver, returning the rental car, flying home, doing laundry and getting ready to head back to work and normal life.


About to head down Blue Ox


Enjoying an Apres Ski Coffee

We must thank Brooke and Brian as well as Becky and Aaron for taking such excellent care of Jerry while we were gone. We really appreciate your effort and help- next time we go out, dinner is on us! We’d also like to thank Carolyn for the use of her beautiful home and Diane for being such an accommodating host. It was a great week and we look forward to the arrival of the baby next month!