Stormy D.C.; Saved by Whole Foods

These past few days, I was in Springfield, VA visiting my brother. I arrived Wednesday night, spent Thursday meeting up with NBdT and family for lunch at the Smithsonian's National Musuem of the American Indian. Incidentally, its cafe, Mitsitam, has some of the best museum cafeteria food. The menu is based on indigenous cuisines of the Americas and is grouped by regions. The weather was somewhat dreary, but not quite rainy. I managed to spend the afternoon walking around Old Town Alexandria, which is charming enough for a couple hours.

On Friday, the weather took a turn for the worse. I woke up to stormy weather and it didn't change for the rest of the day. We were resigned to the fact that we would be staying at home working or watching TV. But all of a sudden, the power went out, which meant no internet connection, no TV, not even hot water to do laundry. So what to do? Go shopping at Whole Foods! I love Whole Foods, just as I love Starbucks (which was stop no. 2 so that I could have the seasonal Pumpkin Spice Latte. I love Starbucks' seasonal drinks. The appearance of Pumpkin Spice Latte signalled the end of summer for me.), Apple and google.com. In fact, I had only recently come into contact with Whole Foods via their NYC store in Time Warner Center, but hadn't had much time to explore the merchandise in detail. Already, I was impressed by the whole look and feel of the store as well as the detailed labelling of produce and its presentation. At the Alexandria, VA Whole Foods, I found the largest selection of flavours for my favourite nutrition bars: Luna (Dulce de Leche and S'mores are great) and Pria (the Creme Caramel Crisp is my favourite). There was a huge selection of everything else too, including prepared foods, which all looked absolutely delicious. I had such a hard time deciding what to eat and wanted to buy all sorts of snacks to bring back to Hong Kong. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), I had no room left in my luggage.