The Black Crowes - 9:30 Club, DC

We drove down to DC this weekend for The Black Crowes show at the 9:30 Club. This is our first show at the 9:30 Club and it's really a great venue. We were able to get a place standing right along the railing on the balcony, stage left, and had a great view of the stage! The concert had no opener, just a solid 2 hours of The Black Crowes! We've seen them play 3 previous times and this is the first time we've really gotten to see them jam on a lot of songs. There were many songs that lasted longer than 9 minutes. Really amazing!

Set List:

GOODBYE DAUGHTERS OF THE REVOLUTION

STING ME

GO TELL THE CONGREGATION

BALLAD IN URGENCY

WISER TIME

SHE TALKS TO ANGELS

POOR ELIJAH/ROBERT JOHNSON

COLD BOY SMILE

WHOA MULE

LAY IT ALL ON ME

WEE WHO SEE THE DEEP

THORN IN MY PRIDE

FEATHERS

REMEDY

WOUNDED BIRD

- encore -

DON’T DO IT

Korea Sparkling!

Mr_BTM and I traveled to Korea for a 2 week trip of touring the country and visiting family. Below is a quick itinerary of our trip and some of the sights we saw. Korea is a beautiful country full of mountains and valleys and the food is terrific!


Day 1 - Travel from DC - Tokyo - Seoul


Day 2 - Seoul

• Deoksugung Palace - saw the changing of the guard ceremony


• Insa-Dong - walked around the neighborhood and had some very expensive tea in a local tea shop.


• Cheonggyechon - This is a restored stream that runs through downtown Seoul. We had a break from walking around here people watching and relaxing in the shade.

Day 3 - Seoul

• All day tour to Panmunjom/Joint Security Area. Here we got to see North Korea and see the soldiers there. We were also subject to a ton of security checks and dress code requirements. Very interesting!


• DMZ Tour - included a walk down into the 3rd Tunnel (built by North Korea to invade the South), the Dora Observatory and the Doran Street train station.


• Myeongdong - We walked around in this neighborhood near our hotel that's full of shops and restaurants. Had mandu for dinner and went on a fruitless quest for an ice cream cone!

Day 4 - Seoul

• Namdaemun Market - a traditional outdoor/indoor mall that sells just about everything from food to fish to souveniers.


• Gyeongbokgung Palace - we happened to visit on Hanguel Day, a day that celebrates the Korean language.


• National Folk Museum


• Dinner with the Hyun family (Mom's side of the family)

Day 5 - Seoul

• Korean Folk Village


• Dinner with the Lee family (Dad's side of the family)

Day 6 - Seoul - Seorak

• Today we drove from Seoul to Seorak


• Seoraksan National Park

Day 7 - Seorak - Gyeongju

• Cable Car ride in Seoraksan National Park


• Drive from Seorak toGyeongju


• Anjapi Pond

Day 8 - Gyeongju - Busan

• Walk around Bomun Lake


• Seokguram Grotto - Buddha statue at the top of a hill.


• Bulguska (Temple)


• Tumuli Park - the burial grounds of the ancient kings.


• Drive to Busan

Day 9 - Busan

• Another cable car ride! Although this time, we got lost trying to find our way back to the cable car for the ride down and we ended up hiking down the entire mountain!


• Dinner at Halmonie/Haraboji's house - meet more of the Lee family.

Day 10 - Busan

• Jagalchi Fish Market - Got up rediculously early (3:30 AM) to see the fish auctions and the market. Had breakfast at the market of spicy fish stew and raw fish! Tried Abalone for the first time.


• Taejongdae - Took the tour to the observatory and the lighthouse. Had lunch sitting on rocks down by the ocean - fresh, raw seafood!


• UN Cemetary - dedicated to the UN security forces soldiers that died during the Korean War.


• Haeundae - a beach area. Took a quick walk and then had a traditional korean dinner (a normal meal for royalty).

Day 11 - Busan - Tongyeong

• Today we drove out of Busan to Haeinsa, a temple in the mountains and then continued to drive south to the South Sea Island of Tongyeong.

Day 12 - Tongyeong - Busan

• Today we drove to the ferry port and ferried over to Oedo (pronounced way-dough), an island entirely devoted to a garden.


• Prisoner of War Camp Museum in Geojedo


• Drive to another ferry port for a car ferry ride back to Busan.

Day 13 - Busan

• Did a bit of shopping around town and met up with the Lee family again at Todai, a restaurant that Samchoon (uncle) owns.

Day 14 - Travel from Busan - Seoul - LA - Charlotte - Baltimore

Portland, Part 2

Part 2 of our trip had both of us working for the week. I was commuting again to Tigard and dropping of Mr_BTM at work downtown. The week went by fast! On Tuesday we went to dinner at Sarah and Tom's house and met up with Lynlea and Anthony. Tom's parents were in town and they cooked us a huge korean meal. So delicious! Wednesday we met up with Dave and Teresa and McMenamin's for some beer and a late dinner. I wish we had McMenamins in Baltimore! I miss their food and beer...so good. Friday night had us traveling to Chris and Emily's house for some bar-b-que and to hang out again with Matt and Karen. Let's not forget the 2 little ones too!

Saturday had us even busier with an early start. We took the MAX to the Esplanade and walked from the Broadway Bridge to the Hawthorne Bridge and then up to the Farmer's Market again for some breakfast. We walked from there to Bike Gallery and then to the Multnomah County Library, which I'd never gone in before. From there we went to lunch at Karam and enjoyed an awesome Lebanese meal. And, since it's Saturday during football season, we went to The City to watch the Purdue game and meet up with some more people. After a quick stop at the office we took the Streetcar up to REI for some shopping and met up with Dave and Teresa again at Rouge for some beer. We had wanted to stop by Rogue to buy some of their spirits since we can't buy them in Baltimore. We got a bottle of the Spruce Gin and the Dark Rum and they managed to not get broken in our checked luggage. From Rogue we walked over to the NW 21st/NW 23rd area to meet up with Jacinta and Eric at Mio Sushi. We had the most delicious sushi I've had in a while. Check out the photo! It was so good to see Eric and Jacinta again, people I consider "my" friends as opposed to "our" friends. That's one thing I'm still lacking here in Baltimore. After than we got some coffee and tea at Moonstruck on 23rd and people watched for a while and to catch up. We departed around 9:00 just to meet up again with Dave and Diego to have drinks at Thatch, a tiki bar. Man, this was turning out to be a ridiculously long day. I was wiped so after the tiki bar I went home but Kevin managed to continue on. Not sure how he managed that! I was well asleep by the time he got home.

Sunday was a pretty leisurely day compared to Saturday. We did some more shopping at REI, grabbed a quick lunch at Whole Foods. From there we dropped off the shopping at the apartment and went up to Council Crest for some views of the city. From there it was dinner time so we went to eat at a brew pub we always meant to go to but never had a chance, The 5th Quadrant, run by the New Old Lompoc Brewery. I had the meatloaf, for some reason I was craving some comfort food. Maybe it's because it was our last night in Portland. Who knows. We enjoyed some more beers and a decent dinner. Of course, we needed desert so we had to go to VooDoo Donut! Kevin had the bacon maple bar and I had my favorite Portland creme. This was our last stop before going to the airport for the long flight back to Baltimore. We need to go back more often! I'd like to make this at this a yearly trip. Next time we should get bikes!