Our Weekend Running Around

We are back in one of our favorite stomping grounds, Elkton, MD, for the weekend.  So I thought I would show you around a little.  This weekend we are on practical missions.  Food, laundry and misc supplies.

We got up early and bobtailed to a little shopping plaza right on Main Street in downtown Newark, DE.  It is only about 5 miles from the Petro in Elkton, but a world apart.  Since the plaza's parking lot is so small we either have to go here when we have a rental car or get up early and get in and out before everyone else gets there.

You may be asking at this point what's worth the hassle?  Wang's Oriental Food Store.  This store has a great selection of fresh produce and you can get all your oriental pantry staples here too.  This trip I was hunting for sweet soy sauce (Kecap Manis), tamari, baby green bok choy, white bok choy, bean sprouts (azuki and mung), sweet red mung beans, red bean spread, white and black fungus, straw mushrooms and of course Jasmine and Green Teas.  I just love the smell of Jasmine Tea.  If you have never tried it, please do.  You wont be disappointed.

Oh and I just can't forget their Chinese Bakery.  I got two Sesame Balls and a six pack of Moon Cakes with red bean filling.  YUMMMMM!!

The second draw for us here on Main Street is the Newark Natural Foods Cooperative.  They carry a great line of fresh sprouts (including sweet pea shoots YUM), organic fruits and veggies, goat and soy dairy products, as well as a huge dry bulk section (4 different varieties of lentils and 3 kinds of Jasmine rice!!).  Both of us are lactose intolerant and finding good yogurt and cheese substitutes can be a daunting task with our nomadic lifestyle.  I can get my vitamins here as well.  I take live, whole food vitamins (they don't upset the stomach and can be taken without food), but finding them without garlic is difficult.  I usually buy them at my home coop, but since we have been on the road now for 3 months I ran out.  I think I like this new brand better though, since it has probiotics as well.  I will definitely recommend them to my local cooperative when I get home.

This trip I was stocking up on yogurt, sprouts, golden and sea veggie miso soup mix, inca red quinoa, konjac shirataki noodles, sprouted grain pasta and bread, brown jasmine rice and salad dressings.  Randy loves the orange cranberry vinaigrette and I love the sesame tamari.  We both like the sweet onion salad dressing, which is great either on salads or in wraps.

In the alley between the coop and Wang's is this little art gallery.  I just love to walk past their beautiful mosaic.  So I took some pictures to share.  Until I started taking pictures I had never noticed half of what is actually in this mosaic...

A little fishy

an adorable rose tea cup filled with marbles

words to live by? >:-)

a little love

freakish face and hand

?

Next we were off to yet another Wal-Mart to restock.  Of course by the time we got here, everyone else and their brother was already in the store!  Which I guess doesn't really matter because it isn't like we can park in the front row anyway.

Now Home Depot.  This is a great shopping plaza as it has a nice movie theater, grocery store, Game Stop, Radio Shack and Home Depot along with misc other stores.  But it is also, very busy.  Today was no exception, so we opted to park behind Home Depot and walk rather than risk the parking lot.

As it turned out Randy walked in and I stayed behind to take pictures of the turtles.  Yes, turtles.  There was this little pond we had never really paid any attention to before that was full of turtles, geese, sea gulls and ducks.  

You can't tell from the picture, but this one was at least 14" long.

This one had to be 12" long.  There were 2 of these monsters sunning here when I first walked up, but before I took their picture one slid back into the water.

Another 12" + long turtle enjoying the water.

Then there was this "little" guy, maybe 6" long.  But don't tell him he was the runt, he was very bold!  He didn't budge an inch while I walked around snapping pictures and talking to myself.  Instead he boldly watched me with a look that seemed to say, watch your step or I'll bite you in the ankle!

We ended our day on a high note.  Laundry.  We have been doing laundry at this location for years.  Nice clean machines, with 4 triple and 3 quad load washers!  Makes it really easy to do all the bedding.  

Today was to be the exception to the rule however.  We got there only to discover it was standing room only and customers were overflowing onto the side walk outside. Some times it really pays to have your house with you at all times.  Instead of fighting the crowd, we simply had lunch and watched a little TV while waiting for the rush to end.

It finally did, and in we swooped.  It took us 4 trips to get all the laundry, bedding and towels inside.  We had no sooner got everything into the washers then 3 couples show up who are all smokers.  YUCK.  I can still taste their smoke as I write this.  We don't do our laundry at the truck stops because of this.  They were going outside to smoke, but of course it followed them back inside.  I was afraid our laundry would stink, but we got lucky and they left after they got their washers going.