So how does ‘La Cage’compare to the Super Bowl?

1) Both have colorful, tight-fitting costumes — although ‘La Cage’wins when it comes to glitter.

2) The Super Bowl was in Indianapolis, home of the Indy 500 and the Slippery Noodle Inn (and before you tell me that the Slippery Noodle doesn’t sound cool, it’s on my to-visit list during an August trip to Indy for a wedding).

‘La Cage’takes place in the South of France amid palm trees, cute cafes and glittery, early ’80s-era transvestite cabarets.

Bonus round: To watch the Super Bowl from Washington, you just need to plop down on your couch — boring. To watch ‘La Cage,’you can go to one of DC’s most beautiful buildings for an incredible pre-show view.

3) Both shows have big, gay musical numbers.

Super Bowl:

‘La Cage’:

4) Both shows have aging stars — Tom Brady on the Patriots is apparently an ‘aging quarterback’at 34 and made some crucial mistakes last night to lose the game.

George Hamilton (yes, his skin really does glow a luminescent orange) looked near collapse by the end of ‘La Cage’and was by far the low point in an otherwise fantastic show.

Maybe the Super Bowl wins this round based on cuteness factor?

The results? I’m so glad I saw ‘La Cage aux Folles’last night instead of the Super Bowl — when it doubt, always pick live theatre over a TV event that can be seen anytime. It’s in town for another week so buy tickets. Totally worth it.

Did you watch the Super Bowl yesterday?

Hello, Travel, Eat, Repeat readers, this is Brittany from over at Dreams & Schemes. Today I’m blogging about something I experienced a lot of in 2011 – How to Travel and Eat well at the same time.

I recently completed a three-month national tour of a musical for kids. We traveled to 28 cities in 16 states, and performed for over 50,000 kids. That’s a lot of nights spent in Hampton Inns.

One of the most frustrating aspects of traveling has been how to keep my diet steady and nutritious while on the road. Also being a vegetarian, the majority of restaurants in America produce cheap food filled to the brim with oil and salt. It can be difficult to even get a salad or a bowl of soup (seems innocent enough, right?) that is made of healthful ingredients.

Lets say I’m a continental breakfast connoisseur. Like Erin, I believe (I believe!) in the power of a hearty oatmeal breakfast (something I learned from her, actually). When I’m at home, I like to pile on the nuts, fruits, cinnamon, flax seed, and peanut butter.

Continental breakfasts don’t offer too many natural options. There usually are oatmeal packets at the buffet, but I tried to avoid the “flavored” ones because they tend to pack a lot of sugar and preservatives. Add to that a mini-packet of peanut butter and a mini-packet of honey, its a decent enough substitute for breakfast. Tip: Avoid the eggs at all costs. They are powdered, no matter how fresh they look.

Eating out at chain restaurants for lunch and dinner was a challenge. Sometimes you can alter your meal to substitute more vegetables instead of meat, or even just order a few sides. One of my favorite options at Cracker Barrel is the triple-side option to load up on veggies.

 If you know you are going to a chain restaurant like P.F. Chang’s or Ruby Tuesdays, often times you can read up on the nutrition facts online before you go. Some restaurants, like The Silver Diner, are advertising their caloric counts right on the menu, but be sure to check for portion size. Something may only be 500 calories, but if it has three servings per dish, then it may not be your best options.

While it can be hard to eat healthfully and on a road-budget, it can be done. One of my cast-mates was inspiring in the way that she carried a few groceries with her and tried to prepare as many meals for herself as possible. Simple items like bread, prepared veggie bags, and travel hummus can go a long way, and are easy on the tummy and wallet. Grocery stores are your friend, often with fresh food bars.

I’ve learned to be a thief on the road. If a hotel has bowls of fruit, feel free to help yourself! Its okay to be a hoarder when you don’t know if the next town you are traveling to will have a salad bar or not.

Be sure to bring non-leak, microwaveable Tupperware with you so you can bring your leftovers with you.

I hope my experience has given you some good tips for your next experience traveling and eating!

All of the cliches came true this week in one 12-hour window.

On Monday night, my grandfather died. (His obituary will be in the Washington Post today and tomorrow; a mass, next week.)

From my dad:

He had a grand life. A respected judge. Loved dogs, classical music and a martini before dinner. Dearly loved my Mom. Raised 4 good kids [and 11 grandchildren, plus one great-granddaughter].

The next morning, I got a promotion at work.

So… it’s been a weird week. But through it all, I’m reminded of yet another cliche: Carpe diem. Seize the day.

–

Last night, I snapped this shot at my grandmother’s house — her high school graduation photo. Family resemblance?

Since this was my 6th time (!) in Hawaii and 5th time to the island of Kauai, I took the opportunity to spend most of this short, week-long vacay relaxing.  That means instead of hiking and jumping off cliffs (the itinerary of my previous trips to the island), I spent a lot of time lying on the beach with a good book.

Weather mild enough for long walks.

Making plans with friends over coffee.

Faux sightseeing at the National Zoo (people-watching, not animal-watching) – bonus: great hills for exercise.

Discovering new music and impulsively buying concert tickets.

A good book – Tom Perrotta’s The Leftovers (not my favorite of his, but entertaining).

Leftover pumpkin birthday cake.

What did you do this weekend? (Also: post title inspiration from SNL’s  still-funny ‘Lazy Sunday’)

The weekend started off with a Restaurant Week dinner at Ezme. The dinner was delicious, including the best scallops I’ve ever eaten, but the real highlight was, of course, dessert: profiteroles. It really set the tone for the rest of the decadent weekend.

I was so excited to wake up to snow Saturday morning. En route to a morning volunteer shift at the Capital Area Food Bank, I loved walking through the peaceful, snow-blanketed city streets.

The next big birthday celebration: afternoon tea with my grandmother at the Ritz-Carlton, Pentagon City. The tea service was beautiful but not as nice as other Ritz-Carlton teas — it’s definitely a fun, fancy way to celebrate a birthday, bridal or baby shower, or special occasion for a group of girls (or guys, whatever, everyone likes tea).

From the Ritz to Citronelle, it was quite the fancy day. Citronelle itself may be $$$, but the upstairs lounge area offers a modified menu so you can enjoy the same great food but at a much lower price. My college best friends and I chose Citronelle as a spot to celebrate with desserts, drinks and plenty of gossiping.

Picture via Simone

Dessert heaven.

The service was impeccable, the desserts incredible (the kind of dessert where you want to shout ‘hallelujah!’after every bite) and they put a sparkler on the plate and let it shoot off in the restaurant. What more do you need?!

On my actual birthday, my mom took me to Lincoln Restaurant for a post-church birthday brunch.

I’d been intrigued by this local-food spot since it offered a special Peanut Butter Lovers’Month menu in the fall. While there was no peanut butter on my plate this time, a bellini with fresh crushed raspberry hit the spot.

To eat, we split a freshly-made gingerbread waffle (as awesome as it sounds) and a customized spinach+peppers+mushroom+broccoli omelet.

Add Lincoln Restaurant to your DC brunch rotation, at least for the gingerbread waffle. So good.

My birthday feasting finished off at my dad’s house with a Greek dinner: falafel, salad and veggies, plus a sister-made Funfetti-and-mocha cake. Aren’t birthdays delicious?!

I’m en route to New York for this morning, where I’m sure the gluttony will continue for a few days, but I’m never one to turn down a delicious meal. What’s your birthday cake request? 

One thing I’m really excited about is that Lauren and I are bringing back our photo blog. This project started in 2008 as 3 p.m. on Sunday when she lived in the DC area and I lived in Seoul, South Korea. It was such a fun way to keep in touch over a year spent on opposite sides of the globe.

We tried keeping another photo blog (Around the Corner) the following year, while Lauren lived in New York City and I was back in DC, but the project quickly fizzled because of work commitments.

Well… now we’re (hopefully) bringing it back. I’ll post here, too, when Around the Corner updates but it should be once a week, early week. Definitely check it out!

Other things I’m thankful for this week:

• Unseasonably warm weather — as Joel Achenbach put it, “This has been a winterless winter, a season that can’t make it past lunchtime without busting out in a springtime melody.”
• Then again — there are potential flurries in tonight’s forecast. I wouldn’t mind one winter wonderland before returning to spring.
• Midweek dinners at Kramerbooks
• Volunteer opportunities on my birthday
• Wedding bells for friends that mean travel plans for Erin
• This book I can’t put down
• Not cooking, not caring
• The John Coltrane Pandora station — perfect for at-work listening

What’s been the highlight of your week so far?

Since I love Washington — and love to eat — I was excited to try the new winter “Plates” menu at the restaurant’s Chevy Chase location. For working Washingtonians who get a real lunch hour, the three-course prix fixe lunch still gets you out the door in 45 minutes.

Choose from one soup or salad, one entree and a dessert, all for $18.

Simone also had the day off from work and graciously accompanied me to lunch. We both started with the field greens, which was a nice, big starter salad with several different kinds of tomatoes. Biggest plus: the salad wasn’t drowning in dressing, a major pet peeve.

The only disappointment on the menu is that of the three entree options, none is vegetarian and two are beef. I understand it’s difficult when just choosing three items for a prix fixe menu, but it limits diners’options.

I went for the new Wagyu Cheeseburger with Fried Egg and Crisp Onions because, well, when at a steakhouse, why not get meat?

The burger was delicious — I ended up taking off the bun and just eating the egg + meat — but the real winner were these truffle fries. When I end up 500 pounds and starring on my own TLC show, it will be because of these fries. It’s worth visiting Capital Grille for these fries alone, seriously.

Simone also stuck to meat with the mini tenderloin and a side of roasted root vegetables, both of which she really liked, although I don’t think she was expecting semi-sliders.

Lunch dessert always feels so special and decadent, and this was no exception. Our fantastic waiter brought two selections from the special Restaurant Week menu: mango sorbet and a to-die-for flourless chocolate espresso cake.

Overall, we had a great experience at The Capital Grille and the thing that really stood out was the awesome service, from friendly hostesses to knowledgeable servers. At one point, I inquired about a painting hanging across the room (it looked like an angry Clark Gable, and I wondered why he was hanging in a DC steakhouse). A passing server gave a full history of the subject, telling me that it was Howard Hughes, who lived in Washington for a few years in the ’20s; today a nearby medical institute bears his name.

See, history and a good meal. What could be better?!

Should restaurants always offer a vegetarian option? I think restaurants of course have the right to serve whatever they want — especially somewhere like Komi or Minibar, you can understand why they can’t accommodate all dietary restrictions — but it seems that restaurants with larger menus should naturally want to accomodate the 22.8 million people who follow a ‘vegetarian-inclined’diet.

*The Capital Grille invited me and a guest for a complimentary lunch. We left gratuity based on the actual price of the meal. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

After two mountain hikes and a desert hike, it was time to tackle Big Bend’s final terrain: river. The Rio Grande separates Mexico from the USA and in my mind, was a roaring beast of a river, with massive rapids in crashing waves.

Instead, it’s more of a Rio Pequeño thanks to drought, at least where we were. At its narrowest point, the river was maybe 15 feet wide; warnings said not to cross into Mexico or risk fines/jail. (There are no legal border crossings in the park.)

We forded the river walked along the shore at Santa Elena Canyon, an imposing 1500-foot high separation between the US and Mexico. The Rio Grande cuts right through the rock, with dramatic cliff faces on both sides.

Friends and family who’d visited Big Bend before said they saw plentiful evidence of illegal border crossings. Although we did see footprints embedded in the sand, we debated over whether they were caused by border crossers or afternoon strollers trying to cool down.

The highlight? Seeing an authentic Mexican vaquero with his herd of cows.

Watching him work — keeping an eye on the cows to be sure they didn’t wade over to the US side of the river — was like looking back into time. Vaqueros date back to the late-18th century and while he may be equipped with a cell phone today — we could hear him chattering away — little else has changed.

Elsewhere at Big Bend, there’s only evidence of how much had changed. Settler homes, barely 100 years old, are now abandoned dwellings with information plaques.

Nowhere is the Big Bend area’s economic decline more evident than Terlingua, a former mining community that reinvented itself as a tourist destination.

When the jobs — and many of the people — left, Terlingua turned itself into a sightseeing stop for Big Bend travelers, as well as one of the only places within driving distance of the park to offer food and lodging. People still live here but there’s a juxtaposition in every glance between lived-in homes and abandoned shacks.

Today it’s one of those towns you’d say has ‘character.’A folksy musical group set up on a porch, playing for a growing crowd. A sports bar had an interesting mix of young seekers and aging oilers. And every year, the town throws a big El Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration.

After all this sunshine-y, beautiful weather, we expected our last day in Big Bend to be more of the same. Should we hike to the highest point in the park? Visit the hot springs?

None of the above because we found out that bad weather was on its way and escaped the park a day early, driving 230+ miles through near-whiteout conditions.

Within an hour, we went from this:

to this:

It was disappointing to leave Big Bend National Park early but I was happy we safely made it back to the nearest city (Midland, pop: ~130,000).

Overall, if you’re looking for a great way to connect with nature, do some fantastic hikes and see some of America’s most beautiful desert scenery, definitely check out Big Bend. It’s a trek to get there but once you make it, the journey is worth it. Each time I visit a national park, I become inspired to check out more of them. Which park should be next?!

Have you visited any national parks lately?