In Which We Have a Quiet Weekend

Saturday morning was spent working on various projects.  I updated this blog and did some business stuff on my computer while Jason worked on lawyer-y things.  We got out of the apartment for the afternoon and went to a variety of food stores.

The premise of the hunt was to seek out ingredients for a Moroccan Lamb Stew to Crock-Pot on Sunday.  We visited an Italian grocery store where we also each got a slice of pizza; a Lebanese market where we found orange blossom water, the most elusive of the recipe's ingredients, and where we reminisced about the baklava in Rhodes; a French patisserie where we each got a pretty tart; a wine and cheese store where I got some pecorino cheese for the week ahead; and Harris Teeter where we got the rest of the ingredients, milk, and bread (Jason was in charge of taking the sacrament to his ward's shut-ins the next day).

Five grocery stores is almost as fun as three bookstores!

Saturday night we had take-out from a Mexican place called Uncle Julio's.  We then tackled the nitty-gritty planning we needed to do for Peru.

The planning continued Sunday evening (after the stew, which I thought was too salty and Jason thought was too sweet but I'm still pleased with overall).  By 10:00 PM Sunday we finally had an itinerary for our trip.  Hurrah!


The plan is to visit Cuzco (and surrounding areas), Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca, Arequipa (and surrounding areas), and Lima.  We cut the Amazon leg of the trip - it would take up far too much of our time and budget to get out to one of the reserves.  We do have a little bit of cushion room built into the itinerary, though, so if we find a way to day-trip into the jungle, we can.  Otherwise I'm determined to go somewhere that justifies my yellow fever shot in the next ten years.

It feels much better to have a plan for the trip.  We booked a hostel for our first night in Lima and the flight out to Cuzco the next day.  We'll mostly be getting around to the different locations by bus, occasionally overnight.

I suspect it will include a lot of blog-fodder.