Chef Matthew

 Matthew cooked a new dish yesterday -- a delicious egg and cheese casserole!

Soccer

 James has had several soccer games recently.  The team has really improved over the last couple of months! They had a home game against one of the top teams in the league (the Yemen club, where lots of the players are from the country of Yemen).  They lost, but it felt like a win because they played really well and only lost by a couple of goals -- the other team has usually been winning by 9 or 10 goals. Then they had a tournament, where they won one, tied one, and lost one.  (And it was really hot that day -- they deserve a medal for just being able to keep running in all that heat!)  James usually is on defense, but they've been playing him midfield for some of the games as well.  

Last night's game was in a town called Medina -- it had a cute downtown and was right by the Erie Canal. We had a yummy dinner in a diner before the game, so it was a nice mini road trip. The game was in a new-looking stadium -- their first outdoor game on astroturf!  There was a little rain (and even a rainbow), but mostly the weather was nice.

(James's jersey number is 6; depending on the game, they wear either red or blue uniforms.)

Richmond Fourth

 Mike and the kids went down to Richmond to spend a long Fourth of July weekend with the relatives. It sounds like they had a great time -- outings to the river and Maymont, an escape room (which they finished with time to spare, even though the staff upgraded the difficulty when they saw how fast they were solving the problems), and fun games at home. :)

Wonderfood

One of the amusing attractions of Penang is a place called the Wonderfood museum, which basically has large-scale models of food. It's made for photo opportunities, so of course you know I had to visit!

 

Kek Lok Si Temple

One of the big attractions in Penang is the Kek Lok Si Temple. It's up in the hills a bit away from the historic part of town. It's a huge temple complex with multiple buildings and gardens -- it's really beautiful!  

To get to the top section, they route you through the gift shop (of course) and then cram you into a funicular-style elevator. Then the fierce Chinese woman in charge yells at the people closest to the button to push it to make the elevator go. So, any zen you might have developed over the course of visiting the temple is then shattered!  :)

There are a couple of hawker centers down at the base of the hill. One of the famous stalls (Sister Curry Mee) was closed, unfortunately (even though they were scheduled to be open), but the Laksa uncle was open -- and it was delicious!  In Penang, they do a tamarind-based laksa rather than the coconut-based laksa that is more common in Singapore. Very tasty!