Bringing Light to Lion Mountain: Third Anniversary

About 2 weeks ago John and I went to one of our favorite restaurants called Mamba Point. We intended to share a pizza like we usually do, but the last time or two that I had pizza from there, I had gotten some nasty heartburn. So far in my pregnancy I have not had much heartburn except when I eat pizza. So I talked John into letting me get a cooked sushi roll and a miso soup and he could have the extra pizza for leftovers (aka not a hard sell).

So we discussed our upcoming anniversary. He asked me if I would rather spend 2-3 days at the beach, renting a little beach house, etc. OR come back to Mamba Point for a sushi dinner. Without hesitation I said "sushi dinner!" Some may call me crazy for wanting sushi over a weekend getaway (they would be about the same price here since the weekend getaways are reasonable and local food is cheap) but when you are away from some of the comforts of home you get those kinds of cravings (or at least I do!) I have been looking forward to this day ever since!

Our anniversary is actually today (January 5th), but today and tomorrow are our big move days so we decided to celebrate it early. We needed to buy quite a few things for our new house so we spent most of the late morning and early afternoon shopping for those things. Most of the time so far, we've been sharing with the Courtneys and just recently realized we don't have much household items of our own.

These were the kind of things on our shopping list: spices of all kinds, gas tank (for our propane stove), shower curtain and rod, clothespins, buckets, large plastic dish bowls for washing dishes, dish drying rack, wire to hang our curtains on (that I am in the midst of sewing myself!), curtain material, metal hangers, and king sheets that will fit our bed (lol!).

We were pretty productive in the morning and stopped for lunch at a place called Crown Bakery for lunch. John had been there a few times, but this was my first time. Once we arrived we realized some of our friends were in the restaurant so we ate with them (Gabe, Sada, Chuck and another Becky I had just met yesterday). I ordered my meal based on a recommendation from our friends Tom and Becky.

I ordered the mixed salad with honey mustard dressing.

And the tomato basil bruschetta to share. Becky informed me that this bruschetta is the best she's EVER had in multiple countries she's tried, even America. Both John and I agreed!

John ordered the special after seeing Chuck receive his. It was 3-4 shrimp, on top of a huge steak, which sat upon mashed potatoes and gravy.

I also had a few bites of John's meal and it was DELICIOUS! He was in meat and potatoes heaven.

Honestly I would have been happy with just that for our 'anniversary meal' but don't tell John that :)

Afterwards, we went to a local grocery store called Choitram's Supermarket. Almost every time we go, John and I get an ice cream. We were going to share, but after John saw them make one, he knew he wanted one whole one for himself :)

I should have taken a picture when he first made it, but I forgot until it was almost over. Choitram's soft serve ice cream is half vanilla and half strawberry. It is probably my favorite ice cream that they have in Sierra Leone.

After snack we did a little more shopping and then came home for a few hours before dinner. I rinsed off in the shower (one gets pretty sweaty and yucky walking downtown during the day) and got all prettied up.

We left for Mamba point. I ordered two rolls and one hand roll. The rolls were 2 of the same (only 6 little rolls total) of spicy smoked salmon and the hand roll was a cooked eel. I only do the cooked rolls since I am pregnant. John ordered a huge boat with tons of rolls. I had another one of his hand rolls and a few of his regular rolls that were cooked.

Yet again we forgot to take pictures until we were half way through.

The next two pictures are my Crazy Spicy Smoked Salmon rolls. Very delicious! Tastes like bacon almost. I am sure my dad would at least like these rolls!