To finish off the trip

September 5, 2012...

We left Boston for Tiverton, Rhode Island to visit with our friends John and Jon from New Orleans who rent a summer place overlooking Tiverton Harbor.  Tiverton is a smallish place, in Rhode Island and quite country.  It's north of rich Little Compton and not pretentious.  The place where the neighbor goes out quahoging and brings back littlenecks for you, where the local center has a lobster roll place, but quaint enough that little New England cruise vessels actually make it into the harbor.  Having a view of Mt Hope and Mt Hope Bridge in the distance helps.  

We were rained in a day by the remnants of hurricane Isaac, but that made for fun, if sometimes damp, porch sitting with a good book and glass of wine.  We enjoyed some Spanish bierzo from Galicia and a lovely French burgundy.  It went with the littlenecks from the owner of the next dock whose boat our host had bailed out after the storm.  Roasted on the grille...mmmm.

We ate lots of corn from the local farmers, lovely tomatoes, and grilled vegetables. Simple.

Lunch one day with friend Elaine as well at the Stone Harbor viewing Mt Hope Bay at the north end of Tiverton was fun.  Sitting outside in the sun, enjoying the New England clam chowder and for John the fish and chips.  Very simple, very good.  And very nice wines to go with.

Then we headed into Bristol, just across the bridge for four nights with Elaine and John's 50th high school reunion from Barrington High School.  Lots of fun with a party at a house he had played in as a child (the owner says the tables for John's old friend's electric trains are still in the attic 55 years later).  The house overlooks the Barrington River with its boats and reed grass, very attractive as the sun goes down.   The following evening we had the big dinner dance at the Rhode Island Country Club on Nayatt Road overlooking Narragansett Bay.  Lovely view and pleasant food.  Of course there was great company, friends of 50 years ago with whom we still correspond.

The end of the trip was a night with brother Andrew and Karen in Fairfield, with an afternoon at Philip Johnson's Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut.  John and Ben found it sparse but fascinating, worth a visit.  John thinks Johnson is not among America's first rank of architects, too much a copyist of the world of Mies van der Rohe, who now seems to be so cold and square for our mellower tastes.  Very fashionable when we were growing up, 50 years ago, but now seems dated and strange.

Archery and then Cambridge

On Sunday, archery for Ben was a hoot.   He enjoyed himself and even hit the target a few times.  John did grandfather duty while Anne and Eric spent two hours hitting bulls-eyes.  The woods out in Carlisle at their friends’ home are that late summer deep green just before the colors begin.  

After that we picked up Stacy and headed to Watertown to our favorite diner, the Town Deluxe Diner, where we enjoyed salads and some Allagash White beer and a lox and bagel for Ben.   Then we headed into Harvard Square to see the students unloading their U-hauls and saying good bye to their parents for another year of school.  The Yard was full of tourists, but Ben had a wonderful time showing our Texas friend Stacy all over the campus and where he had lived as an undergraduate.   We completed the day with a visit to Stacy’s new apartment for the next nine months in Somerville and tour to Fletcher School at Tufts where she is studying as part of her War College program before returning to the VA.

In the evening, we had Anne’s favorite waffles and an early night.

Monday, we had coffee at True Grounds in Somerville, got some wine from the Ball Square Wine Shop, an excellent place, and then had lunch at Blue Shirt Cafe on Davis Square.  The weather was perfect, grandson was in great shape and it was good to be out.   We spent the afternoon at home, having a good visit, John being grandfather with a baby fast asleep on his chest for two hours.  

In the evening we got three deluxe pizzas from Za on Massachusetts Avenue in Arlington.  One with sliced zucchini, mozzarella, parmesan and dried tomato sauce, another with tomatoes, portobello mushrooms, and roasted garlic and the third figs and gorgonzola.  Not much left after the four of us enjoyed them.

Another early night.

This morning we leave for Rhode Island, though the weather has turned chilly and wet.  It will pass quickly, we hope.  

Arllington and then to archery

We arrived in Arlington, Massachusetts, about 4 pm on Friday.   We had had a late morning leaving Craryville and so were slowed somewhat even before buying Vermont and Connecticut cheeses as a housewarming present for daughter Anne's mother- and father-in-law at Rubiners deli in downtown Great Barrington.

That stop was worth it to taste a number of local cheeses from the Berkshires and Vermont, as well as purchase adequately prepared coffee at Rubi's cafe in an alley behind the cheese shop.  With coffee in hand we had another glance around Great Barrington, which is a very fashionable upscale resort town full of well-to-do good looking vacationers.  Then to the car and a decision to take a backroad across Western Massachusetts, Route 57.  It's a winding slow road through some gorgeous little historically registered villages.

We arrived at the Connecticut River and found ourselves lunch at Salvatore's Restaurant in Springfield. A red-sauce Italian place full of twangy short New England accents.  A quick jump to the Massachusetts Turnpike and a good deal of slow Labor Day weekend traffic to Boston.

We arrived to meet and find grandson and then enjoyed him for the evening with his other grandparents, Oma and Opa.  He is cute, gurgles and is beginning to be more aware, at eight weeks Tuesday, of his environment.  He follows hands and is beginning to recognize faces.

Oma and Opa left quite early to prepare for a trip to New Hampshire and we collapsed into bed.

Saturday, we enjoyed lunch at a favorite, Madrona Cafe, a sidewalk cafe in the center of Arlington.  Good burgers, outstanding onion rings, and a good tuna salad sandwich for Ben.  Young grandson, tied securely to his mother was quiet during lunch.  Many babies which meant Eric and Anne were chatting amiably with their fellow townspeople.

Ben and I took a bus from Arlington in Somerville's Davis Square for beer--to replenish supplies--and coffee at Diesel Cafe.  Good, beautifully designed artwork.  Somewhat bitter.  Then bus home to an afternoon of feeding, changing and dandling.  Dinner of waffles and an early night.  Very good choke-cherry syrup and heavy maple syrup on the waffles.

Today it's off the archery and the lunch with our friend Stacy, who's up in Massachusetts for a year of War College study at Tufts, Harvard and MIT.