A Good Trip...

We spent the day quietly around Asbury Park.   A good breakfast and then a walk on the Board Walk and a lunch at Kim Marie's, nearby.  We can look back on a fine 10 days, good friends, good food, good wine and good places.   Home tomorrow.

Gliding above the cold, cold ocean

A bit of eye-can

Party with Long-time Friends

Sunday, August 17, 2014

We partied last night with friends at the house.   Several we had known from previous visits, but thoroughly enjoyed the company of new friends.   Pat put on a spread of a buffet—shrimp Cobb salad, roasted marinated pork loin, spiced turkey sausages, potato salad and a roasted vegetable ratatouille-style salad.  Finished off with mocha ice cream and either yellow chocolate or red velvet cupcakes.    Along with that a couple of New Zealand Sauvignon blancs, a Spanish garnacia, and an Italian Istrian rosé. for a large party of nine.

We had spent the day partly at the farmers market and just relaxing in the near perfect weather.  Ben headed out to Cookman Street for his cappuccino  in the mid-afternoon.    

All in all a good day.  Today, Sunday, it is showing signs of morning showers, but perhaps it will good to go to the beach this afternoon.  Michael leaves for work this afternoon but that leaves Pat, John, and Ben along with Letty, an old friend here.

A Long Drive to New Jersey--and Bear Weekend

August 16, 2014

We had a long trip to New Jersey.   It’s a busy run on a Friday.  Coffee from Blue State in Providence early in the morning (10AM) then through never-ending Connecticut and over the Tappan Zee Bridge to New Jersey’s Garden State Parkway.   Very heavy traffic everywhere.  

Spent a few minutes finding a diner in Northern NJ before stopping at the Six Brothers on Route 46.   It’s a huge Greek place.  John had a good salad of arugula, tomatoes and sardines, though the arugula could have done with another grit-removing rinse and the tomatoes could have been from New Jersey instead of shipped green and reddened in the truck North from wherever.)   Ben’s lox and egg white omelette was decent.   Good soups and the tiramisu were included in the price!

Arrived in Asbury Park about 4 PM, and enjoyed a fine dinner of grilled chicken and skirt steak at home with friends Pat and Michael and their friend Donna, who lives across the street.  

Headed out late in the evening (10PM) to the Cameo Bar, within walking distance.  It was the opening of Bear Weekend in Asbury Park and the place was crowded with gents of a certain hairiness, and often of significant weight.  Let’s face it, said John, a gay bar is a gar bar is a gay bar no matter what.  There were a few attractive men, of course.  Home into bed by 11:30. John woke up about 3 AM to hear a very active party of young ladies going on outside the house.   Appeared to be a group of  high school students who had decided to meet at the Asbury Park High School that’s across the street.   They did finish in time for a complete night’s sleep.

A Slow Trip to Boston

August 15, 2014

Thursday was a quiet day in many respects.  John and John spent the morning reading and talking, catching up between old friends.  It had been a cold night and the day was brisk and clear, quite unlike the storms on Wednesday.  Ben and Jon headed off to pilates in Bristol, returning for lunch.

Jon cooked up a storm at lunch, with vermicelli with pesto and steamed little neck and middle neck clams.  (The big necks are quahogs and are used to chowder.  They’re tough and only really good chopped.)

Then we left for what we thought would be a 90 minute drive to Arlington, MA.   But, the traffic and accidents mid-afternoon meant the trip lasted over two and a half hours.  Stop and go through Boston.

Arriving in Arlington, though, grandson was out with his other grandfather at the park, so we waited until he got back before enjoying his company.  He’s very into trains and books about trains.  An active two-year-old whom we enjoy.  Dinner, courtesy of daughter and son-in-law, was a stir fry of chicken breast with vegetables and Mexican enchilada sauce.  Son-in-law has been working on a new project full time and daughter is extremely busy working on new and different projects, so time was of the essence in her kitchen.   Enjoyable nonetheless.

The drive home took less than 80 minutes, which is better than expected, though the heavy traffic at night on Massachusetts freeways reminded John more of LA than the East Coast.

Today off to New Jersey and the beach for the weekend.

Wet and Cold, but still Lovely

 Thursday, August 14, 2014

Yesterday it rained, but that gave John a chance to try out his new camera some more.  He managed to get some raindrops actually falling as he shot the porch.   Amazing the high speeds this machine is capable of.   The local cormorant decided to show off his wings on a buoy, the rain came in waves over the water against the docks, and the water blobs kept themselves together on the deck bannisters.

Ben and Jon went off to yogalates in Bristol, and buy fresh corn and other veggies.   Then we all headed out to various other shopping and the Black Goose for lunch.   It’s a pleasant restaurant’/diner kind of place, yesterday overlooking a rainy inlet off the Tiverton Harbor where the specialties are Greek food and lobster rolls.   We split both to make an enjoyable lunch.  The spanakopita was lovely and the lobster roll was full of lobster on its toasted hot dog bun with lettuce and tomato.   John had a Narragansett summer Ale, a trip back in time for him for when he worked construction in the mid-60s actually doing some work at a Haffenreffer brewery when they made ‘Gansett in Ri.

We had dinner at Jon and John’s last night with John’s sister Elaine—fresh swordfish, corn on the cob, a blueberry cobbler, prosecco and a very nice Macon-Lugny.  Everyone was very satisfied.

It got surprisingly cold last night for summer, probably in the mid-50Fs (12-13C).  No ice though.  We suppose a northern front came down, a harbinger of Fall, but a bit early in mid-August.

Today we head off to Arlington, MA to visit daughter, son-in-law and grandson.

Rhode Island

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

We had an uneventful drive from New York State to Providence, where we spent lunch with John’s Chinese Studies advisor from his Brown grad school days.  It was lovely to see him, and an added bonus was seeing his daughter and grand-daughter, Adrienne and Lucie, who were visiting from Paris.  Lucie was on her way back to Mt Holyoke to begin her sophomore year.  We had not seen her for years since a visit to Paris, perhaps six years ago.  It was good, too, to spend time with his advisor’s wife, whom he has known for 50 years, but is not in strong health. 

Lunch was fine thin pizza from Bob and Timmy’s Grilled Pizza on Federal Hill, the other side of downtown Providence.  The specialty is thin grilled pizza with mozzarella and mushrooms, which are grilled and then topped with fresh spinach..the house specialty.

From Providence we drove immediately to Tiverton, did a little shopping and arrived at our friends John and his wife Jon.   We have been here several times, and enjoyed sitting on the deck eating fresh salmon on a salad niçoise, a nice Tablelands sauvignon blanc from New Zealand, and watching the tides and currents make it hard from a guy out of gas to row his small rubber raft back to shore.  It took him over 30 minutes to go about half a mile the eddies were so strong.

This morning it is pouring with rain and it is expect to be wet most of the day.  

Ben, Adrienne, Lucie & Lea

Ben, John, Adrienne

Again the Gilded Age

Lenox café

 Tuesday, August 12, 2014

We explored the quite twee towns from Great Barrington, Massachusetts to Lenox, Massachusetts yesterday.  They are lovely little places which show what tons of money over 125 years with no working class, save tradesmen and servants, can make of a beautiful natural setting.  Grand old homes, smaller summer cottages, and smart shops make the little towns places to strolls, and yes, find coffee.   Two places yesterday:  Rudi’s in Great Barrington, where we had been before, and where a cappuccino with a heart on top for Ben was a treat from the barista, and Shots in Lenox.

Edith Wharton's home:  The Mount

The Library at the Mount

The highlight was the Ogden Codman-designed home of Edith Wharton, the Mount, now a museum. http://www.edithwharton.org   She was the first woman to win a Pulitzer prize around the turn of the last century.   She was also a noted interior designed, wrote 40-some other novels and when she divorced her mad husband, decamped for France in 1912 where she lived till her death in 1937.    She was a bit of a gadget freak, too, with electricity in 1902 provided by George Westinghouse himself, and an elevator for moving guest baggage up and down the stories.   She did not, however, have electric refrigeration like William Vanderbilt’s Biltmore in North Carolina, nor was there an electric stove for her cook.

Sculpture Gardebn:  The Globe

The house is surrounded by a sculpture garden, set amongst the trees along the winding lane from the entrance off the main road.   Some of the pieces were absolutely outstanding, while others did nothing for us.  These two were among the winners of praises.  

Sculpture Garden:  Walls

The Codman house brought back memories of Nid and Pat Pibulsonggram when Nid was Thai ambassador to the US.  The Thai Ambassador’s residence was also designed by Ogden Codman.  The interior arrangement of rooms and the design of the house, to the column on the verandah were virtually identical to their Residence.   A trip back in time.

We finished up the day with scampi at Andy and David’s and a bottle of Millbrook Winery’s tocai friulano, a Dutchess county wine from the next county south of Columbia county where we are staying.  An enjoyable quaff.  

We leave this morning for Rhode Island.   More to come.

A Trip to the Late 19th Century

Monday, August 11, 2014

Sunday passed as you’d expect a Sunday in the country to pass:   We visited with new friends, talked of issues and looked out over the Catskill Mountains to the Hudson, sipping chardonnay.   The plan was to spend some time with new friends, an artist and his wife who is with the ACLU, at their summer home in Twilight Park, a collection of late 19th century summer cottages perched on the hills above the Kaaterskill Falls.  The link with a fuller story of Twilight Park:   http://wikimapia.org/5538743/Twilight-Park  The home we visited was built in 1898 and has had minimal changes to it since then.  With a view from the verandah down to the Hudson and up to the Catskill Mountains, it was a trip back in time for us:  Good conversation, good wine and interesting people.   We had planned to spend an hour there, and our visit rambled on to nearly two and a half.   

Our hosts in Twilight Park, Jane and Joe, and their other guests, Glenn and Silvia, were all New Yorkers, two of them artists.  We discussed politics, art, summer homes and our travels and friends.

Back at Andy and David’s we had wonderful summer bread and butter corn (white and yellow kernels, mixed on the cob) with local sausages and the end of the cheese and blueberry pie.   Our hosts are very much into True Blood  on HBO, which John enjoyed watching. 

Hummingbirds, by the way, are not mute.   They actually do sing, and make angry noises when fighting off other hummingbirds at the feeder in their territory.

Days in the Taconics

Sunday, August 10, 2014.   Hummingbirds are territorial.  They fight over feeders hung from our friends’ front verandah.  They thrum, they swoop and they head off any strangers aiming for a sip of sugar water.  When they float in mid-air with their wings moving at hundreds of beats per minute they are gorgeous.   Among themselves they’re rather nasty.

But nothing has been nasty about this trip.  We had a find drive up through the mountains of central New Jersey after our stops in Wilmington, Delaware, for coffee and shopping, and our visit to Mikonos restaurant for Greek food for lunch in Ewing Township, New Jersey.  The traffic in New York was heavy with weekenders heading off to the Catskills but once north of there the roads turned pleasant and the hills and mountains were beautiful as we headed up the Hudson Valley.

We are visiting our friends Andy and David at their home in Craryville, about 15 miles east of the town of Hudson on the river.  The view of the Taconics is magnificent at this time of year, and even better this weekend with nary a cloud in the sky.   The gardens are ablaze with color and their dog, Cooper, guards the grounds and checks out all visitors.   

We spent part of yesterday, Saturday visiting the antique mecca, Hudson, walking up and down Warren Street.  We  some antique books.   We found many of the street’s shops to be very expensive, but used books are always cheap.  John found an old British history book, a Spanish cookbook, and a history of pre-Civil War English history (that’s the English civil war between roundheads and cavaliers, not the American one.)

Along they way we watched the start of the Black Arts Festival Parade, where John chatted with the Mayor of Hudson, Bill Hillenback, who urged the election of a Republican to the mayor’s office in Washington—a bit of a joke since we are working to elect a Democrat, Muriel Bowser! One of the parade floats was a model of the first ship built in Hudson, the Hudson, built in 1785, before steamboats came 
to the river in 1809-1810…and it became a whaling town.

The farmers market overflowed with magnificent vegetables and pies, which we avoided, knowing home-made blueberry pie would be on the menu last night.  We had lunch at the Park Cafe, a kosher sandwich shop—excellent baba ghanoosh and pita sandwiches, and coffee per normal at Nolita.

Our two nights here so far have been good food, good wine and superb conversation.  Last night Andy did a lovely ragout with rigatoni to go with David’s blueberry pie and a West Virgnina valençay goat cheese we brought from Washington’s H Street Market, and the night before rack of lamb, cooked perfectly.

Our days have been busy.  Two friends arrived yesterday afternoon from Boston for a visit. Turns out they have secondary careers as Titan Men in all-male movies.  Today we visit with friends on the other side of the Hudson.

Hudson is very gay!

A Northern Expedition

We head off tomorrow on a 1500 mile/2200 km trip north.  It's a trip to visit old haunts, visit good friends, and see some new-ish sites.  Most of the places we're going we have visited before, so expect some reminiscences.

We start with a visit to the Hudson Valley to see friends in Craryville, near Hudson, New York.  Then we go to Rhode Island for a few days in Tiverton overlooking the harbor and the sunsets over Narragansett Bay, with a short day-trip, we hope, to Boston, in nearby Massachusetts.   We'll finish with a long weekend in Asbury Park, New Jersey getting our annual beach fix.

We'll do the trip by car, stopping for the requisite XX dry skim capucchino and perhaps some Greek salads.  We'll try to have a lobster roll or two in Rhode Island and will avoid the deep-fried Milky Way bars that we've seen in Asbury Park.

Off to pack!

Our day of exploration: Suchou gardens and Roe...and a bit more too

Friday, July 10, 2014

We complete our vacation in Oregon this morning.  Off to the airport and home.

We have loved our time in Portland.  Pam, the owner of the Heron Haus, with her husband, Carl, is a delight and very helpful with directions and assistance.   We think the BnB is a gem.

The breakfasts are good, the outside areas with lovely stone walls and plantings, and the inside, all very elegant and tasteful.   

Yesterday we decided to walk to downtown, which is about 30 minutes.  We sauntered along the old pre-World War 1 streets of the neighborhood, stopping to look in shop windows on a few of the streets, and view the architecture.  One particular building took our interest, the Temple Beth El, which dates from the 1920s I would guess.   It’s a round building with a huge dome.  One of its rabbis, Stephen Wise, was one of the founders of Reform Judaism and helped reduce the influence of the Ku Klux Klan in Oregon.

Suchow Garden

From there we went to the Lan Su Suchow Gardens downtown.   This Chinese garden was a gift from the citizens of Suchou  to their sister city of Portland about 14 years ago.  It’s an intricate series of urban gardens with a lake and pavilions.   We were fortunate to have as a guide one of the Chinese women of Portland who helped convince the city to establish the garden.   She had come to Portland in the 1950s with her parents and had been working to bring Chinese culture here.   Lots of stories and explanations about the value of urban gardens and the role of the Mandarinate in Chinese history.

Charles Rennie MacIntosh as lamp

From there we walked around the city’s Chinatown, lunched on small dim sum at the House of Louie, and then took a streetcar to NW 23rd Street and Ben’s coffee.  He found it at Barista, where the barista not only understood his need for art on his XXX-skim dry cappuccino  but also asked him what kind of art he wanted.  When told that abstract expressionism would be fine the barista asked:  “Jackson Pollock?”   And then he wondered if he should put the cup across the room and throw the second shot of espresso toward it. 

The barista knew!

Dinner was at Roe, a discreet little restaurant attached to Block and Tackle, on SE Division Street.    Here you enter the restaurant and you are seated at the bar until the room at the back of Block and Tackle, which is Roe, is ready.   Then you are ushered in for a fish and seafood tasting menu that’s very inventive and worth the time (and the expense).   We had such divergent sea food as white tuna sashimi, marlin and squid ceviche, lobster with chopped green beans and onion blossoms, poached NZ salmon that had the taste of magnificent lox, and a grilled sea bass.  There was a wine to go with each course.  We enjoyed them all, though Ben would have preferred not to have sparkling wine or champagne.  The high point were the wines from Annie Amie, a winery here in the Yamhill-Carlton area.  Of particular note from from Annie Amie was the Müller-Thurgau.  John had a cardamaro aperatif which had a mild artichoke flavor.  One of the palate cleanser after the first course was made of watermelon, tomato juice and onion blossom.

Portland

Thursday, July 10

The Coast Starlight at Chemult, Oregon

It’s a long way from Crater Lake to Portland.   We didn’t measure the miles, but we seemed to average about 40 mpg when we bought gasoline yesterday morning on the eastern side of the mountains, in the village of Chemult, where trains actually do stop for people to get off to go hiking or to the national park.   The train that stopped while we were there goes north to Portland and Seattle and comes up from LA.  One a day.  Quite a train, though.

From there we moved through the mountains, stopping to picnic on the banks of Lake Odell with Diamond Mountain in the distance.   Very pretty place to sit and nibble a banana with yoghurt.

From there we managed to find a lovely little coffee shack in Oakridge, where the barrista said she enjoyed making Ben’s coffee—the first time she had ever done it! She and Ben were having such a good time that she forgot to collect the $3.25 for the cappuccino and when Ben realized this, after we had driven several blocks, we turned around to pay her.  

And to Eugene, and I-5.  It’s the West Coast version of I-95 and it’s worse.   It’s narrow with only two lanes per side, with very heavy truck traffic.  Fortunately there are very few reckless drivers in Oregon and no one speeds!   We got off for a few minutes to visit Ben’s favorite XXX-dry coffee shop in Salem, the Ike Box where we stopped on the way south.   And then to Portland.

Herron Haus, Portland

We are staying at the Heron Haus, a 1902 mansion on the side of a hill overlooking the city.   It’s very grand and very comfortable.   Dormered rooms, parquet floors, interesting owner, a very comfy bed.   The gardens are exquisite.  

It’s within walking distance of a neighborhood loaded with restaurants, nightlife and interesting little shops.  It’s also walking distance to the city street car system.   We will use that today.

We dined outside at a sidewalk café, Café Mingo, an Italian place.   We thoroughly enjoyed our dinners and a lovely Chehalem Vineyard 2011 Pinot Noir.   John started with a smoked trout, grapefruit and butter lettuce salad and followed it with a lovely piece of Italian sausage, spicy sautéed spinach and polenta.   Ben began with crepelle stuffed with shiitake and two or three other kinds of mushrooms over arugula and sprinkled with parmesan, and followed it with a grilled chicken breast on a summer salad of spices, baby tomatoes and cucumbers mixed with cold rice.   Very lovely evening. 

The Ocean and the Volcanoes

Crater Lake, Oregon

July 8, 2014

We’re in a little village about 40 miles south of Crater Lake at a lovely inn/motel, the Prospect Inn.  John is expecting prime rib for dinner, the specialty of the house.  Ben had not yet indicated a preference.  John is sitting outside beneath the pines, in quite muggy, almost Washingtonian weather enjoying a local white, which appears to be a facsimile of a riesling.   It’s a nice facsimile, but he’s not a riesling drinker.

It’s been a long day and it was a lovely evening last night, all very enjoyable.   (The mosquitoes in this Oregon mountain village are very aggressive…John just swatted one to its netherland.

We had dinner last night at the Requa with a couple from Massachusetts who are looking for a place to build a winery.   Jim is a winemaker when he is not researching medical cures for GSK, and his wife is a 5th grade teacher.  They live north of Boston where Jim spends his free time making wine in their basement with purchased grapes.   They make about 400 cases a year and sell them at festivals and farmers’ markets.  Ashland and the Rogue Valley appeal to them so they are out looking around.  We may hear if they make a decision!  

Dinner at the Requa was very nice.   We had a fixed menu that began with warm beets, served with a beet whole wheat drop biscuit.  It was followed by a lovely piece of poached halibut with dill, fennel and steamed radish.   The meat course was sliced pork loin with a puree of vegetables.  Finished off with dessert of panna cotta, dried strawberries and honey coated roasted hazelnuts.   We had a Willamette Valley Four Graces 2012 Pinot Noir that was very good to go with the dishes.   One can always depend on Pinot Noirs to go with…

Klamath River meets the sea

Then this morning, after a breakfast of local fruits and a smoothie for Ben, with local eggs and sausage for John, we headed off in search of a) coffee, b) a gift for grandson, c) some good shots of redwoods by the side of the road d) Crater Lake.  We succeeded in all endeavors. 

We got the requisite XXX-dry skim cap at a coffee bar-cum-hair cuttery run by an Asian family with very strong California accents just south of central Crescent City that met every expectation, including art in the foam.   We got an appropriate gift for grandson at the Redwoods National Park admin building gift shop.  We stopped in a the Jedediah Smith Redwood Grove for good roadside shots of the trees as we climbed the Coast Range, and we crossed into the Cascades to Crater Lake, where we spent a couple of hours in its spell.

I didn't throw it!

We drove through many little towns and long straight stretches of road with such high pines and redwoods lining it that wondered where the altar was at the end of the nave of trees.  Crater Lake National Park is awesome. (And we don’t mean that like a 20-something. Perhaps awe-inspiring is more the right phrase.)  It’s a crashed in volcano filled with water that is blue, blue, blue…most days. Today without direct sunlight it wasn’t blue, blue, blue…just a nice blue.  The drops from the rim to the lake, the outcroppings, the slowly melting snow (in July) and the flora make it a wonderful time.   It was lovely.

More to come.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

We did have a lovely piece of prime rib for John last night and Ben had local Oregon salmon, that John, not a salmon lover, enjoyed with just one bite.   The service was excellent.   The Del Rio Pinot Noir was adequate, though we didn’t think it outstanding.   We talked with an Italo-Swedish couple who had spent the last two years at Stanford and are now returning to Stockholm.  We also met a pleasant family from New Jersey.   The vacationlands around here attract folk from all over the world.   The winemaker on Tuesday was Scottish but had spent much of his younger life in the Middle East.  

We spent a good half an hour talking about Washington with a young woman a rising senior from near Seattle, who is thinking about applying to Howard.   She and her father were spending a good part of the summer biking from the Canadian to the Mexican border.  They have already biked 10000 miles. They will have an easier day today going from here to Ashland…mostly downhill.

We are packing the car for Portland and will be there mid-afternoon.   It’s a 5 hour 30 minute drive, without stops.   We expect to be there around 4 pm.

Into the Woods ... and Really Into the Trees

 Monday, July 7, 2014

We had a grand evening last night and a couple of great performances to complete our days at the Shakespeare Festival.    We started the day quietly.  John worked on the blog and pictures while Ben headed out for coffee at the 116 Lithia Coffee Shop where they know him now.  

In the early afternoon we walked over to the OSF for the show “A Wrinkle in Time,” based on a 1960’s sci-fi novel.   The piece was very successfully done by using the book by reading sections from the book while the cast acted them out.   It worked very well, though the play itself is not one we would have thought to chose from a listing.   It’s about good and evil, with heavy Christian overtones.  John thought of C.S. Lewis’ Perelandra novels.

Dinner at Amuse

Dinner was a success at Amuse, quite near the Winchester Inn.   Ben had a fruit salad and Alaskan halibut, which he says was superb, and better than the halibut at Peerless, a couple of nights ago.   John had three small plates—a prawn and potato salad, then sautéed veal sweetbreads and a salad.   We all splurged with beignets for dessert.   The wines were local, a Rogue Valley sauvignon blanc, and a claret also from around here.   The wines are superb in this part of Oregon, though this viticultural area is not well known outside the state.   We have yet to have a disappointing bottle.  In fact the area was written up in the NY Times on Sunday as being a grand place to go for wines and food without crowds—it’s also kid friendly unlike a lot of places.  Maybe in a few years we’ll bring our grandson.

Last night’s play was Sondheim’s “Into the Woods,” which is one of our favorites.  It was our third time to see the play  The first time was at Kennedy Center where we sat in the rafters, the second was a superb production at Signature, and tonight’s was the winner of all three—but only by a little for John because he loved the small theater at Signature where we saw it the last time.  We are always entranced with the lovely happy ending of the first act.  You think the play is over:  the reaction of many in the audience.  You are scarcely prepared for the second act where the characters realize that there are consequences of seeking and then getting what they wanted.   Jack in the Beanstalk becomes a scapegoat, Cinderella breaks off with the handsome prince…and Rapunzel and Little Red Riding Hood don’t do too well either.  The production was done outside in the Elizabethan theater with a superb cast.  The orchestra is on two levels toward the back of the stage with the pianist on the first level, the other instrumentalists above, and the conductor out where the audience sits.

Today we leave for the Pacific Coast and some national parks.   Off to breakfast.

5:15 PM.   Arrived at the Requa Inn on the banks of the Klamath River about a mile from the Pacific Ocean about 45 minutes ago.  The hills are covered with redwood trees. The gently flowing river is apparently the lifeline of an indian reservation that owns one mile of land from the riverbanks on both sides for 40 some miles.  A good time for sipping a nice Gruner-Vetliner.   It’s an old stage coach kind of place, dating from the 1860s I’d guess.  Nice rooms, hot-tub, which we will probably not use, and a dinner reservation so we need not move from the view.

The day was long but gorgeous,  John figures he drove over 5 hours, mostly on hilly, (read mountainous) roads, with trees coming up to the edge of the pavement for the last few miles.   We stopped for coffee at Z Coffee in Cave Junction, Oregon.  Not bad, but a bit too chocolatey for John’s taste and he had only an ordinary decaf.   We lunched on little pastries left over from the Winchester Inn, a couple of bananas, and some yoghurt from the local Safeway in Crescent City about 40 miles north of here.  We look forward to a locavore dinner this evening here in Klamath (not Klamath Falls, Oregon, Klamath, California.)

The Pacific Shoreline

The California Coast

The high point of the day has been the redwood forests.   They are magnificent.  John had seen them many years ago south of here when he lived in California and we had visited a small grove in Sonoma County about 10 years ago.  But there is nothing to compare to mile after mile of 500 year-old trees lining the roadways.  The trees survived fires, droughts and earthquakes since the days of the dinosaurs, but they nearly didn’t survive the arrival of Europeans in the 19th century.  Once they learned how to cut them down, down they came until the 1910s when groups of Californians started to develop a protection scheme.  Now it is a series of National and State Parks along the northern coast of California…and more rigorous logging controls that will save these magnificent trees, both for economic use but also for protection of the ecology and for our pleasure.   

The California Coast

Coastal Range

Taller than the Statue of Liberty

  

A Full Day of Theater...and We Will Return Next Year

John had never seen lambs quarters befor

A goat herder and her sausages

Tami buys one bean pod!

GeeGee and Peter in search of the perfect spice

Sunday, July 6, 2014     Saturday was a theater day, but we did spend the morning walking around town, visiting the farmer’s market, talking to the vendors about lambs quarters (an edible weed) and osso buco of goat, and checking out spices in the local spice shop, run by a South African guy who’d had an art gallery in Santa Fe at one point.   

The theater today was superb.   We started with a magnificent rock opera, “Family Album” set in today’s world, but with overtones of yesteryear’s communal life, the search of meaning and the desire to build a family that encompasses the meaning when it is found.  Written by Stew, a rock/hiphop/R&B artist, who recently did a piece that got a Tony in 2008 (Best Book of a Musical for “Passing Strange”), this is a world premiere that Ben thinks should go far.   He’s already been in on the phone with NY theater friends to interest them.

We had dinner at the Standing Stone Brewing Company, courtesy of Tami and Derrick, with lots of very good Oregon ale, calamari, and for John a kimchi pork burger and for Ben a vegetarian burger.   Very nice on the patio.  Jane had a flight of the micro-brewery’s various ales and stouts:  a group of full test-tubes with the brews arranged in ascending lightness.

The evening’s production was an outstanding “Richard III”, beautifully executed in all its evil by Dan Donohue, a regular performer here.   It’s amazing how the play drips with evil— and propaganda in favor of Henry, Earl of Richmond, who became Henry VII, the first Tudor monarch, and grandfather to Elizabeth the First, the reigning monarch in Shakespeare’s day.   

Today, too, at dinner, we were asked if we wanted to become regulars to this July Fourth Trek to the Festival.  With pleasure, we look forward to our visit next year with the same wonderful group of people.