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!