Events of September 10
We have a friend who lives in Santiago, Chile, whom we have visited. It turned out he had business in New York, so we Megabussed it to the city to visit with him and enjoy a couple of good meals and good conversation.
Megagus is cheap. You get what you pay for, and it isn't much. By buying the tickets in advance, even with reserved seats, we went for less than one person's dinner bill. However, Megabus leaves something to be desired. They lack proper management.
Our driver left Washington about twenty minutes late, easily made up, but about 90 minutes outside of New York he announced that he was going over his federal driving time limit and would have to pull into a rest stop to wait for another driver! While it only took 45 minutes for another driver to arrive, it certainly is not good for consumers of bus travel to be sided due to management's inability to ensure having drivers without restrictions.
That said, the return bus, leaving New York at 10 PM arrived in Washington on time at 2:30AM.
Our big events were three: a fine bento box land sushi unch at AAIchiban Sushi in midtown, a visit to the High Line Park--the old railroad line that has been turned into an elevated park on the west side of Manhattan, and dinner in the East Village at Rebelle. We also found good coffee at Grounded on Jane Street in the Village.
It was a full day but great fun in its own way.
Dinner at Rebelle was very good. We arrived early to find the restaurant empty--it doesn't fill until about 7:30. This left us time to talk before the clatter and the chatter began. The food is superb. We enjoyed a variety of dishes, with John enjoying sweetbreads...a small plate, but very tasty. We had a light red burgundy which we found disappointing only because we had expected something heavier. This wine was of a beaujolais style, not a classic pinot noir.
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Good Food in Pittsburgh
Events of August 29-30. A quick trip to Pittsburgh
We hastened to Pittsburgh on Saturday, August 29 to celebrate birthdays and an anniversary. Ben's cousin was celebrating an 85th birthday and 60th wedding anniversary, while friend John and John the writer were celebrating their birthdays early.
We left Washington mid-morning and headed to Frederick, Maryland, where we found a new coffee shop for Ben to find his special XXX-tra dry skim cappuccino. The new place, in a bicycle shop, is Gravel and Grind It's in an antique section of the city, mostly old warehouses, and not quite downtown. It's also very convenient to interstate route 70 and staffed by bicycle repair folk who have branched into coffee. The coffees were very good and teaching the barrista was not difficult.
From there we headed to Cumberland, where we stopped for lunch. Cumberland is an old 19th century railroad hub, now rebuilding itself into a tourist destination. The center of town is an old main street now turned into a wide open mall for open air theater and music, rather pretty with the mountains rising in the background. We found a quaint restaurant flying a gay flag on a side street, Sammy's, run by a retired Scandinavian chef from a Washington embassy who moved to the hills. The food was excellent and it's worth seeking the place out on its side street. A stuffed dog welcomes you. John recommends the fried green tomato BLT as fine luncheon sandwich.
It was a gorgeous day as we drove through the Alleghenies, and the construction on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, to Pittsburgh. We spent much of the afternoon just sitting talking with our friends Tom and John, then headed out to dinner at a local restaurant in nearby Regent Square (a neighborhood partly in Pittsburgh, Swissvale and Edgewood).
We went to Root174 to celebrate two birthdays--without fanfare. Not wanting to sit inside on a lovely summer evening we took tables on Braddock Avenue at this restaurant in the Regent Square neighborhood. Outside you don't have the buzz of the restaurant and you get to enjoy the passing scenery. This includes an occasional bus, but also the locals enjoying the evening with some eye candy, and this evening a fireworks show reflected in the store windows across the street.
Dinner was well done. John enjoyed lamb neck, stewed so the marrow oozed out of the bones. It was done with fingerling potatoes. He started with a beet salad. The others began with sautéed brussels sprouts, excellent both without and with bacon. The meals moved on to fishes and a vegan dish of tofu balls--this was good but not a success. Everything else was five star.
The wine list is a collection of very unique wines, ordered into the state from wineries that don't generally show up on wine lists. We enjoyed a Gruner Vetliner and a Corsican pinot noir. We did not do birthday cake--it's not on the menu. The cocktail list is interesting, but we enjoyed our wines instead.
The following day, for our cousin's birthday and anniversary, we headed to Eleven on Smallman Street behind the Convention Center. This is a first-class well-known restaurant, owned by Ben's cousin and partners. The chef goes so far as to make his own lox.
The lunch included many fish dishes and no meat ito fulfill kashrut requirements. It was a classic brunch-time party we enjoyed immensely.
The drive home was easy, and we set a record of less than four hours door to door! It's about 250 miles (400 km). Fortunately there was minimal traffic and very good weather.
We hastened to Pittsburgh on Saturday, August 29 to celebrate birthdays and an anniversary. Ben's cousin was celebrating an 85th birthday and 60th wedding anniversary, while friend John and John the writer were celebrating their birthdays early.
We left Washington mid-morning and headed to Frederick, Maryland, where we found a new coffee shop for Ben to find his special XXX-tra dry skim cappuccino. The new place, in a bicycle shop, is Gravel and Grind It's in an antique section of the city, mostly old warehouses, and not quite downtown. It's also very convenient to interstate route 70 and staffed by bicycle repair folk who have branched into coffee. The coffees were very good and teaching the barrista was not difficult. 
It was a gorgeous day as we drove through the Alleghenies, and the construction on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, to Pittsburgh. We spent much of the afternoon just sitting talking with our friends Tom and John, then headed out to dinner at a local restaurant in nearby Regent Square (a neighborhood partly in Pittsburgh, Swissvale and Edgewood).
We went to Root174 to celebrate two birthdays--without fanfare. Not wanting to sit inside on a lovely summer evening we took tables on Braddock Avenue at this restaurant in the Regent Square neighborhood. Outside you don't have the buzz of the restaurant and you get to enjoy the passing scenery. This includes an occasional bus, but also the locals enjoying the evening with some eye candy, and this evening a fireworks show reflected in the store windows across the street.
Dinner was well done. John enjoyed lamb neck, stewed so the marrow oozed out of the bones. It was done with fingerling potatoes. He started with a beet salad. The others began with sautéed brussels sprouts, excellent both without and with bacon. The meals moved on to fishes and a vegan dish of tofu balls--this was good but not a success. Everything else was five star.
The wine list is a collection of very unique wines, ordered into the state from wineries that don't generally show up on wine lists. We enjoyed a Gruner Vetliner and a Corsican pinot noir. We did not do birthday cake--it's not on the menu. The cocktail list is interesting, but we enjoyed our wines instead.
The following day, for our cousin's birthday and anniversary, we headed to Eleven on Smallman Street behind the Convention Center. This is a first-class well-known restaurant, owned by Ben's cousin and partners. The chef goes so far as to make his own lox.
The lunch included many fish dishes and no meat ito fulfill kashrut requirements. It was a classic brunch-time party we enjoyed immensely.
The drive home was easy, and we set a record of less than four hours door to door! It's about 250 miles (400 km). Fortunately there was minimal traffic and very good weather.
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A few days in Asbury Park, New Jersey
Events of August 20-24.
We took our annual few days at the beach at Asbury Park in late August. This is a time to spend with friends and enjoy the company. We walked the board walk, but avoided spending time on the sand this year. We are always fascinated by the beach scene. The kids about to be smothered in water from the big buckets, the honky-tonk of an amusement fair, and the ruins of the old casino make for interesting juxtapositions.
We took our annual few days at the beach at Asbury Park in late August. This is a time to spend with friends and enjoy the company. We walked the board walk, but avoided spending time on the sand this year. We are always fascinated by the beach scene. The kids about to be smothered in water from the big buckets, the honky-tonk of an amusement fair, and the ruins of the old casino make for interesting juxtapositions. 
A quick trip North
Events of July 26-29, Connecticut and Rhode Island
We had planned to make a trip of four or five days to Rhode Island, with a stopover in Fairfield, Connecticut to see our friends in Tiverton, Rhode Island at their newly-purchased cottage on the water and John's brother in Connecticut, but John was being sworn in on July 30 requiring us to be in Washington that day. He has taken a position on a commission that regulates post-secondary education institutions.
Instead of spending three or four days in Tiverton looking over Narragansett Bay and enjoying seafood and fresh farm-raised vegetables, we were limited to two with a Sunday stopover in Connecticut.
We had an enjoyable evening looking out of Samp Mortar Lake from brother Andrew's back porch, enjoying spare-ribs and salads.
Then the following morning we took the three hour jaunt from there to Tiverton, a small town in Rhode Island, south of Fall River on the far side of the Sakonnet River--a tidal part of Narragansett Bay. Friends John (boy) and Jon (girl) have purchased a summer home there which has magnificent views of Tiverton's harbor, and storms as they move through.
John, (the writer--it's a trip having three joh(n)s in the house, spent part of the Tuesday morning heading into Fall River, the city just to the north of Tiverton, to visit Hartley's Pork Pies to purchase ethnically English food for lunch. John (boy) had not had them since leaving England many years ago and was a bit reticent, but a huge nine-inch pie (22 cm) along with fresh tomato salad filled us wonderfully as we watched the gulls and terns fly over the water from their deck. They will become an annual event.
That evening we dined at Red Dory on Tiverton's main road overlooking the water with lovely glasses of Portuguese white from Alentejo, and various shellfish, including local oysters, broiled Portuguese style sardines, lovely fresh salads, and the good company of friend Elaine. Red Dory has significant Portuguese influence from the large number of Portuguese immigrants into southeastern Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts just over 100 years ago. The meal was generally good. Most of us stayed with the small plates, grilled sardines, octopus, and oysters, battered with a very good spicy mayonnaise. One of us ventured into the large plates with an excellent clam and halibut meal. All in all a reasonably priced very good meal. In previous posts we have talked about restaurants in New Bedford. Red Dory was excellent, though the noise level is high inside.
John also went wine-tasting at Sakonnet Vineyards in the town of Little Compton. He enjoyed a vidal blanc hybrid, which is a somewhat sweeter version of a sauvignon blanc mixed with chardonnay. it survives northern winters and we have enjoyed it in Quebec as well. He also passed gorgeous hydrangeas at a nursery along the main road and compared them to the hortensias we have seen in Brittany.
Our trip back to Washington took all of Wednesday with a stop at our favorite Korean store and restaurant in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and coffee in New Haven at Blue State. Ben also found excellent coffee in Tiverton at Coastal Roasters, and he has made friends with the barista at Peet's Coffee in the Chesapeake House on Route 95 in Maryland. They make his special coffee without a murmur now!
We had planned to make a trip of four or five days to Rhode Island, with a stopover in Fairfield, Connecticut to see our friends in Tiverton, Rhode Island at their newly-purchased cottage on the water and John's brother in Connecticut, but John was being sworn in on July 30 requiring us to be in Washington that day. He has taken a position on a commission that regulates post-secondary education institutions.
Instead of spending three or four days in Tiverton looking over Narragansett Bay and enjoying seafood and fresh farm-raised vegetables, we were limited to two with a Sunday stopover in Connecticut.
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| Tiverton Harbor |
Then the following morning we took the three hour jaunt from there to Tiverton, a small town in Rhode Island, south of Fall River on the far side of the Sakonnet River--a tidal part of Narragansett Bay. Friends John (boy) and Jon (girl) have purchased a summer home there which has magnificent views of Tiverton's harbor, and storms as they move through.
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| Storm front arrives |
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| Ten minutes later |
That evening we dined at Red Dory on Tiverton's main road overlooking the water with lovely glasses of Portuguese white from Alentejo, and various shellfish, including local oysters, broiled Portuguese style sardines, lovely fresh salads, and the good company of friend Elaine. Red Dory has significant Portuguese influence from the large number of Portuguese immigrants into southeastern Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts just over 100 years ago. The meal was generally good. Most of us stayed with the small plates, grilled sardines, octopus, and oysters, battered with a very good spicy mayonnaise. One of us ventured into the large plates with an excellent clam and halibut meal. All in all a reasonably priced very good meal. In previous posts we have talked about restaurants in New Bedford. Red Dory was excellent, though the noise level is high inside.
John also went wine-tasting at Sakonnet Vineyards in the town of Little Compton. He enjoyed a vidal blanc hybrid, which is a somewhat sweeter version of a sauvignon blanc mixed with chardonnay. it survives northern winters and we have enjoyed it in Quebec as well. He also passed gorgeous hydrangeas at a nursery along the main road and compared them to the hortensias we have seen in Brittany. Our trip back to Washington took all of Wednesday with a stop at our favorite Korean store and restaurant in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and coffee in New Haven at Blue State. Ben also found excellent coffee in Tiverton at Coastal Roasters, and he has made friends with the barista at Peet's Coffee in the Chesapeake House on Route 95 in Maryland. They make his special coffee without a murmur now!
Boston
Events of September 16-19. John visits Boston
John spent most of four days in Boston, Massachusetts on business September 16 through 19. This was not all work, and provided opportunities to visit with friends, eat in some good restaurants, spend some time at the Museum of Fine Arts and enjoy family.
He had a fine time with grandsons in the suburbs, who are growing well. His visit with friends he had not seen since their wedding was lovely. Michael and Patricia have had an interesting 23 years of marriage, living now in Back Bay.
The restaurants were interesting and belie Boston's old reputation of dreary food. It's not been like that since John's college days, but the reputation still exists.
His first good meal was at Wink and Nod, a dark basement restaurant, beautifully decorated and lighted by old-style Edison lights. On Appleton Street, south of I-90, it has the air of an old English club. The food, however, is Filipino with other Asian influences. John and friend Angela enjoyed dinner of rice with beef, huge shrimp in hot sauce, and cubed crisped pork with strong spices. Wink and Nod is a lot of fun, but if you go, sit under one of the lights. Otherwise, reading the menu is a bit difficult to say the least.
The second good time was at Grill 23, a steakhouse near Copley Square. It was a chance to enjoy a good steak and frites, though the amount of frites was overwhelming and got shared among the three of us. A huge salad with excellent light cheese was a good starter. John's old friends had selections of salads, and scallops. A good Gruner Vetleiner assuaged Patricia's tastes while John enjoyed a pinot grigio from Veneto. He moved on to a syrah that was outstanding. We split an order of profiteroles for dessert. An evening of good food with good conversation.
The visit to the MFA was superb. John had seen a Wall Street Journal review of "Made in the Americas, The New World Discovers Asia,"
He was fascinated by the Asian influence on colonial American art and design and went to see it. It's worth every moment of the visit to see pieces from Asia from the 1520s that showed traders and then showed how their arts, brought to the Americas, influenced art, furniture and design from colonial New England to viceregal Peru. http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/made-in-the-americas
Lunch--a very fine Cuban style panino sandwich with good coffee while he listened to Greek music and dancing to celebrate Greek culture day. He finished up his visit with time in the John Singleton Copley and the colonial art galleries.
John spent most of four days in Boston, Massachusetts on business September 16 through 19. This was not all work, and provided opportunities to visit with friends, eat in some good restaurants, spend some time at the Museum of Fine Arts and enjoy family.
He had a fine time with grandsons in the suburbs, who are growing well. His visit with friends he had not seen since their wedding was lovely. Michael and Patricia have had an interesting 23 years of marriage, living now in Back Bay.
The restaurants were interesting and belie Boston's old reputation of dreary food. It's not been like that since John's college days, but the reputation still exists.
His first good meal was at Wink and Nod, a dark basement restaurant, beautifully decorated and lighted by old-style Edison lights. On Appleton Street, south of I-90, it has the air of an old English club. The food, however, is Filipino with other Asian influences. John and friend Angela enjoyed dinner of rice with beef, huge shrimp in hot sauce, and cubed crisped pork with strong spices. Wink and Nod is a lot of fun, but if you go, sit under one of the lights. Otherwise, reading the menu is a bit difficult to say the least.
The second good time was at Grill 23, a steakhouse near Copley Square. It was a chance to enjoy a good steak and frites, though the amount of frites was overwhelming and got shared among the three of us. A huge salad with excellent light cheese was a good starter. John's old friends had selections of salads, and scallops. A good Gruner Vetleiner assuaged Patricia's tastes while John enjoyed a pinot grigio from Veneto. He moved on to a syrah that was outstanding. We split an order of profiteroles for dessert. An evening of good food with good conversation.
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| Japanese screen from the 1520s |
He was fascinated by the Asian influence on colonial American art and design and went to see it. It's worth every moment of the visit to see pieces from Asia from the 1520s that showed traders and then showed how their arts, brought to the Americas, influenced art, furniture and design from colonial New England to viceregal Peru. http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/made-in-the-americas
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| Copley's Art |
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Off to home after a visit with old friends
It’s an easy five hour drive to Sacramento, but finding our motel near the UC campus in Davis was not difficult, nor was the late afternoon traffic heavy. We got in touch with old friends and headed into Sacramento for dinner with them. It was a fine dine at Waterboy, with much good conversation of friends who have not seen each other in many years. The wine, a Revolution sangiovesi Renzo Gandyhill Winery in Sacramento County was a lovely vino locali. It went well with John’s white anchovies and then his skirt steak and Ben’s lobster and corn cream soup, followed by scallops. Then a quick return to UC in Davis and today we head off to the airport to return to Washington.
Monday, July 6, 2015
A grand finale of O’Neill and Loesser
We finished off our time in Ashland with two masterpieces. First, in the afternoon, we sat entranced through an outstanding production of Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill. Just a grand performance by outstanding actors. It wasn’t the first time we had seen it, but it was the best—and it entranced our hosts who had not seen it before. It’s long (3:45) and can be quite depressing if you let it, but it gets so much to heart of dysfunctional family issues.
The second piece was Frank Loesser’s gem of a musical, Guys and Dolls. It doesn’t date, even though it was written over 60 years ago. This production had strong performances for Sky Masterson and Miss Adelaide in particular. The song and dance numbers were superb. Take Back Your Mink beautifully done by a zaftig group of 1950s “dolls” in their frilly lacy undies.
This was the first time OSF has had an Out weekend, too. The rainbow flag flew proudly over the theater.
This was the first time OSF has had an Out weekend, too. The rainbow flag flew proudly over the theater.
We dined at an Italian restaurant, Pasta Piatta, where the portions were just huge. We had one superb wine from winery we had never heard of, Ledger David Epitome of Three—a mixture of reds, and another, a syrah, from Jacksonville’s Quady Winery, which disappointed us. During the evening we were treated to a deluge from a highly irregular thunderstorm at this time of year; it broke the heat wave.
This morning we said our goodbyes till next year and drove to Sacramento where we will visit with friends this evening before returning home tomorrow. Our trip today took us by the monumental Mt. Shasta at 14,100 feet (425 meters) and a visit to the oldest fish hatchery west of the Mississippi!
Saturday, July 4, 2015
Sixteenth and Nineteenth Century Women and more...
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| Ashland Street musician: Hurdy-Gurdy Player |
Much Ado about Nothing was a wonderful comedy, done very well, with excellent renditions of Benedict and Beatrice, and good performances by the rest of the cast. The report we heard was that the cast was a bit overwhelmed with how active the audience was and it threw them off a bit. Since the audience is very close to the stage action (and some of the actors climb down into the audience), we could see how this could happen. It was a hilarious performance. The movement, acrobatics and site gags put it over-the-top.
The second play of the day was Fingersmith, based on a novel by Sarah Waters. This world premiere is a wonderful Victorian piece, a pot boiler of a mystery, which should move across the country and be played in many different places. Besides being emotionally disturbing in its treatment of women in the 19th century, it has a macabre Dickensian appeal that we won’t tell you about. Just to say that if you get a chance to see this play, see it.
We attended a talk with the writer of the adaptation, Alexa Junge, and a dramaturge, Susan Lyons, about the production and how it was written for the stage from the 500 page novel Waters had completed about twenty years ago. It brought out many things in the play, without divulging the plot.
We had dinner with friends of Jane and Peter who live in and around Ashland at Amuse, where we had eaten last year. The friends were truly a blend: two South Africans whom they had known for years at Stanford, who had left SA during the apartheid years, and a retired American emergency physician and his Australian wife, who now run their own vineyard to keep themselves in wine! Both couples now live in Ashland. John and Ben both had the excellent three mushroom salad, which Ben followed with Alaskan halibut and John had sweetbreads with cherries. We completed the meal with Amuse’s famous beignets, which must be ordered early in the meal. We tasted three wines, a sauvignon blanc from Kriselle, a pinot noir from Irvine Winery, and a superb marsanne-roussanne-viognier mix from Cowhorn called Spiral 36.
We decided this morning not to stick around Ashland for the Fourth of July Parade and headed off to Applegate Valley to Cowhorn Vineyards to taste their wine—and visit the old Gold Rush town of Jacksonville, now a National Historic District.
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| 1850s Buildings Jacksonville |
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| Jacksonville 19th century railroad train, made in Pittsburgh! |
Cowhorn is a eco-winery and we tasted four of their wines: the Spiral 36 we had had last night, a marsanne-roussanne mix that was much dryer, a syrah, very full and very lovely, and a grenache, which we enjoyed immensely.
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| Applegate Valley |
Dinner in nearby Talent was at the New Sammy’s Cowboy Bistro about three miles from Ashland. It’s a sprawling part French-style and part Santa Fe-stucco style restaurant.
This is a place where the family had been the owner of a place Jane and Peter had visited in Mendocino a few years ago. This version is owned by the family patriarch’s son, with dad in an assisting role as keeper of the wine cellar. Regrettably the cellar had only one wine from the Rogue or nearby valleys…and we had had it both tasting at the winery and at dinner the previous evening!
The food and wine were good with a few mis-steps. We ordered a lovely white wine, unknown to us, to go with dinner. It was a savignan white from the Jura mountains in the east of France (although the dad described it as a Loire valley wine). We had heard of yellow Jura wines, but not this white, which turned out to be quite full-bodied and good choice for most of the dishes we had.
Ben had a salmon dish, which was good and John enjoyed braised beef spare-ribs. The leek appetizer was good, but the leeks were not softened enough to slice easily. Claire ordered a tortellini dish, which turned out to not be available about 10 minutes into the wait period for the food. She enjoyed the risotto substitute, but this should not have happened. We enjoyed both a floating island and an intricate ice cream dish for dessert and finished up the dinner as the last guests at 10PM.
We had a pleasant close to the evening sitting on the Winchester Inn’s grounds watching the Ashland 4 July fireworks through the trees.
Friday, July 3, 2015
Egypt and China
Yesterday, July 2, was a theater day. We attended two performances, both of them superb in very different ways. The two plays were Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra and a production written by a major modern Chinese playwright, Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land.
Antony and Cleopatra was grand! The production, outside in the huge Allen Elizabethan Theater took no liberties with the script, followed along with what you would expect of a major Shakespeare play and was perhaps the best version we have ever seen. The acting was magnificent, the set inventive, and the costuming completely fitting to the tragedy. It’s a must. We are not generally given to standing ovations but this play got one.
The other play, by Stan Lai, having its US premiere, is a strange combination of two plays into one: One is a 4th Century AD Chinese play, the other a play set in modern Taiwan as Mainland China opened in the 1980s for a dying man who was in love with a woman in 1948 in Shanghai, and separated by the Maoist Revolution. In this play, the two plays are scheduled for rehearsals in the same theater on one night and interact with each other, at one point with both rehearsals being played out at the same time. While the production is confusing in the beginning, the way it works out with the two plays actually completing their scripts separately at the end of the evening is comedic and tragic at the same time. The after-play discussion featured Leah Anderson who played Blossom. Ms. Anderson is the daughter of an Asian father and a Caucasian mother who grew up with her mother in Los Angeles and went to Yale to study political science. After considering law school, she decided to follow her passion and went to Brown for an MFA in drama. The discussion included a good bit about race which, of course is on everybody’s mind these days. Apparently, race played a major role in the workshop discussions as well as the translation of this play. Ms Anderson, given her mixed-race status was seminal in these discussions. Apparently she is also a playwright. She plays Hero in Much Ado About Nothing which we will see this afternoon.
We had dinner at Larks Hotel restaurant in the center of Ashland, with a lovely Umpqua Valley Abacela albariño white (very dry) to go with Ben’s lingcod (a Pacific Ocean fish) on kale and lentils and John’s meat loaf. It’s an “American” restaurant, aiming to do down-home cooking. Other members of the group had Southern fried chicken. Ben started with sautéed brussels sprouts with bacon and nuts, while John had an arugula salad with pickled radishes and toasted cashews. While Ben really enjoyed his cod, John thinks his own meat loaf is better.
Thursday, July 2, 2015
Hot Lowlands, Cool Altitudes, Fine Theater
Yesterday, July 1, was one of those great days with a full schedule of fascinating experiences from a national park to superb theater. It was also a day to learn from very strong experience that attitude affects outside temperatures.
We left Chico early, about 7 AM, heading to Lassen Volcanic National Park. It’s about two hours, mostly heading up to higher altitudes. Already on our departure the heat was well over 80F (27C), and the air conditioning in our car was going full blast. The first sign that we were heading into different territory from the populated centers of the valley along the Sacramento River was a sign saying “No Fuel Next 62 Miles.” We rose through the burned out plains with their California oak trees, into canyon country. Deep tranches through the earth with multicolored strata showed how the layers had settled. Then the pine forests began with the rushing streams, still with water in them from the Sierra. The road twisted and turned, rose up and down through the mountains and caused us to slow down from the legal 55 mph speed limit to about 25 mph for some of the bendy turns. By then we could open the windows to the temperatures in the 60sF/18C.
We arrived at the Lassen Volcanic National Park about 8:55, needing to wait five minutes for the Visitor Center to open. A 20 minute video, that was very good, tuned us in to what we were going to see—four different types of volcanoes, in the only place in the world where they are all within the boundaries of a national park. Cinder Cones, plug domes like Mt Lassen, ones, worn down ones, known as erosional, and shield volcanoes. (John forgets the scientific names). Mt. Lassen last blew its top exactly 100 years ago so you can see lava flows everywhere, cooled off, mostly. But in some places there are still crusts with hot water flowing beneath them gurgling to the surface, so you are not allowed to hike near them. Lassen is a magnificent park and had very few visitors, though we did have a car in front of us with a couple of cigar smokers—John hated the smell.
At one point it was so brisk and cold that we needed to close the windows of the car. At 8511 feet (nearly 2600 meters) we felt our ears pop and even had slight headaches from the altitude. But it sure was cool.
From Lassen we found our requisite coffees at the Higher Ground Café in a village (really a wide spot on the road) called Shingletown, about 30 miles outside Redding. The baristas had a great time making Ben’s concoction. We decided the artwork in the foam was of a Mt. Lassen eruption.
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| Mt Shasta is down there somewhere |
A stop for lunch north of Redding led us to picnic on the banks of the Shasta Lake Reservoir. With the drought the water levels are so low that it is impossible to see the water from picnic tables on the I-5, merely seeing dried sandy banks which would normally be full. The birds, crested blue jays, make a cawing noise, even worse than their East Coast brethren, but they went after the remnants of the Indian food we had had the night previous and offered to them. A strong sign recommended against children heading toward a fence, with the threat of rattlers in the area.
All the time during this trip below 3000 feet (1000 meters) the weather was so hot we had the strongest blast from the car a/c going. It was 105F/41C when we reached Ashland.
Ashland, though, is as lovely as ever, even in the heat and we sat under shade trees to talk about the last year since we had seen Jane and Pater. With lots and lots of iced water.
Dinner at the Peerless Hotel, unlike last year, was inside. John enjoyed his sampler of dishes with lamb meatballs, while Ben enjoyed a Romesco soup of the day with ahi poke small plate, and a lobster fennel salad. The wine was a Plaisanace Ranch Vineyard Appletree Valley Viognier, which was surprisingly good. (Ben loves viognier, while John has not found it to his taste till now.)
Then it was off to the theater: Dumas’ Count of Monte Cristo, outside in 90F/32C heat in the Elizabethan Theater. The production was quite a soap opera, melodramatic, and lots of fun. In effect the director had made it quite farcical, quite unlike the book. We enjoyed it for the acting and theatrics as much as for the plot, which lacked the depth of the original Dumas novel according to Claire, one of our group. Anne, another member, and John agreed it had a hilarity about it that Dumas probably had never thought.
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
Off to Ashland through rural California
En route to Ashland, Oregon’s Shakespeare Festival, Tuesday, June 30
This will be our second visit to Ashland for a long weekend of plays. We’re to see seven plays in four days while we are in Oregon. Surprisingly we’ve found it isn’t theater overload. We enjoy the plays and our hosts, Jane and Peter from the Bay Area, as well as their other friends here for the shows. A good few days together.
We are coming off a few very busy days in Washington with company from England and Australia, before that a fortnight in New England. Then off to the airport this morning. We can say it’s been fun, and tiring, but not exhausting.
As we write, John is sitting in an adequate Quality Inn in downtown Chico, California, about ten blocks from Chico State University. We left Washington early this morning by car for Baltimore Washington Airport, all connections went well, and TSA Pre is just fine for getting through security. United put planes in the air on time, and we broke the mandatory airline fast with a mediocre sandwich in O’Hare. We had to do that since United does not really offer meals anymore, in fact they barely offer seats. The travel was easy, but you have to be prepared to spend six hours sitting in economy seats the size of an old-fashioned phone booth—two hours from BWI to Chicago and another four hours from Chicago to Sacramento. Fortunately both of us had good books and were able to turn off the annoying video screens United puts about eight inches in front of your nose.
Bitching over. We arrived in Sacramento and got our bags (it took a long time, sorry, bitching not quite complete), but the airport has an collection of installation art unlike most. Inside the baggage center are huge stacks of old suitcases and steamer trunks reaching the 10 meter (30 feet) high ceiling, with their old fashioned travel stickers and their painted names. Outside the airport boasts a collection of glass mobiles/stabiles that resemble either planes, large birds or large insects depending on your viewpoint.
The rental car turned out to be a full-size Chevy Impala, which is surprisingly comfortable and easy to handle. We drove north from Sacramento along some freeways, but most of the route to Chico took us through small towns, orchards and farms, with a long-range view of the Sierra Nevada foothills in the distance. The small towns we passed through gave us another view of California, one John had forgotten and Ben has never really known.
Chico, our current stopover place, is a university town. It has some very well-preserved old buildings from the 19th century when it was founded, It was home to found John Bidwell who ran for president in 1892, only to die eight years later in his wife’s arms.
We ate at a smallish Indian restaurant on a wide boulevard, the Esplanade, that runs through the center of town. The Priya Restaurant filled us very completely with a selection of vegetarian pakoras as a starter, then offered vegetarian curry dinners which we gobbled up. Ben had a vegetarian curry of several vegetables while John had a paneer Indian cheese curry in a mild tomato cream sauce. We had the full surround of lentil dall, raita yoghurt, another vegetable curry (excellent) and several types of bread. John had an excellent Taj Mahal beer, which is a light-ish lager. The meal was not strikingly spicy, but it was comfortable, the service was excellent and the room air conditioned enough to make up for the 102F (39C) temperature outside.
After we filled ourselves we stopped by the Bidwell mansion to view the house the town’s founders built, then drove through downtown to get a glimpse of Chico State and now are finishing up a full, and quite good, day.
Tomorrow it is off to Lassen National Park and then to Ashland.
Monday, June 15, 2015
The Northern Trek Goes to Conclusion
We arrived in Baltimore this evening, deciding to eat at the hotel. We've done a lot of traveling and it will be good to get home tomorrow. Since our trip to Block Island, we've maneuvered around the Northeast through seven states to reach here. In the days after Block Island we spent one day doing little in Bristol, except seeing half Brit-half Yank flags hung in honor of a British automobile parade on Hope Street--the site of the oldest, possibly, and biggest, possibly, Fourth of July parades in the country. We also lunched with our friend Elaine at one her favorite places in Warren, Rhode Island, Eli's Kitchen, where we had an eclectic menu before us. John chose a Cuban panini, and Ben had a portobello mushroom and goat cheese panini. Both lived up to Elaine's superb recommendation. Then on Friday we headed headed north for a weekend in Dorset, Vermont.
Our travels took us through Worcester, Massachusetts, where we found a very suitable coffee shop-cum-bakery in an old textile factory in the Canal District. The Birchtree Bread Company did a very good coffee for Ben and the pastries, which John avoided, just oozed "eat me!" The textile factory, probably close to 200 years old, has little charm, but lots of interest. Thousands of people worked in them and now they are being turned into offices, condos, and yes, bakeries.
From there we headed across Massachusetts to the Connecticut River and headed north in to Vermont. We stopped for lunch at the Putney Co-Op, just north of Brattleboro for a meal that John found organic but rather boring. Not much of a spice in the organic salami of the Italian sub he had. We found coffee later in the afternoon at a crossroads named Rawsonville, where Ben learned the history of the barista--she was an equestrienne and horse trainer partnered with an animator. They lived in New Zealand while he animated parts of the Lords of the Rings trilogy. They gave this up to settle in Vermont with their children to roast coffee and open a coffee shop. He also continues to do freelance animation.
At last we arrived in Dorset, a lovely, quaint Vermont village with grassy greens, a village center and an old church that had a carillon. Just a magnificent little place for our friends Joe and Howard to settle in their maison secondaire. Their home was built in 1860 but completely redone in the 1990s. It sits on the bank of a stream where waters on one side drain south to the Atlantic and on the north side drain to the St. Lawrence in Canada. A home on a continental divide. We enjoyed meals at home from the caterers in Manchester of chicken, various Chinese dim sums, salmon and fresh local asparagus from the farmers market. We spent very pleasant times discussing food, preparation, locavore eating and organic farming.
We left there on Sunday for Connecticut and a night with John's brother and family and friends at his friend's home at the beach on Long Island Sound. Much fun and conversation. Then a ride south today.
All in all a good two weeks!
Next to Oregon after visits from England and then from Australia!
Thursday, June 11, 2015
The Northern Trek Continues
On Tuesday, June 9 we headed south for the day in Newport. We had had cocktails the night before with Rhode Island friends, Bill, Julie and Nan, all of whom pushed a visit to Rough Point, the home of the late Doris Duke.
The weather on Tuesday was dreadful so the idea of being inside was very appealing. And Duke's home is truly appealing. It's not as nouveau-riche as the Vanderbilt mansions in their gaudiness. Toward the end of Duke's life it was her home for many months of the year till she died in the 1990s. It has a 270º view of the Atlantic Ocean from the point, impressive with its own private way to the beach, under a bridge below the public Cliff Walk to the water where she swam daily privately amidst the rocks.
Duke collected stray dogs, but toward the end of her life came back from a visit to the Middle East to purchase a Boeing 737 that came with with a collection of three live camels (who outlived her). Camel models are now visible throughout Newport, probably as a note of thanks for all the work Duke did to restore the city's colonial past. There are camel topiaries on her Rough Point house grounds. She bought many of the nearly derelict decaying 17th and 18th century homes for the Historical Society through her own foundation and restored them. They are now rented.
The house itself contains a grand collection of art from Rembrandt to Van Dyck, and a large collection of Louis XVI furniture. A visit to mother-of-pearl bedroom reveals an inner shine-loving character!
We lunched at Annie's, a breakfast and lunch place with a very rich, full clam chowder, in the buildings of the Tennis Hall of Fame. Then we walked Thames Street in the sometime fog down restored side streets and finally returned to Bristol for dinner at Le Central on Hope Street.
Le Central is a favorite of our host, and ours. We go there on our visits for fine steak-frites or good French fish. Ben had sea bass, Elaine and John at steak-frites. John began with local asparagus done with onions and parmesan, whileElaine and Ben had soupe de poisson, made with a lovely lobster broth. A good Hautes Côtes de Beaune red completed an excellent meal.
Bristol is in the midst of painting the Hope Street traffic stripe red, white and blue for its annual grand Fourth of July parade. The trucks and the work limit street movement after 9 PM as the stripes are repaired.
Wednesday, June 10. It was a magnificent day for travel. We decided to spend the day on Block Island, about 18 miles off the coast, reached by ferry from Point Judith. It's about an hour from Bristol over three Narragansett Bay bridges to get to Point Judith and then an hour on a ferry. The island is worth the visit.
After the exquisite cappuccino at Persephone's, a three-day old business making a superb coffee and very good frittata, we rented bicycles for the afternoon and took off to the old South Lighthouse. It's two miles up, and up, and up to the top of the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic to this old 19th century operating lighthouse. It's been moved from its original site because of erosion of the cliffs, last time 22 years ago. Nearby are 160 steps down the cliffs to the beach. There was a grand view from the top. We don't know about the bottom.
We continued our bike ride through the countryside of this island, where half of the land is in a conservancy. Back to the harbor, mango-lemon ice and a seat in the sun before the trip back to the mainland.
On land, dinner was a collection of Rhode Island style dishes at George's in Galilee. We ate outside as the sun began to set, beginning with steamers (small clams steamed in broth with drawn butter) and continued on to snail salad (that's the Rhode Island name--it's really conch salad, but with local sea creatures). It's mixture of chopped conch with chopped onions, celery and spices in a vinaigrette, served over arugula. Ben had, and John tasted, a Portuguese style monkfish with chorizo, mixed rices and steamed zucchini as a main. John splurged on a mango cocktail, like a frozen daiquiri.
Then in the car and home across the three bridges as the day darkened to Bristol. The lighted bridges are very impressive between the mainland and Jamestown, Jamestown and Newport, and the old Mt. Hope Bridge between Portsmouth and Bristol. Narragansett Bay is magnificent.
The weather on Tuesday was dreadful so the idea of being inside was very appealing. And Duke's home is truly appealing. It's not as nouveau-riche as the Vanderbilt mansions in their gaudiness. Toward the end of Duke's life it was her home for many months of the year till she died in the 1990s. It has a 270º view of the Atlantic Ocean from the point, impressive with its own private way to the beach, under a bridge below the public Cliff Walk to the water where she swam daily privately amidst the rocks.
Duke collected stray dogs, but toward the end of her life came back from a visit to the Middle East to purchase a Boeing 737 that came with with a collection of three live camels (who outlived her). Camel models are now visible throughout Newport, probably as a note of thanks for all the work Duke did to restore the city's colonial past. There are camel topiaries on her Rough Point house grounds. She bought many of the nearly derelict decaying 17th and 18th century homes for the Historical Society through her own foundation and restored them. They are now rented. 
The house itself contains a grand collection of art from Rembrandt to Van Dyck, and a large collection of Louis XVI furniture. A visit to mother-of-pearl bedroom reveals an inner shine-loving character!We lunched at Annie's, a breakfast and lunch place with a very rich, full clam chowder, in the buildings of the Tennis Hall of Fame. Then we walked Thames Street in the sometime fog down restored side streets and finally returned to Bristol for dinner at Le Central on Hope Street.
Le Central is a favorite of our host, and ours. We go there on our visits for fine steak-frites or good French fish. Ben had sea bass, Elaine and John at steak-frites. John began with local asparagus done with onions and parmesan, whileElaine and Ben had soupe de poisson, made with a lovely lobster broth. A good Hautes Côtes de Beaune red completed an excellent meal.
Bristol is in the midst of painting the Hope Street traffic stripe red, white and blue for its annual grand Fourth of July parade. The trucks and the work limit street movement after 9 PM as the stripes are repaired.
Wednesday, June 10. It was a magnificent day for travel. We decided to spend the day on Block Island, about 18 miles off the coast, reached by ferry from Point Judith. It's about an hour from Bristol over three Narragansett Bay bridges to get to Point Judith and then an hour on a ferry. The island is worth the visit.
After the exquisite cappuccino at Persephone's, a three-day old business making a superb coffee and very good frittata, we rented bicycles for the afternoon and took off to the old South Lighthouse. It's two miles up, and up, and up to the top of the cliffs overlooking the Atlantic to this old 19th century operating lighthouse. It's been moved from its original site because of erosion of the cliffs, last time 22 years ago. Nearby are 160 steps down the cliffs to the beach. There was a grand view from the top. We don't know about the bottom.We continued our bike ride through the countryside of this island, where half of the land is in a conservancy. Back to the harbor, mango-lemon ice and a seat in the sun before the trip back to the mainland.
On land, dinner was a collection of Rhode Island style dishes at George's in Galilee. We ate outside as the sun began to set, beginning with steamers (small clams steamed in broth with drawn butter) and continued on to snail salad (that's the Rhode Island name--it's really conch salad, but with local sea creatures). It's mixture of chopped conch with chopped onions, celery and spices in a vinaigrette, served over arugula. Ben had, and John tasted, a Portuguese style monkfish with chorizo, mixed rices and steamed zucchini as a main. John splurged on a mango cocktail, like a frozen daiquiri. Then in the car and home across the three bridges as the day darkened to Bristol. The lighted bridges are very impressive between the mainland and Jamestown, Jamestown and Newport, and the old Mt. Hope Bridge between Portsmouth and Bristol. Narragansett Bay is magnificent.
Our First Northern Trek of the Summer
Thursday, June 11 -- Family called us North at the beginning of June, for a few days of play and visit. Last week on June 1, we began with our long drive of more than eight hours behind the wheel, ten hours of travel total, for our 450 miles between Washington and Boston. It's a long haul, but we have broken it up into pieces with various stops for coffee, shopping and lunch. It makes the trek for more interesting.
We began early from our home on Capitol Hill at 8:15 AM, running into a bit of slow traffic between Washington and Baltimore at the tail end of that rush. From there it's an easy run nowadays to Delaware where we head into Christiana Mall to have Ben's special cappuccino at the Nordstrom's coffee bar. From there it's the New Jersey Turnpike, then over the GW Bridge in New York. We found lunch at the Sherwood Diner in Westport, Connecticut, where we enjoyed a couple of good sandwiches. It gave us a respite from the 65 mph ka-thump ka-thump of the freeway in the pouring rain.
From there it was a short run to New Haven and our special coffees at the Blue State Coffee house near the Yale Medical School. Wired, we continued into Massachusetts and arrived in Boston about 6 PM to a house full of family and grandkids.
The rest of the week was finely spent with the kids, coffees and lunch at Kickstand Cafe in Arlington, Massachusetts, brunch at Madrona Tree, and walks to the park. We managed a visits to Ball Square Wines for some aglianico reds from Italy that we had encountered in Pittsburgh in May but not found in Washington.
We left Boston on Monday for Rhode Island. We enjoyed Blue State Coffee in Providence at their Thayer Street operation near the Brown University campus, and walked the East Side and the Brown campus. Brown's campus is one of the prettiest Ivies. It doesn't have the size of Harvard, nor does it have the spreading magnificence of Princeton, it does compete favorably with the "all of a piece" Yale campus and the urban situations of Penn and Columbia. It's not rural, of course, like Cornell or Dartmouth.
There are art installations throughout the campus, though not all are permanent. One we visited that made us stop and look closely was a piece by Tom Friedman called The Circle done in 2010, a large piece made of stainless steel that looks like aluminum foil cooking trays, modeled on the The Dance by Marc Chagall.
Never having been in the John Carter Brown Library on the campus, we decided to visit a small show of colonial era books and manuscripts from mostly Spanish colonial sources describing the mining and metallurgical work the Spaniards undertook in Chile, Mexico, and Peru. We found it an interesting exhibit.
We lunched at Julian's Restaurant on Broadway on Federal Hill. This place started as a food truck about 15 years ago and now is a good sized tavern/pub on Broadway in an area of 1880s and 1890s homes. It specializes in beers and brunches, so we enjoyed an omelette, smoked onion rings, and pulled duck soup. Great fun including the collection of model super-heroes in the washroom.
We began early from our home on Capitol Hill at 8:15 AM, running into a bit of slow traffic between Washington and Baltimore at the tail end of that rush. From there it's an easy run nowadays to Delaware where we head into Christiana Mall to have Ben's special cappuccino at the Nordstrom's coffee bar. From there it's the New Jersey Turnpike, then over the GW Bridge in New York. We found lunch at the Sherwood Diner in Westport, Connecticut, where we enjoyed a couple of good sandwiches. It gave us a respite from the 65 mph ka-thump ka-thump of the freeway in the pouring rain.
From there it was a short run to New Haven and our special coffees at the Blue State Coffee house near the Yale Medical School. Wired, we continued into Massachusetts and arrived in Boston about 6 PM to a house full of family and grandkids.
The rest of the week was finely spent with the kids, coffees and lunch at Kickstand Cafe in Arlington, Massachusetts, brunch at Madrona Tree, and walks to the park. We managed a visits to Ball Square Wines for some aglianico reds from Italy that we had encountered in Pittsburgh in May but not found in Washington.
We left Boston on Monday for Rhode Island. We enjoyed Blue State Coffee in Providence at their Thayer Street operation near the Brown University campus, and walked the East Side and the Brown campus. Brown's campus is one of the prettiest Ivies. It doesn't have the size of Harvard, nor does it have the spreading magnificence of Princeton, it does compete favorably with the "all of a piece" Yale campus and the urban situations of Penn and Columbia. It's not rural, of course, like Cornell or Dartmouth.
There are art installations throughout the campus, though not all are permanent. One we visited that made us stop and look closely was a piece by Tom Friedman called The Circle done in 2010, a large piece made of stainless steel that looks like aluminum foil cooking trays, modeled on the The Dance by Marc Chagall.Never having been in the John Carter Brown Library on the campus, we decided to visit a small show of colonial era books and manuscripts from mostly Spanish colonial sources describing the mining and metallurgical work the Spaniards undertook in Chile, Mexico, and Peru. We found it an interesting exhibit.
We lunched at Julian's Restaurant on Broadway on Federal Hill. This place started as a food truck about 15 years ago and now is a good sized tavern/pub on Broadway in an area of 1880s and 1890s homes. It specializes in beers and brunches, so we enjoyed an omelette, smoked onion rings, and pulled duck soup. Great fun including the collection of model super-heroes in the washroom.Saturday, May 9, 2015
Off to Pittsburgh
Saturday, May 9, 2015
We haven't been traveling much this year, just a few quick trips to Boston with no specific restaurants or hotels to report on, nor much in the way of touristic activity. Instead, it's been a busy year with activity in local politics instead.
This past long weekend, though, from April 30 through May 4, we traveled to one of our favorite cities, Pittsburgh, for a wedding. We stayed with friends, so we have no report on hotels or bed and breakfasts, but we did eat in several interesting places and enjoyed walking about the city, and the wedding was lots of fun.
We spent some time in the Doughboy section of Lawrenceville, one of Pittsburgh's neighborhoods. When we lived in Pittsburgh there was always talk of doing "something" around the Doughboy statue at the intersection of Penn Avenue and Butler Street in Lawrenceville--an old industrial section with a mostly Polish population. The Doughboy commemorates the soldiers of World War I. Now, 30 years after the thought of doing something around the nearly 100 year old monument, "something" has happened.
The neighborhood that John remembered from working in Pittsburgh as a place of dying steel fabrication and specialty metal shops, with its poor streets and even less interesting street life, has become a center of specialty restaurants and stores, with occasional boutiques thrown in. Many new buildings are going up to blend with the mostly 19th century architecture of small row-houses and an occasional larger home, that he assumed were built for the mill managers before they could move out to East Liberty and other more salubrious parts of the city after 1900. The world-renowned Childrens Hospital is a focal point of this renaissance. It took took over the old St. Francis Hospital, rebuilt it and added to it.
Of particular interest is a small soap maker's boutique on Butler at 46th Street. Its window contains a fascinating bathtub, more decorated for Christmas than for a soak. Inside are soaps in many different scents, shapes and sizes, and for the animal lover, a dog and several cats to either wag tails or beg for treats. Jay's Design, the name of the store, has been there for several years now. A friendly place, and a great place to buy grainy or not-so-grainy soaps, in scents ranging from grandmotherly lavender to honey and oats.
Closer to the city, a new group of buildings house a restaurant that's been open a few months, run by the former manage at Lidia's, near the Convention Center. While the restaurant, regrettably, caters to stark wall modernity, hence lots of fashionable noise, that meant it was about an hour into our 8 PM sit-down before conversation was easy, the food was superb. Strictly Italian. Ben enjoyed skin-on broiled branzino, starting with a barley-mushroom soup. John enjoyed his meal of breast of duck, with a starter of white anchovies. We ordered a superb wine: a Campanian Italian aglianico, a find that is hard to find in wine stores. It's a descendant varietal of Greek vines brought to southern Italy when the Greeks colonized it about 3000 years ago. In Roman times, Pliny wrote about the wine as "Falernian" wine--the Roman equivalent of a grand cru. It opened beautifully. We will try to find it, though it is unavailable at our local Washington, DC store.
We spent one morning exploring haunts around the city, downtown. We rode the bus to the city center to avoid parking, and found PAT transit on the East Busway not only convenient, but cheap--seniors ride public transport in Pennsylvania for free! Better than the half-price fares of Washington, DC.
We explored the Union Trust Building on Grant Street. It's been restored to magnificence--dating from about 100 years ago when it was the home of Mellon Bank. The inside is an ode to past business glamor, with stained glass and a huge central atrium.
After our visit to the Union Trust, we lunched at Eddie Merlot's near the Hilton at Gateway Center. It's an upscale chain and provided excellent soups, hamburgers and salads for us and a friend from when we lived in Pittsburgh.
The only museum that got us was the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, where John spent a happy afternoon with a friend. The museum has grown by leaps and bounds, and provides a true view of what public transport was like when trams ran down the streets of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
And we did seek out coffees--Ben has fallen for Zeke's coffee in the now revitalized East Liberty, and we enjoyed walking around Bakery Square, where Nabisco used to make cookies and now Google may well be involved in electronic cookies at its offices there.
Our last meal, last Monday night, was a birthday celebration, at the Kimpton Hotel's new restaurant, the Commoner, in the Monaco hotel that has been built into the old Duquesne Light headquarters on Mellon Square. Once again it was modernly noisy. The waitress was overly perky and gave adequate but spotty service., We felt the food was lacking in something--something indiscernible. Our oysters were tiny Rappahanocks, that were not full of flavor, but the romaine salad was superb and John enjoyed his "onion soup burger," a specialty of the chef who moved to Pittsburgh from Washington. Ben had seafood stew that was quite ordinary.
The wedding, on the other hand, was not ordinary. Two friends, Tom and John, have been together for 30 years. We met them both separately before leaving Pittsburgh for Washington in 1985. The wedding, now possible because same-sex marriage is now legal in Pennsylvania, was thought out over several months.
.jpg)
First, the venue, the Edgewood Country Club, was an excellent choice, Getting married in a pavilion overlooking a lovely golf course with the Alleghenies in the background is grand, to say the least. Then the guests, most of them long time friends or family members, coming from as far away as Chicago, Washington, New York or Tucson, to celebrate with their old friends. And the cake, surmounted by two polar bears. Nearby stood the cookie table. The cookie table is an old-line Pittsburgh institution where the guests come with containers and containers and containers of home-made cookies. if we were weren't high from the joy of the wedding when the party finished we were high from all the sugar. Cookies in the shape of tuxes, cookie truffles, enough chocolate to keep anyone up all night. It was there. We still have some in our pantry, sealed up in metal cookie tins. The Lutheran minister with a commanding type A presence, gave a rousing homily as part of an enthralling ceremony. The kiss was warm and loving, and everyone enjoyed a day of glee.
We haven't been traveling much this year, just a few quick trips to Boston with no specific restaurants or hotels to report on, nor much in the way of touristic activity. Instead, it's been a busy year with activity in local politics instead.
This past long weekend, though, from April 30 through May 4, we traveled to one of our favorite cities, Pittsburgh, for a wedding. We stayed with friends, so we have no report on hotels or bed and breakfasts, but we did eat in several interesting places and enjoyed walking about the city, and the wedding was lots of fun.
We spent some time in the Doughboy section of Lawrenceville, one of Pittsburgh's neighborhoods. When we lived in Pittsburgh there was always talk of doing "something" around the Doughboy statue at the intersection of Penn Avenue and Butler Street in Lawrenceville--an old industrial section with a mostly Polish population. The Doughboy commemorates the soldiers of World War I. Now, 30 years after the thought of doing something around the nearly 100 year old monument, "something" has happened.
The neighborhood that John remembered from working in Pittsburgh as a place of dying steel fabrication and specialty metal shops, with its poor streets and even less interesting street life, has become a center of specialty restaurants and stores, with occasional boutiques thrown in. Many new buildings are going up to blend with the mostly 19th century architecture of small row-houses and an occasional larger home, that he assumed were built for the mill managers before they could move out to East Liberty and other more salubrious parts of the city after 1900. The world-renowned Childrens Hospital is a focal point of this renaissance. It took took over the old St. Francis Hospital, rebuilt it and added to it.
 |
| Jay's Design for soaps |
Of particular interest is a small soap maker's boutique on Butler at 46th Street. Its window contains a fascinating bathtub, more decorated for Christmas than for a soak. Inside are soaps in many different scents, shapes and sizes, and for the animal lover, a dog and several cats to either wag tails or beg for treats. Jay's Design, the name of the store, has been there for several years now. A friendly place, and a great place to buy grainy or not-so-grainy soaps, in scents ranging from grandmotherly lavender to honey and oats.
Closer to the city, a new group of buildings house a restaurant that's been open a few months, run by the former manage at Lidia's, near the Convention Center. While the restaurant, regrettably, caters to stark wall modernity, hence lots of fashionable noise, that meant it was about an hour into our 8 PM sit-down before conversation was easy, the food was superb. Strictly Italian. Ben enjoyed skin-on broiled branzino, starting with a barley-mushroom soup. John enjoyed his meal of breast of duck, with a starter of white anchovies. We ordered a superb wine: a Campanian Italian aglianico, a find that is hard to find in wine stores. It's a descendant varietal of Greek vines brought to southern Italy when the Greeks colonized it about 3000 years ago. In Roman times, Pliny wrote about the wine as "Falernian" wine--the Roman equivalent of a grand cru. It opened beautifully. We will try to find it, though it is unavailable at our local Washington, DC store.
We spent one morning exploring haunts around the city, downtown. We rode the bus to the city center to avoid parking, and found PAT transit on the East Busway not only convenient, but cheap--seniors ride public transport in Pennsylvania for free! Better than the half-price fares of Washington, DC.
 |
| Union Trust stained glass |
 |
| Union Trust Atrium |
After our visit to the Union Trust, we lunched at Eddie Merlot's near the Hilton at Gateway Center. It's an upscale chain and provided excellent soups, hamburgers and salads for us and a friend from when we lived in Pittsburgh.
The only museum that got us was the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, where John spent a happy afternoon with a friend. The museum has grown by leaps and bounds, and provides a true view of what public transport was like when trams ran down the streets of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
And we did seek out coffees--Ben has fallen for Zeke's coffee in the now revitalized East Liberty, and we enjoyed walking around Bakery Square, where Nabisco used to make cookies and now Google may well be involved in electronic cookies at its offices there.
Our last meal, last Monday night, was a birthday celebration, at the Kimpton Hotel's new restaurant, the Commoner, in the Monaco hotel that has been built into the old Duquesne Light headquarters on Mellon Square. Once again it was modernly noisy. The waitress was overly perky and gave adequate but spotty service., We felt the food was lacking in something--something indiscernible. Our oysters were tiny Rappahanocks, that were not full of flavor, but the romaine salad was superb and John enjoyed his "onion soup burger," a specialty of the chef who moved to Pittsburgh from Washington. Ben had seafood stew that was quite ordinary.
The wedding, on the other hand, was not ordinary. Two friends, Tom and John, have been together for 30 years. We met them both separately before leaving Pittsburgh for Washington in 1985. The wedding, now possible because same-sex marriage is now legal in Pennsylvania, was thought out over several months.
.jpg)
First, the venue, the Edgewood Country Club, was an excellent choice, Getting married in a pavilion overlooking a lovely golf course with the Alleghenies in the background is grand, to say the least. Then the guests, most of them long time friends or family members, coming from as far away as Chicago, Washington, New York or Tucson, to celebrate with their old friends. And the cake, surmounted by two polar bears. Nearby stood the cookie table. The cookie table is an old-line Pittsburgh institution where the guests come with containers and containers and containers of home-made cookies. if we were weren't high from the joy of the wedding when the party finished we were high from all the sugar. Cookies in the shape of tuxes, cookie truffles, enough chocolate to keep anyone up all night. It was there. We still have some in our pantry, sealed up in metal cookie tins. The Lutheran minister with a commanding type A presence, gave a rousing homily as part of an enthralling ceremony. The kiss was warm and loving, and everyone enjoyed a day of glee.
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