A bit late, but better late than never.

The Jersey Shore

Michael, Patrick, Ben and John for Ben's birthday

On May 5, we headed to Asbury Park, New Jersey, to visit old friends Patrick and Michael who have retired there.  We manage at least one trip a year there and this time explored new and different places besides the old decrepit buildings along the Boardwalk in Asbury.   This trip we celebrated Ben's birthday at Pascal and Sabine's Bistro in Asbury.  Lovely meals in a well-spaced restaurant.  Ben enjoyed three small plates while John, Patrick and Michael stayed with the traditional format.   The Connecticut (!) oysters were superb for Ben and Patrick, as was John's venison.  Ben's mushroom tart looked grand, as did Michael's entrecote with frites.  

Sandy Hook Lighthouse

Our next day was exploring, for us.  We drove north to Sandy Hook National Park where from the northern point of New Jersey south of New York City you see the city's skyline, the Verrazano Bridge and even the Statue of Liberty.  The park is full of the ruins of forts and materiel testing areas which were used to protect New York Harbor and test various missiles, cannons and other munitions.  There is even a nude beach, but we didn't make it that far. 

 

The next exploration was down the coast from Asbury to Point Pleasant, where we meandered along the Boardwalk, looked over the area that had been destroyed by Hurricane Sandy and has now been re-bermed, checked out some of the food specialties.  John did not manage to get a photo of a fried Milky Way (UK-Mars bar) but we did make it to the fishing port.  There we enjoyed our huge lobster rolls and fries before heading to their home for a superb dinner of fresh halibut (bought at the port) with Patrick and Michael's friend  Donna.

It's amazing the cholesterol feast available on the boardwalk.

A buttered lobster roll and fries

Donna and Ben

The Barnes Collection in Philadelphia

We had visited the Barnes Collection years ago with friends from France when it was in Philadelphia's suburbs.  Now, after years of legal wrangling, it's on Benjamin Franklin Parkway in the center of the city's museum district.  

The new building is beautifully designed inside, though perhaps a bit too Brutalist on the outside.  After years of legal wrangling over the terms of Barnes' will and trust, a settlement was made that the arrangement of the paintings and sculptures inside would be exactly the same as in the old suburban museum.  That means that the art is arranged in triptych style on ghastly wallpaper, interspersed with silly 1920's metallic sculptures that look like they should have naked lightbulbs attached to them.  However, it's hard to say No to 181 Renoirs and hundreds of other Impressionist paintings. 

The huge Matisse mural above the main hall is still as grand as ever, and the statuary sprinkled throughout the collection ranges from Futurism to African masques, some of which bring to mind Modigliani's paintings of which there are many.  

There was also a show of Soutine and De Kooning paintings, showing their interaction and the growth of abstract impressionism, which was clearly worth the time to go see it.

 

As our trip drew to a close, Ben found a new toy:  A milk frother, that makes his favorite cappuccinos so easily.  

Off we go, at last!

 April 28, 2021 Washington, DC—Finally the Covid induced house arrest is over for many of us.  With care we can travel, see families, and if outside go to a restaurant.  Sunday, Aprll 18, we began one of our Northern treks and enjoyed being away from home for a week.

Our goal was visiting our grandchildren in Massachusetts with stopovers up and back in Connecticut to visit John’s brother.  The drive is long, but the rewards are valuable.  

Our first stop was our favorite coffee shop in Cecil County.  Regrettably it was closed, so we persevered getting our coffee at Starbucks on the Delaware section of I-95, which did an OK job on Ben’s skim extra-extra dry cappuccino.   Lunch was a home-packed picnic at a table at one of the New Jersey rest centers.  Can’t complain about the food—grapes, crackers, good  cheese, yoghurt—since it came from home.  

We arrived in Connecticut later in the afternoon to enjoy a fine glass of wine with brother Andrew, overlooking the lake at the bottom of his garden.  Dinner was a superb, his girlfriend’s special spinach pasta with fresh tomato sauce and chocolate cake.  The trees were beginning to leaf, but it was nowhere near as Spring-like as Washington.

On Monday, we headed north with a run along the endless freeways of Connecticut, with a stop at Blue State Coffee in New Haven for a cappuccino,  a detour to US5 to avoid some traffic jams south of Hartford, and then to Massachusetts, where all was in bloom.   

We spent the next few days playing.  Grandsons are endlessly entertaining.  These two do not like having their photos taken, so even La Victoria Taqueria in Arlington Center, awaiting a Mexican street-food style sandwich, they did not pose.  They did enjoy the Victoria sandwich, as John enjoyed choriqueso, with cheese and Mexican sausage, and Ben a vegetarian quesadilla.  

 

Leaving Massachusetts on Friday, April 23, we did a grand swing back to Fairfield through Fall River, Massachusetts and Providence, Rhode Island.   We have found a supermarket in Fall River, Portugalia, for Portuguese wines at good prices, great cheeses and excellent choriço, made in the store.  We managed a case of wine and cheeses for John’s brother.  Fall River also provides a chance for John to find heritage English food.  Hartley’s on South Main, provides that chance with home-made English pork pies.  A load for John and for his brother to stock their fridges.

In Providence, Ben enjoyed his bone dry cappuccino  at Blue State Coffee on Thayer Street, near Brown.  We’ve been going to this Blue State for years along with another in the chain in New Haven, near Yale Medical School.  There Ben always orders his cappuccino.   What we didn’t now is that the staff at the New Haven store know that we will also stop in Providence.  One texted a friend in Providence to say that Ben was heading north and would undoubtedly stop in Providence.  Big smiles from the barista when he asked for his coffee—“oh, yes, a friend in New Haven texted me that you were in the area!”  Twice a year, and now he is famous (infamous?)

Arriving at Andrew’s house, we opened Portuguese cheeses, a Sâo Jâo from the Azores, and a Casteloes Original.  Both are semi-soft and very creamy.  They went well with the Sonoma County chardonnay served.  Dinner, huge sirloin steak, was cooked outside on the grill but eaten inside because it was still chilly in Fairfield. 

 Saturday, April 24, was a treat.  We headed off wine tasting with bro and his girlfriend Lorraine, to two wineries in central Connecticut: the Paradise Hills and the Gouviea wineries.  Paradise Hills serves a lovely flight of wines, chosen from a menu along with a platter of  Italian nibbles.  

Gouveia has pleasant wines, bought by the bottle, with a fabulous view.  We tasted three, carefully, and brought the mostly full bottles home!  

For dinner, Lorraine put together a one-pot dinner of chicken breasts with green beans and potatoes,

On Sunday, April 25, we headed home.  Stopping first, of course, for the wonderful bagels at Bagel King on Black Rock Turnpike in Fairfield.  Then after crossing New York,  a visit to our favorite Korean grocery in Ft. Lee, Hang Nam, for fish, some vegetables, mussels and fruit.  Of course, we stopped for cappuccino at Cafe Leah.  We did not buy asparagus, hoping that our friend Jake Murphy’s farmstand just off the New Jersey Turnpike on Route 322, would have some.  He did.  They were wonderful, freshly picked and a feast at home.

All in all, this was a lovely trip, visiting relatives, visiting favorite food places for us foodies, and coming home to load up the fridge.  The next trip comes soon.  Nice to be back.