Month: July 2009

For some unknown reason, my laptop won’t connect to the internet here.  So I haven’t been able to upload pictures and am sharing time on John’s computer. (boo)

On Sunday we put the morning sun behind us, and headed west. (yay)  I am definitely ready for going home.  I am looking forward to the wide open spaces where you can see for miles and miles and there are so many fewer people.  As our touring event yesterday, we went to Steamtown, a National Historic Site in Scranton, PA.  I have lots of pictures of trains which I’ll try to insert when we stop somewhere today. (whoo, whoo)

We started our anniversary day with a trip to the Cape Cod Potato Chip Factory in Hyannis. We got to see the production line and had the opportunity to buy some chips at the gift shop. Cape Cod was the first company to market “hard bites,” the extra-crispy chips that wannabees such as Lay’s Kettle Chips now imitate. Mmmm, Cape Cod Dark Russet chips!

So today is our 37th marriage anniversary (we didn’t really have a traditional “wedding”.) We have totally loved being married to each other. I often think that there’s probably no way we’d ever be paired up on EHarmony because we are really different in lots of ways. But I guess we found out on our own what is essential to make a marriage work.

On to Boston!

City Service is Citgo now

In Kenmore Square there is nothing more iconic than the Citgo sign. It has been blazing its neon triangle since we were students. This picture was taken out of our hotel window. We are staying at the lovely Hotel Commonwealth. Our suite is really nice and a fitting place to spend our anniversary.

Bee-yah Hee-yah!

Out the other side of the hotel was a view of Fenway Park. (Translation of the title – Beer Here! as said by a Fenway Pahk hawkah.)

For our special anniversary dinner, we went to L’espalier. We had the seasonal menu which consisted of four courses plus cheese and dessert. Each course and the cheese and dessert were paired with a wine. It was fabulous. I have no pictures, though, because I forgot to pack my camera. The best parts were the lobster, the foie gras and a wonderful eggplant puree which was plated under Colorado lamb. It was a wonderful dinner and we would definitely go back.

Venetian rivalry

Today, July 18, we visited the Museum of Fine Arts. We had tickets to Titian, Tintoretto and Vernonese, an exhibit comparing and contrasting the styles of three artists who were active at the same time in Venice. It was really interesting to see an exhibition mounted this way. Instead of a timeline approach, each artist’s take on a subject was hung side by side. There was also an audio tour to explain the paintings and the similarities among them as well as the motives behind their paintings. Fascinating!

Big Sid

First, there is a whole story about Big Sid, a lobster that John and his roommates bought back in 1970. But it is his story and I am hoping that he’ll write an addendum to this post. Anyway, on our 37 1/365th anniversary we went to Legal Seafoods and ate lobster. John ordered the 2 to 2 1/2 pound size and he got a really big lobster. We went methodically eating our lobsters. John was tidy. I was messy. In fact, at one point, the guy who was seating people came around and wiped off the banquette next to me where I had squirted a ton of lobster juice and guts. It’s a good thing I don’t embarrass easily. We really enjoyed our lobsters!

It’s been a great couple of days celebrating here in Boston. Who knows if we’ll be back. But it is time to turn west.

The Legend of Big Sid the First (by John)

The year is 1969 or 1970.  John, Ralph and Barry are rooming together in an apartment in Cambridge, MA.  Barry’s parents are coming to visit from Chicago.  What to have for Tuesday dinner?  Living in New England, we decide on baked stuffed lobster (actually, “lobstah”, see pronunciation guide above.)  John is nominated to prepare this dish, having had it exactly once at Anthony’s Pier 4, a famous Boston restaurant (that sadly has now seen better days), and having once seen a cooking show on TV in which a lobster was dispatched.

The newspaper says that the local Big Buy supermarket is running a Tuesday Blaster special on lobsters, two to a bag, for 88 cents a pound!  Even for 1970, this is a real deal.  So we rush out and grab 3 bags of crustacean goodness to feed five people, plus crackers, butter and herbs for stuffing.

We get home and start preparing, boiling water in the largest pot we have (a turkey roaster, thankfully) and preparing the stuffing.  When it comes time to cook the lobsters, all goes well until we notice that one of the bags has only one lobster, and said beast is over 3.5 pounds instead of the planned-for 1.5 pounds.   Something this big cannot be dispatched anonymously.  After suitable deliberation, we name this monster of the sea “Big Sid”.

Let it be noted that Big Sid puts up strong resistance to being manhandled, but, along with his standard-size colleagues, cooks up wonderfully and is the centerpiece of a very successful dinner.  All large-size lobsters are referred to as “Big Sid” by our family to this day.

After a really nice stay in Red Bank, we took off for New England. It’s almost anniversary time! Before getting to Boston on Friday to celebrate, we drove to Newport, RI. This picture is from the Rockefeller Overlook along the Palisades Parkway.

For lunch we stopped in New Canaan, CT. I don’t want to appear to be a complainer so I am not going to write about it. But it was dangerously bad.

John writing now. (I do not complain, I just review things.)

We get off the beautiful Merritt Parkway and head into New Canaan CT.  We find a nice looking restaurant called Aloi (turns out to be the name of the chef/owner).  I order a grilled calamari salad, Mary orders linguine with clams.  Favorite foods, yay.  Out comes some toasted bread and foccaccia along with a delicious cannellini bean concoction.  Our hopes rise.

The grilled calamari salad is cooked perfectly and tastes delicious.

The linguine vongole is a different story.   The clams are served in the shell (fine, that’s the way we ate them in Italy), but many of these appear to have broken during cooking.  Well, OK, Mary removes a many large chunks of shell and proceeds.  She also avoids an unopened clam curiously nestled in an opened one– aargh!  But the final straw is a smaller fragment of shell, that if not caught, could have caused some pretty serious trouble.  Rather than continue to fight with the dish, Mary wisely stops.

The waitstaff are unconcerned when we mention this issue.  Needing to get on the road, and thankfully both still alive, we pay and leave.  Too bad, because the flavors were wonderful.  Whoever was at the pass in the kitchen that day was either asleep at the switch or dangerously negligent.  DINE HERE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Tennis Hall of Fame

Our main objective on Thursday was to go to the Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, RI. It is housed in the Newport Casino in downtown Newport. The grass courts are open to the public and there were lots of people dressed in their tennis whites on the courts. Since the Campbell’s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships were last week, there was some wear on the grass. Some of the courts were also set up for croquet. It’s all very civilized here.

We really enjoyed the Hall of Fame. There were videos and statistics on each player who has been inducted. There were sections devoted to each decade of tennis. In addition to looking at the past, there were also exhibits showcasing tennis today.

Clothes Make the Man?

Breaking the all-time Grand Slam record, Roger Federer won Wimbledon, 2009. I think that Nike goes a bit far in dressing him up in logo clothes. He looks too elitist in some of this stuff. I suppose he doesn’t have a lot of choice in the clothing decisions (after all Nike’s got Nadal in turquoise and orange) but I think Federer ought to put his gold encrusted foot down about some of the stuff they have him wear. Still, Roger’s clothes! Pretty exciting.

French Open winner

Roger also won the French Open this year. (YAY!) Here’s John standing next to a display of Federer’s French Open shirt, shoes and racket.