Week Three-Ish

Tuesday and Wednesday, 18th and 19th: Vicki worked so I made myself busy around the house.

Thursday, the 20th: Vicki worked for an hour or two and then jumped on Laura's costume for halloween.  Laura's going to be Dorothy and Vicki, being the perfectionist she is, wants the costume to be perfect.

On my way home last November, I was seated next to Dorean, of Hasbrouck Heights, NJ, who was heading to San Jose, with a plane change in Dallas.  We struck up a conversation, agreed to meet at The Crow's Nest the next time I'm in NJ, and became Facebook Friends.  We've been following each other's lives since then, and at the appointed hour, we met at The Crow's Nest.  It was as if no time had passed and that we'd known each other for a long time.  We had another three-hour conversation which was way too short.

This world is so small: she knows Vicki's realtor and friends of friends.  We're planning another outing before I head home.

Friday, the 21st:  Vicki's house is less than 100 yards from the bus stop to NYC.  It's SO much easier [and cheaper] to take the bus into the City.  At 9:20 a.m., we hopped on the 164, paid $1.90 [we're seniors] and sat in the very first seat.  Our bus driver was friendly so the time passed quickly.  The weather was predicted to be sunny but clouds were building.

Denice was meeting us at 10:20 as she was coming in from Toms River, NJ.  She lives in nearby Little Egg Harbor.  However, her bus was early and our bus was a tad late due to an early bus lane closure.  So, we met at 10:30 instead and caught the E Train down to Ground Zero.

That was another $2.25 so we're WAY under what parking and tolls would have cost us.  And the trip was fun.

When we got there, the 911 Memorial Day Of tickets for the morning were gone and the next Day Of tickets weren't going to be released until 6:30.  Reservations are booked months out so we took our chances.  Maybe next year.  In any case, we walked around the area, much of which is under construction.

The hairs on my head stood up when we got to Ten House, the ladder company across from The World Trade Center.  Very emotional.

I recommend taking the time to visit www.fdnytenhouse.com to get the stories.

Someone told Vicki that even though we couldn't go into the Memorial, we could walk on a bridge to get a view of it.

By this time, we're getting a bit hungry.  As I'd done a bit of research, and with the help of Susan's blog, we decided to go to Eataly.  So, we hopped into a cab and headed to 200 Fifth Avenue for the experience. We walked around for a while, taking in the experience.  Then, since our growling stomachs drowned out the music, we rode the elevator to Birreria on the rooftop.

They have a retractable roof and our table was sort of at the edge of the open area.  However, it was windy and our menus were blowing, so we asked the manager if they could close off another section.  It was chilly but not awful as there were heat lamps placed in various locations.  Our server, Kelli, was from Dallas, going to school at NYU, so we got extra special attention.

A lady on the first floor who worked in the produce area recommended the fried mushrooms as an appetizer.  Of course, we ordered them and oh were they good.  Fried shitaki mushrooms with sage.  When Kelli brought them to the table, Vicki thought they were chocolate chip cookies.  They were crispy on the outside with mushroomy yumminess on the inside.  Addictive!

Denice and I ordered the beer and apricot braised pork shoulder with kraut, and Vicki ordered a pork chop with fingerlings.  DELISH!  Everything here is fresh and homemade.  They even have their own brewery. Kelli offered us dessert but we'd spotted a gelato place on the first floor.  Yes, I had sugar AND grains since I ordered a small scoop of pistachio in a CONE.  Vicki had hazelnut and Denice had chocolate and raspberry.

I've GOT to come back to Eataly to try the other restaurants, bakeries, cheese store, etc. etc. etc.  This is a terrific destination.  Thanks, Susan!

We took our gelatos outside as it was crowded inside, and came across this lovely gent.

He said he'd sing us a song if we gave him some money.  We declined.  There was another entrepreneur who was banging on metal things.

He was really good and we watched him for a while.  The post office box had quite a pile of money in it.  This Dad and his son were watching as well . . .

. . . and when the boy took his contribution to the box, we thought he was going to dig in and bring some money back to his dad.  Cute!

We went back into Eataly after devouring our gelatos and I got a pound of adorable baby brussels sprouts, and Vicki got a half pound of multi-colored baby yams.  We'll have them with dinner on Saturday.

We need to walk off our lunch, so walk we did.

That's Vicki and Denice waiting to cross the street.

We found this  church . . .

. . . and went inside to say a prayer for Dina.  I couldn't resist taking a few photos at the back of the church.

We continued walking up 7th Avenue.  At one point, Denice decided to spin off from us as Vicki and I were ready to go home, and she wanted to go to Saks and Bloomingdale's, so we split.  Vicki and I kept walking and just enjoyed being outside in the brisk weather and taking in the sights.

As we got back to Port Authority, Vicki ran into an old high school classmate, Ron Cozza, who was meeting his wife in the City.  His wife is Denice's cousin - small world.

We got back to Vicki's house before 5:00 and she immediately started working on the costume which she finished at 2:10 A.M.  She's certainly a terrific grandmother and Laura's going to look so cute in the costume.

Right now, it's early Saturday, the 22nd, and Vicki's going to mail the costume and then work until 4:30.  I'll make myself busy, helping to prepare for The New York McKinlay Clan on Sunday.

Let me just say: if you go to NYC, check out Eataly! Greatness!

Ciao!

October 17, 2001 - Monday

'Tis a sad day to leave such a wonderful resting place, but leave we must as we have several other adventures to experience.  I didn't sleep all that well as I was fearful of missing the sunrise but I was up, showered, dressed and downstairs having breakfast when it made its appearance.  So I raced back to the room to retrieve my camera and took these:

You can barely make out a container ship at the lower left of the sun, but it was there and moving along.  This is what our hotel looks like in the early morning - still warm, inviting and utterly charming.

And now, it's check-out time.  This lovely arrangement was in the lobby honoring the jazz festival that took place here for the past four days, and that's Vicki trying to convince Tom, the Desk Clerk, that people from North Jersey ARE nice.  She definitely changed his negative opinion.  Tom gave us some good advice: CALL the hotel as they always hold back rooms from their website.  If only we'd done that - we could have stayed here two nights.

Here's a shot from our balcony looking north.  Oh, but I'll miss this place!

Heading out of town, we passed this in honor of Steve.  Steve gets credit for finding Rehoboth Beach as he'd stopped here a few years ago and thought highly of it.  Hence, our reason for being here.

On to Lewes and the ferry.  Since I'm now an "experienced" ferry passenger, I brought my laptop inside.  They have pretty good WiFi and I was able to do some narrative for my blog, but uploading photos timed out.  Not a problem - I'll just go out on deck.  I met a very nice lady from Harrisburg and we had a lovely chat.  Also, I saw a few dolphins or porpoises leaping out of the water.  There was a long line of container ships heading for Philadelphia but not photo-worthy.

And there's the ferry dock in Cape May.

Since we're still on "vacation," we decided to stop in a few places in Cape May.  After all, there are great sales at the end of summer.  In one shop, Cheeks, we met Dolores, the owner/manager/ or saleslady, who was so much fun we didn't want to leave.  She directed us to Rea's Market out near the sunken ship as a place for wonderfully fresh and yummy produce.  On the way to Rea's, we stopped at the ship:

In one of the little shops there [yes, it's become commercialized over the years], I heard someone say: "There's my Dallas friend."  It was the lady from Harrisburg with her traveling companions, and that called for another chat!

We decided Paleo/Primal be damned, and drove over to North Wildwood to A&LP's to get a REAL steak sandwich.

Our Mom-Mom used to send us here when it was merely a grocery store as it was just a block away from home.  Ah, sweet, sweet memories.

Now, it's north on the Garden [YES, NJ is a GARDEN State] State Parkway to home.  Since we had wonderful produce from Rea's, we had to have meat to go with them.  Vicki grilled fabulous pork chops to go with NJ lima beans, NJ tomatoes and we split a NJ sweet potato.  Oh what a wonderful meal, filled with fabulous flavors and memories as Mom-Mom used to have a huge garden and grew these things.

Vicki will be working the rest of the week so I'll be left to my own devices, yet to be determined.  However, the next Big Event is dinner at The Crow's Nest with Dorean, who I met on my trip back to Dallas last year.  SO looking forward to that.  Then, on Saturday, we've going to Ground Zero which should be an experience.

'Til then, ciao!

Week Two: October 10 - 16, 2011

Monday, the 10th:  So, here we are at the start of another week.  It's a holiday and we could have stayed in Seekonk with The Little People, but I promised Vicki a day [ish] in her yard to help get it all ready for winter.  We got up early on Monday and spent some time in the back and side yards.  She stayed longer than I as she's younger ;0).  In any event, we/she got a lot accomplished before the City Truck came by to pick up the 7 very large bags of refuse.

Tuesday, the 11th:  Lorraine's birthday is in September and the last few years, we take her to lunch and a movie for a belated birthday celebration.  This year was no different.  We saw 50/50 which was very good, and yes, a few tissues were needed.  Afterward, we ate lunch at The Shannon Rose Irish Pub which is at Clifton Commons where the movie theatre is.  Nice lunch.

Wednesday and Thursday, the 12th and 13th:  Vicki worked both days and I did some laundry and other chores around the house.  The weather, while cooler than the first few days, was gloomy and drizzly so I didn't do any walking around the neighborhood.

Friday, the 14th:  Rain!  We had a few stops to make on the way to Ridgewood for Vicki's haircut appointment.  There's a Whole Foods across the street from her salon so before her appointment, we picked up a few things there - almond flour and coconut flour [for cheesecakes].  Then it was to Garden State Plaza for shopping, lunch and a movie,  This time it was A Dolphin's Tale and it was very good.  Then it was homeward bound to get ready for our trip.

Saturday, the 15th:  We were out of the house before 8 o'clock and after a quick stop for gasoline, off we went.  Our reservation for the ferry was for 1:00 p.m. and we could have made the 11:00 a.m., but wanted to swing through Wildwood before heading to Cape May.  We spent some time in school there and when I was about 4, my grandparents moved to North Wildwood before it became popular.  Quite a change!  I'd been back a time or two since moving away in my late teens, but one time was in a hurricane about 8 or 10 years ago.  These are two shots of Wildwood Crest.

Now it's time to head over to Cape May to catch to ferry to Lewes, Delaware.  We drove around Cape May Point and Town Bank and Lower Township.  Let me tell you this was one windy day.  You can tell from these photos how rough and choppy the water was.

 Time to get over to the ferry station!  We were a tad hungry so grabbed a quick burger [no bun for me] at the station and was it ever a dreary burger.  But here comes our ferry so we ran back to our car to begin the boarding process.

 Here Vicki pretends she's going to loll about in the sun but be mindful, we're about to head out to open water which were very choppy and the wind, my friends, was fierce.

 This photo is as we leave the ferry harbor and you can see how the American flag is blowing.  Just look at the photos of the surf!  Then imagine me walking around the deck of the ferry.  At one point, I truly felt my feet were going to be blown out from under me.

 The trip takes about an hour and twenty-five minutes and since we didn't want to be in the stampede to the car, we went to the car level early.  Vicki rested in the car and I foolishly started walking around, trying to take photos of our entry to Lewes.  I was on the car deck, mind you, where few people mill about.  I walked to the front and was trying to take some photos when all of a sudden I noticed that my left tata was chillier than my right.  Yep, my shirt blew up baring all - well some, but definitely more than I wanted.  I saw two men several yards away and didn't think they saw, but then I looked up and had forgotten about the passenger deck above.  I swiftly moved away and back into the car ;0(   Oh, well, I don't know them and who cares anyway?!?!

We drove into Dewey Beach which is just south of Rehoboth Beach, and checked into the Worst Western, I mean Best Western.  After unloading our things in our room which seemed fairly nice and Vicki noticed no bath towels.  We informed the front desk and they placed them in our room while we were in Rehoboth Beach.

The event that was going on this weekend was a Jazz Festival so music poured out of many, many places.  A very hustling and bustling seaside town.  Now, when I was growing up in Wildwood, one of my very most favorite things was Kohr Bros. Frozen Custard and Steve and Vicki said they were in RB, so I had to break my sugar fast and have some.

 The problem was, for me at least, they only had vanilla, chocolate and orange or any combination thereof. Nope, I wanted my youthful memories of peach, banana or strawberry.  They did have another store closer to the boardwalk, but they just had cinnamon, pumpkin and peanut butter added to the first store's menu.  So, I took a pass.

We walked the boardwalk for a while, smelling the aromas of pizza, caramel popcorn and other boardwalk fare.  Then, Vicki wanted to show me the Boardwalk Plaza where she'd had dinner and wanted to stay but their website showed no availability.  [P.S.: we're not going to believe websites and will CALL in the future as they DID have rooms available.]  Anyway, it was a lovely hotel and we made reservations to have dinner there on Sunday evening.

Continuing on our walk on the boardwalk, we came upon a beach wedding that was about to take place so, of course, we stopped to watch.  It was large for beach weddings and formal except the bridesmaids had on flip-flops - couldn't see the bride's feet, but let's assume she did as well.  We waited around and watched for a while and chatted with other "wedding crashers" before going back the other way.  By the way, the groom was escorted down the "aisle" by both his parents [he looked to be 12] and so was the bride.  It was a sweet little encounter for us.

 Here's a little photo of Vicki in Penny Lane, an alley between two streets with lots of cute little shops.

 We headed back to Dewey Beach where the Worst Western was.  The Desk recommended The Port for dinner so we drove by - no one was there and it looked less than attractive.  We drove up and down Route One and then, after a very long wait at a local place, decided on The Rusty Rudder.  It was in Dewey Beach and right across the street from our SLUM, but we tried it anyway. They had a beach volleyball court outside with a family playing on it just as the sun was going down.

But we at there anyway and the food was merely medocker, as an old acquaintance use to say.

Back to the Worst Western where we had NO PHONE in the room and we had no INTERNET!!!  We called the desk from our cell phones a few times and they just didn't seem to care.  So I called the Boardwalk Plaza and wonder of wonders, they had a room [SUITE] available for us for Sunday night.  Regular rate was $598 but since we're "off season" it's $139!!!  Bookem Dano!

We dug into our beds [which were comfy] and got up early on Sunday morning.   Walking the beach for a couple of hours before checking out of the Worst Western and into the Boardwalk Plaza.

We ventured out onto the boardwalk for a few hours before dinner.

We had dinner at The Victoria Room at the hotel and it was very, very good.  I had braised short ribs and Vicki had a seafood pasta dish.  Our waiter, John, was very professional and very friendly.  You don't find waiters like him very often.  After dinner, we walked through the lobby and visited with one of the birds who's allowed out of his cage in the evenings.  Then, it was back to our room.  We've got a reservation for the ferry back to Cape May at 9:15 a.m. and need to be there half an hour early.  And we want to enjoy the lovely breakfast at the hotel so we're turning in early.