NYC: Visit/Re-visit

It's been two weeks since we returned from New York City for my 9th and Gary's 1st New Yorker Festival.  It was a weekend of returns and revisits for me, and while Gary had been to NYC before, it had been a working trip and he didn't have time to explore too much so we had a lot of fun visiting my usual haunts. Perfect weather, a great apartment in Chelsea through Airbnb for our stay, a Broadway musical which I didn't expect to enjoy as much as I did, really entertaining New Yorker Festival events, and a travel companion who is game for anything and easy-going about everything.

When we arrived on Thursday evening, we tried to get a spot at the bar at trendy Spice Market which was about a block from where we were staying, but there wasn't even a small chance that that was going to happen, so we walked down the street until we came to The Chester which was in the Gansevoort Hotel, where I had last been with Jenine in 2010. That time we went to the roof, this time we stayed on the ground, and had a couple good but not especially noteworthy plates from the appetizer menu... not especially noteworthy, that is, until we ordered dessert. Sometimes I enjoy a fruit dessert. Sometimes. But I'm more of a chocolate and cream kind of girl. Sure, sometimes in the height of summer there's a strawberry tart or some such that sounds good, and I actually really like making fruit tarts my own self, but as Gary commented even as we found ourselves being inexplicably drawn to the baked apple tart with caramel and vanilla ice cream with some kind of crunchy butterscotch bits in the pastry topping, "why would anyone cook apples?" a sentiment I had to agree with, but we took a shot and were mightily rewarded. Really, one of the best desserts we'd ever had.

the spectacular kouign-amman, or DKA if you're in Soho

On Friday morning, we revisited the Dominique Ansel Bakery, hoping for perhaps a cronut, but as cronut-fever has not yet died down and I still refuse to line up for a pastry, we left quite satisfied after a couple of DKAs and lovely little egg-souffle sandwiches.

Following our petite déjeuner, we hopped on the subway and went uptown to Central Park. I had taken a walking tour of the park on a previous trip, but this one hit a few different places including Strawberry Fields (and it was the day after John Lennon's birthday) and was just as interesting - and it was a gorgeous day for a walk in the park.

statue of Hans Christian Anderson, not to be confused with... 

...this one at Legoland

"...all the people, living life in peace..."

one of several brides we saw in the park that day

Bow Bridge

according to our guide, Jerry Seinfeld lives in this building

Friday night was our first New Yorker event, an interview with Bill Hader who took a break from rehearsals for hosting Saturday Night Live to pop over for the interview. He looked a little haggard from the grueling rehearsal schedule, but was as funny as ever. He talked about his beginnings in Tulsa and moving to L.A. in hopes of becoming a film maker, and how the meeting with Lorne Michaels came totally out of the blue, but really, all anyone wanted to hear about was Stefon. And he didn't disappoint - he gave us the origin story: a barista at a coffee shop he used to frequent gave him the voice, the look, and the attitude; the club-craziness came from an actual invite to a club opening he got, which among other enticements included, "... rooms filled with broken glass." It was a very entertaining start to the New Yorker Fest, followed by a really good Sri Lankan dinner at a place just a few blocks from the apartment. Banana Leaf wasn't as good as my mom's cooking, but it was still very authentic and good, and I love that this is the third Sri Lankan restaurant I've been to in New York City.

Lizzie Widdicomb and Bill Hader

Stefon

On Saturday we got up a bit late, but the beauty of staying in the heart of Chelsea is that you can just run downstairs and grab coffee practically right outside the door, and of course there's a deli within half a block where an egg sandwich can be had for a couple bucks, so we had breakfast on the go, went to a couple of art galleries, and then went to [the dreaded] Times Square to see if we could get a matinee ticket to something at the TKTS booth. The line wasn't unbearably long and we ended up with tickets to "Jersey Boys." Not a show near the top of my list, but that's what we got, and it was fantastic. Even if the story of how a bunch of hoods from Jersey became a top selling musical act in the '60s hadn't been entertaining (it was), the high caliber, full band music with phenomenal harmonizing in a small-to-medium-sized theater just about blew our pants off. And the star... Ryan Molloy - his voice was like crystal; it was clear and sharp and it had an inexplicable sparkle to it. This was made all the more incredible by my just looking him up on Wikipedia and finding out that he's British.

Our New Yorker event on Saturday night was a debate moderated by David Remnick ("in what might be a career-ending move") on a simple topic: which are better, dogs or cats? On the side for dogs, a distinguished team led by Adam Gopnik at his most hilarious and including Malcolm Gladwell (who went so far as to posit that cats are a threat to national security - "it's not that they can't sniff out bombs, it's that they wont."), Jill Abramson (guess she's got quite a bit of time on her hands these days), Bill Berloni (an animal trainer for Broadway and film), Jerry Coyne (an evolutionary scientist), and Alexandra Horowitz (an animal behaviorist) argued that dogs are superior to cats; while Anthony Lane, Jesse Eisenberg (in a very funny video message in which he may or may not have been held captive by his cat, Mr. Trunkles), Ariel Levy, Joyce Carol Oates, and Anthony Hutcherson (a breeder of "Bengal cats" - don't ask), argued for cats. The verdict was made by audience applause and the dogs won by a [dog] hair.

Saturday was a long night because after Cats vs. Dogs, we had just enough time to grab something to eat and then go back to the theater for an interview with Mindy Kaling. I've loved Mindy's wacky sensibilities since her days on and writing for "The Office," I read her book and found it hugely entertaining (and was thrilled to death when no fewer than three friends mentioned that they heard my voice in their heads while reading her book - I'd long since determined that she was my evil twin), and I find her new show hilarious and clever. Her interview was funny and somehow comically serious. She talked about working hard, her immigrant parents, having to audition to play herself in a sitcom she'd developed (and not getting the part), and how much fun she was having making out with actors on her show. Emily Nussbaum, on the other hand, cemented her place on Peter's and my sh** list (Nancy Franklin, why did you leave us??). Peter and I seemed to always agree with and trust Nancy's judgement in her New Yorker pieces (she was the TV critic until 2011) while Emily just doesn't have the same taste; forgivable, certainly, but what wasn't forgivable was the fact that during her introduction of Mindy, she got the title of Mindy's book -- her New York Times bestselling book -- she got the title wrong, TWICE. Mindy corrected her the second time, but she was dead to me after that. 

On Sunday we had two events, a discussion called "Fly Me to the Moon" which was about civilian space travel, mining hydrogen on the moon in order to set up rocket refueling stations in space, and colonizing Mars. The colony on Mars should be ready by 2024 so sign up now. We had just enough time after that to head uptown, grab a slice, and make it to a different theater for a discussion about travel writing by several journalists including Paul Theroux. I've always found his writing to be on the dry side, and he was equally dry in person. The three younger writers were interesting and engaging, Gary Shteyngart was hilarious as usual, while Paul played the part of the cranky old uncle rallying against the use of electronic devices (admonishing Elif Batunam's use of digital pen which makes her handwritten notes appear on her tablet, with the dismissive, "and then what do you do when your battery dies?" She looked at him incredulously for a second but didn't answer; I really wish she'd just said, "I charge it.") After that, we walked back toward Soho, stopping back at Uniqlo to pick up some pants I'd bought on Friday that were being hemmed, and then headed back to the apartment and then to the Upper West Side for dinner at Shake Shack. The place was crowded but not nearly as crowded as the one in Midtown - you couldn't pay me to stand in that line, but two seats opened up just as we got our food. The burgers were as good as I remembered but I'm sad to report that the fries, while now "fresh cut" were just not as crispy as the previous/frozen variety. I have always found fresh cut fries to be overrated unless they are fried twice and no fast-food place is going to do that; frozen fries tend to be way crispier and I give a thumbs down to this change at Shake Shack. It's always fun hanging out on the UWS, though - such a neighborhood-y feel. 

On Monday, we got up a bit late, finished packing, and had a late lunch at Papatzul which I'd been to several times before; the carnitas tacos did not disappoint. After that, it was back to SoHo to pick up our bags, subway to Grand Central, Airporter to LaGuardia, and back to Birmingham. It was a great trip.

Florence, Alabama: The Rosenbaum House

Yesterday Gary and I did what I assume is the only interesting thing to do in Alabama (yeah yeah, Space Camp, whatever), we drove about 100 miles to Florence and toured the former home of Stanley and Mildred Rosenbaum, who in 1939 commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design their house. The Rosenbaums lived in the house for sixty years before it was sold to the City of Florence which implemented some massive renovations starting in 1999 and opened it to the public. Some of the super-cool modern furnishings remain (most pieces are replicas), along with some of the family's books and personal effects. This house was a "usonian" design, not in any way considered to be opulent, but intended for a middle-class family.

We will visit Taliesin West in Scottsdale next month; Wright designed that space for himself and his wife as their winter residence and meeting center, now THAT place looks opulent and I'm sure will have a very different feel, but as an admirer of ultra-modern interiors as well as the mid-century style of FLW, it was great to see real-world application of such iconic design.

Click on photos for full views.

front of the house

view from the back

living room; study back right

study with built in desk and Eames chair

dining area; table built into the wall

main hall to bedrooms; master at the end of the hall

lower hallway; closets built into the walls

Coeur d'Alene: Katy and Greg

the Coeur d'Alene Resort

Since Cheryl has been newly ordained by the Church of the Internet, she offered to officiate another wedding this summer. This time for co-worker and good friend, Greg and his intended, Katy. I'd heard about Greg off and on for years but hadn't met him until a quick and random five minute meeting on the street a few months ago. Katy was there too and while pretty and friendly, it was difficult to get any real impression of either them during that quick introduction. A few weeks later when Cheryl told me she was officiating Greg's wedding, she told me she asked if she could bring a "date," and did I want to go. Greg is from Spokane and the wedding was going to be at his family's cabin on Lake Coeur d'Alene in Idaho, and while I had sworn I'd never again cross the border into a state noted for potatoes and bigots after my last time there (years ago; snowboarding Schweitzer; got tired of being looked at and hearing things that made me think I'd entered the racist version of the Twilight Zone), I had already broken that vow on a recent trip to Spokane with Gary when his father and his lady-friend took us to Coeur d'Alene for dinner one evening. If I hadn't already crossed into Idaho that time for dinner, I certainly would have for this event; tagging along with Cheryl sounded like fun and I was game to go.

It was going to be a small wedding, just family and very close family friends, but Cheryl told me that Katy and Greg were delighted that I was coming. This was reinforced when we got to the rehearsal dinner last Thursday night when they both stood up from their table to greet us (we were a little late arriving) and they both hugged Cheryl (of course) and then me (nice) and told me with all sincerity how glad they were that I could come too. Cheryl and I then sat down at the two seats they had saved for us right across from them at the "parents" table, and we proceeded to have a lovely time and lovely dinner at the stunning B&B where much of the family was staying.

B&B where the pre-wedding dinner took place

After the dinner party, Cheryl and I drove into Coeur d'Alene (the dinner was on the outskirts of town in a wooded, rural area) to our Airbnb accommodation which Greg's mom had generously secured for us. It was a cute little house, and the business cards left by the owner indicated that she was a professional dream interpreter, so there was that. The wedding was on Friday afternoon so we got up and went to the Coeur d'Alene Resort for breakfast. the Resort is pretty much the only game in town for accommodations that aren't private homes or small motels. It's huge, luxurious, and right on the lake, and the owner appears to have successfully kept any other hotel from opening along the miles of waterfront. We ran into Greg in the lobby looking a little bleary, he said he'd been up until 2am; he was on his way to the cabin by car to get ready and would be meeting us back at the hotel's boat launch at 2pm to set out for the cabin with the rest of the guests; we were all to cruise up the lake to the cabin where Katy would be waiting.

Cheryl in front of our transportation for the day

We boarded the party boat, had some lovely snacks and drinks, and got to chit-chat more with the folks we had met at the dinner the night before. During the trip I volunteered to wrangle the flower girls and get the rings secured to the pillow that the ring-bearer was going to hand to Cheryl during the ceremony. So once we docked at the cabin, the girls went with me and we got one of the first looks at the bride, stunning in her gown (seriously, girlfriend looked like a super-model), and then I proceeded to run back and forth across the yard, prepping the rings, telling the young ring-bearer (Katy's nephew) to guard them with his life, running back to the cabin to smooth out the girls' hair, and sending them down the aisle with their baskets of flower petals. As a tagging-along guest, it was great to be useful and I had a lot of fun. It was a lovely event and Greg and Katy are two of the nicest, warmest people I've ever met, and Cheryl and I had so much fun together. Once we got back to shore after the short ceremony there was a casual dinner at a nearby restaurant where we got to rehash the day's festivities with a very happy-looking couple, and Cheryl and I flew home from Spokane the next day. I guess Idaho isn't so bad.

Rice family lake-front cabin

Cutest cake topper ever: Katy, Greg, their dog and two cats

on the boat ride back to the hotel

post-wedding: happy couple

Back to Orcas

click photo for panarama

Cheryl and I had planned on going to Portland for a music festival last weekend, but after we got back from our day trip to Fairhaven via Chuckanut Drive last month, we were so enamored with our beautiful Pacific Northwest coastline, that we totally changed our plan and decided to go back to Orcas Island instead for some island relaxation. This time, instead of just eating at the Doe Bay Café, we stayed in a cabin at the Doe Bay Resort. "Resort" is an odd choice of wording for this place but I'd be hard-pressed to come up with a better one. "Camp-o-rama" is the only thing that comes to mind and that might look funny on the signage. Doe Bay Resort is a spectacular piece of property on the east side of Orcas Island. You get off the ferry, drive along a winding country road, through the town of Eastsound, past horse pastures, through Moran State Park, past Cascade Lake, and end up on a bluff with cabins, campsites, yurts, geodesic domes, a fine-dining restaurant, a beautiful "spa" with three soaking tubs overlooking the water (clothing optional; I opted to wear a swimsuit), a small general store, a communal kitchen, warm showers, and clean bathrooms.

our little cabin in the woods

Our cabin was called Lower Satva and it was at the end of a U-shaped dirt road with campsites on either side and just one other cabin if you didn't count the Upper Satva cabin, which was connected to ours, duplex-style. We never saw the inhabitants of Upper Satva, but we are fairly certain that they were a family of clog-dancers who were traveling with a herd of Clydesdales. The cabins are tiny, primitive wood structures (no bathrooms or kitchens but two nice beds, a futon, and a small table) and Upper and Lower Satva each had lofts. The stairs up the loft were planks that made a RACKET when you climbed up, and the Upper Satva folks seemed to come and go late at night and spent an inordinate amount of time clomping up and down the stairs and moving furniture in a manner which made it sound like we were next door to Santa's workshop. I swear they were building furniture in there at 11pm both nights. I didn't really mind that much, though. My only goal for the weekend was to catch up on my New Yorkers, and I accomplished that; the first night in bed tucked up in my little loft, and the second day first sitting out on the bluff and reading during the moments when I could tear myself away from the view. And while we said the word "hike" a few times, we didn't actually take one. We had dinner at the Café the first night and at a spectacular pizza at Hogstone's Wood Oven in Eastsound the second night. I made my coffee and breakfast in the communal kitchen both mornings and then sat on the bluff looking at the sailboats moored off Doe Bay; we hit the soaking tubs both nights before going to bed - it was a gorgeous weekend.

dinner at the Café started with a shot of gazpacho

Cheryl had a golden beet and carrot risotto

I had a spectacular roasted corn and buttermilk soup

dessert was a flourless chocolate tart

one of the yurts

Some of the other accommodations; our cabin and some of the campsites are nestled in the woods.

view during breakfast

A bit of Italy in British Columbia

We headed home on Monday and were nervous about getting  the ferry back to the mainland since we didn't have a reservation and the reserved vehicle slots were sold out. We decided to shoot for the 3:15 boat by getting to the dock two hours early so we left the hotel around 10 and headed for the Coombs Country Market (which I had also visited on my last trip). We did a quick stroll around the market and as the cafe inside didn't have anything we wanted, we headed out to see if any of the other buildings on the market grounds were restaurants. That's how we ended up at Cuckoo in Coombs Trattoria. I will say that of all the names to give a restaurant, all the words one could combine with the location (Coombs, B.C.) and the type of restaurant (trattoria), "cuckoo" is not one I would choose, but that's just me, and the place was lovely. The restaurant had just opened for lunch minutes before we got there so the dining room was largely empty, but the hostess, perhaps simply because she knew best, didn't even ask if we'd like to sit outside, she just led us out to a lovely al fesco dining area, up a few steps to a small, raised patio within that area, and gave us what we considered to be the nicest table in the place. We ordered a spinach salad and a salmon pizza, had a nice lunch, and headed for the dock. We got there exactly two hours early (with plenty of reading material in the car) and had no trouble getting home, stopping along the way at the Oyster Bar on Chuckanut Drive for halibut soup and fried oysters, and even more awesome views of the Pacific Northwest.

from the Oyster Bar

A Hike with a View

Sunday morning we got up, got some coffee, and after heading about an hour out of our way in the wrong direction (thanks, google maps!), we made it to the Mt. Washington ski resort. The plan was to have lunch then ride the lift up and hike around the top. This was the same place Jenine and I had come to in 2011 for our downhill mountain biking adventure, something which the resort no longer offers (too many broken bones). Gary and I had more leisurely pursuits in mind and we spent a couple of hours walking around the top of the hill, pointing out the obvious ("this looks nothing like Alabama"), letting birds eat out of our hands (well, his hand; I suggested that the birds while friendly, might be riddled with diseases), and generally enjoying the sunshine and views.

click photo for full panorama.

We got back to the hotel in time for our massages at the spa, and then went to dinner at the Blackfin Pub where we had a nice view of the Comox marina and some mighty fine fish and chips. I had to do some gentle convincing regarding the dessert I wanted - it was a mud pie which included pecans in the cookie crust (he's not a fan, despite living in the South) and hazelnut ice cream (he just wasn't sure about hazelnuts...) but I just knew he'd like it and he was willing to give it a shot. I forgot to take a picture when it arrived, but I think the one I got speaks to how it was received. 

dinner

dessert

view - click photo for full panorama.