Eastern Wood-Pewee

 

Eastern Wood-Pewee on the CVRT (Sept 2024)

Salt Point Brewery

 

Located not far from Cayuga Lake and Ithaca, this popular brewery utilizes the outdoor setting as well as local farmers and producers for its craft food and beer. The snack board, a modified charcuterie, is a mixture of local cheeses, olives, seeds, dried fruit, and cured meats. Even though we chose the Margherita, the wood-fired sourdough pizzas are interesting and unique. (For example, the pizza special on the night we were there was a peach and pork belly pizza.) For dessert, we had the excellent Nutella burdino, which immediately demanded a recipe search.

Uncle Hazy IPA

My beer of choice was Uncle Hazy IPA (6.5% ABV), definitely hazy with a slight bitter edge. I liked it enough to take a 4-pack home.

Nutella budino

The atmosphere is lively and convivial, making it difficult, especially on a Friday evening, to find a seat to have dinner.

Address: Salt Point Brewery, 6 Louise Bement Ln, Lansing, NY 14882

 

The Lochside Hotel (Islay)

 

The Lochside Hotel in Bowmore, Isle of Islay

Established in 1884, the Lochside Hotel is a quaint and comfortable place to stay on Islay. Although the rooms are small, and the hallways narrow, this is certainly by the standards of a 21st-century traveler. The dining room and bar are cozy and convivial, with a whisky menu that contains virtually all the products of local distilleries, including those with eye-watering prices.

Room 6

BRLO (Berlin)

 

Nursing a Blurred Vision IPA for a few extra minutes of enjoying pleasant, if not threatening, weather. A sparrow is trying to manage and protect a huge chunk of bread, but rivals make that job increasingly difficult. Many people are sneezing because of the high pollen levels.

Pulled kikok chicken sandwich with red cabbage-tomato salsa, beetroot yogurt, and roasted onions. BRLO Blurry Vision Hazy IPA.

Tapeo Gràcia

Sometimes, among friends, restaurants achieve a mythic status based upon the experience rather than the food. Of course, excellent food can help bolster one’s impression of a restaurant as well. Located on a nondescript street, behind the doors of an inauspicious building, Tapeo Gràcia is a warm and invitingly small dining area. Without a reservation, or eating by myself, I am frequently relegated to the bar, which is great as well. I can watch both the bartenders and cooks prepare meals for cheerful and expectant guests.  

I have fond memories of finding the restaurant after Sally, Niel, and I wandered the narrow streets of the Gràcia neighborhood of Barcelona for seemingly an hour. There are so many choices about where to eat, and it is difficult to decipher which ones are merely interesting from those that might have good food as well. The first time we stumbled into Tapeo, we thought we hit the jackpot. The following year, we attempted to retrace our steps, all of us forgetting the restaurant’s name. Just as we were about to give up, and Sally said, “the next decent restaurant,” as if by magic, we turned the corner and there was Tapeo.

I have had many good meals in Barcelona, but Tapeo remains my favorite. Without a doubt, it has interesting food and good drinks. But the ambiance and vitality of the restaurant makes it a fun place to visit.

 

May 2024 dinner:

Espárragos tempura con romesco ligero (Tempura Asparagus with Romesco sauce) 

Pan de coca con tomate (Coca bread with Tomato) 

Huevos estrellados con jamón ibérico de bellota (Broken Eggs with Iberian Ham, Bellota refers to free-range, acorn-fed ham, aged for over two years)  

 

An Incident at Barcelona Aeropuerto

As we approached security, a middle-aged man with slightly graying hair and silver-rimmed glasses was stopped and told that he was not allowed to take a luggage cart through. It was crowded and he was trying to hurry. When he took one bag off, another fell to the ground. His wife screamed, walked over, and kicked him so hard that the security guards instinctively moved to intervene. The man turned and took the luggage cart away. But everyone who saw it was stunned into an awkward silence.

Taquerio (Mystic, Connecticut)

 Located in a former gas station, it is perhaps our favorite taco place on the planet(?). Last visited: April 2024.

Al Pastor, Salmon Taco, and Pollo Verde

Address: 30 Broadway Ave, Mystic, CT

Northern Lights

 

The Northern Lights seen over Nova Scotia on my flight to Iceland, after intense activity in May. Not the best photo, but my first-time seeing aurora borealis.

Updates from the Cumberland Valley Rail Trail (April 2024)

 

Eastern Bluebird near Fish Hatchery Road

A breeding pair of red-tailed hawks have returned to their nest near the Mile 8 signpost. 

A peacock on Nealy Road

Spring dandelion 

Algy Theater (New Orleans, LA)

 

Located in the Algiers Point neighborhood, this classic 1940s neighborhood house did not have air-conditioning. As such, it probably made watching a movie in the Algy during the summer the equivalent of a steam bath. Today, the Algy is astudio and gallery for a local glassblower.

Address: 446 Vallette Street

 

Cats on Vacation (Rehoboth Beach 2024 version)

Coco enjoy "her" new ottoman in room 119.

From their perspective, the cats think that Delaware is a room at the Residence Inn at Rehoboth Beach. While the car ride is scary, being in a new place is, at first, exciting. There are new places to explore and hide, a cubby hole beneath the sink for example. In fact, Coco got caught behind a dresser drawer and was trapped there for several hours. Our mistake was that we left the drawer wide open, there was not enough room for her to jump into the drawer and then out of drawer onto the floor. She was getting a little panicky, and I even went and asked the manager if he knew how to remove the drawers from the dressers. Although we are not engineers, Angie and Coco eventually figured it out.

At first, Pip was at peace. The territory that is a hotel room is much easier to monitor than the territory at home. There was no prompting him to use the litterbox, and he slept soundly in bed with us. He was gregarious and cuddly. But as the week went along, he let us know that he was ready to go home. He is a sensitive cat, who likes his routine. And he is not shy about reminding us of that.

Pip on the comfortable bed that, from his perspective, can only be found in Delaware.

Snow Geese in Rehoboth Beach

Sometimes we are just lucky. After driving four hours, we three cats who are all reluctant travelers, I was unpacking the car when I noticed a huge flock of geese, descending not too far away. I paused to watch for a few minutes, noticing that there were flashes of white as birds descended and ascended – they were migrating snow geese. The birds were on their spring migration north to their breeding grounds in the Arctic.

With the roof bag unloaded and stored, the cats were relatively happy in Room 119, their temporary home for the week, I got in the car to go for a walk on the trail. In Rehoboth, walking any distance other than on trails can be difficult. As I waited at the light at the hotel, I noticed geese flying a few feet in the air from time to time and decided to investigate. Less than a quarter of a mile from the hotel, a multitude of snow geese were gathered in an empty field between medical buildings. Cars were slowing down or stopped to observe the spectacle, many people made eye contact and we knowingly returned smiles and grins with one another. Worried that I would frighten the birds if I got out, I pulled the car over watched the birds and took a few photographs. While there were a few stray snow geese for the remainder of the week, I did not see any large gatherings. It was just fortunate timing. 

A Provocative Quote

Bertrand Russell (c. 1950): “One of the painful things of our time is those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision.”[1]

Russell, the eminent sociologist and philosopher who gave thought-provoking lectures via the BBC in 1950, worried about the balance between passion and reason when it came to the future of humanity. His concern about willful ignorance is a concern for any age and remains a source of consternation today.  

---

[1] Living in the Atomic Age (1950) by Andrew G. Bone. The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell, Volume 26.

Waiting for the Trolleys

 

I suppose I look like I know what I am doing. Waiting for a trolley at St. Charles and Martin Luther King Boulevard in New Orleans, two couples were milling around the stop. It was an odd place for a group of older tourists to be. I suspect they were not in the area to see the location of the 1900 Race Riots. One of the men, after some quiet conversations among the four, got up the courage to ask him for if I were local. The other man stood a couple of steps back, as if backup. “I am not,” I confessed, “but if I…”. I did not finish the sentence. They wanted help figuring out how to ride the trolley. I explained how on the app you could buy a pass for unlimited rides for $3, versus $2 per trip. He wanted to know if he could buy passes from the conductor; he could not. They are only available on the app. His response: “I’m old, I don’t like to put apps on my phone.” One could always delete the app as soon as you leave town. He acknowledged that was a possibility, “but still…”  he drifted off, and I meandered away. When I boarded my trolley, going the opposite direction, the four stood remained in the middle of St. Charles Avenue debating what to do.