Virginia - Day 1

Our day began with a wonderful breakfast of french toast stuffed with cream cheese and strawberries with cranberries sprinkled over the top plus sausage patties and links.  Once we finished with breakfast, we met Jerry at Willbur Gardens, the care facility where Rainy's Grandmother, Jetta lives.  Jetta has Alzheimers and congestive heart failure, she is only expected to live another 6 months at the most.  She is thin and frail, yet she has the sparkle in her eyes and the beautiful smile that both Rainy and I remember.  An unusual thing is that Jetta sings her words, it as if talking in song might help her remember what she is trying to say.  She asked about my mom and dad and said that she wanted to go to Phoenix with Rainy and me.  Sometimes she thought Rainy was me, at other times she remembered who was who.  She sang that it was an awful thing to loose your memory.  We stayed with Jetta for a couple of hours, left when they began to serve lunch.

We drove into downtown Fredericksburg to take in some of the historical sights.  Our first stop was St. George's Church, which was established in 1720.  We wandered the graveyard next to the church where the founders of Fredericksburg now rest, then we went into the church.  There was a noon service going on, so we didn't get to see the original gated wooden pews, but we did wander around and admired the stained glass windows in the front area.

It was lunch time, so we wandered over to the Capital Ale House, a restaurant which claims to serve more than 300 beers!  From the looks of their refrigerated bottle selection, combined with what was on tap, I have no doubt about their claims.  Rainy ordered the Lagunitas Pilsner from California, I had the Jiver Pilsener from Germany.  We started with the Bavarian Pretzel served with a sweet and spicy honey mustard.  It was about 1 1/2" thick and as big as the plate.  I think it was the best pretzel that I have ever eaten!  We shared the main course, a Brat & Knack plate; Knackwurst and bratwurst served with Kraut, sweet and sour red cabbage and warm german potato salad.  What we couldn't finish, we took with us to snack on later.

By now it was in excess of 100 degrees with high humidity.  I took Rainy back to the Inn so that she could cool down and take a nap.  I decided to return to the downtown area to see the Mary Washington House.  Mary was the mother of George Washington and lived in this house during the later years of her life.  There were a couple of original pieces of furniture and original china, the rest were period pieces found that were similar to what would have been in the house at the time.  I wandered outside to see the kitchen and the gardens, yes the heat was immense, but I didn't mind.  When I was done, I went into the gift shop too cool off.  Of course I found a couple of items to buy; a postcard and a small vase for myself.  My next stop was the post office.....how ordinary!  I needed to buy some more stamps so that I could continue sending postcards.  Then I went to the library so that I could work on the blog as the inn we are staying at doesn't have wireless.  Afterwards, I decided to return to the inn to take a short nap before dinner.

We met Jerry and Glenda Lawson at Fujiya, a japanese restaurant where they cook the food at your table.  I really should have brought my camera to take pictures!  Oh well.  Dinner was excellent and it was nice to catch up o each other's lives.  I don't think I had seen Glenda in probably 20 years!  After dinner we returned to the inn, watched a movie and went to sleep!

New York City to Virginia

I had to set my alarm to get up before 8:00 am to move my car.  This time it was because a movie shoot would be closing 7th Street from 8:00 am to midnight.  It took me about 20 minutes to find another parking place, 4 blocks away, and it was posted for street cleaning from 11:00 - 12:30.  This meant that Rainy and I would need to be packed up and ready to leave by 11 am.  It was already hot out and I worked up a sweat in the car moving process.  Back at the apartment, Rainy and Raven were asleep in the one air conditioned room, I let them sleep until I felt it was time to get up and get going.  I walked back to get the car, clean out the ice chest, and throw away trash before driving back to 7th street and double parking next to the bright orange traffic cones that had been set up to prevent cars from parking.  We loaded up our suitcases, grabbed some cupcakes from Butter Lane, hugged Raven good-bye, and set off for Virginia.

We decided to travel the interstates, which meant traveling the tioll roads as we needed to ge to Fredericksburg by early evening.  What we don't like about freeway traveling is we don't get a real sense of the sountry we are traveling through, not like you do on a 2-lane highway.  The advantage is that you get there much more quickly!  We left New York and traveled through New Jersey.  On one of the toll roads, I managed to loose my toll ticket.  How can you loose the ticket when you never get out of the car?  We paid the full toll and then found the ticket at my feet.  Figures.  Next we passed into Maryland.  About 30 miles outside of Baltimore, we decided that we should stop for a late lunch.  We found Bertha's, a place on the water that served seafood with a focus on mussels; perfect.  They offered mussels cooked in a variety of sauces.  For an appetizer, we ordered the crad soup, a tomatoe based vegetable soup with bits of crab meat.  Rainy and I decided to share the mussels steamed in white wine with garlic and onions.  We also ordered the lump crabcake dinner served with coleslaw.  The food was wonderfully fresh and delicious!

Back on the road, we drove on into Fredericksburg arriving at our bed and breakfast, On Keegan Pond, before 7:30 pm.  We got settled into our room, and called Rainy's uncle, Jerry Lawson, to make arrangements to see her grandmother in the morning.

We decided that we were a bit hungry.  The Inn keeper recommended Bridges Brick Oven Pizza which served a lighter fare of Italian food. We shared one of the best antipasto salads that I have ever had.  The ingredients were all fresh, served separated, nit tossed, with the dressing on the side.  We also shared the Vodka Pizza which was made with vodka sauce, procsiutto, fried eggplant and mozzarella cheese.  It was good, but too much food so we took the remaining pizza back with us for a midnight snack.  I was ready for bed by this time, so Rainy dropped me off and and went to see the newest Twilight movie playing at the theater.  Our room was a bit on the warm side which made it hard to sleep, but we managed.

New York City - Day 8

We stayed in the somewhat cool apartment until well after noon.  New York is suffering from a heat wave and many places aren't air conditioned.  Raven has a window unit in her bedroom which really helps.  We walked to a burger joint, Black Iron Burger Shop and had the best burgers ever.  I also liked the fact that they were rather inexpensive as well.  To accompany the burgers we had batter-dipped and fried green beans served with a spicy honey mustard.  Of course we each order a beer to wash the burgers down!

We took the subway to West Village, it was a long and hot walk/wait/ride.  We were looking for something to do in which we could avoid the heat. We bought movie tickets to the 5:30 showing of "The Killer Inside Me", but it was not even 4:00, we needed to do something as we waited.  We walked to a bar called The Blind Tiger and guess what.....No air conditioning!  We sat anyways and ordered colder, somewhat lighter beer to try and stay cool.  Admittedly, the ceiling fans just weren't keeping us cool enough!  We tried cooling our faces with the side of the glass of beer; that helped.

Rainy ordered a refreshing Fuzz Berry!

When we left the Blind Tiger, we made the best move of the day....we stopped in an air conditioned shop for ice cream!  Rainy had cantaloupe sorbet and Julie had pistachio ice cream.  Then it was off to the movie.

The Killer Inside Me featured Kate Hudson and Casey Affleck in a Michael Winterbottom film.  The story was about handsome, charming, unassuming West Texas deputy Lou Ford.  Lou has a bunch of problems.  Women problems.  Law enforcement problems.  An ever-growing pile of murder victims - and the secret that he is a sadist, a psychopath, and a killer.  Suspicion begins to fall on Lou, and it's only a matter of time before his alibis start to unravel.  But in the savage, bleak, blacker-than-noir universe, nothing is ever what it seems.  We all enjoyed the air conditioned theater almost as much as we enjoyed the movie!

We had a little time before our 9:00 dinner reservation, so we stepped into the Barrow Street Ale House for a drink.  Luckily this bar was air conditioned!  Like most of the establishments in NYC, this ale house was long and narrow with dark wood paneled walls and comfortable booths to sit in.  We relaxed and let time slip by.

Our dinner reservation was at Samba Sushi, the only chain restaurant we have eaten at.  This was allowed because the NYC location was the original.  The food is a subtle blending of the tastes of Japan, Brazil, and Peru.  It was a bustling restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating; of course we sat inside as we wanted the comfort of air conditioning!  Raven ordered a saki, Rainy drank a special cocktail, and Julie had a glass of champagne.

Our first appetizer was a plate of crispy fried snow crabs which Julie found delicious and different all at the same time.  We shared a plate of sashimi in which of the four fish selections were marinated in a sauce that enhanced their flavor.  Next we had 2 rolls.  We were still a bit hungry so we ordered a Pacific roll and fresh oysters for Raven & Rainy.  We each ordered a hand roll as well, Julie's with tempura shrimp, Rainy's with eel, avocado and cucumber, and Raven's with octopus.  The meal was very good, and not too filling so we had room for dessert.  Once dinner was over, we walked to the subway for the train ride back to the East Side.

As we were walking from the subway to Raven's apartment,  Rainy noticed this knit graffiti tree.  She had heard about the phenomenum but hadn't actually seen one, so we were all pretty excited about this simple yet beautiful artist statement. It was still hot and humid for our walk home.  Because we turn off the room air conditioner at Raven's apartment when we leave, we returned to a very hot space!  It was late, we were tired, we all lay close to the air conditioner letting it cool our tired bodies.

New York City - Day 7

Happy 4th of July!
Being Sunday, the city slept in and so did we.  I vaguely remember hearing the church bells ringing around 10:30 am.  Once we were up and moving, we packed a picnic lunch and caught a cab to Central Park.  We walked around a bit, looking for an area where the grass was green and it wasn't too crowded.  We settled in a spot fairly close to the carousel, laid out our blankets and set out our feast.  We had pita with hummus, brie, gouda cheese, salami, coppa, prochutto, and salmon along with french bread.  We sampled 2 different beers: a Brooklyn made Sorachi Ace and Saison Dupont, a Belgian Farmhouse Ale.  Both were rich and hoppy, a good accompaniment to our food spread.  For dessert we had a small dessert tray with pastries plus some wonderful toffee.  Satisfied, we chatted, tried to guess the current song being played on the carousel, and laid down, dozing occasionally.  It was after 6:00 pm when we gathered our stuff up and caught a cab back to the apartment to rest before the evening events began.

Fireworks in NYC!  We left our apartment at dusk and took a cab into midtown.  The firework display would be over the Hudson River.  By now the crowd of people was pretty thick, in fact the cab had to drop us off quite a ways away because of the traffic and closed roads.  We walked a few blocks, got as close as we could, and settled in to watch the fireworks!  It was an amazing event as you can see from the pictures included in the blog.  It is hard to describe, but the fireworks went for blocks along the Hudson River, timed so that they went off all at the same time.  Fabulous!

When the fireworks show ended, we moved slowly due to the number of people.  We walked to the Meat Packing District, looking for a restaurant that wasn't overflowing with people.  We found a very interesting place called The Collective.  It served American food, but what made it so interesting was the decor.  Everything was made from or decorated with found and recycled material.

In the first restaurant picture, license plates are bent and hung from the ceiling to look like a flock of birds!

The hanging lights were fun!  They were made from a round paper lantern, the type you might buy at World Market.  Plastic cups were then attached to completely cover the paper lantern.  Some of the lights also had straws glued into the cups.  This would be a fun and easy to make light to have at home.....check with Julie if you want more detailed instructions on how to make one.

Raven ordered the grilled watermelon salad shown in this picture.  Rainy had a penne pasta dish and Julie had an outstanding burger with spicy fries.

Another interior shot.  If you look closely at this lamp, you can see black straws protruding from some of the cups.
We shared seared tuna for our appetizer.

Rainy & Raven

New York City - Day 6

Interesting fact about NYC, on Friday night the noise seems to go on forever but finally dies down around 4 am.  In contrast, while the city awakens early on the weekdays, it is peacefully quiet on Saturday morning.  We sleep with the windows open so I have become aware of the patterns of the city, when it sleeps and it when it is awake.

Like the rest of the city, we slept in.  It was almost noon when we ventured out for a bite to eat.  The soccer game was in full swing so people were cheering, clapping, and back to their normal noisy way of life.  Most of the eateries surrounding Raven's apartment are open spaces that spill onto the sidewalks, and of course they all have the World Cup playing and patrons drinking and having a great time.  We walked around the corner to The Crooked Tree, a creperie cafe and restaurant.  Julie ordered one of the savory crepe specials with lamb sausage, tomatoes and goat cheese.  Raven ordered the special with zucchini, pesto, and mozzarella cheese.  Rainy had the spinach with goat cheese crepe.  The food was delicious!

After breakfast, we made a quick stop at Raven's apartment to regroup and change clothes....it is going to be a hot one today!  We took the bus to the subway and then the subway to Brooklyn.  Our destination was the Brooklyn Flea Market.  The market was outside, open-air style.  The vendors all had shade over their wares, yet the sun was penetrating and getting more intense as the day progressed.  I wished I had worn a hat as I could feel my scalp burning.  Julie did buy a few special items, beginning with a pair of older brown jelly shoes.  They fit both Rainy and Julie........I think that Julie will have to borrow them occasionally.  Julie bought an owl necklace to add to her collection and a ring for Rainy.  We had to pause in our shopping for cold drinks and hot dogs to be eaten in the shade of the one large tree hanging over the flea market.  It was hard to find a place to sit as many shoppers were seeking out a bit of shade by this time.  Rainy found the perfect dark green 1970's hobo-style leather purse that we bought just as we were leaving the market.  >As hot as it was, we wanted to seek out a place that served beverages and was air conditioned!  Just a block from the flea market, along the cobble-stone street, was a tiny brick building, the home of Olea, a Mediterranian rustic restaurant.  It was hear that Julie realized she had lost her glasses!  She had changed from her regular glasses to her sunglasses when exiting the subway, but her glasses were not in her purse.  This is really a bad thing because Julie needs her glasses to see!  With Raven's suggestion, Julie went back to the flea market, to the vendor where she had tried on the jelly shoes, and YES, the vendor had found her glasses whic h had evidently slipped out of her purse and onto the ground.  With much relief, back at the restaurant, Julie ordered a cold beer, Rainy had a glass of champagne with a splash of pear liqueur, and Raven had a refreshing glass of white wine.

We took the subway to Boerum Hill, another borough in Brooklyn with interesting shops, restaurants, and architectural features. We stopped into an interestingly eclectic store crammed with clothing, rugs, and many very unusual items.  Rainy purchased a handmade wallet, sewn from a 60's style bright orange flowered fabric.  We admired a calendar on a block-printed background.  The store owner said that the year was half over, and gave us each a calendar.  They are really very cool!  We walked down the street to a small eatery called Jake Walk.  It wasn't air conditioned, but their was a nice breeze blowing by this time so we sat at the opened doorway.  We ordered a small bowl of rustic olives to accompany a cheese and meat board.  Foe the 2 meats we selected wild boar hard salami and coppa.  For the cheeses we shared Humbolt fog (past goat milk from CA), Abrigo (past goat milk from Catalonia, Spain), and Pantaleo (past goat milk from Sardinia).  Rainy drank a tequila-based cocktail appropraitely titled The Jake Walk, Raven had a flight of white wines, and Julie mistakenly ordered a wheat beer which she immediately sent back and got a Nectar IPA beer instead.  Our next stop was Bar Great Harry, a bar just across the street from Jake Walk that had a large selection of beers on tap.  Yes we all had a beer!

We walked to Carroll Gardens, another cute borough in Brooklyn.  Our first stop was a small wine bar that featured victorian lamps and plush chairs and sofas.  We made ourselves comfortable as Raven ordered a refreshing bottle of white wine.    The 2008 wine was from the vineyard Cantine del Taburno and featured the Falanghini grape.  To accompany the wine we ordered an eggplant dish, Capoata Bruscheta.

 We relaxed, laughed, and took silly pictures of each other.  Our next stop would be for dinner at the Buttermilk Channel, just a few blocks away.  We had a30 minute wait, so we went into the bar next door where there was seating.  It was a small Mexican bar so we ordered chips and salsa.  Rainy had a margarita, Raven drank a Dos Equis and Julie had a Negro Modela.  The 30 minutes quickly passed and we were seated in the restaurant at a large wooden communal table in the center of the restaurant.  Raven ordered a bottle of white wine and dinner for us.

Our final plan was to attend the midnight showing "Wild at Heart".  We took the subway to West Village were the movie was playing.  It was a little after midnight, the movie had just started, and it was hard to find a seat in the theater.  Honestly, Julie struggled to stay awake and missed parts of the movie (she will have to watch it now on Netflix!)  When the movie was over, we hailed a taxi and went back to the apartment for a good night's sleep.