Two Nights Into One: July Fourth Vacation Fun on Lake Champlain

In late winter or early, early spring K. and I connected about a potential camping adventure somewhere between Philly and Boston. After a few emails back and forth a new plan was formed, and that was to meet between Westport and Port Henry New York, at the family cottage of K.'s bf J. I hadn't seen K. or J. since visiting them in 2010 on the way to L.'s wedding, and meeting up at a cottage on Lake Champlain sounded like a really solid way of reconnecting. My drive up was slightly more eventful than I would have liked. My phone charger stopped working, my oil needed to be changed, I went through a toll and my EZPass didn't work. Just little things that stress me out and when piled on top of one another didn't leave me entirely free of worry. But I had written down the directions because I knew we were going to be in a pretty much cell and internet free zone (hallelujah) so I didn't get terribly lost until the very end of the trip, which was not surprising whatsoever. That first night we caught up, snacked on one thing or another, had some drinks and generally eased into a nice rhythm for the trip. At one point K. and I were outside and J. ended up fast asleep in this chair for quite some time.

And then the next day was upon us. K. made us all scrambled eggs with caramelized onions, cheese, and maybe scallions?

Then we drove to Port Henry to do a more thorough grocery shopping trip for the next couple of days. It was a gorgeous area. Lake to the east and Adirondack mountains to the west. Just magic stuff scenes around every bend and curve of the road.

That second day I made my artichoke jalapeno dip and we ate it while playing a game of some kind.

J.'s family has been coming up to this area for a good lot of time. His grandparents, his mother and her siblings, and now he and his sisters. For the majority of our time there it was just the three of us in the cottage itself, but the neighborhood certainly had a bustle to it. Plenty of folks with similarly long histories in the area taking advantage of the holiday week. Not that it was a week of holiday for most. The world certainly went on around us, but I enjoyed more fully unplugging than I've done in quite some time.

So I had a pretty good idea that I wanted to stop in Kingston, NY on my way north to buy some meat to contribute to our meals from Fleisher's, and it's good that I already had that inkling, because about 60 miles south of the Kingston exit my phone died, and about 30 miles south of Kingston my car began telling me it would like an oil change. This was also when the EZPass debacle took place. I just. The thing worked the whole time except going through that exit and now I know I'm going to get some sort of crazy ticket and I'll be mad about it. ANYWAY. I got off at Kingston and eventually was able to find a place to get an oil change and then another place to buy a new car-phone-extension thing. And it was only then that I finally turned my attentions to locating Fleisher's, which wasn't so hard. I arrived at the tail end of the Kingston farmer's market, which was kind of neat. Once I arrived in Fleisher's I tried to flirt with a butcher and make myself seem hardcore by suggesting that me and my three friends wanted to eat a steak that was nearly "blue." This wasn't entirely untrue we did end up with a pretty rare steak, but not blue-rare...though I mean really, how is talking about a willingness to eat nearly raw steak in any way a sign of flirtation? Pretty much it isn't. In any case. He did suggest and give us a really nice cut of steak and I truly did consider inviting him to join us (mostly joking...all joking?) in consuming it. So the second day of our vacation or was it the third? Steak was grilled, never mind the rain that was falling.

And my god. It was delicious. No joke delicious. Seriously. At K.'s suggestion I did almost exactly three minutes per side and then just left it alone to rest. LEFT IT ALONE. I need to get better at leaving my meat alone while smiling at strangers and learning how to flirt. All this meat flirt conversation is confusing, I'm sure. I believe that this was a dry aged sirloin?

K. made an arugula salad with tomatoes, roasted pine nuts and shaved parmesan.

I brought a bottle of wine my father had given me while in North Carolina, which went down easy and well with the steak and salad.

And while it certainly was pink, I don't think anyone would call it quite "blue." My butcher boyfriend might have been relieved. Or disappointed. I'm not sure. In any case, if you have the opportunity to get meat from Fleisher's, do.

And then I taught K. and J. the glory of Catan and we never turned back. I believe I won this first game (I was blue) but they were quick learners and our Catan playing from that point on was often not concluded with a victory on my part. GOOD TIMES.

Fish, Rainbows, Dip and Dinner at Silver Lake

After my morning duck time I headed over to the G. compound, where I spent my day swimming, lounging and generally taking it easy. I think at one point that day M. and I took a walk around the entirety of the lake, which pretty neat. We saw a number of interesting mushrooms and it was lusciously green and mossy along the treeline right by the shore of the lake. A good outing. Others took longer hikes. In fact three intrepid G.s went on what was supposed to be about a 20 mile hike....except that they took the wrong loop at some point and added at least another five miles to the whole journey. While they were making up the difference, many of us sat at the lake idly wondering where they were. Others went fishing. I really need to get into fishing more...only I would want to cook the fish I caught whenever appropriate.

This fish's fate was not a dinner plate.

The hikers return and we all sit in a circle around beer.

The days were generally warm, but not necessarily consistently sunny. On this day, this led to a rainbow.

The four brothers G. and W. in the foreground.

A cheesy delicious artichoke dip.

Just very beautiful. It's funny, you almost get accustomed to it when you're there. The light changes from moment to moment, the surface of the lake is still or ripples. But it's all just so perfect.

I insisted that I get a few purposeful people shots.

We both look kind of weird but kind of good at the same time. I believe M. is doing a serious eyebrow arch.

Bros.

I've found it challenging to take photographs of M. when she's not making a funny face.

Sometimes she's helped.

Dinner started with a green salad with tomatoes.

The main course was a tender stewed chicken, sweet carrots and rice.

Thanks goes to the Rhode Island contingent for the meal! The rest of the evening was spent lounging. Children were tickled. I retired back to the campsite at a reasonable hour.

Happy Hours c/o Alla Spina and Route 6

A few weeks back CP and I began concocting a plan. Since she began her graduate studies and started commuting to Baltimore for a good chunk of each week, I haven't had the opportunity to see her either in the office or outside of it in quite the way we used to. I miss our laundry/pizza nights, where we always caught up on the various things going on in our lives. But life gets busy and you need to adapt to changing times. Our adaptation was to go to happy hour at Alla Spina and Route 6 on a Thursday. I came into work a little early so I would be able to get out and get going so that we wouldn't miss a moment of the two establishments' happy hour dealage (not a real word but the Oxford English folks should really consider making it official). Due to my diligence in work scheduling, CP and I were the very first people at Alla Spina. In fact, the staff were still doing their opening talk. So we sat in the lounge for just a short while before getting menus and placing orders for glasses of white wine. 

Alla Spina had a few different possible treats to eat and drink for happy hour. Because we knew we were going to Route 6 (a seafood-themed restaurant) we decided that getting oysters was not necessary. Instead we chose to try the porcini deviled eggs and mortadella hotdog. The eggs were above average but not terribly speciall all the same. The yolk was quite smooth, as was the porcini's purreed portion, but it lacked a certain something for my particular palate.

We split the dog in half, with its bright and crunch sauerkraut, buttery bun and fresh pickles. I think of the two food dishes, this was the stand out. It's a really nice space. I think we didn't really see this place in the full swing of things because we arrived early (4:30 ish) and wanted to make sure to get an equal amount of time in at Route 6. So after about an hour, the food, and two glasses of white wine we packed up and walked the quick few feet to Route 6.

There we ordered a dozen oysters, the variety of which escapes me but perhaps I wrote it down somewhere and can add that detail when the time comes.

Route 6 has a very nice set of happy hour deals, including discounted cocktails as well as many different food specials. I was particularly attracted to "The Dennis,"  which was a mixture of Grey Goose Le Citron, lime juice,triple sec and fresh blueberries. The blueberries overwhelmed the citron and lime element a bit, but I wasn't complaining.

I'm missing a photograph of the bluefish dip, but I'll add it later. In addition to the oysters and unpictured dip, we also tried the fried oyster sliders, which came on immensely soft and buttery roles with pretty decent tomatoes and a little tartar-like sauce on the bottom and a wisp of lettuce. Tasty, hot and crunch treats they were.

From the press that I had read on Route 6 I had expected its decor and clientele to be a little less shiny than it ended up being. It seemed like a lot of folks were over 35. Men were wearing suits while the women almost uniformly had incredibly short and tight dresses, very done-up hair and too much makeup...and tanning products definitely were no strangers to their faces and bodies. I found the crowd pretty weird, but the food, drinks and service were really fantastic. It's a happy hour I'd definitely check out again. Alla Spina also deserves a fuller look, especially into more of its meat dishes on both the happy hour and regular menus.

Sewanee 4th of July: Small Town Dog Show & Parade

So my father's house in Sewanee is not far from the town's central artery, which is pretty much 'Main Street' with a different name. Each July 4th the town's parade is along this road. A few hours before the parade there are a few other Independence Day events that I like to check out. Well, mainly the Mutt Show. There's a cat show, but that seems far less fun. Because of our proximity to the main drag, Dad thought it would be nice to invite folks to our place pre-parade for beverages and snacks. I volunteered to make a few different things, so on the day itself I woke up relatively early to get some of the heavy lifting on that front completed while still allowing myself the necessary time to go take a good luck at the mutts. There are a number of different categories for this event, which include prizes for best dressed dog, best matching dog and owner, smallest dog and largest dog, and there's a trick category too. I stayed for the majority of these categories but time ran out before the tricks. Here are photos proving as much. The basic structure was that each owner and dog would take one turn around a small circle, which was lined on all sides with folks of all ages. Certain patches of the circle featured congregations of kids on their knees, leaning over the largely ceremonial and entirely miniscule wall separating the audience from the contestants, reaching for each and every dog that walked by. I should note that at 10 AM it was easily over 80 degrees and wasn't really going to do anything other than get hotter throughout the day. Here, a dog was just done with the whole walking in a circle thing.

I believe this was one of the best dressed contestants.

And another. There were a lot of blonde little girls.

I think this is a dude with whom my father plays poker. He was one of the panel of three judges.

The MC for this event was my cousin E. When the judges were deliberating over the winners for each category E. would pick a member from the audience to answer a trivia question. This kid was levitating with excitement, but ultimately got the question wrong. I believe it was: true or false, dogs have sweat glands in their paws?

That really tall dude in the back? I don't know him. But he is the quitessentially dressed and coiffed young man you'll see around Sewanee, both when the University is in session and even when it's not. I spent a portion of many of my childhood summers in Sewanee and have a strange secret appreciation for this overly preppy Republican look. But whenever I have actually spoken to the majority of dudes like this, I realize it's all looks. That will be my greatest generalization of this post...I think.

This dog had 'firecrackers' coming out of its ears.

Picking her next trivia victim, I think.

This was one of the contestants in the smallest dog category.

The judges, taking notes.

I may be wrong, but I think these girls a) won first place in the little dog category and b)that they had eye make up and perhaps other make up on. Or their faces were just flawless. I'm the sort of person who would almost prefer to wonder what the hell their mother (or grandmother) was thinking than that they just had these faces all on their own.

This was for the look alike category. I'm not sure if they were going for a particular costume per se or just matching.

T. is a pretty long-time member of the Sewanee community. She suffered a stroke a few years back, which from what I understand was pretty dire. But she rebounded better than some might have thought and was certainly properly done up for her turn in the circle, complete with tinseled parasol and streaked blue hair.

I believe she and her dog, of whom I never actually got a good photograph, won first prize. Well deserved. Especially considering how many people competing seemed to have few actual ties to the town. I guess Sewanee's relatively timeless 4th festivities were written up in a magazine or two, so there definitely people who were in town on a kind of 'tourist basis.' While I have a fair amount of historical connection to the town, it's not like I grew up in town, attending the schools or making friends with the locals. So when a woman standing next to me asked questions about the town with the assumption I was a local (fostered in part by the fact that I was able to say hello to someone else in the crowd), I felt pretty good about the fact that I was actually able to respond to her questions from a place of knowledge. I'll never be a townie, but I don't think you could call me a tourist either.

This little guy had a patriotic bow tie.

Matching shin splints, of course.

This was a pretty minimalist dress the same effort. The dog was all white. The boy wore all white. I believe this is the grandson of A. and Z. but I may have misunderstood that.

For the largest dog category there was only one entrant. So she necessarily won. Of course I was quite pleased for her given my long-held coveting of such a creature. Great Danes, one day I might have one of you. One day.

Her glory lap.

And then I left and went back to the home front to finish up on the various dishes while Dad did a fair amount of sorting, organizing and cleaning. Here, the dip.

Here the spicy slaw with green apples.

Here the bean salad. These three things have definitely become my go-to dishes for summer shindigs.

Dad made gazpacho.

And J. helped grill hot dogs.

I put some skewers into the mix.

And then it was off to the parade, which is a mish mash of folks advertising things, folks showing off their old cars, not all that impressive beauty queens, folks declaring their political preferences, and an assortment of other things.

This was probably the most subversive of cars with a bunch of kids apparently in drag. I have no idea what they were selling or who they were representing.

No small town in the south would be complete without the token hippie couple on a tandem bike.

This old car broke down pretty much as it passed us. You can see that a few people are pushing it to the side of the road.

The Sewanee Kazoos: an actual thing.

No idea exactly what these two were about, but I'm glad they brought their cooler.

Amurica.

The one stop light in all of Sewanee.

No idea.

Seems like she's doing a hard sell for America.

I've always enjoyed this final golf cart that definitively lets you know that there is no more parade for you to see.

The end of the end.