Posted: October 18th, 2012 | Filed under: Out Of Town
Sunday, July 1
It’s always a treat to get a rental car because then you can go get good coffee on the way out of town. The place we wanted to go in Long Island City didn’t open until 10 a.m. — who ever heard of a coffee place not open early? — so we went to Cafe Grumpy in Greenpoint instead, mostly because Goober is such a huge Lena Dunham fan. So anyway, we got a later start than we hoped and things became complicated when an exit on the Thruway was missed, which meant that we went the long way to the Finger Lakes, but which also meant that we got to drive through Seneca Falls.
A word about the car we got: We were initially very skeptical about being saddled with a Ford Crown Victoria. I went cheap with the car rental and got some “super secret” surprise upgrade for the price of a compact or something, but that car ended up being a Crown Vic. When we saw it we were like, oh hell no, but then part of me wanted to cruise around in a Crown Vic, no matter what its gas mileage. As it turns out, the gas mileage wasn’t terrible — maybe low 20s MPG — and it did cruise along like you were rolling between Tampa and Orlando — but the true value of a white Crown Vic was that it looked like a police cruiser, so it wasn’t long — maybe east of Syracuse — where we finally realized that people were actually slowing down when they saw us in the rear view mirror. Never mind that the plates were from Florida and there was a giant baby car seat in the back with two women flanking it — in the rearview we apparently totally looked like the fuzz, which gave us a huge thrill: “You’ve been Crown Vicked!” we’d guffaw as we passed some would-be scofflaw going 72. It was hilarious.
Then of course we ended up needing the trunk space in the end for all the hooch we bought:
I will always love the Finger Lakes because it was the first place that we ever really tasted wine. That said, it took me a while to figure out that listing the “residual sugar” in a wine is not a common practice, and it was kind of funny this time noticing that people pouring first sized you up by asking whether you like “sweet” or “dry” wine. They don’t ask that one at Opus One.
Anyway, from Seneca Falls, we followed New York State Route 89 along Cayuga Lake to Sheldrake Point Winery and Bellwether Hard Cider (with a stop between at Thirsty Owl):
We got into Ithaca later that afternoon, had dinner at Bandwagon Brewpub, showed the baby some sights around around downtown Ithaca (where none of us went to school) and hit the Wegmans to buy beer to drink back at the hotel (since we don’t really go out at night nowadays).
Monday, July 2
We got breakfast in Ithaca before heading out to Seneca Lake, driving up New York State Route 14 through Watkins Glen, hitting Wiemer, Shaw Vineyard, Miles Wine Cellars, Anthony Road Wine Company and Red Tail Ridge Winery. The west shore of Seneca Lake may be my favorite part of the Finger Lakes, wine-wise, what with Wiemer and Miles especially. Miles might be my favorite New York State wine, though I’m speaking out of turn for the rest of the group. Plus, it’s pretty there:
We got into Geneva late that afternoon, settled into the hotel (we’re now big fans of Microtels) and went to dinner at Beef & Brew before heading over to the Wegmans to get more beer for the evening. You may be wondering, “Why all the beer?” Honestly, after a day of tasting wine, that’s kind of what you want to drink. That, and Wegmans has a bomb-ass beer selection:
Also, this was around July 4th:
Tuesday, July 3
The next morning we drove down New York State Route 14A toward Penn Yan:
We ate breakfast in Penn Yan. Do you remember those Seth Thomas clocks that were in like every classroom? No? Well, I do:
Also, I was curious about the griddle used to break pancake world records (see, for example):
From there we went to Ravines Wine Cellars where we came face-to-face with our own mortality:
Then to McGregor Vineyard where they are super-nice and where we tried the super-weird Rkatsiteli-Sereksiya wine they make (Sereksiya is some Eastern European grape that they figured out grows well in the Finger Lakes). Then we drove through Hammondsport toward Dr. Frank, where they were celebrating their 50th anniversary (and it’s still good!). We were running out of day, but we made it back over to the east side of Seneca Lake via Tyrone . . .
. . . in time to visit Finger Lakes Distilling, which makes really good alcohol, especially whiskey (and offers quite a tasting, just so you know).
It took a while to get back to Ithaca no thanks to the Crown Vic, which got us into a slow-jam when some Honda saw it behind him/her and decided to slow down to precisely 54 MPH on State Route 79 until he/she eventually pulled to the side. We made it back — eventually — and had dinner at The BoatYard Grill:
And then dessert at Purity Ice Cream:
Wednesday, July 4
In case you’re wondering, wineries are open on July 4. We started the day with coffee from Gimme! Coffee (which started in Ithaca but which has expanded to Brooklyn and Manhattan) before driving out to the east side of Seneca Lake via Trumansburg. There are some great wineries on the east side of Seneca Lake, too — maybe we should just say that Seneca Lake has many good wineries — and we began at Standing Stone Vineyards before heading up to Lamoreaux Landing. One thing the east side of Seneca Lake has going for it is the striking beauty — I don’t know that there are many other wineries we’ve been to that are as picturesque as Lamoreaux and Standing Stone:
Farther down toward Watkins Glen is Red Newt Cellars, which in exchange for not having “estate-grown” grapes (the land is too far up the hill apparently) has the flexibility of making excellent wine that never suffers from bunk growing seasons. That was a great place to end four days of wine tasting. (Also, the baby crapped up a storm while we were in the middle of a tasting, and while I don’t totally know whether the lady pouring caught wind of the stink, we were very lucky there wasn’t a total blowout; for months since then we’ve compared poo-splosions on the “Red Newt Scale”; I somehow avoided soiling the driver’s seat; suffice it to say, it was probably a good time to wind down our trip.)
On the way back to Ithaca we stopped at Taughannock Falls State Park. Speaking of which, I’m forever grateful to the nice young lady at McGregor who hipped me to the correct pronunciation of “Taughannock,” which, if I remember correctly, sounds like “tuh-cannock” and not “tuck-a-nuck” as I was led to believe. Anyway, it was kind of dry this year, I guess:
Then we headed home, back through Whitney Point, which we always seem to stop at, before getting on New York State Route 17 which they’re still converting into an Interstate Highway:
The mighty Susquehanna:
And did you realize that’s where the store got its name?
And then the signs about restricted parking at the Roscoe Rest Area suddenly made sense:
The Tappan Zee is still there:
As is the Major Deegan:
And 13 wineries, one cider place and one distillery later, we were home.
Posted: September 26th, 2012 | Filed under: Out Of Town
Saturday, May 12, 2012: San Francisco
The great thing about traveling with an infant is that you see the country during daylight:
The not so great thing is that you are often limited to getting take-out for dinner, although burritos from La Espiga De Oro in San Francisco’s Mission District were nothing to whimper about:
Then at least one of us went for a drink at Bloodhound, which was next to our hotel.
Sunday, May 13, 2012: San Francisco
Early coffee at Sightglass before Mother’s Day dim sum at Yank Sing, where we did not have a reservation and where we were lucky to get in (benefits of getting up early):
The parking lot at Rincon Center is ridiculously tight and I’m not totally sure why, though this time I thought to take a picture of it:
We walked along the waterfront because some moms like the Ferry Building and some uncles like the Blue Bottle coffee there:
Until now we haven’t paid much attention to playgrounds, but Dolores Park‘s new playground is one of the nicest I’ve ever seen, and a four-month-old strapped to your chest gives you the cover you need to explore it:
Dinner was take-out bread bowl from Boudin, which was purchased while the baby slept in the back seat and I took a long (turns out unnecessarily long) detour down Columbus Avenue:
Gas in San Francisco cost $4.59 a gallon that day:
Monday, May 14, 2012: San Francisco to Pacific Grove
We started down US 101 toward San Jose before deciding to detour to see what Palo Alto, Stanford and Mountain View looked like. Palo Alto is where Jeremy Lin grew up:
Stanford looks like a resort:
And Mountain View was a hoot:
But really, the whole point of driving this way was to see the “beautiful . . . but bizarre!” Winchester Mystery House (the YouTube video at the link is intended to capture that phrase, which you hear over and over when you visit the house; it became a trip meme):
After cutting over the Santa Cruz Mountains, we started our epic trip down Highway 1 from Santa Cruz. The first leg — Santa Cruz to Monterey is not the most picturesque part of the road:
But we did get to see artichokes growing in the fields along the side of the highway:
We had dinner on the municipal wharf in Monterey early enough to catch a beautiful sunset from the Rocky Shores addition of Asilomar State Beach in Pacific Grove (baby’s first Pacific Coast sunset!):
Tuesday, May 15, 2012: Pacific Grove to Paso Robles
After waking up on the not-as-early side, we left the hotel and started driving down the coast, beginning with Ocean View Boulevard and Sunset Drive in Pacific Grove, then connecting to the 17-Mile Drive through the Del Monte Forest and Pebble Beach:
(An aside: Even though they tell you how long it is, it’s not a great idea to drive 17 miles on an empty stomach.) (Another aside: I assumed there was some connection with Del Monte and the food people, and there sort of is, but it’s not as interesting as I thought it would be, meaning no aristocratic family farmed the land there and built a forest or whatnot.)
We had breakfast in Carmel before setting out on the prettiest drive of the trip, Highway 1 between Carmel and Cambria, through Big Sur. Yes, that sign warns of families wild boars crossing the road:
All of the overlooks we stopped at during the drive down that day were stunning, but Hurricane Point might have been the most stunning, windy and foggy and way up on the hill overlooking the ocean:
A tip: The Henry Miller Memorial Library is closed only one day a week, which is Tuesday, but the Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery is always open:
We were really impressed with the Best Western Plus we stayed at in Paso Robles. That night we had dinner at the A.J. Spurs in Templeton:
Gas that day cost $4.35 a gallon at the Arco on Ramada Drive in Paso Robles:
Wednesday, May 16, 2012: Paso Robles
Goober says that the high point of the trip for him was breakfast at Margie’s Diner in Paso Robles:
It was a great breakfast (we ate there twice), but I think he thought that it was especially nice because it evoked a sense of promise for the rest of the trip, and probably a little because we were filling up before going out tasting wine around Paso Robles.
Now “Paso Robles” means something along the lines of “oak tree pass” or something like that, so it was cool to see actual oak trees out on Chimney Rock Road on our way to Justin Vineyards (baby’s first wine tasting!):
A word about how people in California pronounce Spanish things: “Paso Robles,” I didn’t learn until much later in the trip, is not pronounced “Pah-so Robe-less,” like you’d expect from three years of high school Spanish, but rather “Pah-so Row-bills,” like you’re specifically trying to mangle the accent. It sort of sounds like how Bugs Bunny mispronounces “Los Angeles” with a hard “G”, until you remember that “Los Angeles” itself is mispronounced, and then all names everywhere in California, and especially Los Angeles, start seeming ridiculous. Los Feliz? No, try “Los Feelies.” “La Cienega” is not “La See-en-ay-ga” but rather “Lahsee-en-uh-gah.” Same with “Sepulveda.” It’s like a city full of folks who talk about how crazy Eye-ran is being while they eat Eye-talian food made by a guy from Vee-It-Naaam (i.e., rhymes with “Sam I Am”).
Anyway, we continued to Adelaida Cellars, then Tablas Creek Vineyard where we debated bringing home a grape cutting, not that the zone is right for one but it was fun to think about:
We took Vineyard Drive to Turley Wine Cellars just south of Highway 46, then hit Niner and the Dr. Suess-sounding Windward Vineyard before heading back to Paso Row-Bills where we had dinner at Thomas Hill Organics downtown.
Thursday, May 17, 2012: Paso Robles to Buellton
Drove out to Hearst Castle, the second house we visited built by a nutty rich person:
From Hearst Castle, Highway 1 driving into San Luis Obispo:
The Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo was recommended to us:
The baby needed to stop, so he had another nice meal overlooking the ocean at Spyglass Park in Pismo Beach:
We had dinner at Hitching Post II in Buellton. In addition to being good, it was also featured in Sideways (the experience of which the owner talks about here):
We stayed at the Days Inn Windmill, which is also featured in the film, not so much because we’re fans of the film (though we are — and I watched it again after coming back from the trip) but rather because if you spend a night in Buellton, it’s likely going to be at the Days Inn:
Friday, May 18, 2012: Buellton/Lompoc/Los Olivos/Solvang
After breakfast we drove out to Babcock Winery, Foley Estates and Melville Vineyards & Winery in the Lompoc area. From there we went up to Los Olivos to visit the Qupé, Alta Maria and Dragonette tasting rooms (with lunch at R-Country Market):
From there we went back to Buellton to visit Lafond Winery on Santa Rosa Road before walking around Solvang:
There are many Pea Soup Andersen’s billboards along US 101 as you approach Buellton:
So of course we had to try it:
Saturday, May 19, 2012: Santa Barbara to Los Angeles
Gas was $4.25 a gallon that day:
We drove down to Santa Barbara and had breakfast at the original Sambo’s Restaurant on the beach there. I assumed all the Sambo’s had closed, and they mostly have, but this is the one remaining restaurant, the one that began the chain. As for the name, it’s supposedly misunderstood (the owners were “Sam” and “Bo”), although it seems odd that they still use imagery that evokes the controversial connotation. But the food is good:
Santa Barbara is a beautiful town to drive around, and the mission is beautiful as well:
We dipped the baby’s toes into the Pacific Ocean at East Beach, though he did not like it much:
We then got back on US 101 and spent hours stuck on the Ventura Freeway. Just when you start to think California is magical, you get stuck in traffic.
Sunday, May 20, 2012: Los Angeles
The Farmer’s Daughter Hotel in Los Angeles is a nicely updated motel and convenient to the Farmers Market (where they now have really good fancy coffee):
I had never seen the La Brea Tar Pits in Hancock Park and it was as strange and wonderful and as stinky as I’d hoped it would be. I saw people relaxing there, which seemed relaxing in the way that hanging out behind an asphalt truck might be relaxing:
From there we walked around Santa Monica and passed by the Natural Resources Defense Council building which I discovered later seems to be the real-life spot of one of the semi-autobiographical side plots in a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode.
I know it’s my own damn fault that I always think of Sheryl Crow when we’re on Santa Monica Boulevard.
Zankou Chicken (another sort of Larry David locale) is really, really good chicken.
I wanted to drive down one of those Beverly Hills streets with all the palm trees. This is Bedford Drive; I don’t know if it’s the one they always show on movies:
Elsewhere, we walked up and down Rodeo Drive while I worked on my Julia Roberts impression and went up to Greystone Park.
I love the billboards on Sunset Boulevard:
And this is the Canadian section of Hollywood Boulevard:
After heading back to the hotel, we walked up Fairfax Avenue to Animal where we had foie gras before the ban went into effect in July.
This was the day of the eclipse, and people gathered across the street to look at the sun:
I don’t know how they were looking at the sun (it was really bright) or how they were taking pictures, but you can see the eclipse refracted somehow in this image:
I’m afraid to go to the eye doctor now. For dessert we got a slice of cheesecake to go from Canter’s.
Monday, May 21, 2012: Los Angeles
We dropped off the car at LAX and flew home. Final tally, 879 miles driven:
Posted: May 2nd, 2012 | Filed under: Manhattan, Queens, The Bronx
If you stare deeply enough into your drink, messages appear:
Custom House in Lower Manhattan:
Even though we missed the scheduled tour, one of the park ranger people let us into the ornate Collector’s Reception Room:
Back in June, the Freedom Tower was still short enough to fit into the camera frame:
I already talked about visiting Yankee Stadium.
The awesome Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens:
I could watch the exhibit showing how they produce a live baseball game for for hours:
The 36th Avenue Subway Station in Astoria.
Block Drugs on Second Avenue:
The remnants of Mars Bar also on Second Avenue:
We already talked about seeing the Phillies play the Cubs.
There’s a lot of stuff behind fences in the East Village. Albert’s Garden:
And the New York Marble Cemetery:
They were even using St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery for some sort of film shoot.
Prince Street in Lower Manhattan:
(Funny detail: The Google Street View up right now is from right around when I went walking around there — theirs is from July 2011 — so all the billboards look the same . . .)
There’s a great view of Union Square from the Whole Foods cafe on the second floor. They also have a bathroom you can use:
Astoria Park at dusk on the longest day of the year; this is at 8:40 in the evening (I knew there was a reason I took this but it took a while to remember):
Staring out the front door at Coppelia on 14th Street:
There’s nothing more depressing than an emergency room entrance at an abandoned hospital:
Well, OK, maybe some things are less depressing . . .
I honestly don’t remember what interested me about 60 Spring Street:
Was it because it was a blue jean store or something? Who knows . . .
The Astoria Market at the Beer Garden:
It took me two years to get two pictures of the San Antonio Abate Festival on Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria. Maybe in another year I’ll put a link up to the page:
