The
plan for the visit was pretty flexible when mom and dad arrived so we
spent some time on the internet figuring out where we wanted to go
We
started with a walk on the beach and through the woods in Pelham bay park
Mom
brought Sue a couple of new sweaters from the designer Jo Boyd, and she
modeled before we headed to dinner
The
Culinary Institute of America is in Hyde Park, up the Hudson Valley
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Chef Kamen's brother Doug is a friend of ours from Colorado and now works in our lab, so we had a connection for a really cool table nest to the plate glass window overlooking the kitchen. It was like having a show with dinner.
The
only problem with seeing all the food made was that some of it turned
out to be irresistable. After we finished our umpteen course meal, mom
ordered this avacado, beet, mango lobster claw appetizer for all of
us to share. It just looked so good we had to make room.
This
is one of the cooking classrooms complete with kitchen, white board and
overhead digital projection screen.
The
wine tasting classroom. Several years ago, Ray tossed a coin that sent
him to graduate school in biochemistry instead of the CIA. Hmmm.....
Ray
and Katie checking out the view off Montauk point.
We
drove up Long Island through the Hamptons, to Montauk and then ferry hopped
to Shelter Island and back to the Mainland at New London Connecticut
The
beach was a little chilly, but so beautiful. Gathering shells, rocks,
and fish bones, we must have walked a couple of miles along the coast.
A three
masted schooner off Shelter Island
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Mystic Seaport in Mystic Connecticut is amazing.
On
the lower right is the dead horse. The way the story goes, the sailors
would stuff a canvas horse with symbols of everthing that annoyed them.
On the day that the boat caught enough whales to break even finacially,
they threw the "dead horse" overboard after a rousing round of rum swilling
and song. The metaphore is that of a farmer who buys a horse on credit,
the horse dies and then the farmer has to work for some months to pay
off the dead horse. Maybe the modern equivalent is working until the
middle of June just to pay taxes.
Besides
dozens of boats (they actually have several hundred but many are in
storage), Mystic Seaport is a whole 18th century fishing/whaling/shipbuilding
village.
It
was chilly enough that it felt good when they lit a fire in the Chandlery
They
have an active boatbuilding shop where they build new boats based on old
designs.
Also
a huge shop where they strip down and rebuild old boats
This
boat was actually about thirty feet in the air in dry dock.
The
captains quarters were pretty cushy, with a bed on gimbles to damp out
the waves, and in the lower right, a sit down commode.
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The captain was also generally the ships doctor and pharmacist. the available medications included the rum in the jugs in the back right corner.
The
bunks for the sailors weren't quite as fancy as the captains quarters,
and as Ray demonstrates the sailors must have been kind of short.
Back
in the Bronx we went down to Arthur Ave to the Italian Market.
The
Market was established when Fiarello LaGuardia put a roof over a lot between
some tenements and told the pushcart vendors that they could have a free
stall in the market or face arrest. We got the whole story from Joe who
was a kid just starting out with a pushcart at the time.
They
keep the fish stalls outside.
We
also finally made it to Dominick's. They have been remodelling, vacationing
or closed because its was Monday the other times we tried. It was worth
the wait.
