Author: Thomas

Safari: Hippos!

ThomasLeave a comment

Nothing like watching Hippos play while you enjoy a cup of hot chocolate. Hearing their crazy noises early in the morning (like giant amplified tubas) I pulled myself out my cozy bed to go see for myself. Since our tent was right on the river we could sit on our deck and watch the Hippos. Even though it was only 6:30 AM, there was already a group in the water so I feared that they might already be in the water for the day and that we wouldn’t get any good sightings or pictures. Just heads coming out of the water. (Hippos go out and graze at night and stay in the water during the day to keep cool.)
However, as I focused on the group in the water a large adult silently came into sight along the opposite bank of the river. Then a little later a group of three young hippos took their playing out of the water, running around and grazing a bit on the slopes of the bank.

Oprah Clipping Coupons?

Thomas1 Comment

For a couple of years now Oprah has tried putting her audience on a “debt diet”. Long before the recent meltdown Oprah had more than a few shows dedicated to getting her viewers to take responsbility for their personal debt. Since the meltdown she has stepped up the frequency of those shows. Her usual guest, Suze Orman, has explained the meltdown with more honesty than anyone else I have seen on TV or read in the press. Not only did she describe the greed and dishonesty that fueled the meltdown up and down the financial services food chain, but she also called out rank and file Americans for living a life of financial dishonesty. Buying too much house, using their home equity as a piggy bank, and piling up consumer debt to finance lifestyle choices that were far outside of the reach of their incomes.

There is something odd about listening to a multi-millionaire (Orman) and a billionaire (Oprah) talk about pinching pennies. But, being a person that gets a perverse pleasure out of paying off debt and helping others get their finances in order, I can understand their interests/motivation and I don’t think these shows are hypocritical for Orman and Oprah. They have tons of money and can afford pretty much anything they want. But that is the point, buy what you can afford, not what someone else can.

My one quibble with Oprah’s efforts get her viewers to be responsible about their finances, is that she still tends to have these shows that glorify high end luxury goods. Who can forget the thank you gift of 24 pairs of designer shoes that she got from Jessica Seinfeld that Oprah gushed about. And what about those “Favorite Things” episodes where Oprah parades out expensive gift after gift and then gives them all to each audience member. Great for those in the studio, but what does it say to her millions of viewers? It says “go out and buy some of these fantastically expensive gifts.” With all of O’s concerns about America’s overspending and some of the great shows she has done on money saving ideas, perhaps she will stay true to her quest and cancel the Favorite Things episode.

Road Trip VIII: Great Barrington

ThomasLeave a comment





As I mentioned in the previous post we both fell in love with the Berkshires. We spent a weekend with a high school friend of mine and her partner who recently moved to the area from coastal Connecticut. After our GPS system tried to take us on roads that haven’t been passable since the 1870s we managed to find the right streets to their cute, comfy home on the hill overlooking Great Barrington. Although most towns in the Berkshires have a lot going for them, GB has a bustle that makes it dynamic without losing its small town feel.

SoCo Creamery had some of the best ice cream we encountered on our trip and the food Allium, a great little neighborhood restaurant we excellent. (We also had pretty good sushi in Lenox…)

Road Trip VII: Culture Fantasy Camp

Thomas1 Comment




In the Berkshires John and I found a bit of a spiritual home. Beautiful scenery, charming towns, plenty of art, gardens, music, theater, food, etc. A place we could imagine retiring. On our way to visit friends in Great Barrington for the weekend, we started at the north end of western Massachusetts and made stops at MassMoCA, The Clark, and The Mount, Edith Wharton’s home in Lenox.

The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MassMoCA) in North Adams is housed in a complex of old industrial buildings. The large open spaces are perfect for large scale installations. Including a Jenny Holzer installation consisting of a dark room with scrolling text and gigantic beanbags to lounge in.

The Clark in Williamstown is a wonderful small art museum with an amazing collection and beautiful grounds. We were on a bit of a schedule and would definitely like to revisit The Clark to spend more time exploring the collection.

A little further down the road in Lenox is The Mount, a grand house and garden once the home of Edith Wharton. Since Wharton is one of my favorite writers I couldn’t pass this one by and we made it just in time for last entrance. It was particularly good that we made it since there is a possibility that the property will face foreclosure in November. The house itself is certainly beautiful and the main floor has been meticulously restored, but the gardens and the setting are reason enough to visit this property.

Road Trip Part VI: Vermont

ThomasLeave a comment




(Top to bottom: Middlebury, Middlebury, Middlebury, Billings Farm and Museum in Woodstock)

We spent the night in Woodstock, Vermont. A charming and seemingly rather rich town that closes down quite early. My fantasy world is one where things are open all the time. So it was a bit disappointing that everything seemed to lock up tighter than a drum by 5:30. On the way we stopped in Middlebury taking a quick turn around the Middlebury College campus (home of tghe Break Loaf Writer’s Conference) and a walk through downtown. There we found yummy ice cream, a good used bookstore, a bespoke shoe/sandal/boot maker, a raging river, and a Ben Franklin. I don’t think I have seen a Ben Franklin since the mid-80s when the one in my hometown of Elk River, Minnesota went belly up. Who knew they still existed.

We also popped over into New Hampshire so I could say that I have been there. It was a state I needed to cross off my list. We ended up checking out the Dartmouth campus in Hanover. Took a look at Quechee Gorge back in Vermont, and had a very nice dinner at Simon Pearce. Perched right next to the Quechee River to take advantage of hydro-power, Simon Pearce makes beautiful blown glass and ceramics.

Road Trip Part V: Saranac and Lake Placid

ThomasLeave a comment



We had a rainy day while we were at Elk Lake Lodge in the Adirondacks so we hopped in the car and drove north to Saranac and Lake Placid. If we had been smart and taken our passports on the trip we would have gone up to Montreal for the day, but alas that was not to be.
Like so many other places we stopped on the trip, Saranac was a nice little town. And we were lucky to be there while their public library was having its annual book festival. This meant lots of used books for sale. Interested in gardening books John had much more success there than I did. I had fiction titles I was looking for and at this kind of a sale that is a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Lake Placid was semi-picturesque, but I found it a little swamped with tourists. Given the high profile of Olympic venues in recent years, it is hard to imagine this little burg being the site of the 1980 Winter Olympics. The Olympic training center on the main drag in Lake Placid seems so modest it is hard to believe it was focus of the world’s attention 28 years ago.

RoadTrip Part IV: The Adirondacks via Troy

ThomasLeave a comment




Monday 4 August

We hit the road just after breakfast on our way to Elk Lake in the heart of the Adirondacks. Having discovered RoadFood.com I had a little detour up my sleeve. We stopped at Famous Lunch on Congress Street in Troy for some of their chili dogs that are out of this world. They are about a third of the size of a regular dog on really good soft buns, mustard, onions. Absolutely delicious. Washed down with grape soda. Yum.

While we were driving around Troy we came across the new Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) looming above us from the street below. A pretty fantastic looking creation that looks like a viking ship perched on the hill encased in glass. It may not be the best visual neighbor, but it is striking.

After a beautiful drive up the interstate we pulled into the Elk Lake Lodge situated in the middle of a private forest reserve. It was like stepping into a postcard.

RoadTrip Part III: Ithaca

ThomasLeave a comment




Our two days in Ithaca were spent mainly showing John my old haunts and spending time with our good friends Joe and Leslie and their perfectly behaved two-year old Nick. They recently re-potted themselves back in Ithaca after 5 years in DC, but I met Leslie while we were in grad school at Cornell. I was more than a little envious of her new life in Ithaca. The older I get the more interested I become in living in a small town with lots of peace and quiet, a vegtable garden, and a low crime rate. Then you throw in the cultural resources of Cornell and you have one great place to live.

I showed John all of my favorite places around town and campus. (Although none of my pictures do justice to the beauty of Cornell’s campus so the one at tip is kind of lackluster.) We also spent lots of time in the Aboretum and Botanic Gardens that are part of the Cornell Plantations and made our way through the Johnson Art Museum. The Johnson has a great collection and an impressive I.M. Pei building that is perched on a hill at the corner of Cornell’s Art’s Quad. It has amazing views of Ithaca, the countryside and the bottom of Cayuga Lake, the largest (I think) of the Finger Lakes. We also had a surprisingly good lunch at the famous Moosewood Restaurant. I say surprisingly because I never really had a good experience there when I lived in Ithaca. The food was really pretty darn yummy.
One of the highlights had to be the Ithaca Farmer’s Market. Housed in a beautiful timber-framed pavilion they not only have amazing local produce for sale but lots of great prepared food as well. Cambodian, Cuban, Japanese…there was even one vendor that had a portable wood-fired pizza oven on the back of a pick-up truck.
Without necessarily meaning to, the first weekend kind of set the tone for the whole trip:
  • Lots of used book browsing and buying. Not having to pack for a flight, our turnk filled up pretty quickly with books.
  • Gardens and Nurseries. John is an avid gardener, and I don’t mind a pretty place to sit and read. The northeast has so many wonderful gardens it was like heaven on earth for John. Plus they have a had a very rainy summer so things were pretty lush pretty much everywhere we went.
  • College Campuses. You will see in future posts that we stopped at quite a few college campuses. In addtion to gardens the northeast is dotted with pretty campuses.
  • Yearning for small town life. I think we really got bitten by the small town bug on this trip. A little too young to start thinking about retirement, we nevertheless talked about wanting to end up in a quiet town or rural area somewhere in the northeast. Ithaca is probably too remote for John’s taste, but the way of life is highly appealing to both of us.
Next installment takes us to the Adirondacks.

RoadTrip Part II: DC to Ithaca

Thomas2 Comments

Friday 1 August

States Covered: DC, VA, MD, PA, NY

Our trip started with me picking up John at Dulles Airport as he deplaned from a cross-country flight from San Francisco. Conventional wisdom would have suggested that we wait until Saturday the 2nd to get going on our trip, give the poor man a chance to catch his breath, etc. Nothing doing. I was hell-bent on getting on the road as soon as possible. Americans don’t get enough vacation time, I was going to make every minute count.

By about 4:00 pm we were headed up Route 15. Although the road was only two lanes and little slow, I was overjoyed to avoid the I-95 corridor. The drive in Virginia also passed through some beautiful, rolling hills with horse pastures, vineyards and for a bit, a minimum of sprawl. It was nice to have pretty stuff to look at seeing as John had a little trouble separating himself from his work. He spent the first hour of the trip on his Blackberry tying up a whole lot of loose ends. Later we went through beautful farm country in Maryland and equally beautiful landscapes in Pennsylvania before it got too dark to see anything.

We cheered as we crossed the Mason-Dixon Line. A Yankee at heart (and by birth) it felt good to be heading north. (I don’t care much where my ashes are sprinkled when I die, but I must admit that my will makes it clear that it should be in a state or territory that fought on the side of the Union.)

We made great time stopping at Dairy Queen along the way and making Ithaca by about 11:40 pm. As every American must know it ain’t a road trip until you stop at the DQ. Also, having no DQs in DC (why?!) it is hard for me to pass one up…

RoadTrip Part I: The Itinerary

ThomasLeave a comment

I am too lazy to figure out a good way to keep this all in chronological order without having one giant post that includes everything. So I will stick with my previous method which is to post them in chron order realizing that readers will have to go back and follow the part numbers (or read them in reverse chron order, but that way you might miss something)…

We had a fabulous time taking 17 days to make our way through some of the prettiest countryside in the Northeast. There was a time earlier this year when I felt like a road trip was kind of a boring vacation. Not that I didn’t want to do it, but at work I was planning trips to Italy, Japan, Tahiti, and a hundred other places for other people. A road trip just seemed a bit of a let down. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The whole trip was amazing and we both wish we were still on the road.

So this was the path we took:

1 Aug: DC to Ithaca, New York
2 Aug: Ithaca
3 Aug: Ithaca
4 Aug: Ithaca to Elk Lake in the Adirondacks
5 Aug: Elk Lake
6 Aug: Elk Lake
7 Aug: Elk Lake to Woodstock, Vermont (with a dip into New Hampshire)
8 Aug: Woodstock to Great Barrington, Massachusetts in the Berkshires
9 Aug: Great Barrington
10 Aug: Great Barrington
11 Aug: Great Barrington to Hudson, New York
12 Aug: Hudson to Hyde Park via Connecticut
13 Aug: Hyde Park to Tarrytown, New York
14 Aug: Tarrytown
15 Aug: Tarrytown to Philadelphia
16 Aug: Philadelphia
17 Aug: Philadelphia to DC

It turned out to be about 2,000 miles when all was said and done.