February 18, 2008

Adventures in Montclair, NJ

We explored Montclair, New Jersey this weekend while pretending to be suburbanites in my family's house in West Orange (we were also busy overfeeding the family dog while his usual housemates were away).

Montclair is the next town over, and it's mecca for yuppie urbanites who decide they can't take the city and opt for a car and yard. In some ways, it's like a Vegas/Disney version of Park Slope. There's a better analogy out there, but basically, it has many city-worthy amenities while still being, at heart, very Jersey. There are walkable downtown areas. There are roving packs of hoodie'd teens. There are independent bookstores and coffee shops that remind us of the Tea Lounge. There are chic-looking clothing boutiques. There are TONS of restaurants. Some have names like "Soho (something)" or "Uptown" and are just flat out trying too hard. The decor in some is so ridiculous that we started laughing (think armchairs with floor-length slipcovers, mood lighting, elaborate arrangements of branches). Others look worth a try. There is far less pedestrian traffic than you'd see in the Slope, but the stores don't lack for visitors (people just arrive in cars).

Discoveries

1. A Jamaican/Guyanese restaurant on Bloomfield Ave. with great Roti (D's discovery). I think I've tried sorrel drinks before, but the one here was really good. The doubles we had before roti were amazing -- fresh, with a touch of something sweet (mango puree?).
2. THREE yarn stores. One was old-style (acrylic, pastel colors, closing soon), one was new, molded in the Yarn-Harlot tradition of the LYS (familiar with Knitty patterns, seller of snarky tee-shirts about knitting, with a web site and blog), and a third was somewhere in between.
3. A British food import store packed to the brim with things like Marmite and digestive biscuits and Cadbury chocolate. We made a wonderful discovery -- tubes of Rowntree blackcurrant fruit pastilles and ONLY blackcurrant fruit pastilles. Normally you have to suffer through green and yellow pieces before you get the occasional purple one. In Heathrow last year we found bags of just blackcurrant and strawberry fruit pastilles and thought we'd lucked out. This store also sells pies of the savory variety (shepard's, steak & ale).
4. A nice antique shop on Church St. that I prefer over Atlantic avenue versions, simply because of the reasonable prices and great collection of jewelry.
5. A blight of luxury condos (well, at least one). See The Siena. With your order of an overpriced condo, you get a side of Starbucks, a gym, and absurd name and marketing campaign. Not that I didn't have a little inkling of a desire to see what it would be like to live there...but still.
6. A great blog called Baristanet, which chronicles local happenings.

While it's fun to walk around the various downtown areas and shop and eat, my childhood as the kid at the bottom of the social order in the fancy private school there will always follow me around. I went to Montclair Kimberly Academy, where I wore all the wrong clothes and had a bird's nest for a hairdo. I participated in the same popularity contests that I imagine the well-to-do parents of my classmates did. I got a great education (including that exchange program in 7th grade), but a cockeyed lesson in social politics.

As much as I like the revitalized downtown areas on Montclair, I'm wary of people who are going to these silly restaurants to show off their cash -- there's something small-town about that behavior.

Posted by csageday at 11:16 PM | Comments (0)

October 16, 2007

Chicago

We had a great time at my half-brother Will's wedding in Chicago last weekend. A power outage in the middle of the reception made for some nice photo ops.

While leaving JFK on Friday night, we caught some unusual (for us) views of the city. It took us a while to figure out what was what -- the vantage point was a new one for me. In the dark, the skyline isn't as visible, and the stretches of land and water aren't as familiar when seen full-size. The bridges become your point of reference. Here's the only photo that came out:

Posted by csageday at 07:01 PM | Comments (0)

October 09, 2007

Honeymooning in Croatia

It took me a day or two to unwind from wedding obsessiveness (the wedding was wonderful, btw -- everything we could have hoped for), but once we made it to a lovely house Derek found on Korcula island, we really enjoyed our honeymoon. Photos are up on Flickr. Although it is picturesque and lovely, Dubrovnik was packed with tourists, which took away from the charm a bit. Korcula was more calm, and we spent our time sampling food at home and in restaurants, trying not to drive off the road and into the Adriatic, wandering around supermarkets (better than any museum, really), and traveling to neighboring islands to swim and explore.

Posted by csageday at 01:30 AM | Comments (0)

February 08, 2007

New Mexico

My idea of spending a couple of extra days in New Mexico was a good one. I needed a change of scenery, and the difference between New York and Santa Fe is dramatic. Also, Derek found an amazing B&B outside of Santa Fe. Here's a quick round-up of what we did.

After my conference ended, we spent Friday afternoon in Albuquerque and Friday evening and Saturday in Santa Fe (we rented a car and drove -- Santa Fe is an hour away). I did have altitude sickness for the first couple of days, which manifested itself in a headache, a dizzy/disoriented feeling, and a desperate need to be either in bed or in a bath for most of the day. This made our dinner at Ambrozia Thursday night (which came highly recommended) not quite as enjoyable as it could have been. My soup--a duo of cheddar/ale and black bean--was great, but I felt like my head was under water.

Several fellow conference attendees recommended shopping at Gertrude Zachary, so we stopped there before heading to Santa Fe on Friday. It's a local chain of jewelry stores with staff expertly trained in helping you part ways with vast sums of money for tiny silver things that you may or may not wear when you come to your senses. We were there for over an hour, while I agonized over prices and D exhibited the patience of a saint. The buyer's remorse began the minute I left the store.

Next, we went to the Atomic Museum. We couldn't decide whether to pay to go inside or not – there's something odd about a museum dedicated to advances in technology that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. It also looked pretty low tech – more like a dry cleaner than a museum. Inside, it reminded me of a middle school science fair -- slightly worn exhibits sat next to 50s era weapons and bomb shelter canned goods. Good-natured military folk hung around, ready to talk about the marvelous advent of the atomic bomb. In the gift shop, we browsed through military paraphernalia and wondered why our friend had requested a Little Boy wine stopper, only to realize later that she was joking about it precisely because it was in poor taste, not because she actually wanted a relic of American insensitivity in her kitchen (I think she'll appreciate the colorful flyers advertising "scientific" birthday parties at the museum).

When we finally left Albuquerque and headed to Santa Fe, I began to understand why so many artists call New Mexico home (and they really do – there are galleries everywhere). Everything from the smells to the food to the landscape is so different from anything on the east or west coast. Instead of trees and grass and endless suburbs, there are large expanses of shrub-dotted, snow-covered hills with the occasional cluster of orange adobe buildings or cliffs of red clay. In urban areas, nearly all the homes and businesses are one-story buildings, usually made in the adobe style.

The unique fireplace smell I mentioned is from local piñon (pine nut) trees. It's as strong as incense. I wanted to take some branches from our stash and bring them home but that seemed sort of pointless.

Our B&B in Santa Fe was called Hacienda Las Barrancas. It's a large house a good twenty minutes from Santa Fe with a long porch, a hot tub out back, and a converted barn.

Tim and Emily, our very friendly and helpful hosts, live in the barn and have renovated the house for use as a B&B. They are both tremendously well suited to running a B&B -- they were so welcoming and the house was so comfortable and warm that I wouldn't have minded hanging out there all day. They're both artists, and they've put a lot of care into making the rooms and common areas in the house appealing. They also had great recommendations for things to do, and the breakfasts were heavenly. I liked the place so much that I've been trying to convince other people to go, even though it's entirely impractical to fly to Santa Fe for a B&B experience. Oh, and did I mention that we had a fireplace in our bedroom? It was freezing in Santa Fe last weekend, so the fireplace and hot tub (even though using the hot tub required a mad dash through snow in our bathing suits) were put to good use. (After we figured out how to turn the hot tub jets off we heard some high-pitched, human-like hooting and find out the next morning that it was made by coyotes).

We wanted to go hiking, so T&E sent us in the direction of the Bandelier National Monument Saturday. It was cold and there was plenty of snow on the route we took, but the sun was out and the rock formations, animal tracks, caves, and foot-carved paths through the rock made for an interesting hike. Photos are on Flickr.

We headed to Santa Fe next and went to the Georgia O'Keefe museum (nice to see so many originals) and a high-end photography gallery (Cartier-Bresson, Ansel Adams, Weston). We made it to the central plaza in time to spend more money on turquoise jewelry (although this time I was buying it from the artist and it was cheaper). We were too late to visit the many, many galleries on Canyon road, but we did gawk at the old ceiling beams and general charm of LaFonda's -- a very old hotel in the center. Finally, we ate at The Shed, and although the food was great, I can't say I enjoyed the hour wait (I'm not sure it's the norm, but they give you a beeper and by the time we got a table, I was writing letters to the management in my head about how it should be called The Shack and why the hell weren't we seated at that empty table for four 20 minutes ago, etc. This is my typical reaction to being hungry while in the proximity of food. The beeper setup must mean it's a tourist attraction, though).

A note about New Mexican food: New Mexicans put green chile in absolutely everything. I had green chile stew at The Shed, and green chiles with my huevos rancheros. On Sunday morning, we had fabulous blue corn, piñon, and green chile pancakes. When I ordered a plain old BLT at the airport, it came with green chile in it. Tim and Emily told us stories of buying huge sacks of chiles at harvest time. "It's a staple," they said. It's the New Mexican equivalent of ketchup.

We picked up some green chiles and other New Mexican goodies at a supermarket on the way to the airport on Sunday. I had to try Emily's muffin recipe from Epicurious (she makes fabulous baked things) first, but I think pozole may be next. About the muffins, though -- it's my third try with muffins, and these are way better than the previous batches. The right recipe is everything (so go print the recipe).

Posted by csageday at 01:20 AM | Comments (1)

February 02, 2007

Albuquerque

I've been spending most of my time here trying to look and act professional at my conference, so I've barely been outside. I also think I had altitude sickness the first two days (argh). Still, D has arrived and we had a nice dinner last night and I noticed that smell that people talk about -- a different type of wood is burned in fireplaces here and it smells like incense in the street at night. Can't wait to get to Santa Fe -- I've gotten wonderful recommendations for places to go, eat. etc. Oh, and the landscape is, just... different. Didn't get a photo from the plane, but it's flat, flat, flat, and then mountains rise dramatically out of the desert and are dotted with bushes and snow. You can see for miles.

Posted by csageday at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

January 28, 2007

My Year in Cities, 2006

Might as well build on last year's effort and post a list of cities. 2007 promises to be interesting, with Albuquerque kicking things off. Highlights of last year include finally seeing Boston (the T is so weird!) and finally getting to Spain with D after a long hiatus.

My Year in Cities, 2006

New York, NY
Boston, MA
West Orange, NJ
Somewhere in New England for a wedding
Saratoga Springs, NY
Wilmington, DE
Cape Cod, MA
Mantoloking, NJ
Minerva, NY
Madrid, Spain
Barcelona, Spain
Hondarribia, Spain
Santander, Spain

Oh, right. And there was a wedding up north...somewhere. Isn't that kind of pathetic that I can't even remember which STATE it was in? Vermont or NH, I think. It was a family deal, so I just got in the minivan and went.

Posted by csageday at 01:05 AM | Comments (0)

I'll Be Quirky

We are headed to Albuquerque, New Mexico for a long weekend (quick, close your eyes and try to spell the name of that city). I need to go there for a conference for work, but since the conference ends Friday, D decided to join me and do something over the weekend. Only there isn't much in Albuquerque. There seems to be a flea market and some museums. Also, I thought New Mexico was warmer than New York. Not so. It'll be in the 40s.

It's kind of like booking a flight to a random American city and hoping for the best. Aside from an interesting landscape and southwestern-themed food and architecture, I have no idea what to expect. I looked up the satellite photo to get a general idea of things.

I started asking around about Albequerque a few weeks ago, hoping to find a bunch of people who would respond with enthusiasm and tell me exactly where to go and what to do. That didn't exactly happen, but with persistence I found someone at the Co-op who had lived there. Go to Jemez Springs, she said. Or Santa Fe or Taos (Santa Fe is only an hour away). She also mentioned UFO sighting areas (Roswell) and nuclear testing sites (why, exactly, would anyone want to visit one of those?).

Since then, we've done research, and a co-worker of D's has sent lots of information about restaurants and such. Plus, D has rented us a car and booked rooms at a lovely B&B outside of Santa Fe. And there's a Georgia O'Keefe museum that I'm excited to see. There should be opportunities for good photography, too. If you have any knowledge of this part of the country you'd like to share, please do.

Posted by csageday at 12:44 AM | Comments (0)

October 22, 2006

Still Adjusting...

The two of us are still on Spain time -- we're going to bed early, eating at odd times, thinking in Spanish, and ignoring all sorts of obligations. To keep the vacation going a bit longer, we just constructed, as best we could, a Spanish dinner of tapas. Bread with tomato, bread with roasted red pepper and tuna, artichokes fried with garlic on top of some garlic-fried rice, etc.

At each house we stayed in, I asked for recipes for the lovely things that appeared on the table -- clams with garlic, oil, and parsely; pulpo (octopus) a la gallega; rosted red peppers stuffed with salt cod, etc. We also loaded up our suitcase (with lots of help from Adela (¡Gracias!)), with foodstuffs. With two Spanish cookbooks found in the airport, we can assemble a reasonable approximation of tapas, although we've still got lots to learn. I think I see a new direction for this blog.

In lieu of stories, take a look at the photos on Flickr. Since I left my camera battery charger in Madrid (our first stop), I took about a fifth of the photos I probably would have otherwise, but I'm trying not to think about that too much. We had a great time with old friends (new ones for Derek), ate fantastic food, saw some wonderful old places, slept in a castle by the sea within shouting distance of France, and (more on this later)... I found a fabulous yarn store in Barcelona.

Posted by csageday at 11:21 PM | Comments (0)

October 19, 2006

I'm Back

We're back. Trip was great, though a bit crazy/rushed. Left camera battery & charger in Madrid, so don't have a ton of photos, but have some. Ate lots of Spanish ham and fish. Spoke lots of Spanish. More soon.

Posted by csageday at 01:13 PM | Comments (0)

October 08, 2006

¡Buenas Tardes!

¡Hola desde España! Es much mas fácil escribir en español con una ordenador española.

Bueno, hemos llegando, cansadisimos, a Madrid esta mañana. Sara, our extremely gracious host here in Madrid, has been wonderful and treated us to a lovely breakfast of churros con chocolate y pan con tomate y jamon serrano esta mañana en su terraza preciosa. Después, fuimos al Rastro -- a very-crowded Sunday flea market, where we doggedly marched up and down hills, trying not to look too exhausted. Next, we went to the Prado for a quick walk around (Las Meninas!) before finally deciding that we needed a good long siesta if we were going to be functional for tapas y flamenco esta tarde.

I´m feeling much better after having slept for an hour and half. Tomorrow, if we´re feeling up to it, we might try for a day trip to Toledo -- vamos a ver. It´s wonderful to be back here and speaking Spanish (or trying to, anyway). ¡Hasta printo!

El horario, si te interesa:
- Madrid hasta martes (2 días más)
- Barcelona por tres días (hemos alquilado un apartemento)
- Vamos en coche a Zaragoza el día 13, donde tendrán una fiesta, y donde vamos a ver al jefe de School Year Abroad -- which has moved from Barcelona to Zaragoza (I went in Barcelona)
- We're driving for two days through either the pyrenees or La Rioja to get to our final destination, Santander. This is the only part we haven´t planned, but I´m hoping the book on Northern Spain we bought yesterday will help! There are lots of great places to stay, so it shouldn´t be a problem. I´m just hoping we can find the really good cheese places. We´ll probably spend a night in San Sebastian, too.

Posted by csageday at 12:55 PM | Comments (0)

September 24, 2006

Blue Sage, Now in Spanish!!

Como tengo que practicar el español, ¿porque no lo practico aquí? (Acabo de pasar 10 minutos buscando como hacer un acento -- no es tan fácil escribir en español como ingles -- hay acentos, signos de interrogación al revés, etc., pero persevero).

Lo siento mucho si 1) mi español te da un dolor de cabeza (es lo que pasa a mi--comprendo como sientas) o 2) no hablas ni una palabra de español. Pero si es el último, no estás leyendo esto (seria más posible que me has dejado completamente). Si es el primero, es probable que leer esto es un poco difícil (o divertido), per por favor, si hablas español fluidamente, te imploro corregir la gramática en los "comments." ¡Necesito ayuda!

Estoy pensando en español hoy, porque pasé una hora y media con María (nuestra instructor de español), aprendiendo otra vez como hablar esta idioma. Con ella, descubrí que 1) todavía lo puedo hablar bastante bien y 2) aunque he olvidado mucho, cuando ella me ayudó con algo (con "supo", por ejemplo), siguó mas fácil la conversación. Todavía no tengo la confianza de tener una conversación completamente normal -- cometo muchos errores, y tengo problemas con el imperfecto y el subjetivo (¡y pensaba que sabía esto perfectamente!) y el condicional. Pero no me importa mucho -- es mejor saber que cuando necesitaré hablar español, podré.

Lo que me preocupa más del vocabulario es que nunca aprendí frases y expresiones de conversación informal. A veces traducir estas frases es fácil, pero a veces en español es completamente diferente. También me molesta como siempre uso las mismas frases. Quisiera aprender unas que sueñan mas natural, y sueñan menos como acaban de ser traducidos por un aficionado.

Pobre Derek. Iba a venir con migo a la lección, pero estababa enfermo -- tiene algún virus, y pasó mucho del día en la cama. Además, porque yo no puedo planificar nada, también pasó el día buscando coches y apartementos para alquilar en Barcelona. Siento culpable, pero a lo menos he hecho una cena buenísima con pasta y legumbres. ¿Eso vale algo, no?

No se si voy a seguir a poner artículos en español aquî -- si alguien quiere que lo haga, por favor déjeme una nota diciendo eso, y lo haré. Por el resto de la gente que visitan aquí, si quieres, puedo poner el artículo traducido. No lo pongo hoy porque si hablo mas español hoy, mi cabezo va romper. (Derek le gusta la palabra "pongo", pues tenía que inventar una excusa usarla.)

Posted by csageday at 10:49 PM | Comments (1)

July 22, 2006

Internet Saves Day, Again

Derek and I are trying to get ourselves to Spain this fall, but I'm not so good at planning. Derek is usually the designated trip planner, but since I'm the one who has spent many months there and should know a thing or two about planning a trip to the country, he's waiting for me to give suggestions. This is not a good strategy.

When I travel anywhere, I go, and then I figure out what to do. I rarely plan much beyond the tickets and accommodations, mostly out of boredom but partially out of a (possibly misguided) desire to be spontaneous and discover things as I go. This sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. For Budapest, it didn't really work. I walked around various traffic circles, missed a train, and ate mediocre meals where the locals stared at me. For Scotland, it worked like a charm. Derek and I drove all over the place, discovered B&B's to stay in on the way, took in the scenery, and ate many very hearty British breakfasts.

Also, planning a trip to Spain would be like planning a trip to my grandmother's house. Whenever I've been, I've been lucky enough to be part of an exchange program, so I've stayed with Spanish families and have had itineraries mercifully planned for me. The trips were like extraordinary visits to see distant relatives (I realize now how lucky I was to have those opportunities). I loved the feeling of being taken into a family -- in a country where family is so important -- and experiencing things by simply tagging along. It helped me learn the language and develop my current obsession with good Spanish food. My first Spanish family thought my fascination with the food was so funny that they sent me home with half my suitcase filled up with jamon serrano and Milka chocolate and Colacao -- all things I'd discovered and fallen in love with.

When I think about going back now, I mainly think of the potential for more wonderful food. Blood sausage, La Boqueria (the big market in Barcelona), seafood, tapas, cheeses, wine, etc. I would love to visit both Spanish families, so I'm thinking that we should go to Santander (and possibly neighboring cities, like Bilbao), and Barcelona. I've tried to describe what I'd like to do the rest of the time to Derek by saying I'd love to be someplace old, and quiet, and distinctly Spanish. For instance, couldn't we rent an apartment in a smaller, cobblestoned city by the sea and go the market every day and then sit on our terrace and eat and drink?

This idea isn't long on specifics, so I was very happy to find this post by Chez Pim completely by accident. Perfect! There's a remote, castle-like, fabulous restaurant in San Sebastian (somewhat near Santander). It meets my vague criteria perfectly: food, ambience, and a good fit with a loose itinerary involving the north of Spain. It's a start. Thank goodness for this lovely thing called the Internet.

Update: The NY Times just published an article on Spanish paradores (state-run hotels) in the north.

Posted by csageday at 10:41 PM | Comments (0)

May 23, 2006

1990 Redux

It occurs to me that this past weekend was mostly devoted to the year 1990. First, there was the whole gymnastics movie thing, and then I had a reunion with my Spanish exchange-student-sister Sara, from Santander, Spain (she's living in Mexico City for now and came for a visit). Here we are, then and now:

I went over to Spain in seventh grade as part of an exchange program and cried my eyes out for the first week, then had a great time the week after that (I discovered Spanish food). Sara came over here the next fall and hated the food, understandably, but discovered American-style mall shopping (you can tell that her fashion sense is a good deal more developed than mine. In both photos, actually.). More photos on flickr.

Posted by csageday at 12:07 AM | Comments (6)

February 08, 2006

Boston and Cambridge

Since I was in Boston for conference activities Friday, Monday, and Tuesday, Derek took the Chinatown bus to join me for the Saturday and Sunday in between. We stayed with friends and jealously coveted their extra non-New-York apartment space (it's like they have 2 kitchens! And by New York real estate standards I'm sure a broker would sell their place as a 4 bedroom instead of a 2).

We ate lots of good food (Oceana in Cambridge had a great vegetarian tasting menu) and walked around Beacon Hill and Copley Place in Boston and Harvard in Cambridge. I had been to Boston a bunch of times but didn't really remember it well, and Derek had never been to anything other than South Station. Beacon Hill seems so colonial and upscale in a quieter, more elegant way than upscale New York neighborhoods. It's an old, landmarked neighborhood of beautiful townhouses (wider and bigger than Brooklyn ones) and cobblestones and carriage houses. It's a bit like Brooklyn Heights but with more gravitas and swankier (I guess there's more detail?). Other (nice) Boston neighborhoods seemed this way too -- there is some lovely, traditional stone and brick architecture there that always appeals to me (think nineteenth century details and endless rows of large townhouses with those parlor floor bay windows).

Posted by csageday at 04:00 PM | Comments (0)

February 07, 2006

The Acela

I’m currently zooming down the east coast of Rhode Island on the Acela. I absolutely love this train. It’s fast and comfortable and productivity-boosting. I sit in the quiet car and do work, knit, eat, or read. It just feels so civilized. Why anyone would take a taxi to an airport an hour early and suffer through the indignities of bag searches and airport mazes instead is beyond me. Granted, I did have a bit of trouble catching the right train in Penn, but that’s because Penn is the most awful, ugly, impossible-to-navigate train station in the world. I just passed a marina, and the ocean actually looks blue. I got to the train station, which was across the street from my hotel in Boston, about 10 minutes before the train left. This feels like such a luxury.

Posted by csageday at 03:55 PM | Comments (0)

January 16, 2006

The Year in Cities 2005

Following Kottke's lead (since I have the day off and am wasting it away in front of the computer), here's a list of cities I visited in 2005.

Overnight Trips
New York, NY
Minerva, NY
Cape Cod, MA
West Orange, NJ
Wilmington, DE
Zihuatanejo, Mexico
Patzcuaro, Mexico
Concord, NH
Orlando, FL

Day Trips
Palisades, NY
Jersey City, NJ
Burlington, VT
Norwalk, CT
Mantoloking, NJ

Things I skipped: A ski trip (although I did try cross country skiing and iceboating) and trips to Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco (all trips I thought about making but didn't get around to). This year, hopefully we'll fit a trip to Eurpoe in (D and I promised each other a trip for Christmas).

I always feel like I'm itching to travel and when I first started making this list I kept thinking of places we didn't go -- places I'd meant to take a weekend trip to, like Boston. This list is also making me realize that I have to credit the interesting trips -- to Mexico and Florida -- to Derek's family. I haven't done much organizing on my own -- very lazy of me -- so I should get off my arse and see if I can get something together for President's Day.

Posted by csageday at 03:52 PM | Comments (0)

November 23, 2005

Disney Detox

Doesn't this sort of make it look like an evil empire?

I'm very happy with that photo. I reached my Disney point-of-saturation less than an hour after entering "Disney property," but I stuck it out. I tried to be amused. I supplemented the theme park madness with meals at other resorts (lunch at the Grand Floridian was nice) and a late night swim. I weathered "Cinderella's Coronation" by taking pictures of the gaping, camera wielding crowd. I knit through endless switch-backs in holding pens while waiting in line. We ordered a flight of wine with dinner.

The worst part of the trip turned out to be the lunch food in the parks. Deep fried, uber-processed, completely unappetizing fast food. Why can't Disney partner with Whole Foods or Trader Joe's and offer edamame or anything organic? There are enough well-heeled parents walking around with money to spend on that kind of thing. Also, the rides we went on weren't that great because they were the classic older ones -- the dioramas of fairy tale stories that you wait 45 minutes to see seemed anticlimactic and low-tech. There's very little true interactivity (unless you count getting wet or being tossed around a bit), and Disney technology seems to have stalled with the invention of animatronics and 3D movies. Some of the rides seemed frozen in time. To be fair, I'm biased and there are newer ones to balance it out (the "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire" one sounded great -- it works just like the show), but I didn't make it to those.

Disney's strength lies in the ability to attract and manage huge amounts of people without pissing them off. The things that turn me off -- like musical extravaganzas, an entire landscape of pastel colors, and constant "Disney magic" -- are the opiate of the masses. People are happy at Disney. The hyper-stylized landscapes are massive, and every detail contributes to the theme of the park or resort it belongs to. The parks offer a variation of the media-saturation and over-the-top experience that people seek at Las Vegas. Americans, born and bred on excess, love it.

It's impressive, but since it's all fake (concrete painted to look like castle walls, a chimney painted to look like a slice of grand canyon), it all seems the same and gets annoying. The sheer scale is overwhelming. The enthusiasm of the "cast" is unnatural. After a while you feel a desperate need for something authentic. Like, say, alcohol. Oh, but there's no alcohol inside the most Disneyified park of all: the Magic Kingdom. Mickey doesn't drink. He's just on speed.

Animal Kingdom was the best of the lot. It incorporates a real, living landscape of trees and plants (and animals) into the mix, which is nice. It throws the fake trees into relief and makes them look sort of ridiculous, but at least it feels less like you're trapped in Walt Disney's mind.

The "cast members" lived up to their reputation. While I was trying to take pictures of mole rats (reminded me of people in apartments), a peppy "cast member" asked if I was over 18. How do you answer that so you don't get a reply? I tried shrugging, looking annoyed, and saying "Does it matter?" which did NOT work. "Well I hope you are, because those mole rats are naked!! They're not wearing any clothes!! HAHAHAHA!" Elsewhere, enthusiastic "cast members" called someone in our party "princess" (no sarcasm) and reminded us to "say goodbye to Mickey" upon leaving the park. Mickey himself repeatedly sang "Have a real fun day!" and "See ya real soon!" and I can't believe Disney workers aren't all suicidal after hearing that all the time.

Photos of the trip, along with more snide, snobbish commentary, are on Flickr. Oh, and we had a great time with Derek's nephew Xander and his cousin Marie (for the under-8 set, Disney makes perfect sense) and the rest of the family. And I'll admit that I enjoyed the Muppet 3D show. I love muppets. And the Monsters Inc. monsters were cute in the parade.

Posted by csageday at 12:24 AM | Comments (0)

November 18, 2005

WDW

Alright. I've been silent on the subject long enough. Here's a warning to Disney fans: This is a mildly anti-Disney post by a Disney snob. I don't want your Disney sensibilities to be offended, so please don't read this if it's going to upset you.

This weekend, I am going to DisneyWorld. For three days, I will subject myself to a landscape composed entirely by the Disney company. All transportation, accommodation, and every restaurant or food stand will be entirely owned and operated by Disney®. It'll be like SuperSize Me, but for three days instead of a month, and for every part of my life instead of just meals. If I want to sit down in an un-Disneyified location and knit quietly, out of bounds of some form of Micky Mouse ears or a parade of dancing 22-year-olds in costume, I will be unable to do so. If I want to escape the onslaught of enormous and grotesque walking stuffed animals, I will have to take Disney-sponsored transportation and most likely pass several hundred Disney-obsessed children and Disney gift stores along the way. Last time I went to Disney, my favorite part was finding a very normal-looking pool in an upscale hotel with no Ears in sight and swimming in it for an hour. At Derek's insistent prodding (we're going with his family), I'm trying to be open-minded about it, but it's like PAYING to enter the largest advertisement in the world. It's like a little corporation-country. Commercialism is king and watered-down "real-world adventures" that appeal to the masses abound.

Derek emailed me a link to some Disney fan message boards a while back and we found some disturbing posts. First, the posters were Disney addicts. The focus of their lives was visiting Disney, and each person had a blurb listing how many times they'd been, where they'd stayed, and a countdown to the next visit. Crazy people. Then, we found this:

Plus, my wife said that Epcot had changed her. She had always disliked people from Japan after all the WWII stories and movies she saw. After visiting the countries (she walked us 3 times around World Showcase) she said she now liked the people and had a new respect for them. She got to see how the cultures really are and she really enjoyed speaking with everyone...

My God. First, this prejudiced woman "disliked people from Japan after all the WWII stories and movies she saw." Then, after "visiting the countries" (???!?!!) and getting to "see how the cultures really are" (!?!), she got over it! Wow! I think they should visit The Holy Land Experience next.

Disney can be fun -- I'm not suggesting that I'm going to walk around with a scowl on my face and an anti-Disney pin on my shirt. But the enormity of the place, and the sameness of it all, and the way people just drink it in without an ounce of irony, is going to put me off a little.

Posted by csageday at 07:51 PM | Comments (4)

October 31, 2005

Hiking the Palisades

For years, I've meant to spend a day hiking somewhere just outside the city. Someone mentioned Breakneck Ridge, which is right on the Hudson river train line, and I considered that for a while. Every time I visit websites about it, though, I read about how steep it is at the beginning and how people somehow die doing it every once in a while. Then I remember that I don't own hiking boots and I find a way to postpone the trip.

My mother has also recommended hiking the Palisades. You can get to the trails by taking the subway up to the George Washington Bridge and walking over (if you can DO that without losing your shit). The trails follow the Palisade cliffs up the Hudson, offering views and quiet picnic spots.

Somehow, when I brought up hiking as a weekend possibility last week, Derek took the initiative to plan ahead (and find a map) and we finally made it to the Palisades on Sunday. We packed a lunch and drove over the GW (too scared/lazy to walk) and parked at the Park Headquarters. From there, we followed the upper trail for a couple of miles, hiked down a gazillion stone steps, hiked right along the water for a few miles, and then followed switchbacks back up to the parking spot. It was just the right amount of exercise, the foliage was nice, the weather was perfect, and it felt great to be near the water (I always feel more comfortable near water, hence the sailing, lake-visiting, etc.).

The upper trail runs between a road and a rather sharp dropoff. It was a little annoying to hear and see the traffic, but there are a few spots where you can walk out onto the edge of the cliffs and see sweeping views of the Hudson and New York. Eventually, you get to a little stone castle called the Women's Federation Monument, where you can climb up to a platform and pretend you are Rapunzel. After that, you can continue on the upper trail for a while longer, or you can climb down to water level.

The lower trail runs right next to the water for a long time, and there are plenty of places to sit on rocks and look at the Bronx or Westchester or whatever is on the other side of the Hudson. Once you're down there, you can also look up at the cliffs above -- the scale is quite dramatic. It's peaceful, too. We saw a few other hikers and families, but for the most part we were on our own. Photos of the hike are on Flickr.

Posted by csageday at 10:49 PM | Comments (0)

August 28, 2005

Back to the Grind

Well I'm finally back in an urban environment with a damned internet connection. I spent two blissful weeks without reading an email, deleting comment spam, or reading a blog. Bliss, bliss, bliss. No work, either. Or TV. Or even a movie.

I hiked, kayaked, played with my Mom's digital camera (the Canon Rebel), played tennis, had a great weekend with friends, and basically played house in my family's place upstate.

We stay near Warrensburg, NY, where there is a fantastic smokehouse called Oscar's, so my vegitarian inclinations also went out the window. Whenever I go there the beef jerkey just cannot be ignored, and I end up walking out with all sorts of non-vegetarian items. The horseradish smoked cheddar is fantastic. The bacon, sausage, steak, ditto. I suffered for the indulgence, since my stomach still isn't used to dealing with meat, but damn it was good.

I also spent a day antiquing, which is basically glorified garage-sale hunting with a threefold price markup. I bought old medicine jars and other useless things for no particular reason.

Since Derek couldn't take off quite as much time as I could, I had the house -- in the middle of the woods -- to myself for a few days. I had the optimistic idea that I would use the time to plan ahead a little, maybe do some writing or knitting or silent contemplation of the hummingbirds (you know the sitting on a tropical beach fantasy? Like that, but in the Adirondacks), but I got caught up in a million tiny little projects and activities with the neighbors (more pointless antiquing) and managed almost no contemplation whatsoever. But I did reach the ultimate vacation point of having spend so much time in the woods that I was ready to start working again. We've always spent a week per summer upstate (since college, anyway), but it never seems like enough. Two is perfect.

I'm heading back up for Labor Day, but it looks like I'll miss this: The "World's Largest Garage Sale". A bit of an overstatement, possibly, but nirvana for junkies like me, I'll bet.

Posted by csageday at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

July 14, 2005

Stew Leonard's

The drive up to the Cape last weekend was one of the longest drives in the history of long-weekend drives. It wasn't terrible driving, but it was raining and there was traffic and all told, a 4.5 hour drive turned into a 9 hour one. Each time we got going, traffic would appear on the horizon and then we'd see this for half an hour. Serves us right for not leaving the night before.

We stopped at Stew Leonard's in Norwalk, CT (Derek's old home), to alleviate the boredom a bit (we were getting a little loopy in the car). Stew's is a unique phenomenon in the food business -- it's like the Disneyword of grocery stores. There are huge displays and dancing mechanical fruit characters that sing songs at regular intervals. As you're picking out a tomato, a giant stalk of celery above you might start cheerfully bouncing and singing "We're Dole fresh vegetables, we're good for you! We're Dole fresh vegetables, we're good friends, too!" (can you tell that's gotten into my head a bit?).

The store is organized like a giant maze, so you follow one course from start to finish (there are no aisles). The displays are all farmer's market-style, with colorful signs and an abundance of food. Baked goods are made on site, and there are large windows between the store and the areas where the baking is done. As we were walking by the bread area we caught a glimpse of someone weighing out dough for loaves. Milk and other dairy is also processed on site.

As a huge fan of food, I was pretty excited the first time D took me to Stew Leonard's. It's like a farmer's market on steroids. The large majority of what they sell is fresh and they sell huge quantities of everything, so instead of seeing 5 balls of mozarella on a counter, you see about a hundred of them, with a mozarella-dedicated staffer restocking as you walk by. I usually want to buy everything and can't because we're far from home, but this time we could buy food for a weekend with friends so I went wild and got a peach-blueberry pie, blueberries, mozarella, tomatoes, basil, and a watermelon. We also stopped for a lobster roll at the outdoor snack bar.

Derek has been going to Stew Leonard's since he was born. I've even seen home movies of him (at age 6 or so) and his brother feeding the goats in the petting zoo out front. He also can't leave the place without getting an ice cream cone.

Posted by csageday at 07:30 PM | Comments (0)

June 15, 2005

Reunion Recap

Since my 10 loyal blog readers are probably curious about the 10th year HS reunion, here's a recap. It was strange, and almost no one I was friends with showed up, but it went well and I drove away feeling good about the whole thing. I was struck by how lucky I was to have been part of the whole experience. The school is like Hogwarts -- the grounds are old and beautiful and there's a strong emphasis on academic achievement and athletics. It is still is an amazing place to go to high school, despite the aforementioned caveats.

Instead of heading off into the woods to break rules this time (a habit from previous reunions), D and I visited most of the buildings on campus and took lots of pictures. Given my new appreciation for the value of real estate, I was impressed by the fireplaces in the classrooms and the sheer size of the school. Later on, we went out to the dock and went for a swim. It felt so familiar and the weather was perfect -- swimming alone in the late afternoon was definitely the highlight of the day for me (I'm not a social creature).

The group of alumni who came back were in various stages of success, and plenty are still figuring out what to do. No children showed up. It took me a moment to figure out who everyone was and everything was a little awkward, but personalities don't change much so catching up wasn't that hard. Still, I couldn't shake the feeling that I both belonged and didn't belong to the group. It's such a surreal environment. Anyway, photos are up on Flickr.

Posted by csageday at 12:10 AM | Comments (0)

June 01, 2005

Summer

Some happy summer-is-here photos from Memorial Day weekend.

Posted by csageday at 12:38 AM | Comments (0)

March 12, 2005

Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo, Mexico

I think the plane ride and shock of winter (snow!) and work upon our return has had more of an adverse effect than I anticipated. I just spent the morning in bed with frozen corn on my head -- and we went to bed early last night. Hence the delay in part II of the travel blog. Blog entries are also piling up in my head but I can't seem to summon the energy to post things.

Click here for photos from Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo (March 3-8).

We drove back to Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo on Tuesday and met up with Derek's parents and Aunt Nancy, who had just arrived. With Derek's grandparents and his Aunt Debbie, we were eight.

Zihatanejo sits on a bay and used to be a tiny fishing town. Its transformation to a tourist-friendly resort area began in the 70s (when D's grandparents first started going there). Right next door is Ixtapa, which also sits on a bay and was built as a resort town. It has new roads with manicured landscaping, a pedestrian area with restaurants and gift shops, and several huge resorts. It looks like L.A. Many of the tourists don't venture beyond their own resort area once they arrive. Some hotels are all-inclusive (read: very expensive). To get on and off of Ixtapa beach in some spots you have to pick a resort to walk through -- we picked an all-inclusive hotel one night unknowingly and found a Disney-like reproduction of a Mexican fiesta inside populated entirely by Americans and Canadians. There were tables with jewelry and handicrafts, there was a band, and people were milling about, but it was so strange -- a much more authentic (and cheaper) version of the same thing could be found in Zihuatanejo on Sunday, but these hotel people chose the "safe" artificial version.

Zihuatanejo, thankfully, is still partly the real thing -- it hasn't lost its local character. Fisherman still camp out on the beach, and if you walk around outside of the touristy center you can find all sorts of Mexican shops -- there are meat shops selling whole chickens with their heads hanging off the table, Mexican stationary stores, shoe stores, etc.

We usually ate dinner as a group at places where D's grandparents are regulars or know the owners (their favorite is Daniel's -- you can see a photo of Daniel in the slide show). They have relationships with many fellow retirees and locals in the tourist industry (they've been coming for 30 winters), so we were always greeted with open arms. During the day, Warren, Ruth, and Debbie tend to go to the Pacifica Resort, which is on Ixtapa beach and has a nice pool/restaurant and plenty of umbrellas set up on the beach.

We spent a couple of afternoons with them, but also did a few things on our own. We visited Playa La Ropa -- Zihuatanejo's long, lazy beach -- and ordered pina coladas and tacos at Restaurant Cocodrillo ("Crocodile" -- there are a couple of crocodile sanctuaries in the area) . We also rented a Hobie Cat and sailed around the bay one day (circling a huge, HUGE, cruise ship anchored there, which kindly dumped sewage in the bay that we had to sail through).

We took one day trip with Derek's parents to Petatlan -- a town about a half hour to the south of Zihua. It was also more of a local experience -- we even had a bunch of kids call us "gringos" and laugh hysterically outside of the church. Normally I'd have a retort for them in Spanish, but I held my tongue -- I mean, we were totally obvious gringos (fanny packs, cameras, etc) doing little to blend in with the crowd.

Petatlan is known for its church and gold trinkets (which people buy and leave for the statue of Christ in the church). It's the first place where we ventured into a real taco stand offering tacos with "head meat" -- we asked for tacos de bistec, but I'm not entirely sure what kind of bistec that meant (bistec=beef). They were very flavorful -- they come with onions and cilantro on top and the tortillas are fresh -- sooo good. We started with a cautious order of two and ended up eating seven. I also tried one of chiva -- goat -- which was good but not as good as the bistec ones.

A list of food finds on the trip:

• Authentic chile relleno -- something I had not tried before. We had it with beef and cheese -- but my favorite part is the chile itself
• Peanuts roasted with lots of chili (they make your fingers red)
• Cajeta en obleas (milk candy wafers)
• Hauchinango -- red snapper grilled with spices
• Tamales -- something we'd had, but one with zucchini flowers at Any's was great
• Pozole -- Ruth calls it popcorn soup. It has puffed corn pieces in it along with chicken and there's a white version and a green version. It comes surrounded by toppings -- onions, jalapeno, sliced radishes, chile powder, oregano, lime, tortilla chips, pork rind (the real thing! I like the fake things, so this was exciting for me)
• Sopa tarasco -- the soup from Patzcuaro with the tortilla chips in it
• Mexican candy -- we bought tons of candy from a candy store in Petatlan. It's usually something sweet -- like mango gummy candy or a lollypop, covered in a mildly spicy chili and sugar mix. I didn't think spicy candy would be for me but now I'm addicted
• We bought a block of something on the beach that was like a huge solid fruit roll-up -- no idea what it's called
• Also bought something like maple fudge or solid dulce de leche on the beach -- it was like milky caramelized sugar and comes with a walnut on top
• Corn-on-the-cob, Michoacan-style. This involved a coating of sour cream and white cheese
• Mexican roasted peanuts -- better than American ones, for some reason -- the flavor is slightly more intense/different
• Mexican breakfast: huevos divorciados (divorced eggs, one in green sauce, one in red on a tortilla), huevos revueltos mexicanos (Mexican scrambled eggs, w/peppers and onions)
• Fresh papaya juice
• Horchata -- a cinnamon rice-milk drink
• Fluffy sugary donut-like rolls we found at a bakery

On Sunday we went with Derek's parents to Tamales y Atoles Any -- a restaurant know for its tamales and "the most consciously traditional Mexican cuisine in town" (Lonely Planet) -- and had my favorite meal of the trip -- Pozole, tamales, a chile relleno, a pitcher of horchata, and tacos. We took a walk around town afterwards to walk off the meal and discovered that there were people everywhere. There was some sort of fiesta going on, and we caught the end of a (Riverdance-like) dance performance in the town basketball court.

The other notable day was our first, when we went to Isla de Ixtapa for the day with John and Bonnie. We met Luis, a guide, on the boat ride over (I was shamelessly practicing my Spanish on him), and he took us snorkeling. We had both forgotten our contacts (can't snorkel with glasses), so we couldn't see much, but Luis scattered some saltines in the water and we were mobbed by fish. Some were colorful Seargent Major fish and a larger one (I forget what they're called) nibbled on Derek's hand. The current was too rough to see coral, but we were blind anyway so it didn't matter much. We had a great spread of Huachinango and lobster (grilled on a wood fire in the sand) for lunch.

I have to say (again) that sun does wonders for your mood. Ruth and Warren both just celebrated their 80th birthdays (the occasion for the trip) and they both look a lot younger than 80. They also eat healthy food and take vitamins, but I can see how relaxing on the beach might have contributed something. I think we need to spend a few years doing "research" on coral in Australia or something -- why suffer through ice and snow when you could be sitting in the sand with a margarita and a good book?

Posted by csageday at 09:43 PM | Comments (0)

March 10, 2005

Patzcuaro, Mexico

Warning: This is going to turn into a travel blog for a few days. We're back, with sunburns and crappy amateur photography and Mexican pottery.

Click here for photos from Patzcuaro (March 1-3).

Overall it was a good trip, with a two day visit to Patzcuaro and a week in the touristy coastal Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo area with Derek's family. The best parts of the trip were the quiet or unexpected bits, where D and I walked around back streets in Patzcuaro or found a decent restaurant. It's amazing how a lot of sun and a tropical climate can turn your mood around, especially during a crappy winter.

The weekend trip we had planned to the mountains -- to get out of the touristy coastal towns of Zihuatanejo and Iztapa -- turned out to be a great idea. Stopping on the three-and-a-half hour drive for a coco (a coconut with a straw in it, then the coconut meat mixed with lime and salt in a bag) wasn't. I knew very well that we were NOT supposed to drink the water for fear of infection by various scary-sounding bacteria and amoeba. I knew that we were supposed to avoid any and all interesting or homemade foods. But the highlight of any international trip for me is food -- I have to try EVERYTHING.

So we were good for about 24 hours and then we broke down and had a coco -- which is fine -- but we probably shouldn't have wolfed down the coco/lime mix and coco bread afterwards, since we could see that it was made under not-so-sanitary conditions in a little village more dogs and cats than people. It was really good. But it kind of ruined half of the Patzcuaro trip for me, since I felt miserable for the next 24 hours. Derek was fine for the next few days but it eventually caught up with him and he was out for a day, too. Whatever, it was worth it.

The Mexican highway experience was interesting -- on a weekend you'll end up having to stop in every little village and give a contribution. Each village has a speed bump, so you have to slow down, and some sort of group will be fundraising. We ran out of Mexican change and ended up giving out American money. We also passed a military checkpoint, complete with intimidating soldiers with machine guns.

Patzcuaro is a sizable town with a very European feel and two classic plazas. There's also the large Patzcuaro Lake nearby with a few islands. Our hotel (Mansion Iturbe) was an 18th century residence with gorgeous old woodwork and high ceilings. It was on the Plaza Vasco de Quiroga, which is lined with centuries-old trees and is constantly full of people. We arrived on a Sunday and everything felt very festive. The large market in the other town plaza -- Plaza Gertrudis Bocanegra -- was full of busy taco stands, and people were walking around town visiting shops and restaurants or sitting on the fountains in the plazas. It was much cooler than the coast (actually a bit chilly). And best of all, we hardly saw any Americans. Not even the people in the tourism office spoke English.

One major attraction is the island of Janitzio, a small "fishing" island that has a large statue on top. Over the past 50 years it has morphed into a huge tourist magnet. A ferry took us across the Lago de Patzcuaro to the island, and we walked up endless winding steps past countless gift shops to the top for the view. When we finally made it to the top -- sweating, thirsty, and in need of a rest after climbing for half an hour -- we were met with an entrance gate and a sign that said 6 pesos to enter. A group of Mexican tourists laughed out loud when they saw it. The entire island exists to help tourists part with their money.

We also wandered around Patzcuaro a bit, enjoying the plazas and market and shops. We tried to local specialties -- pescado blanco and sopa tarasco -- at El Primer Piso (very good) and had two great breakfasts at our hotel. Mexican scrambled eggs (with peppers and onions) in torillas dipped in beans and huevos divorciados (one fried egg in green sauce, one in red, on a tortilla) are both fantastic.

On our way back, we went up to Estribo Grande, an old volcano outside of town. At the top, there is yet another collection of endless steps to climb -- at least 400 though we didn't count, but the view is fantastic and it was peaceful and quiet.

Enough for today. More travelblogging tomorrow. Expect a rant about huge resorts built on formerly serene beaches and criticism of the Disney-like resort experience.

Posted by csageday at 12:28 AM | Comments (1)

February 18, 2005

Ski Envy

So Derek is off skiing down Mont Sutton in Canada at the moment and I'm sitting at my desk, with no distracting IMs to keep me sane and prevent stress-induced self-mutilation (or consumption of processed foods). I'm not at Sutton this year because I am not organized enough to have bought ski boots that fit my oddly shaped feet and I broke one of my skis. (I've tried renting but it never works out.) I thought -- no problem, this will give me a chance to pack for Mexico and see The Gates again, etc. But the Times ran an article on Mont Tremblant (also in Canada) this morning and I'm totally jealous. I could be sitting in a lodge right now eating Sutton's "poutine" -- french fries, cheese curds, and gravy. I could also be freezing my ass off on a lift, but still.

Posted by csageday at 09:30 AM | Comments (0)