“4,948 miles later”
It seems just completely crazy that we were able to drive almost 5,000 miles over the last few weeks. How did we do that? One long day at a time. Monday: Las Vegas to Albuquerque. Tuesday: Albuquerque to McKinney. Wednesday: “Rest Day”. Thursday: McKinney to New Orleans. Sunday: New Orleans to McKinney (and the reason this post is late again).
The drive home from California was uneventful overall. Diana suggested having Ray and Amy over for “Happy Hour” on Wednesday night – I agreed as long as there was a stop time of around 6pm. How do you think that worked out? You are correct – didn’t finish up until around 10pm and then had an intended early start for the drive to New Orleans on Thursday.
Driving to NOLA on New Year’s Eve was a bit more work. Things started badly with pouring rain and multiple accidents and lane closures before we ever left Dallas. There were some brief respites but I was mostly driving in rain and truck spray all day. It was lovely to see Denny and Anne on arrival and they really spoiled us with some yummy snacks – an amazing cheese board, crab fingers from Tableaux, and some amazing Denny oyster and sauce combinations.
The ladies (with a little help from Denny) were able to polish off the magnum of good champagne that D received from Kris and Cat as a birthday gift.
We did manage to stay awake to usher in the New Year but were asleep in the wonderful guest cottage soon after.
The weather on New Year’s Day was perfect for me – high 60s, sunny, with zero humidity. We had a very pleasant morning walk and run in Audubon park – one of the best city parks in America. The energizer bunny enjoyed the warmer weather and the scenery.
Various groups of friends stopped by for a mostly socially distanced afternoon gathering. Denny cooked up oysters four different ways – much to the delight of McD.
She especially enjoys the freshly shucked and handed directly to her variety:
You can see the lovely day from this picture of the front porch and Mr. Jack’s house across Webster Street.
We rounded out the evening watching a livestream of Jason Isbell and his band from Nashville that was excellent. Kenny and I had a friendly Old Fashioned contest. I think the new wood chip drink smoker that I got from Diana for Christmas pushed mine ahead in the competition.
If it’s 01/02/21, then the Ogan twins must be 18. They were born on 01/02/03 at 7:33 and 7:38am, and it has become traditional for us to join them for lunch at Commander’s Palace. Before lunch I had arranged for Laura to take the energizer bunny out for a run – she did a good job running McD down to the levee for a total of 3.5 miles – one of Diana’s longer outings. A good appetite had been worked up for the jazz brunch at Commander’s. The only trouble with brunch versus a regular week day lunch is that the 25 cent martinis are not available. We started with the crazy good turtle soup. Then Diana enjoyed short ribs with a perfectly cooked poached egg and I couldn’t resist the boudin stuffed and lacquered TX quail. Both were delicious and also made for great leftovers. The festivities finished up with the ridiculous bread pudding soufflé and whiskey sauce and toques for the birthday boys.
The drive home on Sunday was very smooth with mostly light traffic and an arrival just after 5pm and before dark. We are now home to stay for quite a while, with no more road trips on the calendar.
I have nothing much to report on the reading front this week – too much time behind the wheel and enjoying friends. We did listen to “The Last Days of John Lennon” by James Patterson on the drive. This is mostly a very detailed and interesting history of Lennon and the Beatles, with small sections interspersed about Mark Chapman planning his assassination. I would recommend this to anyone looking to learn more about the Beatles and their interactions over the years.
Michael Drapkin worked with me about a year ago and is currently working on his PhD. He is a wonderful clarinet player and his thesis is around making orchestras more economically viable by rescoring pieces originally scored for massive ensembles for smaller groups. Here’s his version of Richard Strauss – Salome’s Dance of the Seven Veils – from 108 piece full symphony orchestra to 24 piece chamber orchestra. Michael told me that the biggest challenge for a conductor will be to make sure the violins aren’t overwhelmed by the woodwind and percussion sections. I think he did a great job and can only imagine how time consuming and detailed this work ends up being.
Changing gears completely, I’ve been on a bit of a jazz funk music kick this week. Let’s start with the always fantastic Jaco Pastorius and band from his “Birthday Concert” doing “Chicken”:
Even funkier is Herbie Hancock’s “Chameleon”. I love those keyboard sounds he lays down for the bass groove:
And finally something a bit more current from the reigning jazz funk masters, Snarky Puppy:
Stay calm and patient and at home (easy for me to say after 4,948 miles).
Marco and kids arrived on Thursday afternoon to exchange gifts with Alicia before she left early on Friday to spend Christmas day with her Dad and brothers. Alicia’s gift to Marco was a Dopp kit (toilet bag where I’m from) that was hilariously filled with tiny bottles of different liquors. “Dopp” is such a weird word for a toilet bag that I did some research: the name derives from the early 20th century leather craftsman Charles Doppelt, whose company designed the case in 1926.
That seemed like an awful lot of scallops but only two were left after dinner. Adamo did a great job of cooking up all the fishes and then Alicia was a huge help with the clean up. Alicia and Diana exhibited some superior team work putting together the requisite meat and cheese platter.
Christmas Day started with a photo shoot so that we had some pictures of Diana and Alicia together. I think I did a passable job as the official photographer. We had to start early as the angry red sunrise foretold bad weather coming.
Next was a visit to Adamo’s home to exchange gifts. Amy and Adamo were so excited about their gift for us – they adopted a penguin in our names from the World Wildlife Fund. Amy was jumping up and down and so excited. Frankie was very gentle with the new adoptee – subsequently named Parker.
I finally finished reading “Utopia Avenue” by David Mitchell this week. I really enjoyed parts of the book and found other parts just silly and a bit nonsensical.
the crossing. I continue to turn into a “grumpy old man” – night driving with oncoming traffic not separated by a median is getting pretty difficult. I struggle to see where I’m going with the oncoming glare. So, the Pacheco Pass at night wasn’t really much fun. It’s very twisty and ill lit. That whining aside, we arrived at the hotel in Pacifica around 9pm. 1,950 miles in the books. I should have about 10 days now with no lengthy drives.
Once in our hotel room, Diana went on a mission to install the Amazon Firestick so that we could watch all our normal TV and streaming shows. She was so tired that it was easy to see her brain working but not easy to interpret what was (or wasn’t) being said. Problem one was that in order to connect to the hotel WiFi one needed to check the “Accept Terms and Conditions” box, but the remote wouldn’t go to the box. An hour later Diana noticed the “cursor mode” option and that problem was solved. Problem two – the firestick was installed and working fine but the remote wouldn’t control the TV volume and power, even after a bunch of fancy settings updates by McD. I looked at some YouTube videos of how to fix the issue and tried a number of things. An hour later, Diana finally gave up and sat down at her computer. I decided to try the regular TV remote that we had thought only controlled the Dish satellite system. Whaddaya know? Controlled volume perfectly. Two hours lost, but all TV and streaming options fully installed for our hotel stay. I wish I had some of that escapade on video. Funnily enough the firestick remote started controlling the volume just fine the next day with no changes.
After that interesting activity we were ready for some lunch. I spotted the City Kebabs and Gyros shop as we approached a traffic light and we decided to give it a try. The Mediterranean food was delicious with all my favourites – humus, falafels, dolmas, chicken and lamb. We were able to eat at the little table outside – one day before even patio dining was shut down.
We met Will and Christine for dinner at Town in San Carlos on Tuesday evening. The street was closed off and the restaurants had made some big investments in building outdoor dining. We were warm with the heaters and shades even though the temperature was in the forties. It was funny to listen to Diana and Will deciding on which steak and preparation they were going to share. I loved my sea bass and had some leftovers for lunch on Wednesday. It was a real treat to hang out and have a meal with Will and Christine. We had debated which night to meet and it was fortuitous that we chose Tuesday as all onsite dining shut down in California on Wednesday.
Diana chose to start her birthday with a run – and conquered the zig-zag path up the hill – most impressive. She had texted a picture to Marco (the ultra-marathoner) and asked if he thought she could do it. He coached her to stand up straight and take little strides – seemed to work. After her run we did another walk over for coffee and then enjoyed a sandwich from Dinosaur’s – such great Vietnamese sandwiches on yummy bread.
Those are lobsters that he caught diving and they were delicious. While the cooking was underway, Diana was reviewing her hand made cards from the boys.
We listened to the Ann Cleeves book “Raven Black” on the second section of our drive. This is the first in the Shetland series – I read the 4th “Blue Lighting” a year or two ago, a gift from Mum and Dad and enjoyed it. This one was a tad formulaic with the introduction and exploration of all potential guilty parties and Diana and I enjoyed trying to figure out who we thought were the leading contenders. Neither one of us was close.
The reprise of the road trip to California was scheduled to begin early on Friday morning and so we exchanged some gifts from under the tree on Thursday evening. I’m always so impressed with Diana’s wrapping skills. She got a special edition book of Winnie the Pooh stories and is looking forward to me reading bedtime stories from it. I’m working on the voices – it seems like everyone sounds a bit like Eeyore.
Saturday began with a walk across the hotel parking lot to the Marigold Café, a new place since our last trip. It combines Indian and American foods with New Mexico influences in creative ways. For example, my breakfast taco was served in fresh naan bread rather than a tortilla and included some delicious green chilis. Diana’s avocado toast was also excellent and she raved about the bacon. I’d like to return and sample the tikka mac ‘n cheese.
After checking into the lovely, historic La Fonda hotel, we walked over to Canyon Road and had a ramble past all the art galleries and sculpture gardens that line the street. I really enjoyed these wind machines – so creative and attention grabbing.
We walked back to the square and then enjoyed coffee and a slice of quiche at the hotel. I was interested to see the red chilis hung as ornaments on the square. Here’s the view from our hotel room balcony. The cathedral bells are quite loud. Fortunately the Trump rally (no masks in sight) in front of the cathedral cleared out quickly.
Why did we take the time to detour up to Santa Fe on an already long road trip you ask? Very solid question. Our friends Amy and Ray were getting married on Saturday evening at the La Fonda hotel. We hadn’t planned on attending but couldn’t say no after Amy heard we were just going to be an hour away in Albuquerque. Here’s Diana dressed up for the wedding with the favour that Amy left at the front desk – red chili peppers.
We loaded up and headed out early on Sunday morning – destination Las Vegas – a mere 8 hours of driving away. On the road by 8am and we should be relaxing at the lovely Aria hotel on the Vegas strip by 6pm or so. All was smooth with some slow initial going on the snow in Santa Fe and the pace picking up when we merged onto the interstate down to Albuquerque. And then everything changed – and not for the better. There were multiple semi-truck accidents on I40 – we sat stopped on the highway amidst all the trucks for 2 hours straight at one point.
After our quick dinner, we walked down the strip to Bellagio and watched the fountain show with Christmas music. Always such an impressive sight. On the way we passed through a new and extremely upscale mall called “Crystals” something or other. We were amazed at this tree where each ornament was one of the Swarovski crystal special editions – I hate to think how much it cost to decorate that tree.
Passing the smaller Eiffel tower at Paris hotel reminded us of a wonderful dinner we enjoyed there and of the very special 50th birthday dinner that we enjoyed with Mum and Dad at the real version in the real Paris.
After a busy Thanksgiving weekend, this week was very quiet with our only real outing to downtown McKinney for coffee today. Diana took my picture with the Xmas display outside the coffee shop. Not quite a Christmas card since Diana and BP didn’t make it in.
She said several times that the grilled lobsters were perfectly cooked. A nicely cooked sea bass makes me happy. So we were both very happy with our meals – and had plenty of leftovers for a late dinner. I laughed when we checked in on the chaos at Amy and Adamo’s home and heard that Adamo had said, “maybe we can go out for lobster on Thanksgiving twenty years from now.”
After Peche, we walked across the street to the Parker Jazz Club (capacity reduced from over 100 to 30) and enjoyed our first live music in 9 months with 12 other folks. Kris and the team are trying really hard to keep the place going with very limited seating weekend shows and live-streaming. The house band was excellent as always – although the new drummer over plays too much for my liking. Kris might have played almost all of his 8 or 9 instruments – going from bass flute to multiple saxophones and a flugelhorn.
Brunch was at the Odd Duck – one of my top three Austin brunch spots. The shrimp and grits with a perfectly cooked deep fried egg were fabulous, as was the ceviche with green curry sauce. It’s always so hard to choose from all the options – and the menu is new every time we go. Diana loved their take on the Paloma cocktail. I’m now expected to try and replicate that – oops, maybe she’d forgotten already and I just reminded her.
Sunday was a dry day and so we were able to execute a 4 mile circuit around the river trail, culminating with another snack at TacoDeli. Then another excellent brunch at Suerte – my top ranked Mexican restaurant. The masa that they make all the corn tortillas and tostadas from is ridiculously good. Diana had a smoked salmon tostada and I tried the bacon and sweet potato tetela (like a corn based pie with bacon and sweet potato puree inside). They were both perfect – particularly the mornay sauce, which I learned is a classic béchamel sauce enriched with a blend of Gruyère and Parmesan cheeses. We have really missed the creative food that is so readily available in Austin. And the great live music.
After brunch we met our friend Neffie at Fixe – a new place she introduced us to that specializes in southern comfort food – supposedly the best biscuits (scones) in Austin.
We passed this sign on the walk to Fixe – so nice to be able to walk everywhere again. My Mum had just been telling us the story of the Battle of Bannockburn where the English tried to sneak up on the Scots at night, taking their boots off for stealth, but were foiled by the thistles that made them yelp and awake the sleeping Scots. And like a responsible Scotsman who payed attention in History class, I do indeed remember that happened in 1314.
When I left you last Sunday, we were sporting our “Flu Fighter” band-aids. Diana added her “I Voted” sticker in the afternoon and reported that the line to vote at the fire station was short when she arrived a few minutes before the early voting opened.
Andy and Jude (Clorinda’s wonderful neighbours) won the most creative card award. This is a picture of Clorinda and accompanist from around 60 years ago. Andy made a mask for the accompanist from the same material as her dress – very nice detailed work.
I think Clorinda enjoyed sitting talking to and watching her newest grand-daughter, Francesca, more than anything else. She’s such a good and happy baby – Amy certainly deserved that third time around.
Kenny (New Orleans Fire Department Station Chief) recommended “The Cooperating Witness” by Mike Avery, a friend of his who now lives in New Orleans. Interestingly Kenny is currently working on a memoir of his 30 years on the NOFD. I suspect there are going to be some very compelling stories in there, including the months when he lived at the fire house during Hurricane Katrina. Here’s a little bit about Michael Avery from his website:
The other book that I enjoyed this week was “Chinaberry Sidewalks” by Rodney Crowell, a singer songwriter raised in dirt poor conditions in Houston in the 1950s and 60s. I’ve enjoyed his music and the albums he produced for Rosanne Cash and others for several years, and enjoyed his memoir a lot.
We took advantage of New Orleans restaurant week, where many places offer reduced prix fixe meals, for dinner at La Petite Grocery – one of our favourites with consistently good food. I enjoyed crab bisque, Parisian gnocchi, and butterscotch pudding. The pudding has been on their menu for over 10 years for good reason – served like a pot du 
creme with excellent flavour. Diana ordered from the regular menu and loved her steak tartare and scallops. Such a nice treat to enjoy a fabulous meal with Denny and Anne.
beach in the morning. On the way back from the beach we all rented bikes at Big Daddy’s for easy transportation to and from the beach (parking was very limited) and then Diana and I made a run to Publix (local grocery store chain) for dinner supplies. We cooked up chicken fajitas on the grills at the expansive common area by the community pool.
The weather cleared up on Sunday and we spent the morning at Goat Feathers beach – I’m not sure that’s the official name but the access is beside the Goat Feathers seafood shop and so that’s what it’s called by the krewe. The sea continued to be very choppy with double red flags indicating nobody should even think about going on. Denny picked up some lovely fresh shrimp there and made an excellent pasta to go with them. He’s such a great cook and makes it look so easy.
Monday was a driving day – from Florida back to New Orleans. We arrived around 3pm and were able to meet up with Kenny and Kara, and later Denny and Anne, for a snack at Val’s, a new Mexican restaurant that is very similar to Suerte in Austin. They server street tacos and other authentic Mexican fare. The elotes (corn on the cob with “fixin’s”) are delicious.
The audio book of “Where the Crawdads Sing” kept us company as we traversed the mountains, mesas, and then wide, flat open spaces to Amarillo. We were most certainly road weary on arrival at the downtown Courtyard – this one is part of the “historic” collection and is a remodeled downtown bank building. It certainly has a lot more character than most. Only in this kind of rural location can you stay in a corner suite with wrap around windows for $102.
My book on the road trip was “All Adults Here” by Emma Straub. This is a very enjoyable ensemble family drama, set in small town Connecticut. Three generations of Stricks play out their lives in quite different fashions, and it’s all very enjoyable and engaging.
There was an issue with Clorinda’s hot water heater that Marco was in charge of remedying. He tried to enlist friends to assist with the replacement – this was unsuccessful but one friend did recommend the Vietnamese sandwiches from Dinosaur’s. I filed that away and we ordered a variety of those for lunch on Monday. We sat outside and enjoyed these on Amy and Adamo’s patio. My portobello was delicious.
hosts as usual and showed us videos of the resident mountain lion and cub playing in their fountain. The wildlife on Gypsy Hill has expanded quite a bit over the last year – deer were the main attraction but now we have added bobcats, mountain lions, and wild turkeys. Really, seven wild turkeys were congregated outside Clorinda’s kitchen window on Monday afternoon. I understand they peck at the glass pretty relentlessly – doesn’t seem like very “wild” behaviour.
On Friday we drove down to San Luis Obispo (home of Cal Poly where Will studied Mechanical Eng) with a brief stop to see Will at his office in the afternoon. It was entertaining to see his face when one of his co-workers told him “Your Dad’s here” – not what he was expecting at all. Will gave us a tour of the school that he’s remodeling and then we were on our way south.
After D’s morning exercise, we drove to Alicia’s house for breakfast. She made us some amazing Bloody Mary’s with crispy bacon stirrers and avocado toast – definitely becoming quite the hostess.
Sunday took us on down the coast to Pacific Beach in San Diego to meet up with Campbell and Molly. Diana found an excellent hotel room for us on the beach at a boutique hotel called Tower 23. The balcony had a great view of all the action on the beach.
Campbell and Molly came over and joined us on the balcony for a while before we went downstairs for dinner at the Jordan restaurant in the hotel. Then they came back upstairs to watch the last of the sunset. I really enjoyed Molly telling us that, having to much time listening to Campbell’s sales pitches and follow up, she could easily tell the story for him. I particularly enjoyed her rendition of “and what have you” – something I say quite a bit.
My fancy new kettle arrived on Monday. It allows me to heat water to the perfect temperature for my fancy new cafetiere – 96 degrees, and also features a “goose-neck” spout for precision pouring. I know people in Guatemala who take the art of preparing coffee way more seriously than this – they have three different setups for different styles of coffee. So I’m not that nuts at least.
The Bakersfield sound is a sub-genre of country music developed in the mid-to-late 1950s in and around Bakersfield, California. … Wynn Stewart pioneered the Bakersfield sound, while Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, and Merle Haggard and the Strangers are the two most successful artists of the original Bakersfield era. We stayed just off Buck Owens Blvd and I played a couple of his songs for Diana on the drive.
I finally finished the Robin Williams biography this week. The first half was a bit of a slog but the second half really captured my attention. What a tortured and supremely talented individual. I forgot how many wonderful movies he made in the early 90s – “Good Morning Vietnam” being the first big breakout from stand-up comedy to blockbuster movies, followed by Awakenings, The Fisher King and many others. It seems that a lot of people took advantage of his kindness and generosity. Very sad that he couldn’t ultimately handle his Parkinson’s diagnosis.