Random Trips & New Beginnings

Wow--I suck. I'm really sorry for all of my fans out there...all 3 of you. But I'm going to really push to be consistent. Starting today I'll catch you up on some amazing things happening in my life.



I went to Ottawa. Eh? Yeah, Ottawa. My cuz and her Canadian roomie and I drove one fine day to Wolfe Island, halfway between New York and Canada but definitely part of Canada. The island has one thoroughfare that passes through the city center (a general store or two, a post office, a bakery, and the ferry) and ends on the opposite side of the island where Sarah's house is at the furthest point. Their cottage is small and quaint with sweeping views of the St. Lawrence River from their windows. After book-reading, scrabble playing and wine-drinking the first night (apparently lots of Canadians bottle their own wine--good or bad), we retired to the smell of the wood-burning stove and silence.




The next day we spent the day in Kingston, once the original capital of Canada. This is the next town over the St. Lawrence, and where Sarah attended university. It has a very small-town feel, with plenty of boutiques and stores to keep one occupied. Roots is a store that plenty of college kids waste their money at buying $60 sweatpants that tout their symbol of a beaver and spout words of wisdom about our waning environment. That evening we found a local pub full of happy-hour-goers that offered an excellent option--SORRY! tableside. Cuz was bitter at her losses which made me grin.


We found the purpose for our visit the next day--Ottawa's famous tulip festival. Ottawa is also known for their Winterlude, which I hope to attend some day in my life. "Hey look kids, Big Ben, Parliament". The war memorial featured the only black tulips of the festival. Ottawa is a very clean city, until they get into the Stanley Cup and then fill the streets with their red-painted bodies and dogs sporting Senators jerseys! It was a perfect day to be in Ottawa as the main street was shut down to allow paraders cheering space for their favorite hockey team. (Tough break for them as we now know what happened in the Stanley Cup.) Near the large man-made lake in Ottawa is where we found the most tulips. Some sections lay in carnage--bare dirt and dried out bulbs from those early bloomers. Others were a sea of brilliant colors. Despite it being the last weekend for the festival, it wasn't as crowded as you'd ever see DC with the Cherry Blossoms.

















D and I just returned from 4-5 days in Texas. We never dreamed in a million years we would go to Texas, but for Sara, a thousand times yes. Sara and Alan got married on June 9th in a lovely country club/ballroom setting, just a stone’s throw away from Caesar & Venus Baths (where strippers bathe you—hot dawg!) We seemed to notice this a lot about Texas. Cross the street and you enter another world. But I can’t forget the excellent rehearsal dinner at the South Fork Ranch with key meal items of smoked brisket and cinnamon ice cream (different courses obviously). The South Fork Ranch, home to the TV show Dallas was much smaller than I expected. Turns out they only shot the outdoor scenes and pool scenes here, and the rest was done in California. Nevertheless, the tractor ride to dinner and schmoozing at the Ewing’s pool was quite memorable. Apparently the only people that get to use that pool are the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. I guess everyone has minimum standards.




Sara was absolutely beautiful as a bride, and she seemed very much smitten with Alan. I was so honored to be a part of her wedding day, and will cherish those memories for a long time.





















To maximize our time in Texas, we went down a day early and went to Austin and San Antonio. Austin is a very fun college-oriented town with tons of live music and entertainment. With a saying “Keep Austin weird” you can see they aren’t very interested in following the Texas stereotypes. We stayed in a cute B&B, and one evening waited for the largest population of urban bats to emerge from the Congress Avenue bridge downtown. They were taking way too long, and the BBQ place was going to close so we had to abandon them. Ironworks was totally worth the ambience though. While the food wasn’t spectacular (Texans seem to gravitate toward beef ribs rather than pork which I think are too tough), the swinging wooden door, strings of lights and cold beer were perfect for the humid evening. I felt like Ashley Judd for a few minutes...sweaty and southern. We mosied (often a difficult thing to do post BBQ) up to 6th Street to find some live music and came to Nunos. Inside jammed Pinetop Perkins at 94 years young and his crew. Pinetop pulled himself up on the stage with a cane topped with piano keys, a cigarette in his mouth, and dip in the lip on the other side. Ashtray promptly place on the edge of the keyboard, he had the ability to take me to a different place. I crave the blues. We also went to the Friends bar before hopping in our Mustang rental and returning to bed. The next day we walked around the UT campus, spotted lots of orange and the infamous Texas Tower. we also visited the flagship Whole Foods store which had 5 restaurants inside and samples galore, and ate some more Tex-Mex.






At 1 pm we had nothing else to do, and didn't want to return to Dallas yet, so we hopped in the 'stang and drove another hour further to San Antonio. Luckily game traffic had not begun yet, and we were able to get to the Alamo with ease. The Alamo is Ran-Dum. It is literally situated amongst city buildings and in the center of a block. Directly across the street is a tourist trap of Ripley's Believe it or not and Texas souvenir stores. Just down the hillside sits the Riverwalk, which is also a bit strange. I thought it would be an actual river with a river side and a beautiful atmosphere. It was a canal, with concrete sides and while it housed plenty of restaurants, bars and stores, it lacked any authenticity. It had been built with Disneyfication in mind.