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Three Days in Buffalo

Buffalo, New York, was the town we would always drive through to get to Canada. We rarely even stopped for lunch, knowing that once we got across the border, Niagara-on-the-Lake and the Niagara Wine Trail with its many wineries and good food, was less than an hour away.

This last week, the catalyst to not only stop in Buffalo, but stay a few days and explore everything the city had to offer, was because of a special Frank Lloyd Wright exhibition at the Martin House.

It was wonderful to be back in the car again. And our first road trip since our visit to New Hampshire and Maine last September! We got a late start because of a sump pump and a dehumidifier that were both misbehaving in the Red House. We almost made it to the Thruway when Lynn thought he might want to triple check that he had turned everything off. So, we drove back home and to insure a “better safe than sorry” philosophy, he simply unplugged the offending basement appliances.

Charlie the Butcher’s Kitchen

Have you ever had a “beef on weck?” We had stopped many years ago at Schwabl’s in West Seneca (about 10 minutes from Buffalo) to eat their famous hand-carved roast beef on a weck roll. If you don’t know what a weck is, well, it’s like a Kaiser roll but with salt and caraway sprinkled on top. (It’s also short for “kummelweck”; Kümmel means caraway in German.) Side note: I wrote about how amusing some German words are in my last Substack short story, “Dill with a Capital D” and Kümmel was mentioned in the story if you’d like to read it.

We walked into this particular Charlie the Butcher location (there are now several) and ordered two beefs on weck and split an order of onion rings. I slathered on a generous dollop of horseradish as well as mustard on mine, and yes, it was delicious.

Richardson Olmsted Campus

After lunch we headed over to the Richardson Olmsted Campus and discovered the Lipsey Architecture Center on the lower floor of the Richardson Hotel. The Center did a wonderful job of highlighting many of the historically important buildings in Buffalo which suddenly gave us that much more to see over the next few days. The campus, which opened in 1880, was once the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane. Designed by Henry Hobson Richardson (hence the current name), as well as the landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted (who also designed New York City’s Central Park), it is an astonishing complex. Many of the buildings are in ruin and if you walk around the grounds, the ones still standing kind of give off a Jack Nicholson’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest vibe. Much of the complex fell into disrepair in 1974, but luckily the property was saved from the wrecking ball and is now owned by a private developer. Here are a couple of photographs.

Wright Designed a Boathouse?

We have frequently driven on I-190 heading either towards Niagara Falls or the Peace Bridge when traveling to Toronto. Somehow, we missed the fact that Frank Lloyd Wright had designed a boathouse in 1905 which, however, wasn’t built until 2007. (The building is practically impossible to see from the highway even if you are leaning out of a car.) It reflects many Wright details (small square windows and a flat roof) and is now managed by a rowing club. Apparently, it can also be rented out for weddings, etc.

Then, Louis Sullivan & Dankmar Adler

Thanks again to the very thorough timeline of important Buffalo buildings at the Lipsey Architecture Center, we discovered that the Guaranty Building, designed by the aforementioned gentlemen, had been saved from the wrecking ball (yeah!), and was most recently renovated in 2008.

Currently owned by the law firm Hodgson Russ LLP, there is a wonderful (and free) exhibition in the lobby that details the history of the building when it was built in the late 1890’s. At the time it was the tallest building in Buffalo. What was really cool about this building is that it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. There are many terra cotta blocks, circular windows on the top floor of the building that let in light, and numerous decorative features that hide the steel-frame construction.

A Drive-By of Two Other FLW Houses

We have been on other Frank Lloyd Wright house tours where people simply show up and try to finagle their way into the house. Or they pretend they were lost or late, and on one tour we were on, the couple was bold enough to park their car in the driveway! I’m very sensitive to people who are lucky enough to own Frank Lloyd Wright houses. I also have to assume they don’t want people photographing their properties or banging on their doors. Therefore, we did a quick drive-by of two other FLW houses near the sprawling Delaware Park which though I briefly photographed, I will not share. I will say that the houses were on the smaller side, but I think it might be kind of fun to live in one of his houses at least for a while.

Dinner – Bacchus Wine Bar

After checking into the hotel (Holiday Inn had the cheapest mid-week rate we could find in Buffalo), we headed for dinner. We hadn’t been out to dinner since Christmas (really!), so I was looking forward to having someone cook for me. I won’t go into how much it pains me to look at restaurant menu prices these days, but I do understand the struggles many restaurants are facing to simply stay afloat what with surging food costs and an ongoing labor shortage. However, if you are billing yourself as a “wine bar,” it would be nice to have a wine list that doesn’t make you crazy when you look at the mark-up. While I did find a bottle that wasn’t outrageous and it was drinkable, I was annoyed at having to spend that much time reading a menu to find something we could afford. That said, the food was very good. I hadn’t had foie gras in a long time and Bacchus’ version was delicious. (Yes, that’s a waffle cradling the duck liver. I’m not a big fan of waffles, but it did in fact pull the dish together.) They were also running a halibut special that night with an asparagus risotto that I couldn’t refuse. We skipped dessert, finished the wine, and walked around the area afterwards.

Did you know that Buffalo had a tram? Neither did I. It reminded me of Europe. (I think they actually call it a Light Rail.) And that there are so many interesting buildings to see? I didn’t either. (I did read that at one time Buffalo was considered to be second only to Chicago in its collection of architecturally significant buildings.)

Day Two

In the “old” days we would avoid hotel breakfasts like the plague. Today, with the cost of a bagel sandwich (egg/cheese/bacon) pushing $10, plus a cup of coffee another $3, I’m always looking for a hotel that includes some sort of breakfast with the rate. It wasn’t the worse breakfast we ever had. They had run out of anything that resembled bread by the time we got downstairs, but they had loads of cheese omelets and something that was pretending to be a miniature cinnamon bun. Neither killed us.

Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site

We had time before we could get into see the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit, so we decided to visit the Ansley Wilcox House, also known as the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site. Anyone ever wonder what the Pan-American Exposition was like? Well, I didn’t, but I now know a bunch of fun facts about what was happening back in 1901! There were parades! And music! And rides! There were even commemorative stamps issued! It was also where President William McKinley was shot. Theodore Roosevelt (VP at the time and vacationing up in the Adirondacks) had to high tail it to Buffalo to take the oath of office. Not an easy task in 1901 since this journey involved a wagon, a horse, and finally, a train. According to our tour guide (this is a National Park Service site), Roosevelt was standing right where the small round table is in the photo below when he was sworn in. Again, this was a house that was slated for demolition in the 1960’s, but a group of people got together to save it which is how it’s now a national historic site.

Finally, The Imperial Hotel At 100

Titled “Thought Built,” the show on view at the Barton House (as part of the Martin House complex), celebrates the short legacy of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Japan. The exhibition succinctly detailed Wright’s creativity and sheer determination to be awarded the commission of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Japan. After three years of sketching possible designs (1913), Wright was finally awarded the project in 1916. It took another seven years for the hotel to be built and while the hotel officially opened on September 1, 1923, it was also the very same day that a massive earthquake destroyed much of the capital as well as Yokohama. While the hotel managed to survive the earthquake with minimal damage (due to the way it was designed), by 1968 the hotel was demolished to make room for a high-rise.

Every time I see a Frank Lloyd Wright house, I discover something new. This time around it was learning of Wright’s love for Japanese woodblock prints and how he especially liked to bring back small gifts from Japan for many of his clients.

If you haven’t seen any photographs or renderings of the Imperial Hotel, I strongly encourage you to research it. The hotel complex is really amazing. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take any photographs in the exhibit, but I did manage to get a photograph of the conservatory with a full-size replica of the Winged Victory of Samothrace. (I looked up who/what and why this sculpture is famous and discovered that the original has been at the Louvre since 1884.) We had visited the Martin House years ago, but it was nice to see it again.

When in Buffalo You Gotta Have Wings!

We thought about going to the famous Anchor Bar for wings, but since they’ve become a chain (12 locations and counting apparently), we decided to give our dollars to a more local establishment that specialized in burgers and wings. Were the wings good? Yep! How good? So good that we ate them all before I remembered I didn’t take a picture. We also sat outside, which was lovely, since the rain that had been forecast for the entire week never materialized. We drank a couple of beers and got extremely messy with the wings and a side order of fries. (Allen Burger Venture is the name of the establishment if anyone is interested.)

The Future of Parking

Going to segue here and talk about parking a bit. And apps. I love apps. And I love finding a parking spot right near where I want to be. What I don’t like is having to feed a parking meter three blocks away from where I am parking. And then having to go back to my car to put a flimsy piece of paper on the dashboard to show whoever is checking that I paid to park. If it’s windy the day you are doing this particular maneuver, all I can say is make sure that the little piece of paper you are probably clutching in one hand doesn’t fly out the window. (This happened to us once when we were in lower Manhattan and all I can say is “Ugh.”)

Buffalo has a system where you download their parking app, they charge your credit card, and when you are ready to park, you find out what zone you are in by looking at some of the street signs. Then you indicate on the app how long you want to park at that particular spot. At first, I was a little bit weirded out by this new gizmo (for me), but afterwards I thought it was brilliant. You can also add time via the app so no more running back to a car or feeding a meter!

Niagara Falls Next

I know it’s touristy, but I love going there! It’s not like we haven’t been to Niagara Falls before, we have. It’s just that I love seeing waterfalls and I justified going back up to the falls because I’m doing research for a new book. Also, Niagara Falls is less than 30 minutes from Buffalo and if you have the Empire Pass like we do, you can get into the state park for free.

The last time we had been to the falls it was very crowded. This particular Thursday in May it wasn’t too crowded, and we asked someone to take a photograph of us so we could compare it to the shot we took seven years ago! (Apparently, my hair was a different color then.) But I noticed that we were standing in nearly the same spot as the last time! (See the skyscrapers on the Canadian side?) Also, since 2017, the park service has changed the guardrails and added coin-operated binoculars.

After seeing the falls, taking some photographs, and even paying $1.25 each to walk onto the Observation Deck, as well as down to “Crow’s Nest,” (we didn’t see any crows just people), we drove back to Buffalo.

Buffalo AKG Art Museum

Like the rest of the sites to see in Buffalo, we had never been to this museum. I was disappointed in how few people were visiting given that it was their late night (open until 8 p.m.!) But we walked through the galleries and admired the collection, and most importantly, the building. They’ve also built a terrific addition to the museum with ample light and walkways to make the visit enjoyable.

Here’s a money saving tip if you like to visit as many museums as we do. If you purchase a museum membership at a sustaining level or higher, you’ll usually get into a host of other museums for free if they are part of NARM (National American Reciprocal Museum Association). I shopped around for the cheapest sustaining membership I could find. And, now ironically, because we are members of the Adirondack Experience, The Museum on Blue Mountain Lake, people think we live in the Adirondacks. Which suits me just fine.

The Edward Hotel and Hutch’s for Dinner

Normally, I choose a hotel based on its proximity to where I want to eat dinner. The restaurant was Hutch’s. The boutique hotel, The Edward, was a mere five-minute walk away, so that’s where we stayed our second night. (I generally try to avoid driving after dinner if there are cocktails and wine involved.)

A few years ago, we experienced our very first contact-free check-in when we were traveling around Cape Cod. While I originally thought it was because of the pandemic, I’m finding that more and more hotels are adopting this method of getting into your room because it saves on labor costs. I realize this will probably be the wave of the future and eventually I will get used to someone texting me a code to the front door of the hotel as well as the room. The upside is you don’t have to see or talk to anyone. The downside is that if there’s a problem with the room, it may be impossible to fix. The Edward was reasonably priced, clean and very quiet. It also had on-site parking, which strangely the Holiday Inn we stayed at did not. If I stay there again though I would spend the extra $20 to upgrade to a suite because the room we chose (The Madison) was small. And one side of the bed was pushed against the wall. Guess which side of the bed was mine? Not the good side.

When we walked into Hutch’s, the place was bustling with activity. The menu was inventive, and the wine list was impressive in both its range of bottles as well as price points. Could we get three appetizers and just split an entree? Absolutely. There were oysters, then escargot, and because they had a soft-shell crab special, we had that too. We split a steak (it was very expensive), but they carved it perfectly for us to share. And yes, we even had a sticky toffee pudding for dessert!

Let me just mention that I have lost count of how many times I have to ask a server for a soup spoon or large serving spoon so that if we are splitting a dish, I can be ladylike about it. The fact that our server dropped a big spoon (and tongs!) at our table without even being asked, well, it just notched up the whole dining experience for me.

No Boat Ride, Alternate Plans – Day Three

Right before we had left for dinner the night before, I had gotten a phone call from someone at the boat company we had booked a tour with. Apparently, we were the only ones who had signed up for a 12:30 tour of the Buffalo River and she wanted to know if she could switch us to a later tour that day. Since there were a few other things in Buffalo that we still wanted to see, and I didn’t want to get home super late, we declined. Luckily, she was kind enough to refund our money.

That said, now with our morning free, we drove down to see “Silo City.” We didn’t get really close to any of these massive structures, but it was impressive to see many of these big grain elevators still standing.

Afterwards, we went on the hunt to find where the Larkin Building used to be. Designed for the Larkin Soap Company by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1903, at the time it was described as one of the largest office buildings in the world used by a single firm. And because the building was so unique, even in 1908, the company was giving tours to over 50,000 people a year. Unfortunately, in 1945 the property was foreclosed on for back taxes and by 1950 the entire building was demolished. Many architectural historians describe this destruction as “the most significant loss of an architectural icon in the history of North America.”

After the building was torn down, the only indication that the Larkin was ever there is a commemorative sign and a brick pillar at one end. (The site was supposed to be a truck stop but now it’s just a parking lot.)

It seems that the general theme of this trip has been to gaze at historical plaques where buildings used to be and marvel at the ones that somehow were saved.

We had now run out of things to do in Buffalo. It was still too early to head home (really, barely noon), so we thought we’d drive further west to visit a couple of lighthouses on Lake Erie that I had always wanted to see. So we did – Dunkirk and Barcelona. Which do you think I liked better?

Until our next “Let’s Go” adventure.

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Back to Maine & New Hampshire & Lake George, Too

First Stop – Fort Ticonderoga

The sound of the cannons being fired over the fort wall were loud. It was a warm sunny day and we found ourselves very happy to be back on the road again. Just under 2.5 hours from our house, the long tree-lined drive up to Fort Ticonderoga reminded me of trips we had done in the south visiting historical homes. Overlooking Lake Champlain, this 18th century fort had barracks to explore, fortified walls to climb, and most importantly, an amazing garden to “ooh and aah” over.

Our guided interpreters weren’t using real cannon balls that afternoon but dressed as British soldiers and American “provincial soldiers,” they put on a good show in pretending to defend the fort during the French and Indian War. We also learned about shoemaking and tailoring in the 1760’s and as much as we tried to get our “soldiers” to fall out of character by suggesting they order their britches from Amazon rather than sewing them by hand, they didn’t take the bait.

After holding our hands over our ears after the cannon firing, we headed towards the greenery. Called the “King’s Garden,” there is a bountiful vegetable garden (much of which was used I was told to create salads in the fort’s cafe) as well as an astonishing array of colorful flower beds and herbs. The fort was nice but truthfully, I could have sat in the garden all day.

Look at the lettuce, the over-sized sunflower, and the orange and yellow marigolds!

Here are some details from the garden door entrances and a lovely fountain in a reflecting pool.

After we left the garden, we had one last thing to visit before we left the area – Mount Defiance. A short 10-minute drive from the fort, a token we were given when buying the tickets had to be inserted into what looked like a parking meter. The people in front of us were having a bit of a problem with this task. It turned out that the distance between the meter and the driver’s side of the vehicle was too far. This meant that someone had to get out of the car, insert the token, then quickly jump back in the car so you didn’t run the risk of having the barrier gate hit your windshield. Sigh. Was this the best (only?) idea someone could come up with to give visitor’s access to the road that led up to the Mount? Once we dealt with this annoyance, the view at the summit of Lake Champlain and the fort in the distance was pretty amazing. We stayed a bit longer than planned to hear our costumed interpreter talk about everything that was wrong with the fort. First of all, the walls surrounding the fort weren’t high enough to ward off invaders, and secondly, it was facing the wrong way. Today, however, when you look at the picture I took, it kind of looks like a halfway decent condo complex.

Lake George Revisited

After visiting the fort, we drove south to Lake George. Although we had driven through Lake George a few times coming back from someplace else (probably Canada), we hadn’t stayed in the area in 20+ years. Eschewing the more touristy Lake George main area, we settled on a family-run resort in Diamond Point.

The Juliana Resort was a quirky motel with ranch style accommodations. Before booking, the reservation site was very specific about your room amenities and views. Therefore, given the option of having a “parking lot view” or at least a glimpse of the lake, I chose the latter.

Well, it wasn’t the sprawling view of the lake I thought it would be and the “beach” aspect of the resort was probably the tiniest piece of sand I had ever seen, but there was a dock, and the mountains were pretty. Also, the room was clean, and the grounds were well-kempt with lots of grills and outdoor tables and even a wooden “Adirondack-style” swing that we did indeed swing in.

Dinner Options

If you remember my story from two years ago about our dearth of food options (and only a single food shot – BBQ in Richmond, VA), I was determined that was absolutely not going to happen on this trip. I planned hotel stays based around restaurants I wanted to dine in. In the Lake George area, I knew this would be a challenge since “red-sauce” and “wing-type” places outnumber any true culinary finds. Well, you probably know where this is going, right? The restaurant we ate in (which I will not name) on the first night of our road trip looked okay on their website. Right on the lake and only a short six-minute drive from the motel, it boasted not one but three outdoor decks, a no-reservation policy, and what they described as “stunning views.”

When we arrived for dinner, I didn’t see any food on anyone’s table. What I did see were half-eaten plates of nachos, bread baskets that appeared to have been untouched, and lots and lots of empty wine glasses. It’s not like we had the option of going anywhere else, right?

We ordered clam chowder (first mistake) that was mostly cream and potatoes. Lynn opted for a pork roast special that I have to assume no one else in the entire restaurant had ordered because they gave him what seemed like a family-sized portion. I had been craving a steak since the beginning of the summer and decided to order a tenderloin. The steak that came out was so overcooked it could only be described as “gray.” Even though it was actually fairly soft, it was tasteless. Hence, even more sighing on my part.

When I asked our server to take a picture of us that evening, briefly explaining to her that we hadn’t traveled in two years, nor had we been back to Lake George in over 20, she said, “Wow!”

I continued to tell her that I realized after working on a photo project this past summer that I had only found 72 photographs of us as a couple. When I showed her a photograph that was taken shortly after we first met, she said something very odd.

“You’re so small!”

I think she meant to say “young” but somehow “small” became her word of choice. Since Lynn is 5 foot 10 and I’m not much shorter (5 foot 8), I don’t think “small” is the way to describe us. But since we both have a sense of humor, we now like to ask each other in the morning, “How are you feeling?” Obviously, the answer is “I’m feeling small!”

In case anyone is curious. Do we look “small” in either of these photographs?

In the morning, I made the mistake of telling Lynn we would be having breakfast at a “flapjack-type of place” on the drive out of town. He seemed to misinterpret this as a breakfast spot that only serves pancakes. Consequently, I had to show him the menu since he’s really an egg-and-toast kind of guy. We actually had decent ham and cheddar omelets for breakfast and yes, I ordered a side of silver-dollar pancakes. Not only were they yummy, but I was happy they didn’t upcharge me for some real maple syrup to pour on top.

Destination: Lake Winnipesaukee

At some point during the pandemic, I had been getting emails from the Wolfeboro Inn in Wolfeboro, NH, on the above-mentioned lake. We hadn’t been to that part of New Hampshire, and it seemed like it might be scenic and fun. Luckily, there were also a couple of decent restaurants in town, so I thought why not? The hotel had seen better days, but it was also one of the few reasonably priced places to stay in Wolfeboro. Our room on the second floor looked out onto the central air conditioning unit of a lower building, and from what I could tell walking around the grounds, none of the rooms had a lake view. Luckily, dinner that night (not at the hotel) gave me faith that going forward quite a few good meals might be attainable.

Pavillon is a relatively new restaurant in Wolfeboro connected to a luxury boutique hotel. Focused primarily on small plates, we started with corn chowder and homemade parker house rolls. (I never order bread but couldn’t resist trying these.) Spätzle with roasted carrots and peas (shown below) was up next followed by a beet salad with watermelon, jalapeños and pepitas, and a scallop dish with pancetta, pea shoots, pea puree, and slices of peach that I really wanted to like. However, the peaches were tasteless and with a staggering price of over $40, I didn’t expect it to be oversalted. Nevertheless, we ended up getting dessert (a coffee crème brûlée) because I just happened to flip over the “after dinner” drink menu at the end of the evening. Having lived in Munich for nearly a decade, I was astonished to find a German brandy, Asbach Uralt, on the menu. Pours of this “Weinbrand” for a mere $10? I couldn’t resist ordering a glass.

A Gorgeous Day Visiting “Castle in the Clouds”

Wel, it wasn’t really a castle, but it was a very lovely historic house called the Lucknow Estate that was built in 1914 by Thomas and Olive Plant high up on a mountain overlooking Lake Winnipesaukee. Much of the house was inspired by the arts and crafts movement and the house had a couple of interesting pieces of furniture, as well as state-of-the-art appliances for the time. Castle in the Clouds had not been on my “bucket list” but I like to look at maps and find things for us to do rather than just hiking or day-drinking. Plus, I love touring old houses, so this ended up being a worthwhile visit.

There were gorgeous reading nooks, fireplaces, and decorative window trimmings to behold. There was an enormous laundry room with a sink I would like to have and a pipe organ that someone on our tour decided to play. There were skylights and let’s not forget the views! You could look outside a window and see the lake, and since we were truly “in the clouds” on this blue-sky day, the view was stunning. Dare I mention a “needle shower ” in the owner’s bathroom? Apparently, women were “discouraged” from bathing during this time period, but I think being pelted with all the water emanating from those shower heads might have been fun.

Onto Holderness and Squam Lake

After our tour of the house (as well as the basement which we paid extra for just to get an idea of the inner-workings of this luxury estate), we went in search of lunch. A lobster roll to be precise. We hadn’t originally intended to end up near Squam Lake, but I was intrigued by the reviews of Walter’s Basin Restaurant and the outdoor deck.

Here’s our lobster roll! With outstanding onion rings (not greasy!). And yes, when our server asked how it was, I told her it was one of the top FIVE lobster rolls of all time. She actually blushed! We ate our lobster rolls and watched a couple of boats come in and out of the neighboring marina.

Weir’s Beach, Then Dinner

Driving through Meredith (not much to see except a strange waterfall in the middle of town), we headed over to Weir’s Beach. Much of the town (similar to Lake George) had already shut down for the season. Walking through the town, it reminded me a bit of the old Asbury Park without the boardwalk, but a decent promenade with a view of the lake. I detoured a bit just to take a shot of the Weir’s Beach sign. Campy but cool! (I realized they don’t use an ” ‘s ” on their sign so maybe my spelling is incorrect.)

We headed back to Wolfeboro and walked around town a bit only to discover that most of the shops were already closed. We had made a reservation for dinner that night at Wolfetrap, a seafood place near the hotel. When we arrived for dinner at 6:30 (the last reservation we could get since the restaurant closes at 8 p.m.), we were greeted by a grumpy hostess who practically yelled, “Do you even have a reservation?” We assured her we did and waited a few minutes to sit at a large and somewhat uncomfortable wooden table outside on the deck. We had oysters which were described as “local,” but were actually from Prince Edward Island. (Not that local!) Lynn, for reasons known only to Lynn, ordered swordfish tacos that had a few pieces of fish thrown into a soft flour taco. Luckily, I fared better with a decent swordfish steak. The fact that we were back at the hotel by 8:16 pm., with not much to do for the rest of the evening, was uneventful.

Frank Lloyd Wright In Manchester

The Zimmerman house in Manchester, New Hampshire, had been on my radar for a while. Described on the Currier Museum website as “the only art museum in the world with two Frank Lloyd Wright homes,” tour times and tickets are limited with access to the homes only via the museum’s van. I had read about the Isadore and Lucille Zimmerman house (1950) but was surprised to also have a tour (three houses down) of the recently acquired Kalil house. So when we ended up on the van with a bunch of FLW “groupies,” each offering detailed descriptions of other houses they had seen (mostly in Wisconsin), I felt right at home.

Zimmerman was a doctor who lived in Manchester but decided to “downsize” to a ranch. Luckily, he and his wife were fond of Wright’s aesthetic and the world of Usonian architecture. This house was smaller than other Wright houses we had seen, but the signature Wright details were still there – custom-designed furniture, a galley kitchen, and small glass windows. I was also intrigued by the new-fangled appliances of the 1950’s which included a top-loading dishwasher. Since there was no basement in the house, even the furnace was stuck in a corner of what Wright described as a “workspace” rather than a kitchen.

There was also an open living room with one wall assuming the role of “long couch” and a very unique music stand. I think the Zimmerman’s must have had many lovely musical evenings in this room. Wright even designed a unique mailbox for this house which is still there today.

Mildred and Toufic Kalil House

Built in 1955, the house is one of only seven “Usonian” houses Wright designed. I wanted to like this house and appreciated FLW’s built-in furniture, but the house both inside and outside was constructed with concrete blocks. Although we were encouraged by our tour guides to sit down in the living room, the space reminded me too much of drab concrete buildings that sprang up all over post-war Europe. Here’s a few photographs to give you an idea.

Louis Kahn in Exeter and Following the Remnants of Hurricane Lee in Rockport

Apparently, we had once driven by the Louis Kahn library on the campus of Phillips Exter Academy, but I didn’t remember it! This time, with the help of a student, we managed to get inside the building. The Librarian on duty was not particularly amused by our being inside when students were “on campus.” She then proceeded to scold us and said we needed to make an appointment to visit the library. Suddenly, we were told to leave the building, and when I asked to take some photographs, she said “only one.” I decided to ignore her and quickly took over a dozen shots, but I couldn’t get the photograph I wanted. Why? Because there was an art exhibition in the space and someone had placed what looked like a big ball of chewing gum right in the middle of the famous ceiling.

We had time to kill before lunch, so we decided to drive up to Rockport and look at the water. Hurricane Lee had passed through 24 hours prior, so we were hoping to see some big waves. We got them! Along with a photograph of the “most painted building in the world” also known as Motif No. 1. I remembered we had a magnet on our fridge of this red fishing shack, purchased I believe when the town of Rockport was still “dry” (no alcohol sold or served in restaurants!) I’m glad to report this was abolished a few years ago but the fact that it was a law for over 162 years is mind-boggling.

Salem, Again

We had visited Salem two years ago and thought it was well, interesting. This time around it was very crowded, parking was limited, and we seemed to be surrounded by groups of young women dressed in black and wearing pointy witch hats. We went back to have lunch at a place right on the water where dinner had been decent. This time around our lunch was just okay. We walked around town, avoiding most of the touristy “witch-hunt” sites, and went to see the Peabody Essex Museum.

I liked this museum. Lynn thought the floor plan was difficult to read, but we saw a couple of interesting exhibits. It seems I’m always drawn to the gardens wherever I go, and the Peabody Essex provided a lovely outdoor space with an interesting fountain.

Over the years, we’ve stopped staying at Inns, preferring the anonymity of a larger hotel chain. However, all the hotel rooms in Salem were sold out that weekend and only because of a cancelled reservation a few minutes before I tried to book a room online did I find us a room. We didn’t really have to visit Salem again, but I had wanted to try a fairly new restaurant, Settler, that I had been reading about. Thus, we ended up at the Salem Inn, in a decent-sized room in one of their old houses. Breakfast was included in the room rate, but not only did you have to make a reservation for this meal, but also choose what you wanted to eat when you checked in! I found this tremendously annoying but did as requested. (9:30 a.m. – cheese and mushroom omelets, wheat toast, fruit, coffee.)

Dinner at Settler turned out to be the best meal of the trip. The only disappointment was a Martini that was lack-luster, and the excessive mark-up on the wine list. We ate our way through some lovely meze: tuna crudo with thinly sliced radishes; homemade falafel; a cozy dish of lamb merguez which is usually a sausage, but this was transformed into a meatball; house-made spaghetti with spicy clams; and a perfectly cooked halibut. Finally, we finished off the meal with not one but two desserts – a burnt Basque cheesecake with vanilla gelato and a chocolate tart with pistachio gelato. Was it delicious? Absolutely.

Kennebunkport, Maine, and the Atlantic Ocean

Remember we lived on Long Island for over 30 years so stopping to eat some clams and seeing the Atlantic Ocean shouldn’t have been a big deal. Maybe it was just the unusually warm September day. Or the fact that we were looking forward to seeing the beach again. Whatever it was, we stopped for lunch at Bob’s Clam Hut. There we both had a basket of fried clams but truthfully, we could have split one. It was good, but there was just too much food.

After lunch we drove to Kennebunkport. We had driven through the area two years ago on the way to Camden and I remember seeing people shuffling through town because it was so crowded. Luckily, this time the sidewalks were less busy, and when we checked into our motel, the Seaside Inn, we even managed to get upgraded to an oceanfront room.

We walked on the beach and afterwards just sat on our hotel balcony watching a few boats go by and a “ship-ahoy” themed weathervane spin on the top of a cupola. Actually, now that I look at the exterior shot of the Seaside Inn, it reminded me a bit of a place we used to stay at on Hilton Head Island!

I will only briefly mention dinner that night and our reason for being there in the first place. We had a nearly five-year-old gift certificate to the White Barn Inn that we were determined to use. We were the youngest couple at the restaurant and while the menu looked inspiring, the food that came out (regardless of what we ordered) had too much salt or cream or crunchy things. We opted for a cheese plate for dessert and were brought out a dish that looked like something a toddler might have cobbled together after standing on a stool to reach the fridge. To assure my readers that I’m not exaggerating, here it is:

Time to Go Home

Inevitably, it’s time to go home. Even when we were both working, we would try to delay the drive back by seeing one more sight and even having one more lunch. This time we decided to avoid I-95 for a while and travel down Route 1 through the towns of Wells, Oqunquit, and York. Along the way we found a roadside bakery and picked up some croissants. Then we found a road sign pointing us to Nubble Lighthouse. Who doesn’t like to see a lighthouse? Apparently, a lot of other people had the same idea that cloudy, gray day. After a mere 10-minute detour, we were awarded with a picturesque shot of this beauty. You actually can’t get to the lighthouse (it’s on a tiny island), but you do get a lovely view from the parking lot.

We drove home in the rain (and yes, stopped for one last lobster roll), hit annoying traffic until we got to Albany, and already started planning our next road trip.

Until our next “Let’s Go” adventure.

If you missed my new collection of short stories, The Camp People, it’s available on Amazon.

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Get In The Car

My new book, available on Amazon (2/2021) in both paperback and Kindle version, is a food and travel memoir. Written in 2008 (and just published this year), it’s the story of traveling with my husband, Lynn and two children. Canada, California and numerous European countries are some of the places we visit. Join us for the ride.

Here’s the link: https://www.amazon.com/GET-CAR-Food-Travel-Memoir/dp/B08WZFTWDM/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=julie+mccoy+get+in+the+car&qid=1614963641&sr=8-2#reader_B08WZFTWDM

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Twelve Courses: Backhouse

We had been to Backhouse in Niagara-on-the-Lake for lunch last fall. The restaurant, set in a non-descript row of shops away from the main tourist scene, was a definite find. We enjoyed our lunch so much that October afternoon that I was determined to return for dinner, and so we did two weeks ago.

Backhouse, with Chef Ryan Crawford at the helm, focuses primarily on wood-fired cooking. This means if you have the opportunity to sit at the “kitchen bar” you will get a first-hand look at everything that is being prepared, sliced, roasted, grilled and plated. It’s basically like getting a front row seat to see your favorite rock band.

Cooking on the line that night was a young woman who answered by the name of Chef Ashley. She was very busy making pasta, checking to make sure the fire in front of us was at the right temperature and adding more chunks of wood when it wasn’t. She was also stirring soups, tasting the dishes she was preparing and plating, too! It was fun watching her focus so intently on her craft.

The Beginning

I will admit I do read TripAdvisor reviews before I visit a restaurant. I also discount the ones that many people write when they complain about portions being small, a menu being “weird” and dishes too expensive. I figure those people shouldn’t be at that restaurant in the first place. (I will confess I am both a restaurant and food snob.)

After we had decided we were going to do the chef’s tasting menu of yes, twelve courses, two gorgeous silk cutlery rolls were placed before us.

The fact that we were given numerous utensils to choose from (big and small spoons, knifes, forks and even chopsticks) made such incredible sense to me. Not only could we, as diners, choose how we wanted to eat a certain dish, but it freed up the servers from having to run back and forth to replace our silverware after every course.

While some people I have read complained about this “gimmick,” I actually thought it was brilliant. Plus I loved the Asian feel of the roll and I can’t say that I’ve ever eaten with brass-colored silverware!

First Course

We started with an amuse bouche of a single gougère stuffed with duck liver mousse. Not only was this bite a delicious savory treat but I loved the vessel it was served in. Look at the feet!

Second Course

Lynn had eaten this dish before – a creamy egg mousse concoction nestled in an eggshell and topped with gorgeous hunter green kale “pearls.” It was a melt in your mouth treat and we both wanted more of it.

See what good eaters we are?

In between courses we got to look around at the restaurant decor. There was lots of wood. And wine. And the roaring fire in front of us.

And there were knives!

Third Course

This course amused me. It was essentially a potato on a plate with some spicy crumbled sausage on the side. In concept it looked like a variation of a hasselback potato but these were cut in the shape of a mille feuille. Hence, when you cut into it, you could see the very thin layers of this perfectly cooked potato. I took two shots of this dish; the first one as it was served to us. The second one I tore apart briefly with my fork to show you the layers.

Fourth Course

Next up was bread and butter. Now normally this isn’t even considered a “course” in most restaurants since most places will bring a basket of bread to the table once you’ve sat down. But at Backhouse both the bread and the butter are homemade and of course baked in the wood oven. I think we ate ALL of the sourdough bread before I remembered to take a picture. Luckily, I managed to snap a photograph of the three butters served that evening before being devoured as well.

Fifth Course

I love soup. I especially love root vegetable purées. Tonight’s featured soup special was a squash purée that was topped with some crispy prosciutto, a few cubes of roasted squash and what looked like a sage leaf but might have been a piece of crispy kale. The fact that we watched one of the chefs slice the prosciutto on a handy Italian slicer, then crisp it in a pan to be used in the soup was mouth-watering. (I also on occasion have fried up some prosciutto for breakfast instead of bacon. I prefer the taste and try to tell myself it’s a “healthier” option.)

Look at this gorgeous slicer! It’s sharp! It’s red! There was a trend in Munich in the 1970’s where it was considered perfectly normal to have a meat slicer in your home kitchen. There you could buy large quantities of smoked meats (salami, ham, bologna) and slice them up to feed cold cuts to your family. Since Germans ate a lot of cold cuts this struck me as being both practical and economical. We never had a meat slicer but it was probably a good kitchen gadget to have if one was so inclined to eat that way.

Sixth Course

A play on words describes our next course which was a salad. In “Leaf it to Ashley,” the chef noted above who was cooking for us that evening, it contained some greens (including frisée which I love), croutons, more prosciutto and a couple of other items that are beyond my description.

I need to divert here a bit and talk about the greenhouses in this area of Ontario. Crossing over the border near Buffalo and/or Niagara Falls we see a lot of land and trees. Once however we drive closer to St. Catherine and Hamilton, we see greenhouses. Massive greenhouses. The bulk of many of the vegetables I’m buying these days seem to come from these big greenhouses. Case in point, at my local Price Chopper, a good 75% of the produce (Boston lettuce, cucumbers, radishes, green onions and tomatoes) have a “Product of Canada” sticker on them. Since we are closer to Canada now, I actually prefer buying these food items rather than an avocado that comes from California or an orange from Costa Rica.

Seventh Course

Before this course was served to us, we got to observe another chef who was rolling out dough to make what looked like handmade penne. I won’t have to tell you that pasta is one of my favorite things to eat – macaroni and cheese in particular. (And yes, I do believe it’s a cardinal sin to bake said dish in the oven and top it with breadcrumbs!)

Imagine my delight then when we were served some thick rigatoni-like noodles tossed in a kale and walnut pesto with some shards of cheese on top. While I’m not a big kale fan (I find the stuff tasteless and cardboard-like), this absolutely worked in this dish. I know kale is supposed to be healthy, but hey, a girl can’t like everything!

Eighth Course

Even though it was a prix fixe set menu, our server let me switch out the guinea hen course (aka “chicken”) and have the spring trout instead. Lynn’s chicken, I mean guinea hen, came with some lovely beets. It was perfectly roasted but truthfully my trout with more kale (!) and some grainy mustard and horseradish was better.

Ninth Course

I’m tired of seeing “pork belly” on a menu. First of all, you can swear up and down about how good eating “fat” is. It’s not. Perhaps it’s because I grew up with more than the occasional fatty piece of meat at the dinner table that I could barely choke down and inevitably would try to get rid of whatever I was chewing by doing the cough-in-the-napkin-thing. This is why to this day I always prefer to order fish rather than meat when dining out. This was the only course so far that was just okay. Don’t get me wrong I love pork and ham and anything pork-like that is pulled or barbecued. It’s just that me and pork belly, well, I just don’t get it..

Tenth Course

And then when asked what type of cheese was available, I was told they had over 25 varieties! We were brought out a selection of three firm cheeses (including an amazing cheddar) and one soft. Where’s the cheese you ask? Apparently I forgot to take a photograph BEFORE we started to dig in and all that was left were a few slices of sourdough walnut and raisin bread and the remnants of the cheese slate.

Eleventh Course

In this part of Ontario, ice wine is a big deal. Since I detest sweet wines (and any type of dessert wine for that matter), ice wine and I are never going to be a couple. The ice wine “float” that they brought to the counter reminded me of the old school lemon sorbets certain “fancy” restaurants used to bring to you between courses. This was supposed to “cleanse your palate” – or prepare it so to speak – for the next course. Luckily, this “float” wasn’t terribly sweet, and I loved the bit of fun this course brought to the bar.

Ice wine was poured into a champagne glass holding a dollop of sorbet and some carbonated water was spritzed out of a soda siphon into the glass right in front of you. It worked.

Twelfth and Final Courses!

Beet Cake and Roasted Squash Crumble

Besides switching out my entree, I was also allowed to choose a different dessert. I usually get away with this because I say something along the lines of “wow, I’ve never had (insert name of dish here) before and I would really like to try it.” This kind of menu enthusiasm has never failed me.

Let me talk about one review about the beet cake that I read on TripAdvisor. Someone absolutely hated it which is why I so desperately wanted to try it. In fairness, you have to like beets and be okay with the fact that sometimes dessert doesn’t have to be sugary, sweet or have chocolate in it. The beet cake they brought out that evening had the consistency of a pound cake but with an intense savory beet topping. Was it the best dessert I’ve ever had? No. Was it the most creative? Yes.

Lynn’s dessert was a slice of roasted squash with some crumble and a mousse-like cream. I had some of his, too.

Finally, we are not gluttons. Each of the twelve plates served was truly a small plate, think tapas. It takes a long time to get through this meal (3 hours!) but it doesn’t drag on. There’s a lot to take in visually since the chefs are working right in front of you. Plus, there’s lots and lots of good Niagara escarpment wine to drink. And to that we say Cheers!