Econo Lodge

Hi Guys,

  I just realized I’m writing two fish stories in a row.  This one tells about  the traditional lobster dinner we have when visiting our New Bedford friends.  Now all of those friends live in the small towns adjacent to New Bedford.  But New Bedford is where Harriet, Bruce (and Dick and Bill) and I grew up so I think of all of them as my New Bedford friends. Jean and Eileen grew up next door in Dartmouth just down the street.  It is still a very favorite part of my world and now Randal’s too.  I wish I’d taken more photos, real staged ones to capture everyone with at least one good photo.  But I was too busy talking and then eating and then it was too late.  Next year I’ll get everyone to pose!

Ru

    During one of the long ago visits Randal and I made to friends in Dartmouth he was introduced to a New England Lobster dinner.  He was instantly hooked and our friends have happily made us a lobster dinner every year since. 

Eileen, the Lobster Queen

Eileen tackling the lobsters as Randal and Harriet watch.  Bill, Eileen’s husband, Harriet and Bruce.

    Harriet, Bruce and I have known each other for almost 60 years!  Bruce and I lived across Plymouth Street from each other so met before we started school.  Harriet moved to the corner of Burns and Plymouth when she was 6.  We’re all 62 this year…but I’m the oldest!   Bill, Harriet’s husband Dick, and my sister were in the same class at New Bedford High School. Dick grew up around the corner from Harriet.  Eileen and Jean are sisters.  Jean is married to Bruce.  Got that all?

Jean and Bruce and my lobster!

Earlier in the day Harriet had taken us to a great fish market where we got the lobsters.  It’s like watching a show as everyone comes in to buy all kinds of fish and the there’s no question that you ask that can’t be answered by someone behind the counter.  (I hadn’t brought either camera! Rats!)

Harriet brings in some more boiled corn.    Dick watching the action; Randal enjoying his lobster!

Econo Lodge

Hi Guys,

   So we’re on our way home!  We had a great weekend with our friends in Dartmouth that went all too fast.  All of our visits have gone TOO FAST.  Today we made a superfast pass through western Massachusetts stopping for about 10 minutes at Quabbin Reservoir.  The visitor center was sort of closed for a school program and there was no one to interact with non-school visitors so we left to go find lunch.  We did stop at the Yiddish Book Center on the campus of Hampshire College and that was really interesting: a feel good story!   A took a zillion photos.

So soon the last (thank goodness) debate will be on and we’ll watch some of it anyway.

  This email are some final photos of our visit in Brookline.

Ru

  While in Brookline we’ve started the tradition of having dinner at Legal Seafood and inviting Martha’s pal Gerard to join us.  I met Gerard years ago when Martha first moved to Brookline so it’s always fun to keep in touch. 

Randal is the brown jacket and I’m the red reflection.  Martha, our helpful waiter and Gerard.

Pecan encrusted hake, roasted Brussels sprouts, and mashed sweet potatoes.  Yummm.  Funny enough from never having had roasted Brussels sprouts we cooked them at Julia’s and then I ate them at Legal Seafood.  I have to say the ones we cooked at Julia’s were a tad bit better and the salmon was every bit as good as the Legal Seafood fish, but Legal Seafood does a really good job too.  It truly is hard to beat a good home cooked meal.

Then stuffed to the gills (an appropriate expression when you’ve overeaten at Legal Seafood,) we returned to home for a photo session.  Jessica put aside her horror of having her photo taken and let me take a few.  She was as intrigued with my new camera as I am. 

Martha and Jessica

Jessica is in the 7^th grade at the Heath School

Enough was enough and that’s fair enough.

Gerard and me Gerard

A very happy Randal                                                      

October 14, 2011

Watertown, NY

Hi Y’all,

  Between my years on the boat and my weeks in Massachusetts, I seem to have forgotten my 27 years of "southern."  First Randal and then my sister pointed out to me that I’d written you’ll when I had meant y’all in the previous email.  It’s funny what I remember and what I forget.  I can count to ten in Chinese but can’t remember Turkish numbers.  I want to say the Turkish "gunaydin" to people rather than "good morning."  It gets confusing. 

  We’ve just come from Boston where we had been visiting with our friend Martha and her daughter Jessica.  Martha has a drawer full of spices and made a wonderful soup of potatoes, garbanzo beans and artichoke hearts with lovely spices and a squeeze of lemon.  We visited lots of wonderful used book shops and the Pompeii exhibit at the Science Museum…but that’s all for another email.  This email is about our visit with friend Carol in Point Pleasant Beach, NJ.  Tomorrow we will cross into Ontario, Canada to visit with friends of Randal’s from his "around the world" bike trip.  They live on an island in a lake and we’ll get there by dinghy! 

  The Red Sox have turned into a soap opera which will make for interesting reading and a whole slew of new Red Sox books I’ll one day read.  In the meantime I’m reading Dogtown by Elyssa East.  Dogtown is an area of woodlands near Gloucester, MA named for the dogs that once belonged to Revolutionary War widows.  East was lead there because of her fascination with paintings by Marsden Hartley.  It is the winner of the 2010 LL Winship/PEN New England Award in Nonfiction.  I had stumbled across it on the shelves of the Hilton Head Public Library so set out to find it in a book store as we traveled.  I found it in The Strand!

Ru

DoraMac

Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey with Carol

Our friend Carol lives in Point Pleasant Beach, NJ.  It is a lovely small town surrounded by beaches and marinas and just a 45 minute, or so, drive to Manhattan.  We visited Manhattan, walked the beaches,  and boiled some lobsters for dinner.  We had been promised a lobster dinner in New Bedford, but Randal really likes lobster so when Carol suggested it, he jumped at the chance.  In Manhattan we visited the Strand book store with 18 miles of shelves and also The New York Costume Shop which is irresistible even for sightseers like us who hand out candy rather than dress up to collect it. 

Relaxing at Carol’s house.

The Roanoke Valley Library Association made up t-shirts for several years.  This “vintage” one is from 1995.  In SAMS one day a woman ran up to Randal to say how important librarians had been to her and a woman in Hilton Head also made a comment.  Hurrah for Librarians! 

Manhattan street scenes.

Go to the theater or go to the New York Public Library guarded by the “Literary Lions.”

Look above the word “first” and you will see a blue shirt and white hat.  It’s Randal.  Carol can be seen over the word “her.”  Cameras had been set up to broadcast passers-by.   

The Strand Book Store

“In 1927, Ben Bass opened Strand Book Store on Fourth Avenue, home of New York’s legendary Book Row. Named after the famous publishing street in London, the Strand was one of 48 bookstores on Book Row, which started in the 1890’s and ran from Union Square to Astor Place. Today, the Strand is the sole survivor.”

http://www.strandbooks.com/

One could spend hours and hours browsing the shelves. I found my copy of Dogtown.  I was hoping that The Strand would have some unique books about Cyprus but they didn’t partly because there don’t seem to be any of those “Tuscan Sun” or Year in Provence” kind of books written.  Randal and I might have to write one!

We visited the NY Costume Shop last year because Carol needed a costume.  This year we just went for the fun of it.  Carol grew up on Staten Island and went to NYU so knows Manhattan. The company where Carol works had offered her a position in the Philippines for two years and that’s when we had all met. 

New York cabs have TV screen so you can follow along on a map or watch a program about places to visit in the city.

Point Pleasant Beach, NJ

Lots of places for boaters and fishermen here.

Point Pleasant Beach really is a lovely town and from her house Carol can walk to the beach or walk to the small center for shops and restaurants.

The statue behind us and the plaques on the railing are dedicated to mariners lost at sea.  We paid our respects.

The ocean was somewhat riled up that day and though no one was swimming there were surfers in wet suits taking advantage of the surf.

http://www.point-lobster.com/

You can see fishing boats reflected in the window so you know fish here is fresh!

Carol and friends from the waters of Maine or maybe Nova Scotia.

Randal having lobster feast # 1. 

We said good-bye to Carol and journeyed on to Cotuit, MA to visit with a Roanoke bicycle buddy who now lives there with her daughter.  That story will have to wait for another day.