So, dear reader, I owe you some updates. There have been some decent adventures since we last met! I still owe the three remaining days of our WNY / Finger Lakes adventure. Then we returned home and the following week (this most recent week) I went off to Baltimore for a conference (I’ll likely cover that in a single post). Finally, this recent Friday and Saturday I spent with my friends in their timeshare out in the Shenandoah Valley. But one more – we’re planning a camping trip with the dog in two weeks. This shall be an adventure as the dog has never camped before! But for now, we will start with the Martin House.
May 25 started just as many late-spring days in Buffalo – with clouds and gloom. Well, the gloom continued. It didn’t rain though; it was generally pleasant. We had breakfast at SPoT Coffee again with better service than the two prior days (did I mention how much I enjoy their espresso grind?) and then we checked out and went for a tour at The Martin House.
The Darwin D. Martin House in Buffalo, New York, is a world-class architectural masterpiece designed by Frank Lloyd Wright between 1903 and 1905. It’s widely considered to be the best (well, in my opinion one of the best) examples of his prairie house era. Martin was a successful executive, the chief financial officer, I believe, of a large company headquartered in Buffalo at the time and very much appreciated by his employers. He eventually was in charge of building a new corporate headquarters, also designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, but as a lead up to this he commissioned his own house. Before building his own house he had other homes built on the same plot of land. The gardener’s house above, for instance, was commissioned, as was his sister’s house:
And here is the view of the Martin house from his sister’s house – probably the only place where you can take a photograph inside at the Martin House. You can see from the above there are large beds of peonies that are likely blooming now, two weeks later, but at the time they were just green. Frank Lloyd Wright designed the windows used throughout.
Including these on the main house. Again, you can take photographs from the outside but not inside. Below this line of windows there are glass windows allowing light in to the basement level as well.
Upon entry to the main house you have a view towards where I am standing in this perspective. The entry has a door to the steps on the street as well as a door back in this direction to the walkway to the conservatory. The entry itself is fairly compact for the era with an archway to the left on entering (to the right from here) into a receiving room and then to the right (to the left from here) into a formal family area. If you have ever been in a Wright House it follows his philosophy of “compress and release.” The doorway and movement between rooms is compressed and then the room spreads out away from you and higher than you – the release as it is, capturing you into the space.
The view through the entry and down the covered corridor to the conservatory yields this – intended to impress.
What I enjoyed the most in all of this space was the Steinway covered with white oak; most are black but his wife had one covered with white oak. It returned to the house many years ago and is played by volunteers for maintenance.
While we were at the Martin house we started getting text messages from the Inns of Aurora where we were checking in later that day – 140 miles away! Seems they accidentally did not change our spa appointment to the next day. Therefore, we did not dillydally. We moved on, but first stopping at the Walden Galleria to verify that Western New York is not entirely populated by Dead Malls. I had to buy some sponge candy and a pair of swim trunks! And lunch of course (which sucked – mall food court food).
At the Inns we checked into the Zabriskie House, our home away from home for two nights. We definitely could have stayed longer. We enjoyed a couple’s massage at the spa here this evening (more on that later – we returned to the spa for their outdoor thermal spa experience the next day). We would both rate their massage experience as superb, probably the best compared to other resorts where we’ve enjoyed the massage experience (Woodloch Resort for instance, and Wildflower Farms in Gardiner New York). Not that there was anything wrong at the other places… we both realized that some of the reason why we enjoyed this experience better may be because we both had a male masseuse! Bigger hands with pressure more spread out.
We had dinner at the 1833 Kitchen and Bar which is part of the Inns. It was their third night open for outdoor dining for the season.
There are a ton of wines on the list I would have enjoyed traveling but the slow service allowed me to get as far as two only. We did enjoy some good food like this tuna crudo –
And some really good lamb as well (along with salmon, without the lardons please for her). Pro tip – some members of the guest services staff will do nearly anything for you, including the guy who checked us in who said he was “like a dog with a frisbee” and would answer any question. He told us how to get down to the waterfront in the morning for instance:
“Absolutely! No bother at all! You’re throwing a frisbee at a dog! I love this stuff! You will kindly find your way to the right side of The Rowland House following the grass down to the dock just behind the house. The Rowland House is marked with a large R on your map and just across Main St. from your location at Zabriskie House.”
But our true reward for the journey was sunset over Cayuga Lake.
And now finally the main reason we went on a road trip. There was a marathon for somebody to run! Fortunately, when we woke up early Sunday morning it was fairly dry. I say fairly because it did rain a bit during the marathon.
Buffalo Marathon starts at 6:30 in the morning near city hall. The route the race takes consists of three different “loops” each re-converging on downtown Buffalo. This made it easy for me as a spectator.
The first loop came up Delaware Avenue in front of The Westin where we were staying. This made it easy for me – I crawled out of bed just as Julia was leaving to head to the start line. By the time I arrived downstairs it was ten minutes before start time. I was able to cross the street and find a spot to cheer and so when she went by I yelled “Hey Julia!” She heard me even though I was on the opposite side of the street.
The race headed north for three miles, looped through a neighborhood, and then came back south – in front of the hotel again. This gave me the opportunity to attempt to get coffee. Unfortunately, everybody else and their brother decided to line up in front of SPoT coffee as well yet SPoT was not budging on their 7am opening time. As the day before had not gone well with a 5k running outside the front door once I realized it would only be the two employees who hadn’t been in the best of spirits the day before – AND they were NOT planning to open the doors until at least 7:15 – I abandoned and went back to the hotel room and made Hotel Room Coffee. Ugh.
My next cheering spot was about five blocks away from here. Once the course returned to City Hall it took a turn to the northwest and looped around one of the west side neighborhoods and went out along a waterfront park. I missed catching Julia here as I had taken another trip to the hotel room but I did catch her again when she returned. Then I relocated two miles further along the course – a decent half mile jog to get there – where I caught her returning from the waterfront where we ran Saturday morning.
She came running over to me at that point. “My phone is dead,” she told me.
“What???”
“My phone is dead,” and she held it out.
Then she started running away because I was not getting it.
Somehow in that five second window of time I realized she wanted me to charge her phone. And meet her further along the course. I did my mental calculations where I realized that even though the train wasn’t running and likely buses were not either that this was a town where I could easily get my car out of the garage and drive completely around the race course without running into traffic impediment and meet her…. Well, I was at mile 11 and I knew where to find her at mile 17.
“Hey, wait!” She gave me her phone.
So, I ran the mile back to the hotel. I figured that I needed to get to the hotel in about ten minutes, spend no less than ten minutes inside (charging the phone), spend about 15-20 minutes driving and parking, and then be in place to hand it back to her at I think it was 9:15am.
I was correct on my calculation. However, I went into the hotel and put the phone on the charger for five minutes, found my charged battery pack, hooked the phone up to THAT, and went down to the garage. Without my car keys! Back inside again.
Then I had to get out of the garage down a closed street which meant I had to drive on the sidewalk.
Here is our hero through the trees in Delaware Park just past Mile 17 at 9:19am! She was thankful – I managed to charge the phone to nearly 50% in an hour. Neither of us knows why it went dead.
Less than half a mile up the park roadway there was another junction point where the race course comes together. Next to the bluegrass band tent above there was a park refreshment stand which had coffee so I was able to replenish. Here it did start drizzling a bit but it wasn’t too miserable. After Julia passed here (Mile 21 at that point) I jogged back to my car (another mile…) and drove back towards the hotel.
I actually managed to catch her twice more, an all time record for me. On the drive back I came upon a traffic circle which was closed on one side for the marathon so I jumped out of the car here and cheered her and a number of the others on (they all looked familiar at this point as I had seen them all seven times thus far). And then when I parked at the hotel (back over that sidewalk again) I hopped outside just as she and the others were coming down Delaware Avenue.
She finished the race and we went back to The SPoT for coffee. Fortunately a third person had come in. Lunch was two pizzas from Frankie Primo’s +39 as takeout.
Naps were had all around and then Julia woke me up saying, “I feel like going for a walk. Do you feel like going for a walk?” Who goes walking after running 26.2 miles? Nobody I know.
The weather was beautiful by Buffalo standards for the end of May. It was dry and warm. As you can see the streets were reopened as well.
We made our way out to the seaport park hoping to eat outside at the marina tiki bar. Unfortunately they did not have their outdoor area open so we abandoned and walked back towards the hotel instead, ending up at Big Ditch Brewery.
When I was still a serious runner if I were traveling to run a race, especially a longer distance, I would wake up at a reasonable time the day before, have a relaxing breakfast with coffee, and then maybe wander off to the race expo. I might do some light activity for the afternoon, perhaps visiting a museum or do some mild sight seeing, but otherwise I would not exert myself or spend too much time on my feet. And there was always an Italian dinner, maybe pasta, in the evening. Since I’m no longer running the routine for me is different, and the person I travel with, The Boss, has her own routine.
We wake up the day before the race and she does a shakeout run. This is one of the few times I’m permitted to run with her so I dress to run as well. We take different approaches to this. She wakes up, has coffee, relaxes and does a crossword and Wordle or something similar, has a snack, and then heads out. I wake up, get ready, and head out. Not much waiting.
Our run on this particular day took us down to Buffalo’s outer harbor where we ran along the waterfront a bit. As you can tell the weather wasn’t perfect.
We saw the old lighthouse.
We saw Canada off in the distance. In fact, when I ran a speed test from the hotel in Buffalo it told me I had been assigned from an IP address pool in St. Catherines, Ontario.
There were these hardy fools out in the weather getting their exercise in. By this point the drizzle began.
It rained a bit harder after a while. We ended up making our way back to the neighborhood around the hotel where we had coffee at a place called SPoT. This appears to be a local chain of coffee shops where they were utterly unprepared for additional foot traffic for marathon weekend. The espresso was amazing though (I’ll note now their espresso beans make a good latte or espresso but not necessarily good coffee – I brought a bag home). As there were no other craft places nearby we ended up going there more than once.
After a shower we headed out to the expo. Buffalo Marathon has a great race expo especially in relation to the size of the race. It isn’t a huge race, although it isn’t a small race either. It seems to suit the size of the city without overwhelming it.
Even though the weather had turned into crap by this point we did do a bit of sightseeing along the way. Buffalo does have a range of architecture.
Check out this mural for instance.
We eventually made our way to Streetlight Brasserie for brunch. This place has been open for a few years and seems to be using its space wisely. They get a decent “diner crowd” for brunch and midday meals in addition to evenings for more upscale dinner. They have oysters (currently PEI oysters) and other seafood dishes. But they also have two long bars and frequent live music. We happened past it the next day, Sunday, as well hoping to duck in for a bite to eat but they had a band playing that seemed to have brought in about a hundred or so patrons younger than us all of whom were standing around drinking rather than sitting and relaxing so we ended up going elsewhere for that visit.
While we were in the Brasserie the weather took a turn for the worse and my umbrellas (borrowed from Reston Town Center) went inside out on the walk back to the hotel. So, I had no choice but to take a much needed nap, as The Boss did as well, but I did notice the Pierce Arrow Museum (aka the Buffalo Transportation Museum) on the map about thirty minutes walk away. When I woke I took a stroll down to visit it.
The Pierce Arrow Museum is partially dedicated to the history of Pierce bicycle and motorcar company as well as its subsequent mergers, but also dedicated to other transportation from the era of its heyday such as this Templar automobile. There were period outfits on display, relics from the company founding, numerous old bicycles and motorcycles, and other oddities in one room.
In a second room there were more modern classics and antiques.
When I saw my father a few days later I showed him photos of this Chevy 409. He had a similar model sixty years ago himself.
The Widow Maker was an interesting find. I remember when I was young a lot of people at the time were horrified at the dangers of motorcycles (they still are, just in a different way) and I suspect this is one of the reasons why – companies like Kawasaki learned how to produce more powerful motorcycles which appealed to people who had spent the 1960s buying muscle cars.
In one corner of the museum there were a handful of absolutely beautiful cars from a hundred years ago that had been converted and modernized along the way such as this 1932 Pierce Arrow with a big block Chevy engine and modern tires, wheels, brakes, and power steering and so forth.
I think this Eldorado was the star of the show, though. A 1957 model, exceedingly rare, and the most expensive vehicle, by far, that Cadillac produced during a pretty significant period.
There is one thing I did not notice immediately until I saw a couple of other museum patrons nosing around the back of the structure above. This area was roped off and at first I just figured the installation was to break up the space a bit until I noticed, in the roped off area, light up signs pointing to “Men’s Restroom.”
If you cannot guess what it is.
When the museum closed I spent some time wandering around the Allentown neighborhood trying, unsuccessfully, to find some deli items. Instead, I successfully found a Tim Horton’s. For dinner we went to Frankie Primo’s +39, with +39 being the country code to dial for Italy.
I enjoyed Frankie’s Maiale Sugo dish – slow roasted pork butt with thick noodles. And at the end of the meal they serve complimentary limoncello.
Again, an early night for us. The race would begin at 6:30am on Sunday.
Eight days ago we headed out on our latest adventure – a road trip to Buffalo for a marathon (not for me) along with a spa stay at a small resort in the Finger Lakes. Buffalo is a 380 mile drive from here – slightly beyond the capacity of my fuel tank. To get there you head north of course, through Pennsylvania. I’ve driven through Pennsylvania about 70 or 80 times in the past thirty years so it gets a bit tedious. Fortunately, this time was different as we headed west a bit.
I didn’t take any photos anywhere along the drive until we got to far northern Pennsylvania so this random shot from a past rest area visit will need to do.
Driving from the DC area to Buffalo basically gives you three options for “how to get there.”
The main option is to head due north on U.S. 15 from Frederick, Maryland, to Corning, New York, and then navigate to Buffalo via I-390, U.S. 20A, and a handful of other roads. This one seems to be the lowest common denominator approach – it keeps you on major highways and expressways for a large chunk of the trip.
The second option is to follow the shortest, fastest route (I believe it’s 10 or 15 minutes faster than the above normally). This takes you out through Breezewood, briefly on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, up I-99 past Altoona, and then a steady string of country highways through some small towns. Taking this route you spend less than four hours on expressways and three hours on country highways. Some would say it’s the most scenic. Others would say it’s a recipe for following a farm tractor for half an hour.
The third option I think is likely the old timer way – the route likely a lot of people took more than 30 years ago before I-99 was built or before much of U.S. 15 became an expressway. This takes you out of the way as it is considerably a longer distance, but the entire route is on expressway. I-270 and I-70 out to Breezewood, across western Pennsylvania on the Pennsylvania Turnpike, north on I-79 to Erie, and finally I-90 EAST to Buffalo. I think it is about 30 minutes longer, but in inclement weather or if you’re driving at night with bad eyes it may make sense.
We took option two. I haven’t driven this option or most of the roads in more than 20 years and the last time I drove it was in a snowstorm. As I said before, this takes you through Breezewood which is commonly known to DC area residents who frequently drive to the northwest. Breezewood is a relic from another time. It’s basically a town that sits at the junction between the portion of I-70 that was built as part of the interstate highway system and the older road of the Pennsylvania Turnpike which by federal decree was not to have direct access to the interstate highway system. As such, when I-70 was built, all traffic coming west (and north) had to be funneled out onto local roads in Breezewood. Eventually this became a large complex of stoplights, truck stops, diners, and gas stations. On holiday weekends it can be a real chokepoint. Fortunately, in about a year it will be completely bypassed.
Breezewood in its heyday, perhaps 15 or 20 years ago, was a great place for a meal stop. The truck stops all had decent sit-down restaurants. There were a handful of fast food stops and a Denny’s set up as a diner. There was a Perkin’s up on the hill. Now, all that is left is a handful of truck stops with fast food, a couple of gas stations, and a brand new Bob Evan’s made up to look like a Cracker Barrel inside. We stopped at this Bob Evan’s and it’s decent. It’s superior to the places it replaced.
I’ve been out through Breezewood maybe four or five times since covid. What I have found is after 2020 it seemed as if the restaurants had a harder and harder time getting service staff. As it sits in an isolated valley in fairly large county that has next to zero population I suspect there just isn’t enough population to support staffing restaurants – especially with the bypass coming. Anyway, this was our first stop on our six hour and forty five minute journey to Buffalo (to be honest I was surprised at how quickly the journey went).
The drive after lunch on Friday was very peaceful but while crossing through the Allegheny National Forest we did reach a point, after three hours since lunch, where it just made sense we would need a new stopping point. I originally thought we would stop near Salamanca, New York, on the Indian reservation for cheap gas, cigarettes, fireworks, or CBDs (none of which we wanted or needed at that point) or simply just because that’s where there are a lot of stops, but about twenty miles from the New York State line we saw a sign for the Zippo lighter museum. And that’s how we ended up at the Zippo Case Museum. And we bought ourselves some lighters – which of course we do not need either! After all, the museum stop is free and they have clean restrooms – but no snack bar if you need a meal!
The Zippo museum sits in Bradford, Pennsylvania, a small manufacturing town just south of the New York State line in Pennsylvania. Bradford is a town that reached its peak back around 1930 with a lot of employees at the Piper factory (airplanes), the oil refinery (formerly Kendall, motor oil and so forth), Case knives, and Zippo. It’s still a decent town for the era and size and is visibly better kept than most of the places along U.S. 219 through this part of Pennsylvania. Driving for the previous two hours through forested area we kept talking about, “where do people here drive for groceries?” Well, this is it! And it has the Zippo Case Museum.
It seems as if more people are interested in Zippo lighters than Case knives, unless you’re a local.
The company with its manufacturing plant next door puts on a huge Fourth of July fireworks display. Above they have a collage in the form of an American Flag.
The museum goes through the history of the company starting with its founder along with some memorabilia from his office a hundred years ago.
There are included displays of the many very customized Zippo lighters created along the way, and a large gift shop where you can purchase your own!
Of course part of the museum and shop is devoted to Case knives, particularly similarly customizable jack knives and hunting knives. As a kid in Big Flats, New York, less than two hours to the east, I do remember people buying and selling Case knives.
Mostly as cutlery in carefully kept cases. Yes, somehow that axe above counts as “cutlery.”
After a bit of a visit, we hopped in the beast and continued north. For the next thirty minutes the drive carries on through a mix of roads partially on Indian reservation where there is an obvious “tax free” influence. I have never seen so many cannabis dispensaries in my life. At one point Waze sent us down a country road for a few miles to cut out a corner.
This obviously worked well as we waited for a train to pass before rejoining U.S. 219.
The highway here winds its way northward. Eventually you enter Ellicottville which shows the signs of Buffalo’s gravity from the north (in other words, there is a ski resort here, there are condos, and Buffalo is only 45 minutes away). However, this is only a tease as U.S. 219 becomes an expressway and the first 15 miles of expressway take you through rather desolate areas where there are constantly signs warning the freeway closes when it snows. I guess nobody here drives this far south for a commute as it seems to be the Tug Hill of Buffalo that gets the brunt of snow bands off the lake in December and January.
Finally we arrived in Buffalo, just before 6pm after a not-hard travel day. Our residence for the next few days would be the Westin Buffalo where I had acquired an upgraded room we didn’t really need.
The room had a living area and a bedroom area. As the lounger in the living room area was hard as a rock and uncomfortable we did not use it. Therefore, it wasn’t worth the money. It was a nice room otherwise though save two interesting features – the television was pre-loaded with Netflix but didn’t have the connectivity to start up; and the thermostat was hard to read and would freeze in an unlikely position (too hot or too cold) when you tried to program it. I blame this thermostat problem for some ear irritation now a week later as I didn’t sleep well for those three nights!
On check-in I decided I hadn’t had any activity for the day other than turning the steering wheel so it was time to explore – dinner reservations were well in the future still at this point.
We found Asbury Hall at Babeville – an old church that was restored and converted to a performance space by Ani DeFranco.
Old houses, many of which were converted to private clubs or lawyer’s offices. This was the first we realized how much crazy history Buffalo has. On this stretch of Delaware Avenue, in fact, there were monuments to both President McKinley, assassinated here, and Theodore Roosevelt, inaugurated here after McKinley’s assassination.
This large tree, excuse the fisheye lens, which was planted in 1690 lived through it all. Note the size of the trunk on this sycamore compared to the SUV sitting next to it. It’s budding for the season, running a few weeks behind surrounding trees likely due to a combination of age and species. And actually – Buffalo foliage in general is about six weeks behind where we are. Just now trees have full leaves whereas we were there the second or third week of April.
There were plenty of murals and plenty of street art.
Eventually it was time for a steak dinner. And time for an early sleep. Although the weather was decent on our arrival in Buffalo Saturday promised to be a doozy.
After a pretty chill period of working, gardening, keeping teens alive, and trying to get grass to grow it appears as if it’s time for a number of adventures. First, today I’ll mention the Old Town Festival of Speed & Style.
Is this style really? Or speed? Likely, yes, although where is in the eye of the beholder.
I was alerted to this festival by the astute individuals at Land Rover of Alexandria. Apparently it has gone on a few years from now. It’s excuse to visit Alexandria and take in some eye candy and make friends with classic and exotic car owners while searching for coffee or brunch. LROA wanted to invite me to visit the VIP tent they had set up as sponsors of this event down in Alexandria and offer me brunch on this beautiful late spring day. I caught onto their secret though – what they really want is for me to trade up. No thanks, I am happy.
Either way I was presented with an opportunity to visit the festival early before the crowds came as I was on my own with The Boss off to Atlanta for the weekend, but the condition was I needed to invite my two teenage children to join (I did) and they would need to wake up and join me (they did not) and then we would need to leave before midday to pick The Boss up at the airport. So being fortunate to arrive alone I parked a few blocks away. The first vehicle I saw was a beautiful BMW.
Not too exciting around here but it would be nice to own nonetheless.
This Mercedes was a nice little gem. I watched the owner close the door gently and made a remark at which point he shared a story of how he watched someone close hard on a vehicle of this vintage at a show and the glass shattered inside the door!
There were a number of late(ish) model Aston Martins around. I actually see these by my office fairly frequently as it is close to a number of AI company headquarters and the Aston dealer is in that general direction.
I was more interested in this 1972 Datsun 240Z. The owner is the second owner I believe. He bought it less than a decade ago from the original owner. The paint is all original and it has supposedly never been restored. There isn’t a single divot or speck in the paint so I am not certain this is true as it is not exactly a really low mileage vehicle.
A TVR Griffin. The British cars, in my opinion, were the star of the show in Alexandria even though there were a large number of Corvettes (a split window Stingray for instance) and a number of Ferraris. And there were a number of Mercedes as well but not too many that were exceedingly rare. The oldest cars were from the early 1950s.
Here is a 1972 De Tomaso Pantera imported sometime after the late 1990s I suspect or the American bumpers were removed.
See the bumpers on another model?
Mid-engine fun and incredibly clean.
By comparison another yellow sports car – a Ferrari Daytona similar to the first Miami Vice car – remember there were two and one was destroyed in a firey wreck and then replaced with a Testarossa.
Some drivers had a theme as was the case with this Corvette.
Others were there with their owners because they enjoyed owning and driving them. The guy who owns this is probably a decade older than me if not more. He has owned it for a few years and shared with me that this is the car he drives the most even though he has several at home including a much later and more modern Porsche.
There was a fairly decent variety of cars at the show such as this Chevelle. My father owned a similar model back in the 1970s – not a convertible – which my mother insisted he trade in because the clutch interlock in a larger vehicle designed for taller men meant that it occasionally would not start for her. This was in an area of the show where there was more country music playing than otherwise.
Loved this Dodge. The gentleman standing next to it actually owns an orange Plymouth Roadrunner (complete with roadrunner stencil and fake Bugs Bunny Roadrunner standing next to it).
Doing my best to make an E Type hood look longer than it is. Sadly the bonnet wasn’t open.
A Mini Cooper S with a cricket bat holding open the bonnet. Built for American drivers.
So I did need to wonder why the Goodwood Revival decals are there.
I’ll share this beauty and then call it a day. A Ferrari 250GT Pininfarina Coupe.
Just imagining a sunny drive on a beautiful day like today.
One of the great things about the area where we live is the proximity to the Potomac River and everything it brings. The Potomac of course is split here – the lower tidal Potomac begins at Little Falls situated between north Arlington and the Palisades neighborhood above Georgetown in DC whereas piedmont Potomac ends there, heading towards the sea. Mason Neck State Park along with associated national wildlife refuge and other protected areas is a great way to explore tidal Potomac. It’s also less than an hour (could be 30 minutes, could be 55 minutes) from my house.
I’ve been here several times over the course of the past two or three decades. There’s one spot that’s great for “beach walking,” although the beach runs out after a few minutes fairly quickly. This stretch actually faces the bay towards Occoquan; one assumes one is facing Maryland but one is actually facing back towards Virginia!
In a few spots there are duck blinds on the bay. I’m not certain if they allow hunting here – presumably yes, but likely more on the other side in the wildlife refuge. The above photo is about half a dozen years old.
When tide comes in it can be a bit tricky.
Also from years past. Towards the end of Mason Neck there is a large amount of wetland. Closer in it is more wooded. In the past when I have been here there have been osprey along the water in the more wooded space. This time, out towards the wetlands.
In the past I had many photos of osprey and bald eagles in the distance. This time, thanks to the wonders of Apple’s latest technology, they were closer up.
Anyway, Mason Neck is situated such that there are a handful of relatively lengthy trails – a mile out, and a mile back – towards the end of the peninsula complimented by a border set of lengthy or lengthier trails that go into the woodlands towards the more inland bay. Usually when I head to Mason Neck I spend maybe an hour or two wandering towards the end of the peninsula along the wetlands and then I head for more mileage inland. There are enough trails to cover and not get bored for 3 or 4 hours of wandering at a decent pace if you cover every single one and I think alone I have done this and covered six or eight miles. This time I was there and stayed out along the end of the peninsula – further from the highway from the main park – and covered eight miles without heading towards the more inland woods. And I was at the park from about 11am to 3:30pm, including an hour sitting and snacking on cheese, French bread, and charcuterie.
I saw a ton of turtles of various sizes including these as well as smaller examples down to about an inch or two in length.
Off in the distance there was a rather large Great Blue Heron.
I wandered out into an open meadow area from one of the observation blinds. As the wildlife refuge has accumulated land some of the farmland is being allowed to slowly fall back into a wetland state. This more open property has a greater variety of wildlife than the state park itself.
Including this black snake. I took a photo of another that was perhaps six feet long. This one was about four feet.
This massive wasp nest was hanging in a tree off across the field.
Oh, large snails.
Past photo of one of these from long ago.
This photo is also from long ago. Here is a stretch near the visitor center where there are platforms for osprey to rest such as the post in the water on the left here. The platform was still there but there were not as many osprey around – they were further behind me, perhaps fifteen or twenty minutes walk. Through the woods on the right there are trails that lead to the end of the bay here that take about thirty minutes out and thirty minutes back and this is where in the past I have seen bald eagles nesting.
This time I came down to this point late in my stay and eventually needed to go home, so instead I walked straight into the woods a hundred yards to a viewing platform where I met a couple who were sitting on a bench having a picnic. The man asked me if I saw what looked like a school of fish in the distance, maybe 1,000 feet or further out.
I haven’t managed to upload a video of what I saw, but here is a screen capture.
Taken at near-full zoom on my iPhone. It was a flock of cormorants!
I stayed to chat with the couple a bit. They were enjoying smoked salmon from Wegmans with dill on brown bread and offered me some. They do say don’t take food from people you’ve just met, but it was good and I survived.
A great way to get a lot of steps in on a Saturday.
Next time, ask me about my picnic packing trips for hiking.
For the remainder of March, and early April thus far, adventures have been limited. Work has been somewhat exhausting with a lot of new priorities and some leadership change. End result, I have not had the opportunity to take Saturdays to head to the mountains for hiking. However, this past week there were a couple of day trips. My older child is headed to college in another year and a half and has started doing college tours.
Our first visit was to University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg.
Fredericksburg is about 60 miles from home but at least to the old town portion it is definitely a world away – and sometimes it’s a journey getting there. I drove down with my older child and her mother (my ex-wife) after a pretty stressful morning at work. We left at 11am, and spring break traffic was in full bloom. So, I had this shell shocked look on my face. I think we made it about 35 miles at home when I decided we would be better off to stop for lunch at Waffle House and continue the journey after, a fortuitous decision as the southbound express lanes opened as we were dining! The 60 miles took two hours.
Mary Washington is a mix between old and new. Originally it started as a normal school – a school to train teachers – for women until 1972 when it was granted coeducational status shortly on the heels of University of Virginia (until then, all boys) receiving the same status in 1970. UMW was renamed as a university in 2004 when they began to offer a much wider range of degrees beyond teaching and standard liberal arts fare; it’s hard to believe that when I first moved here 30 years ago it was still known as a “good place to learn how to be a teacher.” There are still a number of buildings over 100 years old on campus; many of them have been modernized, some are still traditional as you can see above.
Many of the older classrooms still have chalkboards – something which if you’re my kid you have not seen in a classroom ever!
I’m the same hand the science building is brand new with all modern trappings and a ton of programs of study.
There is even temporary math nerd graffiti on windows and glass partitions.
UMW met all the checkmarks for our visit – and it had the nicest dormitory kitsches I have ever seen. The student population seems to reflect the same type of attitude as my offspring – a bit artistic and creative and not too much standard social flair and Greek life. They enjoyed the school because the outdoor spaces were quiet and it was not as chaotic as our 2400 student high school on a city campus.
After the tour we went off campus to enjoy a meal at a pizzeria. I haven’t spent any real time in Fredericksburg in a couple of decades and it has really modernized while maintaining the typical Virginia old town feel in town. There is a lot going on. Unfortunately I think a lot of it is to serve the upper middle class sprawl that is growing in the area. Translation – there is not much for college students to explore off campus.
Our next adventure took us south to Richmond on Friday.
This time I was provided with chauffeur service. My kids’ mother had driven down to Richmond the day before in an effort to get away overnight and do some bonding with both kids, so The Boss and I drove down Friday morning with the plan for The Boss to take my younger to an escape room while my older, my ex, and I tour Virginia Commonwealth University. Unlike Wednesday there was no traffic heading south. We left at 6:40 and by 7:30 we were in Fredericksburg. With a tour appointment for 10:00 we decided to stop for a leisurely breakfast. First Watch didn’t disappoint, but we were served and well fed by 8am and soon on our way to Richmond. The 90 mile drive took an hour and forty-five minutes – Wednesday’s 55 mile drive took two hours on the same highway!
Northbound wasn’t as lucky with a multi-car accident and a delay.
VCU started off their tour with the same type of marketing presentation and Q&A session as UMW, but here they presented a ton more material. It is literally ten times the size of UMW. VCU is of a similar age and similar type of history – originally it was the medical school for Hampden Sydney College from the 1830s eventually becoming a more professionally-oriented school in 1968 due to an act on the behalf of the Virginia General Assembly, and it has largely grown from there. Medical, Dental, Nursing, Pharmacy, and similar programs are on one campus; other programs are on the other campus (I would call it “the main campus,” the Monroe Park campus). VCU wraps Monroe Park on one side spilling out into the city and the fan district on the west.
VCU is set up differently than the college I attended. The classroom buildings are often largely classroom buildings – professor offices and so forth are often in the old brick row houses next to them. They only briefly took us through an academic building and as it is on a campus in the middle of the city it didn’t seem as welcoming to go wandering through without a purpose.
Like I said, it spills through the city a bit, but much of what you see above is actually university.
Several streets through the core are blocked off to vehicular traffic to create something called the “Ramsway” reflecting the Ram as the school’s mascot. The admissions counselor also explained that she was contractually obligated to use the term “Ramily” in describing the student body, faculty, and staff of the unversity. Kids kept groaning when I used this term over and over.
VCU prides itself on the variety of its student body and the variety of experiences available. If I had to compare UMW and VCU, I would say UMW is upper middle class diverse whereas VCU is truly diverse, as in state of Virginia diverse.
My older enjoyed spending time sitting under trees in Monroe Park waiting for The Boss and my younger to return. When I asked what they thought of VCU I was surprised to hear that they really liked it. It isn’t as “non-chaotic” as UMW but they also said they liked it because there was much more to do and it was much, much easier to get off campus to see things and do things. In my mind it also sees as if it has more things for college kids to do around the area – more cheap and free activities for instance.
None of this should really surprise me as my offspring haven’t exactly sat still for their lives. They go out and explore just as much as we do and we live in a walkable urban neighborhood with a lot to look at and a lot going on.
We eventually left The Offspring with their mother. They had the opportunity to try out the dining hall with three lunch passes. We took the opportunity to visit Jamaica House Restaurant for lunch and then stop for a cortado before heading back.
I enjoyed mine while strolling through the city.
As we were walking towards the parking garage I heard running behind us. It turned out to be The Offspring returning from lunch. My older decided she wanted some quiet time and to stop answering her mother’s questions so she joined us for the THREE HOUR drive home.
You gotta love a 12 lane interstate with six lanes stopped.
It was good to get out of town two days in one week. Would I have enjoyed taking two full days rather than shorter days? Maybe. But not with my ex-wife involved.
I spent most of last week in Las Vegas – all expenses paid. Well, most. I did spend a fair amount of gambling money. Was it worth it? It was fun.
I’ve been to Las Vegas seven times if you include the time (pictured above) I spent about 40 minutes there due to a canceled flight and a four hop flight across the United States on Southwest Airlines. Once for a wedding, once for a meeting, another time for a conference, twice with my ex-wife (once with friends from home and once with friends from the UK), and now a final time for another conference. The other six visits were more than 20 years ago. I’ve stayed in old Las Vegas (downtown, on Fremont Street), at Caesar’s (1980’s Las Vegas), off the strip at a generic hotel, and twice at the Luxor. This time I stayed at Mandalay Bay.
The Luxor is one of the first things you see when you land and leave the airport in Las Vegas. When it was brand new it was clean and shiny. Now it’s kind of dusty, but strangely inside it is clean and new, or at least new-ish. I spent a fair amount of time here as I was staying next door at Mandalay Bay and I felt it better to not be gambling in front of my colleagues.
This is a view of where I stayed – Mandalay Bay. I was actually here for a conference. Mandalay Bay has a fairly large conference center attached which is about 15 minutes walk (I should know, I did this walk about five times a day for five days) from the hotel tower.
I also did a fair amount of walking and running while in Vegas. I averaged about 16,000 steps a day last week including the weekends.
My view from the hotel included part of the airport and the Las Vegas Strip heading south. To the right, barely off camera, is this:
Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada! Found on my morning run. Some people told me I would not enjoy running in Las Vegas as there are homeless people around, but on my inspection there was less hassle than running at home especially running south in this direction. I took the photo above just at sunrise on my first morning in Vegas. Two days later I ran to the north.
Heading north from Mandalay Bay two miles takes you to Caesar’s Palace, past Paris and The Bellagio and much of that madness. Compared to 25 years ago development is much more dense on the central part of the strip. The area around Excalibur, The Luxor, and Mandalay Bay feels to be practically abandoned in comparison.
There have always been wide pedestrian walkways along Las Vegas Boulevard but now there is street level development in front of most of the hotels where in the past there were open areas. This doesn’t mean you can pull over on the street – the street in most places has a barrier between it and the walkway. You walk perhaps half a mile between major intersections and for most of them you take an escalator to cross above street level. In the old days they still had many of these escalators but now there seem to be double as many and you simply cannot get to the street if you desire to cross at street level instead. This appears to be done for the purpose of reducing traffic queues. It also helps you, if you’re up at 7a.m., get extra fitness in by running up and down the stairs in addition to running on the street.
The ironic thing is the night before – about six hours before actually – I walked 40 minutes from the Bellagio to Mandalay Bay but then decided I needed to head out for more exercise!
The Bellagio fountains, as seen in Ocean’s Eleven, were beautiful as always.
Beautifully lit up at night.
Walking past the Luxor we thought we saw bats.
On closer inspection we did!
Or maybe they were giant pieces of confetti? We have videos so I’m certain they are bats.
We had some social time while in Vegas in addition to the conference. We actually had been at The Bellagio to see Cirque du Soleil’s “O” show.
The theater at The Bellagio is massive and deep as well. The stage itself opens up to a large pool where the acrobats and dancers continually launch themselves over the course of the 100 minutes show. There are trapezes, huge swings, a boat which floats in the water, and water platforms.
In addition to this, on the last night of the conference the sponsors hired The Goo Goo Dolls to put on a performance!
The Goo Goo Dolls put on an amazing show.
So, about the travels.
I flew out Monday morning at 7am to make the most of my week. This means I woke up at 4:15am. I had lounge access at Reagan National Airport – a choice of two lounges really but I visited the same Centurion lounge we visited back on January 6 for Antarctica. I had used points to upgrade my employer-paid flight to domestic first class so I would arrive fairly fresh – and this worked as I had a full meal, good movies, and a relatively comfortable flight. My baggage did indeed come out first but it didn’t come out until maybe 45 minutes after I landed.
I checked into the hotel at 10am as they had a room ready for me and I was able to unpack and do some conference calls. This reminds me – I have to expense the early check-in (yes, there was a charge).
I had what I think is called a “Dream Room” at Mandalay Bay – more than comfortable enough for two people to spend several days but I was alone.
I did not get a chance to use the large soaking tub. I wouldn’t have skipped it if it had a whirlpool!
Then I had some free time before my co-workers and business partners all showed up so I took a lengthy walk. I planned this in advance because I figured I’d be juggling conference, free time, and my day job and fitness all week.
My walk that day took me as far as Aria. As this is an MGM hotel (along with MGM Grand, The Luxor, and Mandalay Bay, and a handful of others) I went inside and played blackjack poorly for a while. I would have loved to explore the property more but at that point I needed to head back.
At this point my schedule for the next few days started to be dominated by work. Some of the work was fun – we had a few good meals with our sponsor for instance, one being Mexican and one being sushi, and we had an excellent happy hour where we had three shot bourbon pours! Half of my daytime hours were spent working with my team back home, though. And Thursday before the concert? I took a family therapy call with my 9th grader via Zoom on the lawn outside the conference center!
All in all it was a nice break even though half my hours were work. On the way home, again, I was upgraded, and this time I tried out the Priority Plus lounge at the airport. So far I prefer American Airlines’ Admirals Club lounges the most, but I don’t have access to them except when traveling internationally AND upgraded.
I had the opportunity to look for lounges at St. Louis as well when our flight diverted due to an air traffic control outage.
I also had the opportunity to try out Bandana’s Barbeque when we spent the night in St. Louis. For the record there are better hotels than the Airport Marriott in St. Louis.
I’m happy to be back home where the dog is though. It will be good to be home for a couple of months now.
On the first weekend of March I officially kicked off my spring hiking season. It was exceptionally warm, and whereas I spent February acting as a hermit, as I normally do in January, I felt it was time to start getting outdoors again and leave the city. The problem is everybody else thought it was a great day to get out as well and Harper’s Ferry is one of the closest “outdoor places” to the DC Metro area.
Usually when I head out of town for a day to go hiking I start thinking about it on Tuesday and Wednesday. I try and figure out how much energy I will have on the weekend and how early I want to get up. Saturday is a better day to rise early and head out of town than Sunday not because the morning is easier (it’s actually easier on Sunday), but more because the return drive is easier. And that was the case.
I chose Harper’s Ferry because I did not want to make a full, long day of it. And because there are a handful of hiking opportunities where I do not have to plan ahead. The most popular hike from Harper’s Ferry is Maryland Heights – a hike I have never done as it’s steep and crowded but not long so it doesn’t seem as if it would be satisfying other than the view.
Amother popular hike is to walk across the trestle, shown above, as if you’re going to climb up the rocks to Maryland Heights and instead walk a mile or two down the C&O trail to the southeast and follow the Appalachian trail up a mountain to a similar viewpoint.
A third option is to walk up the mountain on the right – either walk straight out the Appalachian Trail to the south as far as your heart desires and then turn around and return, or to try and find Loudoun Heights and the overlook on the forested bluff on the right.
I tried to do this a few years back and failed. The map and phone show the trail to the overlook to be a mile up the mountain and then it shows a loop trail. As I was trying it before on a day where I was time-constrained (I think I had three hours to walk), I gave up before I reached a view, and as the trail kept heading downhill into dense trees I gave up.
So, for this particular adventure I did not rise early Saturday. I woke up at a reasonable hour, had a reasonable breakfast, did some reading and caught up on life a bit, and then sat down with the map to figure out where to hike. One thing I have now that I didn’t have the last time I was out there was the Avenza Maps app. It permits you to download topographical maps which then work offline making navigation easier even without the aid of a large printed map. Perusing the map I noticed a similar loop trail. So, while sitting at home drinking coffee around 11am I decided, hey, I’d better get going so I could have five hours to walk in daylight rather than three.
A little before 1pm I was parked in Harpers Ferry in the upper town walking down to the lower town. Lower town was a zoo; every suburbanite in the world came out here. Normally when i come down here I walk out over the trestle and back before continuing other adventures but this time I simply walked to the base of the bridge, stopped to watch a freight train go past, and then followed the AT up the ridge past a historic church and behind the Storer College campus. That in itself is a nice walk – rising several hundred feet from the valley floor and clinging to the side of a ridge overlooking the valley where the Shenandoah River cuts south isolating Harper’s Ferry from the wooded valley where the AT climbs the Loudoun Heights ridge.
If you ever walk this hike, from town it is perhaps a mile following the white blazes over the U.S. 340 bridge. Then as you leave the bridge there are steps down to pass under the bridge and then start switchbacking up the side of the Blue Ridge. More than a mile up the mountain you encounter one side of the former loop trail to the overlooks.
My first time past this sign I did not elect to go out the Loudoun Heights Trail. I kept going up the mountain to see if I could find the other side of the loop, following the park service’s map. Spoiler alert – it shows to be half a mile, measured and labeled, on the map, but I walked a mile and did not find it. I was acttually following behind someone else who appeared to do the same. He actually sought out the topmost point of the ridge by the looks of it and looked around and turned around to go back. I eventually turned back as well and followed the trail to Split Rock.
At the end I was nicely rewarded, nearly a mile and half down the mountain. The view shows Maryland Heights on the right and Harper’s Ferry at the end of the railroad trestle in the center. The Potomac goes off to the right forming the border between West Virginia and Maryland; the Shenandoah goes to the left headed southwest through the West Virginia panhandle to return to Virginia maybe 30 miles upstream.
At this point I had walked seven miles. Directly from the car it would have been about three miles.
The view of town from here is phenomenal. My car is parked beyond that bald spot on the top of the mountain.
This is the view from the other side at the top of the ridge in town. It was beautiful as the light was going down. Golden Hour had arrived and I caught some decent shots of the white birches in the valley contrasted with the gray on the hillsides.
Cutting back through town I walked across the former Storer College campus.
Storer was for many years an early HBCU but for the past several decades has been a training campus for the National Park Service instead.
So with life getting in the way I’ll miss some prime hiking opportunities but hopefully I can get some in this coming weekend – probably not anything significant though. Now I’m off enjoying the glamorous world of business travel.
And we continue with our January adventures…. As they rolled to a close! It’s time to catch up as now there have been more adventures.
So, Holland America has as an excursion option on disembarkation day the choice of having a private car and tour guide for eight hours – ending at the airport. For a solo person the car for two would be great. It’s likely a car the size of a Toyota Corolla I suspect. As we have six pieces of luggage with us (two checked each plus carry on) we realized we needed something bigger so we booked a “private minivan” which is supposedly large enough for three or four couples. I tell you, the van that picked us up this morning was big enough for about 12 people with 22 days of baggage but there was only ourselves in it.
Ours was listed as “Buenos Aires Private Touring – Full Day (Minivan) Ending at the Airport.” I suspect you’d want “Buenos Aires Private Touring – Full Day (Car) Ending at the Airport.” I’ll describe now how it worked for us. We think it was worth it and I’ll explain way, but also use this as an excuse to describe the experience.
The cruise port in Buenos Aires is pretty chaotic. So, from beginning to end.
As is the case for all disembarking passengers luggage goes out the night before by midnight. They haul your “checked bags” down, you bring down your carry-on. You have to carry your carry-on down in the morning to the cruise terminal shuttle and then carry it to the terminal. For these private touring transfers you are in the last group to disembark – at 8:30 for us. They give you enough tags for your bag and they call you when it’s time.
Upon arrival from the terminal you get off of the bus and go into the terminal and find your other luggage, which if like us would be Blue group C, a fairly small section towards the near end of the baggage claim area. Then you take your baggage (there are no carts) out through customs. At customs you must put everything through an X-ray machine (they will put it up for you but really didn’t help taking it down). In general there were not luggage trolleys available.
For us, this was a matter of maneuvering, between The Boss, myself, and my mother, one 76 pound rolling bag, one 65 pound rolling bag, one 40 pound rolling bag, a couple of fairly heavy duffel bags, a rolling carry on, a few shoulder bags and one backpack out through a fairly good sized building.
Then you spill out onto a wide covered apron near the street where a HAL person will direct you through a crowd to a corner of the building where there were numerous people carying signs with your name on them.
Pro tip – pack less than we did. Take advantage of the unlimited laundry offer.
So, we found our guide and he directed us across a dip in the concrete to a van that was luckily waiting on the best patch of curb available. The driver loaded our luggage and we were on our way.
Logistically, the way it works is on embarkation day the HAL excursion desk leaves you an envelope with a form for you to fill out regarding anything you may want to see on your private tour. In reality, our guide had a list of eight main areas he shows to everyone but if we had anything special we wanted to see it should go on the list. I was looking at something that wasn’t steak for lunch so I researched, and we wanted to see the Evita Peron Museum, so I researched that as well. Otherwise, he covered the five main areas we wanted to see including the cemetery and Plaza Mayo along with Recoleta and Palermo neighborhoods, We also added Ateneo Grand Splendid Bookstore which was also among our favorites.
So as I was saying, they picked us up and we were on our way. We spent the morning heading towards the central and then the more southern part of the close-in city and then after lunch we headed towards the northern part of the city. Finally, we went to the airport.
We stopped by Teatro Colon which unfortunately was closed except for the main hallway due to some electrical work being done. We could have done a tour here for forty five minutes in English but it would not have happened anyway.
One note – our guide, and most of the guides, are fully licensed and many of them have college degrees for being tour guides. With his badge our guide was able to visit most attractions without paying a fee, although we had to pay the international rate. he also seemed to know somebody on every single block. Martin was approached many times for the typical Argentinian kiss on the cheek greeting. Oh, but one other thing – even though he has free admission everywhere at attractions where they sell an electronic guide or otherwise he is often forbidden from providing his own commentary. More on this later.
We spent a bit of time in the square behind the theater talking about the buildings in the neighborhood including the palace of justice. Then, back into the van.
I snapped this photo of The Obelisk on our way to our next stop, Plaza Mayo. Santiago and Punta Arenas both had Plaza de Armas; Buenos Aires has the same thing, Plaza Mayo. Most Spanish colonial cities have something similar.
This heavily-touched-up photo I took of the pink house – their presidential mansion. It sits on Plaza Mayo along with the national bank and the cathedral and a number of other buildings.
This is the inside of the cathedral on the square. As it was Pope Francis’ seat when he was in Buenos Aires there is now a small Pope Francis museum attached apparently but we did not visit it. There is actually a bit to see here including The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the Independence. If anybody is curious I’ll look it up when I get around to reviewing my notes.
Back in the van. Let me tell you, it’s nice to only wait for two others climbing into a van. Martin wanted to take us to the San Telmo neighborhood but as we visited it yesterday we suggested moving on. Instead, he took us straight to the La Boca neighborhoodwhere we drove past the very famous soccer (futbol) stadium. Every building in La Boca seems to be painted in its colors. Here we got out of the van and went for a coffee in what I would call a “coffee speakeasy.”
This was my cafe cortado. Mmmm. Anyway, the entrance to the coffee shop was through a souvenir shop behind a painted door and up some stairs in the back. You would not know it was there.
La Boca is a neighborhood that was settled first by Spanish immigrants and later by Italian immigrants in the late 1800s. Along the port there there is a walking street, Caminito, leading to the small port where today many artists sell their wares.
Caminito is actually a combination between an outdoor market, walking street, and outdoor gallery.
Our guide Martin highlighting one of the artworks.
The back of a meat-selling restaurant.
After this part of the tour it was time to say goodbye to the South and head north. Along the way we passed the new port district along the eastern side of the district, much better than the cruise port neighborhood. It reminded me of the newer parts of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor district or some of the developments along the Chicago River in Chicago.
Martin insisted we stop at this – it was not on our radar at all. Two years ago, long time Cruise Critic readers will remember, around the time of one of the January Antarctic sailings there was a tornado that hit this part of Buenos Aires collapsing part of the roof in the cruise terminal. In addition to collapsing the cruise terminal it did some damage to this, Floralis Genérica. This has only been reopened for the past two weeks. Prior to 2023, it opened in the daytime and closed at night; now it is just… open, but hopefully it will soon return to its opening and closing status.
After the flower we visited Recoleta Cemetary where Evita and her family are entombed. Of course, our guide told us the story about this as well. She was not actually entombed there until years after her death of course and there are many many mausoleums that are more grand than hers. If anybody is interested, please let me know and I will share more photos.
And then finally we visited Ateneo Grand Splendid bookstore.
This bookstore is great, obviously. It’s like a large Barnes and Noble if you speak Spanish. If not, then it’s just pretty. The English language section is on the ground floor on the left. There is a gift and merchandise section in the lobby. On the third (top) tier for a fee you can see an exhibit regarding the history of the museum and they will serve you snacks. Or you can pay for a coffee and sit on the stage.
I bought a dual-language cookbook here, it was on sale in the lobby. We also somewhere along here stopped for lunch.
I’m not going to say lunch was a mistake, but it certainly was an adventure. I think our guide’s intention was to take us to one of the market restaurants or somewhere similar, but prior to the day of the tour when we provided our list I gave him the name of Niño Gordo – “Fat Baby” in English. This had the potential to be a legendary lunch except for two factors – one, we had eaten ourselves to death on the few days prior and two, halfway through the meal the power went out!
Our guide was actually a young guy – in his mid-twenties, and perhaps when I assessed him as an adventurous recent college graduate in a cosmopolitan city I was wrong :-). We took him to an Asian – Argentine fusion spot. As you can see above, we were seated in a section that had low seats, near the floor, with light spilling in from the tabled area and from the bar area. We ordered several dishes to share including kimchi, an Argentine-Asian beef dish, and a fish dish. It was going great, but around the second course the power in the kitchen goes out and half the restaurant goes dark. Not long after that, the air conditioning above us starts dripping on us – because it was off and no longer blowing the condensation elsewhere. So, surprise.
We finished our lunch and then made our way to the airport. The airport is a bit crazy though. The key here that worked out well for us is with the private car or van our guide snagged us a luggage trolley, walked into the airport with us and showed us where our check-in counters are, and showed us where the security desk is.
One thing I’m going to note now –
EVEN WITH PRIORITY STATUS EZE IS A FOUR HOUR AIRPORT IN THE LATE AFTERNOON AND EVENING. UGH.
Delta’s check-in opens at five. American opens at six as does United (I think). Delta has fewer people staffing check-in but the same number of planes as American. American opened early. We arrived at 5pm and my mother got in line for check in right away whereas the two of us sat and had coffee for ninety minutes as we had several hours to wait. With priority our check-in was 20 minutes; my mother’s was 90 minutes. The security line was I think 50 minutes, passport control was 20 or 30 minutes. Okay, so maybe with priority it’s a three hour airport. However, as we arrived so early we had time to kill. We enjoyed a light meal at Le Pain Quiotidien along with some wine and beer prior to running the security and passport gauntlet. And then? The best thing ever. We visited the Admiral’s Club lounge where, after spending a hot summer day touring Buenos Aires, I was able to take a shower! We finally boarded for our 11:59pm flight and were happily able to sleep on the plane as well.
And all of the bags on the right (the four) made it on the plane to Miami. When we landed in Miami it was barely above freezing and there were gusty winds which slammed our plane to the ground twice. I figured we’d be in for the same at home but it was a more typical landing. Even so, brrrrr.
On approach the Potomac was full of ice. And then we spent the next week clearing snowcrete from our driveway and walks…. Back to normal.
