Zaftigs, Cambridge and Last Day in Boston!

We were up early for a visit to an excellent Jewish deli in Brookline named Zaftigs...after the pleasingly plump figure one would have if they ate there on a daily basis! Breakfast at Zaftigs is one of the finest gastronomic treats in Brookline, with weekend waiting lines out the front door into the street.

Eleanor emerged from her hobbit hole well-rested and ready for banana waffles! It was a short walk up Harvard Street to this wonderful breakfast emporium. The staff wear B&W t-shirts with a variety of play-on-word slogans, such as Happy Challahdays, Almost Kosher and Knish Happens!

The menu describes wonderful options and the food even better than advertised. Which explains the long weekend lines and likely the long postprandial naps taken by indulgent Brooklinites.

Rowing fraternity on the Charles River

After pushing back from the breakfast table, we headed across the Charles River to Cambridge, home of Eleanor's alma mater, Harvard University. On a random Tuesday morning, Harvard Square was a beehive of activity. On the grounds of Harvard Yard, there were students between classes and groups of parents and pre-freshmen getting their first glimpses of Harvard.

Memorial Church on Harvard Yard

Finally, it was time to head back to Logan Airport for sad good-byes with Eleanor and a flight back to Washington Dulles. One might think this was the end of our adventure, but another story was about to unfold. While awaiting our three cases of First Crush wine at "oversize" baggage, I noticed a young woman struggling with two pieces of luggage and three large Samsonite containers...marked Uganda! After giving her a hand, she said she was staying the night in an airport hotel and showed me her hotels.com receipt. When I informed her she had booked a hotel near Washington Reagan Airport rather than Washington Dulles, she looked crestfallen. As I joined Kenny with all our baggage, our fellow traveller was trying to call the hotel to correct the problem with her prepaid room. I knew her hotel change options were very limited and schlepping from Dulles to Reagan National and back again in the morning was cruel. So, I went back over and offered to take her home with us and bring her back to Dulles in the morning. After asking to be sure I did not have any history as an axe murderer, she agreed to come to Clifton for the night.

Summer Root visiting from Uganda

As it turned out, Summer was a missionary returning for another two years helping natives of eastern Uganda. She is 32, grew up in Chico, CA and had already spent three years in Africa. She showed us photos of her work with the Ugandan people and the primitive conditions in which she lived there. Her diet was mostly a corn & bean porridge with very little meat or vegetables. She has had eight recurring episodes of malaria among other illnesses. Her adventures can be viewed at: summerroot.blogspot.com

After a good nights sleep and breakfast, I drove Summer back to Dulles to catch her 13 hour flight on Ethiopian Airlines, followed by a short flight to Uganda, then 2 days of bumpy roads to Moroto in eastern Uganda. Best wishes, Summer!

 

 

 

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Visiting First Crush Winery on Cape Cod

After a good night's sleep and a yummy Florentine cannoli for breakfast, we headed off towards the Cape to visit Frank and Diane Puzio and their new winery. Although there are several well-documented tales of Eleanor's slow driving, it must be reported that she has now become a brazen Northeast urban driver...almost. Although she still has a penchant for following slow trucks in the right lane, she once topped 65 mph with only moderately white knuckles on the steering wheel. :)

Arrived at First Crush Winery at noon to find the proprietor busy at work and his lovely wife, Diane, soon joined us. Not wanting to drink wine on an empty stomach, we drove over to the beautiful Wequassett Resort for lunch on the deck at the Outer Bar & Grill overlooking scenic Round Cove. We all agreed this would be a great place for a future PMA meeting.

After a great lunch, we returned to the winery for a tour of the facilities and a lesson on good winemaking practices. After many years of producing increasing quantities of wine in his garage, the wine-making operation was moved into a large space in an industrial park in Harwich. Frank is very well-versed in the meticulous details that will produce good wine and his attention to detail is evident in his product. His 2011 wine was the last crush done in his garage and the 2012 vintage was the first in his new facility.

Frank began his tour explaining the recent crush of 40,000 pounds of California grapes. First Crush sources their fruit from a grower in Suisun Country, which is just over the hill east of Napa, CA.

The Puzios have invested in a profusion of high quality Italian-made wine-making equipment. And Frank is still the only optometrist I know who has owned a full-size bulldozer, a commercial forklift and who uses a flamethrower for his weeding. Sometimes you can judge the unique character of an individual by his choice of toys! :)

After the requisite education, Frank broke out the first of his four wines, a lovely Sauvignon Blanc. As we continued the tour into the bottling area and the temperature-controlled cellar, stories of the triumphs and tribulations of wine-making continued. Diane, who has turned bottling wine into an aerobic workout, had one of the best stories. As she climbed a stepladder to fill a 3000 liter container with red wine, the power rheostat on the pump had been left on an improper setting. When it was switched on, Diane suddenly was holding a firehose gushing red wine. Putting her hand over the end of the hose only succeeded in spraying herself and the entire room in purple. Not every day happens according to plan...especially in wine-making!

In addition to the Sauvignon Blanc, First Crush produces an excellent Zinfandel, a complex Cabernet Sauvignon and a beautiful wine made from Cape Cod cranberries and California white raisins. By serendipity, Frank recently invented a fifth wine product when he was cleaning up after a wine tasting. He mixed the leftover Sav Blanc and the Three Sip Cran to create a wonderful blend of flavors which he now bottles as a summer picnic wine.

After a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon spent with wine and good friends, it was time to head back to Boston. Eleanor, Kenny and I wandered the streets of Brookline locating a bar with appetizers before settling on a Thai restaurant for dinner. We agreed that some days are better than others...and this was an excellent day!!!

 

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Visiting E in Boston!

Our flight arrived at Logan Airport just after 10am on Sunday, October 13. The foliage around Boston was approaching peak color with quite a number of trees yet to turn...adding some green to the Fall palette of colors!

Eleanor was waiting for us in front of the terminal and we headed back to her place to ditch the luggage and her car. We jumped on the "T" and headed downtown to morph into touristas! The weather was sunny and mid-60s, although soon some cloud cover began to roll in. As we approached the Faneuil Hall Marketplace, we happened by a group of street dancers that were amazingly limber.

Boston Skyline

We whetted our appetite walking through the multiple food shops within the Faneuil Hall Marketplace, but then actually had lunch at Legal Seafood on the Boston waterfront. Now sufficiently fueled, we walked a block to catch the "hop on-hop off" tourista trolley...unfortunately just in time for the start of Boston's Columbus Day Parade! With downtown traffic now at a standstill, we decided to take the 45 minute Inner Harbor tourista cruise until traffic started moving again.

"Old Ironsides"

The harbor cruise was narrated as the ferry made a large circle around the Boston waterfront. Since Boston was founded in 1630 by Puritan colonists from England, there is a rich history to be seen from the water. In addition to identifying the notable structures on the Boston skyline, we saw "Old Ironsides" (the USS Constitution) and an untold number of historic wharfs and piers.

By the conclusion of the harbor cruise, the downtown traffic had finally begun to move following the conclusion of the parade. So we hopped on the tourista trolley and made a 2 hour circuit around the city listening to some humorous narration and timeworn stories about Boston's historic past. Then we walked through the Boston Common and Public Garden...the latter was amazing for the dozen or more limos and wedding parties having professional photos done on every corner of the central lake!

As we headed towards Commonwealth Avenue, we noticed multiple "free to play" pianos on the streets to promote the musical arts. The juxtaposition of old and new architecture in downtown Boston is enchanting.

As we turned onto Boyleston Street, Eleanor explained the horror Boston experienced in the April, 2013 bombing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The first pressure cooker bomb exploded in front of the Marathon Sports store, whose storefront was demolished by the explosion. The second bomb exploded 12 seconds later about 200 yards further down Boyleston Street killing 3 and wounding more than 260 others in total.

Then we ascended 52 stories above Back Bay to the Top of the Hub for a drink at the bar with amazing views of the cityscape of Boston. Unfortunately, we were not the only ones with that great plan as the wait for a table was over an hour and there really was no standing room at the bar. However, we did snap some photos of the city skyline before heading over to Boston's North End where we had restaurant reservations.

We were met at Lucia Ristorante by Eleanor's SO, Nick, who is a very nice guy. Lucia Ristorante, which has been in business since 1977, is housed within a small brick building built in 1919. After a fabulous Italian dinner, we made our way down the street to the famous Mike's Pastry, which sells a dozen varieties of cannoli, Italian cookies and other delectable treats.

Mike's Pastry counter

On our way to dinner, there were over 50 people outside Mike's Pastry waiting on line on the street. When we returned after dinner, there were even more in a line that wound down the sidewalk nearly to the street corner. The orderly line actually moves fairly quickly, but when you enter the store it degenerates into a bit of a scrum. Everyone is polite, but if you hesitate for a split second someone else will step up and place their order with the clerk. The half dozen clerks wrap each order with well-practiced skill in white cardboard boxes with striped twine. Those white pastry boxes with block lettering are ubiquitous throughout downtown Boston. Having awoken early to catch our flight to Boston, we were now more than ready to head back on the "T" to Eleanor's home in Brookline.

 

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