August 20, 2023 – Keith Robertson

“Triangle Trip”

We caught a morning flight to Toronto on Monday and then drove a few hours to Port McNicoll on the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron to visit Randy and Janice for a few days. This map shows our plan for the next couple of weeks. Port McNicoll for a few days, then down to Corning, NY via Niagara Falls to see Patty and Brent, and then over to Indian Lake to visit Vince and Lori.

Randy and Janice have a great setup on Georgian Bay – a house with a lovely view of the lake, and a boat at the marina, less than a mile away.

Wednesday was our big boating day. We spent most of the day on the lake, taking an hour or so to motor over to Beau Soleil, where we anchored and enjoyed some swimming and sun bathing time. Captain’s Randy and Janice did a great job.

Diana always enjoys sunning herself up front on the bow of the boat:

And of course BP didn’t want to be left out:

Sunset from the dock was just gorgeous:

We enjoyed delicious pork chops for dinner back at the house.

On Thursday, we decided to have a walk in the nearby Kew Marsh. This was really interesting and enjoyable until Randy decided to try and find a way to cut over to the Canada Trail – coast to coast walking trail. We failed at that and retreated to our original route.

There was an active beehive exhibit on the trail:

We were thirsty after all that walking and so visited a very unique brewery in the middle of nowhere – Quayle’s. The setting was amazing – I had never seen hop vines growing before.

I chuckled at the number two beer – a tribute to Anne Bauer:

Later, we treated to dinner at the Explorer’s Bistro in nearby Midland. The restaurant had just opened again a couple of months ago. The food was excellent all around, but some of the logistics still need some tweaking. We started with a mixed mushroom sauté and arancini – both excellent. Then I had a vegetable bake with a tomato béchamel sauce that I thoroughly enjoyed. Randy was quite pleased that I had found this place open again.

Friday was a travel day – first side of the triangle to Corning, NY, with a stop at Niagara Falls on the Canadian side.

We had an interesting time at immigration in Buffalo. You’ll have to ask us if you would like the details.

We arrived in Corning in time for some amazing smoked pork, courtesy of Brent. It was very nice to relax in Patty and Brent’s wonderful downtown apartment. The smoked pork was fantastic. I had it again in a Brent scramble creation early morning Sunday, following the women’s soccer World Cup.

Saturday began with a run around town for Diana and Brent, and a walk for Patty and me. After that, we made a trip over to Watkins Glen on the Seneca finger lake (there are 11 of them nearby and they are all long and skinny.)

Watkins Glen has a racetrack and it was NASCAR weekend – leading to some fun shopping and people watching experiences. Apparently some of the NASCAR purists don’t love Watkins as you can’t watch the entire circuit from one spot in the grandstands.

We enjoyed lunch and then walked through town to the State Park waterfalls.

Not quite Niagara, but much more accessible. After that we drove to a local winery, Glenora, where we enjoyed white wines on the patio. My Riesling was nice and refreshing.

And following that, Brent led an expedition to the local distillery. That was a highlight for me. The cocktails and samplers were very well done in a beautiful location.

The day was finished off at The Cellar in downtown Corning – a short walk from the apartment. Another excellent meal – great starters like falafel salad and chicken liver mousse, and then a burger for me and paella for Diana. The ladies picked out a wine that they enjoyed very much, so I’m recording that here for future reference.

Diana and Patty attended the local yoga studio on Sunday morning, while Brent and I watched soccer and ate. Brunch was down the street at the Quincy. A really good brunch – my shrimp ‘n grits were better than most I’ve had in New Orleans. We had fun with the old bank vault as we left.

After brunch, we walked over to the Corning Museum of Glass (CMOG) and browsed through the gift shop. McD successfully navigating the maze on the bridge over the river.

Lots of amazing items, including many pumpkins and some mermaids.

As I finish writing this, Patty and Brent are mixing up frozen French 75s and preparing this dish for dinner. What great hosts!

As you can tell, there was a lot of driving and other activity this week and not much time for reading. I did find a really interesting short book on my iPad – no room for real books on this trip.

Dickens and Prince by the wonderful Nick Hornby was thoroughly enjoyable. What an amazing insight to put them together like this. The online update:

Not a lot of time for new music this week. I did find this new one that sounds remarkably like John Mayer. I like it.

Coexist peacefully, with kindness and compassion for all!

“One home sold, agreement reached on another”

The week was mostly spent getting ready to exit our home in McKinney. Diana worked feverishly for many hours over many days to get everything ready. The final packing and most of the loading was completed on Friday, with just our bed, couch and a few essentials remaining for Saturday load.

We signed the final closing papers on Friday afternoon.

I was able to work in a final trip to the dentist and haircut at the Boardroom earlier in the week.

We had an exciting event on Thursday evening. Finn brought Holly over to meet us for dinner. We found her very interesting, intelligent and calm, and are very happy he has someone for company when we move away. I picked up dinner from Zin Zen as we were without most of our kitchen supplies.

As we were finishing up the final clean of the house, Diana noticed drips from the clothes washer water hoses. They were not shut off and/or draining properly. A quick trip to Home Depot for caps with washers, and the problem was solved.

Diana said a final “Goodbye pool” and “Be good Stanley”, and we were off.

As we checked into the Canvas hotel in south downtown Dallas, Diana got a call from Jennifer in New Orleans, telling us that the sellers had accepted our counter offer around what to pay for in repairs. Woo hoo – we have a place to go when we finish vacation.

We were exhausted on arrival at the Canvas and nixed our plan of going out for a final Oakcliff dinner, opting for the hotel restaurant instead.

Will and the family gave us a gift card to the fancy new Miami restaurant that has opened in Dallas – Komodo. We made a brunch reservation and I was a bit nervous – they kept sending me new rules about dress code, how long you could keep the table and so on. The experience was good – they seemed to have an “old folks section.” The music was quieter and it was out of the way of all the hustle and excitement. This was totally fine with us.

Here are some of the things we sampled – all very good.

Lobster dynamite:

Money bags with gold leaf:

Dynamite crab cake benedict:

We checked into the DFW airport hotel after brunch and prepared for our Triangle Trip early the next morning. Another busy week.

I relaxed with a couple of interesting sports documentaries this week. Johnny Football was a really good film about Johnny Manziel, Texas A&M Heisman winner, who unfortunately came of the rails in the NFL.

The second was about the British cyclist Mark Cavendish, at one time the world’s best sprinter, and again tells the story of a rollercoaster of a career. I particularly enjoyed this one.

I got sucked into the time sink vortex of the New York Times Spelling Bee this week. The goal is to find as many words as possible from seven letters. They have to include the center letter, and you struggle away throughout the day to get to “genius” level.

My first book this week was “The Celebrants” by Steven Rowley. I enjoyed this read, just not quite as much as the reviewers I read did. Creative premise, well executed, humorous at times, but just not jumping off the page for me.

Here’s the Goodreads online review:

“A Big Chill for our times, celebrating decades-long friendships and promises—especially to ourselves—by the bestselling and beloved author of The Guncle.

It’s been a minute—or five years—since Jordan Vargas last saw his college friends, and twenty-eight years since their graduation when their adult lives officially began. Now Jordan, Jordy, Naomi, Craig, and Marielle find themselves at the brink of a new decade, with all the responsibilities of adulthood, yet no closer to having their lives figured out. Though not for a lack of trying. Over the years they’ve reunited in Big Sur to honor a decades-old pact to throw each other living “funerals,” celebrations to remind themselves that life is worth living—that their lives mean something, to one another if not to themselves.

But this reunion is different. They’re not gathered as they were to bolster Marielle as her marriage crumbled, to lift Naomi after her parents died, or to intervene when Craig pleaded guilty to art fraud. This time, Jordan is sitting on a secret that will upend their pact.

A deeply honest tribute to the growing pains of selfhood and the people who keep us going, coupled with Steven Rowley’s signature humor and heart, The Celebrants is a moving tale about the false invincibility of youth and the beautiful ways in which friendship helps us celebrate our lives, even amid the deepest challenges of living.”

My next book is a classic that I’ve started a few times and never finished. I had to finish by Saturday morning this time, so that I could drop it back at the McKinney library before departing. “The Great Gatsby” was a very entertaining and quickly paced story. Again, not the wonderful classic in my mind that so many folks make it out to be. Many top ten lists I see from readers, have this at number one. Fitzgerald has a few interesting plot twists and some fascinating characters – I’ll give all those reviewers that. It just seems a bit light weight, lacking in the depth of a true classic.