The Log Dog Blog: July 2014

Sunday, July 20, 2014

Village of Tuxedo Park

My dad’s uncle was like a father to him growing up, and so even though he is technically my great uncle, he IS my grandfather. And I adore him. So my brothers and I call him “YaYa,” which is Shanghainese for paternal grandfather.

After living in Huntington Beach, California for the past many decades, he relocated to New York City last year to be close to his daughter, who, despite being my dad's cousin, is more like my dad's sister. I consider her my aunt and I adore her, too! She and my uncle have a home in Tuxedo Park, NY, where they spend their summers, and YaYa is spending his summer there as well. We wanted to visit him, and jumped at the chance to go to Tuxedo Park.

We drove up on Saturday morning and what should have been a five-hour drive turned into a seven-hour drive because of an accident on the New Jersey turnpike. We were parked at a standstill for over 90 minutes. People were out of their cars, wandering around and socializing, sitting and standing on the tops of their vehicles, and taking photos of themselves sitting on the guardrails. I’ve never seen anything like it! Even though it added almost two hours to our drive, the people-watching was great. We also drove across the Delaware Memorial Bridge, and I love bridges! Look at this bridge! Amazing!

Delaware Memorial Bridge

NJ Turnpike

I had only ever been to Tuxedo Park once, more than twenty years ago, and C had never been there, so this was our first visit to my aunt and uncle's house. They live right on the water, and as you can see from the photos below, it is just beautiful. It was so relaxing and enjoying time with family was wonderful. Other than the fact that we greatly missed our dogs, we did not want to leave. It is a sad reality that no matter how much time we get to spend with people we love, no visit is EVER long enough.

Arya

C and I took a lovely walk with YaYa and Arya and I hung back to snap a picture of them. This is my favorite photo from the weekend, and I strongly suspect it is destined to be one of my favorite photos of all time. I love absolutely everything about it.

Arya, YaYa, and C

We began our trip home Sunday afternoon and decided to avoid the NJ turnpike and I-95S. Our route included Pennsylvania and West Virginia, so we drove through a total of seven states. Not bad for a 36-hour trip!

Happy Tails to you!

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Rehoboth Beach

We decided to take a quick day trip to Rehoboth Beach in Delaware today. It was glorious. The weather was undeniably perfect – sunny, low 80s, slight breeze – a great day to spend at the beach. We arrived pretty early, and as you can see in the photos below, the spot we chose was pretty unpopulated, so we sort of felt like we had the entire Atlantic to ourselves.

We watched a pod of dolphins not too far out, and they kept surfacing and popping out of the water. A few of them even leapt into the air and then dove back in! I was so excited that even though C was trying to read a book, I kept interrupting him with “Did you see that?” and “There’s more over there!” comments. We estimate that there were between twelve and eighteen dolphins, and I was in heaven watching those beautiful creatures frolicking in the ocean. Where they should be!

One thing I love about going there is the drive. I love bridges because I find them architecturally interesting and I like thinking about all of the math that goes into their construction. And the Bay Bridge that crosses Chesapeake Bay is awesome! The picture below is obviously taken through the windshield of our car as we were driving, but look at this bridge! Beautiful!

On our way home earlier this evening, we stopped for dinner in Odenton, Maryland at an Italian restaurant called Mamma Roma. This might not seem noteworthy, but my absolutely-no-contest favorite food on earth is at this restaurant. It is the bruschetta. You’re probably thinking, Who cares? You can get bruschetta all over the place!, but I am telling you, this bruschetta is out of this world. Is it the melted mozzarella that separates this from all other bruschetta? I don't know. But I love it. As in, if I only had one meal left on earth, this would be it. No question!

Happy Tails to you!

Sunday, July 6, 2014

PNC Park

Last summer, C and I were reminiscing about all of the baseball trips we took to visit the 30 MLB stadiums. Given that we completed that travel checklist in 2005, with several ball parks having been visited in the years prior to 2005, we decided to look at which teams had new stadiums that we hadn’t visited yet. Well, we counted nine. This number was a bit surprising…almost one-third of the ball parks we’d gone to during our travels had been replaced? Pretty shocking.

We decided that we needed to do something about that and started with a game at Nationals Park last summer. So we were down to eight, which still seemed like a lot of places to visit, and we told ourselves we would get to one or two this summer.

We spent Independence Day hanging out with an amazing friend, and then before heading to bed, we started talking about what our plans were for the next day. And we had no plans. Which is EXACTLY how we like our weekends. I absolutely LOVE looking at my calendar and seeing nothing written on the Saturday or Sunday blocks. (And yes, I still use a paper calendar and colored pens…I have yet to convert to an electronic calendar and don’t foresee myself doing so anytime in the near future.)

We’d been talking about our next stadium being Pittsburgh, since it is an easy drive and we were planning on combining it with a visit to my dad, who is not too far from there. We didn’t even know if the Pirates were in town this weekend, because we hadn’t considered it, knowing my dad would be out of town for the holiday weekend. However, a search of the schedule, available tickets, and the weather forecast made the decision to go a no-brainer. So we purchased tickets at about 12:30 am, and nine hours later, we were in the car headed to Pittsburgh.

The game was bookended by lunch AND dinner at Primanti Bros. For those of you who have never experienced their sandwiches, I recommend you find a reason to go to Pittsburgh immediately. According to their website, they also have three locations in Florida and one in Morgantown, WV, so those are your other options. But you need to go. Seriously.

As the photos below illustrate, the sandwiches are insane. And I mean that in the best way possible. The one in the photos is a “double egg and cheese” sandwich with onions (yes, I had the same thing at lunch and dinner!), and all of the sandwiches come with coleslaw and fries on them. SOOOO good.

After lunch, we headed to PNC Park and watched the Pirates beat the Phillies 3-2. Although I still prefer the American League to the National League, the game was great and the stadium was absolutely beautiful (it goes without saying that it is a decided upgrade from Three Rivers Stadium!). Both the fans and the staff at the stadium were awesome, and so the atmosphere and the weather made for a perfect afternoon.

One of the fun things they do there is have the “Great Pierogi Race,” which is similar to the president race in Washington and the sausage race in Milwaukee. The characters are Jalapeno Hannah, Cheese Chester, Sauerkraut Saul, and Oliver Onion. It was a bonus that they ran around the warning track because when they were announced, I was plenty entertained just by their names.

Earlier that morning, when I was figuring out what to wear, I decided to go with my Crosby jersey. I reasoned that even if it was the wrong sport, at least I was showing support for the right city. I was not alone – we saw many other fans in Penguins shirts and hats, so I was in good company! Unfortunately, the jersey made me extremely hot, but I couldn’t take it off because the shirt I was wearing under it was my “We Are All Kings” t-shirt, which has been my go-to article of clothing for more than a month now. I didn’t think the Pittsburgh fans we look kindly upon a Kings fan in their midst, so I kept the jersey on despite my discomfort.

Dinner was once again at Primanti Bros. before we headed home. We owe a huge thank you to my mom for spending the day with our dogs (and I owe C a huge thank for doing all of the driving). It was a long day, but a good one!

Lunch - Monroeville