Camp Papelousu July 2014

Camp July 2014 A few memories from our week at camp this year. Things started with a bang — in a bad way. Mom was visiting Philadelphia and the Thursday night before our trip started had to be taken to the hospital with some heart issues (she was expertly treated and is now home in the Keys).  Given that she was in the hospital, Steve and his family weren’t able to make their way north for their inaugural trip to Camp. Boo....but necessary.  They, along with my aunts, took great care of Mom. Kudos to the Paoli hospital for quality of care.

We postponed our departure until Sunday to make sure that nothing declined in Philly and when it didn’t, took the slow way north stopping by at a great farm stand north of Newbury. Blueberries, baby carrots, peppers, and tomatoes — yum!

Once at camp, we were greeted by the Potters who bridged our week and Henri’s. First activity of order was to make gazpacho since some of the ‘maters didm’t make it intact. Sun-blessed tomatoes, peppers, onion, and garlic all blended into scrumptious goodness. Then for a game of corn hole with our new set.

Monday, Anne gave me an impromptu yoga lesson on the front porch. It was surprisingly powerful and definitely worked my muscles. I may need to look into this… then we headed to the beach for a swim. The lake was definitely warm — that is, as warm as Averill gets. Monday evening I had the Quimby board meeting and Alan joined me for dinner and then the shareholder meeting. It was nice to catch up with old friends Warren, Phil, and Lorie over supper of shrimp skewers and pork ribs. 

Tuesday noon Laura and Mark and their boys showed up and thus began 2.5 days of boys play, complete with extended water play, er, battles. The adults also had fun, to be sure. Dinner was delicious salmon from Canada — fresh and simple on the grill. Wednesday was a rain day so Carole and Laura got baking — banana bread and raspberry pie (thanks to a gluten free crust by Mark). Both were yummy and quickly devoured. On Thursday, Alan led the menfolk on 187 mile tour of the north country using ATVs from Black Bear. Nobody crashed although there was one flat tire. They returned tired and filthy.

The Potters headed east to Maine Thursday evening, seeing two moose along the way. Then, the Gordons followed suit Friday noon. It was nice to have a little peace — as much peace as you can have with cleaning-dervish Colette in the house. I read on the beach, which was pleasant and then we had a swim. The two adult loons came into the cover fishing and got probably 20’ away from us as we sat on the platform. Very cool. I’m not sure their chicks lived this year as they haven’t been apparent. There are, however, an epidemic of goslings on the property. Wonderful — not.

Saturday we shopped for dinner with Jacques and Jenn, getting more of the yummy salmon. Fresh corn and carrots plus spiraled zucchini = good! On Sunday, we headed over to Parker Pie Wings for lunch and found, to our surprise, an air show! Very cool to watch the pilots doing their stunts but also a little nerve-wracking watching them plummet to earth with the engine stopped. In two more weeks, we’ll be back at Papelousu with Alan’s mom. Until then, we’ll enjoy our time in Canaan.

Den Haag

View from Hotel

Dinner at Wox 

Steak tartare

Dutch grey shrimp with basil and mango 

Thai asparagus salad

Veal slices over hummus with a sesame vinaigrette 

Ready for his risstaffel! 

Lightning fast trip to Delft

Dartmouth is a charter member of EdX and they were having a meeting in Delft that Alan had to attend so I decided to tag along and see some of Holland, where I had enjoyed many visits while Dad was teaching at Erasmus University.

We flew into Brussels because it was so much cheaper than Amsterdam. As usual, now that we are Vermonters, the trip had at least three legs. First to drop off Dinah at Runamuck. We had to snake through the area because the annual covered bridge run was in full swing. But luckily earlier explorations came in handy and we left the D at her usual digs when we’re away. Then, it was off to the Burlington airport.

We are certainly familiar with Burlington airport having flown in and out many times over the years but it was a bit weird to arrive from I-89 and not to go to the rental car counter. Once there, we learned that we couldn’t check our luggage through to Brussels because Jet Blue and Delta didn’t have a luggage contract. Boo. Oh well, as it turned out we had to switch terminals so would have had to go through security twice anyways.

We walked from JFK terminal 5 to 4 and along the way got to see some BIG trains — Indian Air and the like. It was kind of cool walking alongside them, almost like we were on the tarmac. Well, except for a metal fence, we were on the tarmac!

We had a longish wait of five hours so got some rather mediocre lunch (LGA really has better options) and hung out in the Sky Lounge where you can now eat with a rather better menu than the restaurant.

The flight over was fine but little more than that. Whatever glamor flying might once have had, it is long gone and is simply an endurance test. Landed in Brussels to a super long line for Passport Control and then another long queue for a taxi. Crazy busy airport left us longing for the peace and efficiency of Zurich. In short, we were sleep deprived, sweaty, and cranky. :-(

The taxi ride was crazy, too, with the driver zooming about like a madman. I hung on to the grip and Alan’s hand for dear life.

Alighting at the hotel, we got a break in that we could check in early. Yes! A shower and several hours of sleep left us feeling ready for an early supper. Alan got a recommendation for a Belgian bistro around the corner and we headed out at the unseemly hour of 6pm for an early meal. The bistro was delightful, very old school. I had chicken waterzooi and Alan moules et frites. Then, for dessert some of the best chocolate profiteroles we’ve ever eaten. Delicious.

After dinner, we walked down to the Grand-Place and did a bit of people watching before heading back to the hotel to read and then sleep again.

Tuesday finds us on the train heading to Den Haag, where we are staying. The countryside is beautiful and brings back many memories of driving through it with my parents.

Hawaii 2nd post 5 months later

Herenui Farm, Maui We decided rather late to come to Hawaii for Alan’s 50th birthday — just before Thanksgiving. And Hawaii is a popular holiday destination, making finding accommodations challenging. We both spent our time in Zug going through sites looking for a place to stay, making inquiries only to find out things were booked. It was on our way home from Switzerland, literally sitting in the airplane in Zurich, that I received word that the chalet at Herenui organic fruit farm on Maui could be ours — and for a quite reasonable price! We didn’t hesitate and sent off a note to the manager before even leaving Zurich.

Herenui Farm promised two bedrooms, a wrap around deck with views of multiple islands, a new kitchen, and a salt water pool. Its location was a tad unknown — somewhere in rural up country Maui.

Other than sending in the check and confirming our booking, I had no other interactions with the manager so it was with a little trepidation that we left the Maui airport at 4:15pm to head up country. We were quickly engulfed in fog which made navigating the climbing, curving road interesting and as light was dwindling by the time we got to mile marker 16 (the second one), we were more than a little eager to find our digs for the night. At MM 16 v.2 at the “very square” house, we made a hairpin turn onto a dirt road with stunning views of the pacific. After 7/10 of a mile down a jouncing path (glad to have the jeep!), we arrived at Herenui.

Boy was the drive worth it.

The chalet is perched on a hill overlooking Kahoolawe Island Preserve with views of West Maui off to the side. The deck provides ample seating for checking out the views and the grounds, which consist of palms and fruit trees. The master bedroom is set in a corner with sliding screen doors to the deck. You can lay back in bed and watch the sunset.

Sweet!

Our lightning shop en route resulted in a stellar dinner of fried chicken, brownies, and red wine. :-) Night one — check!

Our first morning, we woke up fairly early and explored the place in the daylight. I found some orange trees and brought eight in to make fresh juice. There are also tangerines and papaya on property.

Deciding to spend the day acclimating, we went back down the mountain to the Foodland in Pukalani for a more substantial shop. Foodland is a local Hawaiian chain store that seems to be quite good. Fairly large with ample selection. The prepared sushi and seafood (more poke anyone?) are particularly excellent and, of course, there’s a big selection of Japanese foods. Other than that, the most noticeable difference from the mainland is the price — ouch.

Having stocked up, we headed home to make sandwiches for lunch and then decided to explore the pool. It’s not heated so it was a bit brisk but once you were in, it was fun. We reprised a game from Italy by picking a tangerine and playing catch (there, it was a lemon). A surprisingly relaxing way to pass the afternoon — standing in the pool, looking out at the ocean in the distance and tossing some fruit. :-)

Fresh shrimp fra diavolo for dinner, along with a green salad topped with local sea asparagus and sweet Maui onion.

Monday morning we slept a little late as Alan was a bit under the weather. But then we got our energy together and headed for the town of Hana on the easternmost part of the island. It’s a popular destination by the northern road but since we were already on the south, we took that way. Stunning views of the Alenuihaha Channel and the flanks of Haleakala in bright sunshine.

The road was initially not too challenging — narrow in parts but paved well. The bridges were single lane but there was relatively little traffic. As we made our way east, however, the pavement quality declined and the road got even narrower. In fact, we are theorizing that the most popular road sign in use on Maui is “Road Narrows.” And they are right. In some places, as you wend around a promontory with a cliff on your right and the rocks on the left held up by wire, honking into the unknown to let folks know you’re coming, you think you’re in “Romancing the Stone.”

A pause for an observation. Tourism is obviously a critical industry on Maui and rental cars play a key role. The most common rental vehicle by far is the Ford Mustang. As we traversed the road to Hana, we encountered many, many Mustangs, most of which were driven by idiots who didn’t understand the logistics and ethics of driving single-lane roads perched on the side of a mountain with zero room for error. Beware the Ford Mustang. Top down in one of the rainiest places in the world? Double beware; they’re probably from California. ;-)

Seriously, the road was….interesting. And once we got to Hana, we weren’t eager to return via the same route so we took the northern option. Also narrow and windy but nowhere near the same level of adrenaline. However, first we stopped off in someone’s front yard to grab a BBQ chicken plate from their food truck. Amazing — some of the best chicken we’ve ever had.

The northern route from Hana is Jurassic Park gorgeous and deserves its own day or two to explore the many gardens, overlooks, and waterfalls. All of the guide books say to spend the night in Hana so that you give the area its due and we agree. Next time!

Hawaii 5.0

Alan turns 50 this December 31st and so I told him he could have the adventure of his choice as his present. In the end, he chose Hawaii and we’ve just finished three wonderful nights in Waikiki at the Moana Surfrider and the Royal Hawaiian hotels. Truly cosmopolitan luxury, especially coming from Hanover, New Hampshire.

We started with a great Christmas eve with Henri’s clan in Lexington. On the menu were oysters, shrimp, lobster, and stuffed clams — yum! And who could forget Lisa and Vickie’s Christmas cookies — wafer thin (a good thing)! A few HT’s and games of Jeopardy later and we were ready for Santa to arrive. Which he did for us in the form of a 6am cab Christmas morning. Merry Christmas to us — a ride to Logan. From there, we flew to Minneapolis, where we stupidly bypassed lovely looking ramen noodles, then on to LAX and then finally to Honolulu. 19 hours after starting our journey, we were sipping Mai Tai’s and nibbling poke nachos to the local hotel tunes. A different way to spend Christmas — but with a great ending!

The next day, I got up to explore and walked up and down the beach. The day starts about 6am here, with the hotel employees out to groom the beach and set up the umbrellas and chaise lounges, along with the metal detector crowd searching for lost jewelry and the early surfers. The sun rises over Diamond Head to the west, gradually peeking over to illuminate the water. Back at the hotel, I roused Alan for an 8am breakfast and we headed down to the Moana main restaurant where we got a sweet table right at the front overlooking the sea. YeeHaw! Off to a great start. Alan enjoyed the sumptuous “Queen’s Breakfast Table,” which featured a full American and Japanese breakfast bar (miso soup, fish, pickles, cumgee), in addition to anything you wanted custom made off the main menu. The fresh pineapple and blueberry orange pancakes were the highlights. Oddly enough, the maple syrup says it comes from California……

After breakfast, we found a hair salon and Alan had a haircut straight off while I made an appointment for later in the day. We were both shaggy dogs! An ocean swim was next in order in the bright Honolulu sun. The bottom in Waikiki is a combination of sand and coral and the drop off at high tide is fairly significant. You can imagine it is a great place to learn to surf and even experienced surfers seemed to be enjoying the bay.

We had to switch hotels that afternoon so decided to postpone lunch and check out of the Moana Surfrider and truck our luggage two doors down to the Royal Hawaiian. There, we were too early for check in but Alan gave it a try anyways and totally lucked out. I should say our stays in these luxury hotels were only permitted by Alan “Mr Points” Cattier’s sheer genius at gaming the system. In this case, the master maneuvered us into a beachfront room on the 14th floor with a lanai overlooking the ocean. Sweet!!

Such luck called for lunch at the Mai Tai Club on premise where we continued to enjoy the local seafood through some tuna sashimi and a seafood salad with lobster, scallops, shrimp, and crab. Delish. At this point, I headed off for my hair appointment where I gave the stylist pretty much carte blanche. The result? Much shorter and blonder — a good change.

Dinner Thursday night was probably the biggest disappointment of the trip. Suffice it to say the fish was good but the atmosphere loud. We left by 8pm and headed back to the Royal (as they say around here) and were in bed by 8:40pm. Well, that is 1:40am on the east coast.

Next morning I was up even earlier at 5:30am and took a longer power walk down the whole Waikiki strip, ending down at the former W hotel which is where we’ve stayed in the past. A good walk in the burgeoning light. Lots of exercisers and a surprising number of homeless.

Back at the room, I motivated Alan out of bed for a 7am breakfast where we both had the buffet at the Royal. Highlights were beautiful whole salmon and fresh fruit. Alan also had a lovely shrimp, scallion, and onion omelet. Kona coffee of course!

Since we got an early start, we were able to snag two chaise lounges in the pool area where we spent our morning, alternately reading and hopping into the pool and hot tub. Fun people watching and napping time. But by 1pm, I was hungry so we headed over to the Sheraton next door to the Rum Fire Club where we lunched with stunning views of Diamond Head. Breaking the trend, I had a hamburger which was delicious and Alan had more tuna poke. It’s funny, we had raw tuna multiple times per day and each time it was different. And delicious! So fresh.

One of the nice things about our stay was that there were three Starwood properties right next door to each other, so you could move between the three as you liked and still charge to the room. Made for great bathing suit wandering. Each property was unique. The Royal was the quietest but I enjoyed the quiet energy of the Moana and it's dining area had superior views. The Sheraton was much bigger and more bustling but had a great multi-pool swimming area with a water slide.

Late afternoon brought another ocean swim with the sun sinking in the sky. At this time of day, the tide is out and you can walk quite far out into the bay. Folks were taking advantage of the shallow water to play catch and football. Pretty classic.

Back at our ocean view lanai, we enjoyed the “Sunset Package” of Mai Tai’s and the PuPu Platter. Sunset is early here this time of year — about 6pm. But it was beautiful. Lots of sailboats out enjoying the view.

Dinner that night was at Azure, the Royal’s flagship restaurant, which is famous for its fresh seafood. Alan can attest to its excellence (he had fresh opah) but I was forced to go back to the room to power hydrate and rest. Too much sun and fun for Carole.

Last morning in Waikiki, we headed back to the Moana Surfrider for breakfast where we got our same most excellent table!

And, now, onto the next adventure — a remote rental chalet on an organic fruit farm on Maui. The road there is described as “rarely traveled.” More to come... :-)

Week one at Dartmouth

We started work on Thursday. People couldn't have been nicer or more inviting. Lots of challenges to work through but that's what we like. :-)

In our first weekend, we had a lot of fun exploring the area. We went to the Saint-Gaudens national heritage site on Saturday and it was amazing. Neither of us knew much about Saint-Gaudens before but his work is tremendous. We wandered amongst buildings dotted on a hillside looking over at Mt. Ascutney encountering sculptures and exhibits as we went. Lovely way to spend a few hours. They have concerts on Sundays during the summer although we didn't make it back there today.

That's because we journeyed about 5 minutes from our door to the 2013 League of New Hampshire Craftsmen Fair. $10 to enter and we perused the work of 200 craftsmen on the flanks of Mt. Sunapee. Funnily enough, I had been to the event 15 years ago with my mom and brother. I have a stained glass lamp with a ceramic base from it still. Today, I limited myself to a scarf and a leather backpack purse. The cloth purse I've been carrying around containing my life has gotten a bit battered in the last two months.

Continuing to love the farm stands -- lettuce, tomatoes, chard, mozzarella, corn, blueberries, etc. All so tasty.

Camp visits

Our dear friends the Sussmans left today after a week here. They sure got lucky about the week as we've enjoyed sunny 80 degree days with minimal humidity for the most part. As a result, the lake is down four feet from our arrival and has probably warmed up ten degrees. It's truly a pleasure when the sun is out. It was an active week on all fronts. The loons had their chick last Thursday and announced to great fanfare the event. After a couple of days staying close to the cove, last night we all watched them out front feeding with the little one between them. A great experience for children and adults alike. The Coaticook ice cream factory was visited with much enthusiasm, as was the gorge. And a visit to April's Maple, Serge and Donna's new venture, proved to be a valuable source of ice cream cones with special maple add ons. Two dinners at Quimby's -- the lobster bake at the rock and then Sunday prime rib were everything they could be. Tasty, good company and someone else preparing and cleaning up after dinner! Saturday the girls went riding over near Stewartstown and got to ride Lippit Morgans, who were just beautiful. Add in lots of swimming, kayaking, and canoeing and it rounds out a great week.