Category: travel

Pigroast, 2010

Last year an actual pig was actually roasted. Pig ca. 2009

The Hales, as I know them, are centered in Lancaster, Ohio and like as not they celebrate their Haleness annually at a reunion wrapped around a Pigroast at Alan’s farm, Hale Hollow. A pig wasn’t actually roasted this year, but as a celebration – and it was a celebration – Pigroast is such a better name than picnic.

Picnic: A basket brought to a field somewhere, maybe under a tree… booooorrrrring. Pigroast: A rollicking good time by a bunch of folks churning around farm-like terrain. Flames and smoke are involved.

Pigs made a contribution by way of two of the meats of choice – keilbasa and pork tenderloin: “the other meat” in this case was brisket, and all were expertly smoked over the preceding 24 hours by Alan with an assist from Eric and Tillie.

This year was special. In addition to filling up on pig parts and other goodies, we were celebrating the life of Edward E. (Bus) Hale, the patriarch of the family who died in March. A service was held at Grace Church where scores of friends and family gathered to pay their respect. Son Mark spoke a tribute called “Dad” and grandson Brian read “Ode to Bus.”

For me, the highlight of the celebration was all those folks mingling in the church lobby before and after the service.
Continue reading “Pigroast, 2010” →

Rector 50 Reno

Yes, folks, it *really* happened: Marc and Carol celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on June 19th, 2010. Eric and Brian made sure they did it in style with their favorite people in Sparks. (Sparks is next door to Reno.) Sparks is roughly a three and a half to four and a half hour drive (depending on traffic) from the San Francisco Bay Area, through Sacramento. It is also roughly 40 miles north of Incline Village on the north shore of Lake Tahoe.

Thank you to everyone who contributed a memory of where they were on June 19th, 1960. Here’s a link to a PDF version of the booklet I put together and handed out at the party. Marc and Carol had to think *a bit* with some of the entries (Marge was the hardest), but in the end they guessed them all.

The party took place at 5pm at

Vista Pavillion @ Hidden Valley Regional Park, Sparks/Reno, NV

a lovely spot managed by the Washoe Co. Parks and Rec department in the eastern hills above Sparks and Reno with trees for shade, tables, two barbecue stands, and a horseshoe pit. The view is to the west, so sunset is one of the featured events, especially when it back lights the incredible band we hired: Analog Jazz. The kept people dancing and singing through the whole party, part of the time fronted (spontaneously) by Marc’s sister Amy. We *highly* recommend hiring them for your next celebration in the I-80 Bay Area – Sacramento (where they’re based) – Reno corridor.

Google Map Link

Besides terrific jazz music from the 1960s, the party featured a visual display of some of the terrific movies that came out in 1960:

Butterfield 8
La Dolce Vita
Oceans 11 (the original)
Breathless
Psycho

and one movie that came out in the 1970s but is set around 1960 (in the CA central valley): American Grafitti.

The menu was a tribute to Carol Rector cuisine over the past 50 years:

Stuffed Mushrooms
Pimento Cheese on crackers
Eric’s Blue Thistle cheese (a new addition)

Brunswick Stew
Potato Latkes (fried potato pancakes) with cream cheese and chives
Butterflied Grilled Leg of Lamb
Grilled Bison T-Bone Steaks (a new addition)

Crepes Suzette, which flambeéd on the grill just as the sunset flambeéd the western sky.

The Rector family continues to travel this week as we celebrate Matt and Andrea’s wedding the following weekend. As soon as we all arrive back home, more pictures will be posted.

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Carol and Marc (on right) at OSU APX Formal, Spring 1960

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Continue reading “Rector 50 Reno” →

Spring Trip to Reno

…and back It’s a beautiful sunny day and we’re on the road to Reno. We were last there in October; there is more snow now, but thankfully not on the road. (An ominous voice somewhere outside my consciousness says “Just wait, buster.”) Our lunch stop at Jack in the Box. OK, its fast food, but it is fast and unlike other burger joints, it has a broad selection of tasty menu items and it’s cooked when you order. Be nice if they paid some attention to the ambience… not to mention the restrooms.

fish n chips, fish sandwich
This dog loves his air (at 70mph).
Snowmobiling is over – or is about to start – on an early Saturday afternoon.

My mission is to drive Brian to Lovelock NV, about 70 miles east of Reno, to pick up a Tacoma he bought on E-Bay. Carol’s mission is to go shopping while we’re away. Brian has guests – Ken-the-kilt-guy and his wife Leigh – so Carol and I went straight to the Peppermill Sports Book to watch Butler kick K-State butt and West Virginia send Kentucky home.

What could be finer than soggy nachos? Not a good foodie day.
Back at Brian’s place, the Nevada sky at dusk demanded a picture.

SUNDAY

Sunday, Brian dropped Ken and Leigh at the airport and went to his office for a bit of catch-up. Sadly, I missed the drive through the desert, as the Tacoma guy brought the truck to Brian. For a late lunch, I grilled hot-dogs from Fatted Calf served with grilled Acme buns – stuff I brought from SF for the occasion – a step up from Saturday’s fare on the foodie chain. Michigan State led Tennessee by a point with 1.3 seconds to go… the Tennessee half-court heave at the buzzer was UGLY, sealing an MSU win. Duke had no trouble with Baylor, rounding out the Final Four.

Brian made broiled potatoes and carrots to go with grilled sausages. Carol critiqued.

After dinner, we played a game of Homer Simpson CLUE. That was fun (‘cause I won) (Marge in the Nuclear Plant with the necklace). MONDAY First thing Monday, Carol followed me as I took Brian’s Camry for an oil change. B is fixin’ to sell it, since now has a wikkid Toyota Tacoma truck, dark green with a big “Off Road” logo on the back quarter. We went from there to Legends featuring outlet stores for every National Chain you ever heard of. Whoop! But it’s well designed and landscaped, using their one-percent art for sculptures of Nevada State Bird, Flower, Tree and so on. On this day, it was really windy, a portent of things to come. Continue reading “Spring Trip to Reno” →

What a Night

A dark road, Inglorious Basterds and Quentin Tarantino

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SFFS YEAR-ROUND
MEMBERS SCREENINGS

The Film Society is pleased to invite its year-round members to the Variety Screening Series.

These screenings have extremely limited seating and are for year-round Film Society members only (no guests, sorry).

Inglourious Basterds with director Quentin Tarantino expected to attend
Monday, December 7
6:15 pm pre-screening reception
7:15 pm screening
Stag Theater at Skywalker Sound
Skywalker Ranch Rd, Marin County

So said the invitation, I responded and we were awarded passes to attend. Hadn’t seen Inglourious Basterds, but it’s been in theaters for a while and on my list for a while. I’m also eager to see Skywalker Ranch, George Lucas’ famed center of creativity. Carol arranged to get off work at 4, and we left the house at 5.

That’s all the address they gave, and there’s no “directions” on the Stag Theater website, so we got a map to Skywalker Ranch Road. The Google Map said 29 miles, about 41 minutes in light traffic. Get off 101 at Lucas Valley Road, go 7.8 miles to Skywalker Ranch Road. That sounded easy enough. The traffic was fairly heavy but moving so we turned off 101 with over a half hour to go that 7.8 miles. We figured Skywalker Ranch is a pretty big deal and lots of people work there, so it should be well marked. Continue reading “What a Night” →

November Weekend in Reno

Saturday, we drove to Reno encountering NO traffic. We were going to go on Friday, since C was off work with the pink eye, but it rained in SF, snowed in the mountains… not a lot, but enough to require chains at the higher elevations. I didn’t want to be a part of that!

w_snow_on_I_80

The day was beautiful, sunny and mild. We stopped at the In n Out Burger in Auburn for lunch. At Crystal Springs, just above 5000 feet, we found snow on the side of the road. How exciting is that? It got deeper as we went up — Donner Pass is 7415 feet elevation — but not much more than a foot anywhere.

w_snowbank_I_80

The snow had disappeared by the time we got to Reno, midafternoon, and the sun ruled the day.

We helped Brian do some stuff and went to an Italian place downtown for dinner that was pretty good, but not very good. How could I not mention food. Continue reading “November Weekend in Reno” →

The Rest Of The Story

DCP_9207

I know you all are waiting breathlessly for us to post our adventures in the “Wild West” of China. It is coming, but it may be a little while as we both attempt to catch up with our regular lives…

When the newest stories and pictures are posted, they will be organized in chronological order BELOW (sorted by date of the experience), just as the Shanghai stories were. So you will have to scroll down to see if there are new China stories — they won’t appear above this article.

If you’d like to start at the beginning, go to Eric and Alison China Journal and then follow the links above each story to the next article.

The Latest Posts are:
Doorstep To The Moon 2
Doorstep To The Moon
Osman
Raisins in The Sun 2
Raisins In The Sun 1
Two Day Train (posted 14 Oct)
More Monday Memories (posted 08 Oct)

Thanks for all your feedback!

Initiate Re-Entry

747px-EntryWe had an early morning flight out of Urumqi (pronounced “Oo-Room-Chee”), and four and a half hours after takeoff we landed in the other Shanghai airport — Hongchiao — north of the city center. We got instructions on which bus would take us to the Metro, and we easily found our way back to Patrick and Tina’s apartment in the western French Concession. Patrick was there to greet us and wanted to hear all about our adventures but careful not to let us get too carried away because Tina would want to hear all about it as well later at dinner.

I managed to download all 750 pictures from our trip West, as well as the 350 emails, before we headed out to dinner at a neighborhood Sichuanese restaurant — a last trip on the spicy side, although Patrick warned us that it wouldn’t be “true” Sichuan” food because the spiciness would be throttled back for the Shanghai palate. Still it was fun and spicy enough:

–Sliced pork belly in sauce
–Vinegared cucumber skins
–Crispy rice and seafood
–Stir fried wild mushrooms
–Stir fried green beans and red peppers
–Mapu Tofu, cubes of tofu braised in a red pepper sauce
–Hot stone oil fried beef

and because Patrick (of course) new the owner and said hello, we got an extra dish of Hot Stone Oil Fried Shrimp. The Hot Stone Oil technique is just what it sounds like: the waiter brings a basin of VERY hot oil to the table with stones in it (to keep the heat I suppose), and then vegetables are added to the oil, along with green pepper corns (still on the vine), and then the meat (the beef was loose, the shrimp were on skewers). It makes for quite a show, and a delicious result.
Continue reading “Initiate Re-Entry” →

new hats

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We are back from our fantastic trip to Western China and looking forward to some “Chinese” food here in Shanghai before we catch our flight back to Boston on Wednesday. The excellent food we’ve been enjoying for the past week would not be recognized as Chinese food by most of you (except maybe Sue and Cos who had a preview at our house before we left). We’re excited to tell you all about the food and other stuff when we get home. Thanks for helping us get there and back.

Doorstep To The Moon 2

kashgar_market_top

At this point I’m sure my readers are a bit confused…didn’t we just visit the Kashgar Sunday Market? The market one tourist remarked that, “The Sunday Market is fresh and vital, with a kaleidoscope of colours. There is a wonderful profusion of ethnicities”. And of which another tourist said is “…vibrant, pulsing, almost unbearably joyous,” and which caused a third tourist to admit “I want to have an orgasm over the whole world,” That Kashgar Sunday Market? Well, yes and no.
Continue reading “Doorstep To The Moon 2” →