honeoye falls, new york

earlier this month, just before mother's day, we found out that patrick's mother has small cell lung cancer. many of you know this, but that is exactly what my mom died of nearly five years to the day before we got this terrible news.

on a more cheerful note, kathleen was in great spirits when we visited her last weekend. it did not seem that the treatments have had enough time to take their toll on her yet and she was "busy, busy, bee" all over the place.

it was a GORGEOUS weekend in upstate new york. lots of pics! i took pictures for 3 days straight.

the homestead

the lilacs

those are lilacs. amazing!

the characters

kathleen

john

everyone's favorite

riley

fast eddie

and me too

the bbq

patrick, john, kathleen, mark, tiiu, ed

tiiu and ed were the ones held hostage in the terrorist attack in mumbai

memorial day vs. thanksgiving

click here for more november

Bling, bling, who's there?

... the kantaharas! CONGRATULATIONS YOU TWO!!!

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

palm springs re-cap

“Welcome to Palm Springs! What’s the occasion?”
- Any of numerous friendly people we encountered in Palm Spings

“I was cold.” - Me

Ruby Red chandelier hangs on approach to the pool

If you read Leslies’s post, you already know that it all started when I asked her if she wanted to go somewhere warm. Florida, Arizona, Vegas, California Desert … Whatever location had the best chance of being hot, and the least chance of producing rain, would work for me. And Leslie happened to be up for joining me as I thawed out from a too-long Chicago winter.

We never actually spoke on the phone to solidify any plans, but through a series of emails and text messages (which included one quite humorous sleep-text from one of us; I leave you to guess which one. Hint: she sleep-talks and her name starts with l-e-s…), we miraculously both ended up in Palm Springs on the same evening. Not to say that I didn’t try to sabotage the pieced together plan by missing my flight. But I made it.

breakfast with les. she's too cute.

The Riviera Resort

I think I can safely say that both Les and I are fans of Hollywood Regency. And what better locale to showcase old Hollywood Glam than in the desert escape of movie star lore? The Riviera both expertly captured the essence of this style, and got me back to my California roots.

snapped from car as i arrived.

our room.

hotel map.

After catching up on each other’s lives until I’d been awake for at least 24 hours, we found our beauty sleep in the feathery comfort of a gigantic bed … and woke up to sunshine, sunshine, glorious sunshine. We had one goal to achieve for the day: pool. And yes, the pool boys really did bring orange-infused water to us as we floated past them on pink rafts late into the afternoon warmth. I could not have been more relaxed. It was 105 degrees. Perfect.

Sooooo relaxing.

Our second day started with a similarly simple list of to-do’s. We ate. We sat pool-side in the company of Sarah Lyman - who drove out from L.A. with last minute notice. And we spa-aaahhhed.

les providing detailed instructions to sarah on how to mount a raft.

After a desert sage massage and glycolic peel, I sat seemingly forever alternating between the cool pool and warm bubbles in the zen room - or buddah room - or whatever they called it. Can I build one of these into my non-existent future large enough house?

{stole this pic from the website}
this room was one of my FAVORITE parts of the spa

Riviera, Ace, Parker, Downtown, whatever!

The Ace Hotel was on our agenda for one of our dinners. I’d had a great experience at resto Clyde Common at the Ace in Portland (during our travel debacles last winter), but when we got there, we didn’t feel that the Ace Palm Springs was really what we were looking for (think, Denny’s décor). So, we headed to Mr. Parker’s and dined in the dark, low-ceilinged, flashlight-mandatory (no joke, they give you a flashlight for your menu) restaurant space to the tune of mussels in tomato-fennel broth and melt-in-my-mouth tuna tartare.

outdoor seating. i loooove al fresco dining!

Other food-related matters included halibut tacos at the poolside ‘bikini bar,’ a mid-day escape to Tyler’s Burgers for which even the likes of Bill Gates have waited in line, cactusberry (fro yo yummmm), and indulging in a BOWL of way-closer-to-the-border-than-Chicago-is guacamole.

We returned to the Parker during daylight hours for brunch on departure day. The brightly hued patio was the only thing that cheered me up as I was forced to say goodbye to an amazing weekend in pool/spa/bff bliss. Well that was the only thing cheering me up until I tasted lemony pancake goodness and artichoke heart (!!!!) benedict. Holy cow, good thing this food is not readily available to me in my normal everyday life.

Bye, bye Palm Springs.

So, is anyone up for next year?

***

Note 1: See Leslie’s post for an exhaustive list of pros and cons on the Riviera, a list which I fully endorse.
Note 2: My Nana had a second home in PS when I was a little girl, but it was sold long, long ago.

Note 3: I totally took my camera with me on my morning run. I thought there might be something to take a photo of ... but it was just desert.

rochester bound ...

will post about palm springs while we're gone, but in the mean time, satisfy your curiosity on leslie's blog!

their white fish is 'famous' ...

look what i saw on the menu of a fave downtown establishment:

Baked Door County Whitefish Olive Crumbs, Mustard Potatoes, Green Garlic Sauce 24

palm springs -- more to come

i'll be posting more, but i have blogs to read and catch up on first!

palm springs bound

leaving work early for the california desert.
need. pool. now.

yessssssssss.

fish boil

A fish boil is a Great Lakes culinary tradition in areas of Wisconsin (USA), with large Scandinavian populations, particularly Door County, Port Wing and Port Washington, Wisconsin. The meal consists of Lake Michigan or Lake Superior whitefish (though lake trout can be used), with other ingredients.

The fish is typically caught by local fishermen, cut into small chunks and cooked in boiling water with red potatoes. Some boilers add onions as well. Salt is the only seasoning used, and used only to raise the specific gravity of the water.^[1]

The cooking of the fish is an elaborate presentation. Restaurants typically ask that patrons arrive a half hour early to witness the boiling. The fish and potatoes are placed in a cast-iron kettle. When the water comes to a boil the potatoes, kept in a wire basket, are lowered in.

The fish are then placed in another wire basket and lowered in. When the fish oils rise to the top of the pot, the boiler will add a small amount of kerosene to the flames. The increase in flames causes a boilover, the fish oils spill over the side of the pot, and the fish is done. [Wikipedia]

me on the porch swing in shoes that are really leslies that i've had for at least 4 years.

so the white gull inn does their own fish boil and we decided to watch from our porch swing. of course, we were served beer first. which was nice because not that much really happens. but it's still fun standing around the fire; it smells good.

after the fish was done, two young fellows carried the kettle inside, and we waited in a line to get a plate of huge chunks of fish and red potatoes. we were then seated at our table with lemon, tartar sauce, butter, and cole slaw, followed by cherry pie for dessert. maybe simple foods just taste better in wisconsin, but we were so happy after that meal!

aside from boiled fish, we also enjoyed sampling the local brews. this included new glarus spotted cow and the shipwrecked sampler. i thought i would love the cherry wheat ale, but it was 'eh. we brought back wisconsin beer (although tempted, we passed on the glorious milwaukee's best) to nikolai's bday bbq, including a growler of the blonde ale we picked up at the shipwrecked microbrewery in egg harbor. it was gone in two seconds. good bbq drinkin'.

the race course

so we weren't just in door county for the heck of it ... i went up with Chicago Endurance Sports to run a half marathon at peninsula state park!

course elevation map
(remember chicago is FLAT)

it was a tough course for me, but a fun race! i ran with two of the people i trained with for an entire 12 miles, but admit i was really slow for that last mile and they blew past me! i thought my foot survived the ordeal pretty well, even with all the hills (although though this week i thought about asking my doc if i could get some more of those steroid things). my time for this race was many minutes slower than the last one, which i was expecting. but at least i can try to beat it next time!

driving somewhere along the course the evening before the race.

views from the course. but imagine it as 10am instead of 7pm.