Things I Liked This Summer

In the event that you were going on a road trip, I would recommend the following to you (in order of remembering and in no discernible categories):

(I will be filling this in slowly in the next few months)
(And adding photographs)
(Thanks for your patience)

1) Mother's: New Orleans
So basically everybody else (Madeline Albright, Bill Clinton, and the Bushes several times post-Katrina) has already been here and wrote a thank you photo that is displayed on the wall here. The ordering system is kind of bizarre (order and pay at counter, sit down, have food brought to you - in retrospect this makes sense but it was confusing at the time) but the roast beef and ham po boy (Ferdi special) after several hours of walking and learning about insects was remarkable.

2) Cafe Jax: Eureka, MT
V and I decided that the Best Meal of our trip was here - granted, it was a special after-hours event to acclimate the Czech guests of our hostess to America (roasted red pepper stuffed with goat cheese + prosecco, salmon with smoked gouda risotto + pinot noir, panna cotta for dessert with fresh fruit and balsamic vinegar reduction + riesling - I got to have dessert with the young chef who discussed the food she had prepared, and this is why I remember it all) so perhaps not typical of the restaurant, but I was seated with the owner and her aunt, and learned a bit of the history of the cafe and the area and it was just the most lovely evening ever. Cute counter with lots of legit-looking milkshake glasses.

3) Dos Coyotes: Folsom, CA
Best burrito I have ever had, I think - even tops the Super Calabacitas at Viva in Ithaca - shrimp and paella burrito at this small chain place in the Sacramento area.

4) Big Spoon: Folsom, CA
Build your own soft serve with as many toppings as you can imagine. Malted milk balls? Frosted animal crackers? Pop rocks? All in one pay-by-the-ounce cup of delight? Dreams do come true in Folsom CA (our hostess Kathleen did a lovely job showing us the culinary wonders of the region in the single evening we were there)

5) Los Bagels: Arcata, CA
Humboldt County's answer to CTB. Our local guide pushed the creamy yellow Larrupin dressing on "whatever you get here! really!" and it was quite nice on a tomonion scrambagel for brunch.

6) Pearl Street: Boulder, CO
Mostly just bomb. (Vocab I picked up in Arcata). Lovers of Ithaca Commons, State Street in Madison, or just Fun in General will appreciate the zombie street musicians, joyful pedestrians, pleasantly noisy bars and general vibe.

7) Bryce Canyon National Park: UT
This was my favorite national park of the seven we visited on the trip. I could not get over the hoodoos even on the cloudy afternoon we spent there. They are just so complex and beautiful and unimaginable. Teddy Roosevelt proclaimed the Grand Canyon "the one great sight which every American should see" - I haven't seen that one, but will addend that proclamation with "after they have gone to see Bryce Canyon, since you are almost there anyways." Sunset Point at sunset followed by Inspiration Point at dusk followed by Sunrise Point and the Queen's Garden/Navajo Loop trail in the morning (I told you I couldn't get over the hoodoos) is a sequence I would recommend.

8) Rockefeller Forest: Humboldt County, CA
A friend's dad recommended this patch of trees as "the best stand of mature redwoods there is" - it is, we read later, the largest contiguous stand of old-growth redwood forest in the world. Nice work, Mr. Rockefeller, Jr. The scent of the shorter young redwoods warming up in the shafts of sunlight filtering through the impossibly large trees is one I hope to remember for a long long time.

9) Blue Mounds State Park: MN
Our first official day on the road, we ambitiously aimed to make it to this park before the gate closed at 10 PM. Pulling in at 9:45 was a real achievement - it was the fourth of July, and we heard nearby fireworks going off as we set up our tent. The real magic, however, was the next morning when we woke up at dawn to go for a run around the fenced-off bison preservation area that made up most of the park. The sunrise over the tiny valley full of mist with pine trees poking out the top, the prairie grasses tinged pink orange as sunlight hit them once again, the dew soaking through our sneakers as we squinted at dark lumps in the distance, imagining them to be bison - the euphoria of the first morning of our adventure: all rosy perfection.

10) Napoleon House: New Orleans
After getting our residence permits and liquor licenses in Qatar, we headed to the distribution center or "beer souq" on Thursday afternoon and the first bottle I looked for was Pimm's No. 1. After months in the humidity of Doha I had wanted to relive the smallest part of one sweltering New Orleans afternoon by fixing a Pimm's cup with a slice of cucumber. Napolean House was my favorite of the eight or nine restaurants we visited in New Orleans in 72 hours. We sat out in the courtyard and ate so many kinds of sausages and a muffuletta and I had an Italian soda and snuck sips of Vanessa's Pimm's Cup and our sundresses slowly became unstuck to our damp skin as we cooled off.

11) Kendall-Jackson: Santa Rosa, CA
Another lovely afternoon spent sitting outside and eating delicious small bites - we headed north of San Francisco after visiting the Academy of Sciences in the morning and went on a brief garden tour with a lot of old people. This was not the most thrilling, especially since we were all feeling a little snobby after passing Wines and our touring compartriots' questions about grape characteristics and France were rather dull. I have to note that I was extra impatient because I was not old enough to enjoy the complimentary glass of Riesling as I walked around the garden with everybody else. Afterwards, however, we signed up for a food and wine pairing and were seated outside in the empty garden as practically every employee of the establishment served us tiny bits of chicken terrine and watermelon pickles and truffles along with a rainbow of bright California wine. A real treat was the Viognier that the chef brought out midway that he described as "tasting like roses" which it did in the very nicest way.

12) Michael's Frozen Custard: Madison, WI
The last thing I did in Madison was stop by Michael's and get a chocolate ice cream cone to eat while driving haphazardly down Verona Road to visit Briana's farm. Hugely delicious and exactly the same as it has been since I was small and walking back to Bri's after paddleboating or getting a sundae after soccer practice.

13) Empire Dairy King: Empire, CO
While we are on the subject of ice cream: Recommended by a friend who was a genuine Resident of Colorado, we stopped by this tiny burger and shake place on our way into Boulder from Utah. After a long day of driving, hiking, and anxiously anticipating the mountains, we were hungry and the Dairy King was there for us. One of the two employees working was a teenage boy who slowly but surely served at least a dozen malts, a handful of shakes and five towering soft serve cones to the masses that had gathered there before us that evening. Watching the kid diligently blend malts while avoiding eye contact from the expectant customers took me right back to my summer scooping ice cream at Maggie Moo's. He crafted a lovely hot fudge sundae for me that was well worth the wait.

14) Felix's: New Orleans
After a sticky day roaming around Audubon Park, riding the streetcar up and down St. Charles (I think this was my favorite public transportation of the trip - or at least ties with the ferry in coastal Louisiana that time we almost ran out of gas. It made me feel small and thrilled), and walking walking walking

15) Peaches N' Such: Monetta, SC
16) Strasburg, VA
This is the town where the trip ended one Monday morning - I bought Peapod a tank of gas and she headed back to Ithaca, and Jamie and I drove to my house and we went swimming. We met in this corner of Virginia to see a drive-in movie in Stephens City (Ice Age 3 and Earth double-feature) and go camping (FREE CAMPSITE) in Jefferson National Forest just across the border in West Virginia. This film-watching and outdoor-sleeping required a lot of driving back and forth along a tiny stretch of Highway 81 (which, notably, goes to upstate New York and is what Scythian takes when they come play music for us at Castaways) which featured a sign for the Hi Neighbor Country Restaurant in Strasburg. Naturally we decided this was the place for our Last Meal the next morning, although we drove by plenty of lovely cafes and diners on the main drag as we looked for Hi Neighbor. Tried scrapple for the first time . . . somewhat disappointed. But Strasburg I would certainly visit again.

17) Covington, LA
Live oak trees, pretty downtown, lovely old houses . . . we were only here a few hours visiting but I liked the feel of this town just across the lake from New Orleans.

18) Siesta Key, FL
A bustling beach with balmy blue waters.

19) Toast!: Charleston, SC
We had a travel book for Charleston but couldn't find any of the recommended restaurants as we hungrily walked the brick streets of the city . . . lured in by the sidewalk sign for the breakfast special, Toast! (Google has verified my recollection of the exclamation point in the name) popped up just before we were about to give up and eat pralines for breakfast in the car. Eggs Meeting Street (poached eggs, crabcakes, fried green tomatoes) was a highlight, as was the lone European traveler intently reading his Lonely Planet: America (hefty book) at the bar.

20) Mission: San Francisco
21) Anthony's Cookies: San Francisco
22) Pixar: Emeryville, CA
23) Alabama State Capitol: Montgomery, AL