Day 3.0: What We’ve Been Up To

Hello again, readers! We finished our second road trip during the second week of April but neglected to put up many of the posts we had written until just now, so please forgive us! We’re already back on the road after six weeks of sort of staying in one place. We arrived in Katonah a week and a half before Passover, and spent some of the time before the holiday in New York City visiting friends.

We enjoyed two wonderful seders at the Fried-Tanzer home in Katonah with friends, much of Abe’s extended family, and Arielle’s parents and her sister, Cindy, who flew in from Los Angeles.

Midway through Passover, we went into Manhattan to stay in two different apartment of friends who were away, getting to visit with friends around the city and New Jersey throughout the week. Abe covered twenty-eight movies at the Tribeca Film Festival, and we enjoyed time both together and apart back in our old stomping grounds.

We returned to Katonah for just one night before driving to Massachusetts to celebrate the engagement of Abe’s sister, Hannah, at her fiancé, Brad’s, parents’ home, sticking around for a few days to see a number of friends.

We came back to New York in time to go visit the Ramah Sports Academy in Connecticut, where we will be working at the end of the summer, stopping to see our friend, Seth, at his synagogue in Westport on the way home. We split our next few days between time in Katonah and Manhattan before flying down to Florida on Thursday.

We spent a night with Shosh, whose wedding we attended in February, and enjoyed a lovely few hours out by her pool in Aventura after a tasty breakfast at the Original Pancake House. We drove on Friday to Hollywood to spend Shabbat with Andrew and Lauren, which was great, and culminated in a repeat visit to a kosher fried chicken establishment, Dixie BBQ, that luckily didn’t end this time with Arielle throwing up all night.

That Sunday, we moved up to Boynton Beach to see Abe’s grandfather, Grampye, and had dinner with Abe’s brother Ezra, Uncle Bruce and Aunt Nancy, with whom we stayed in Chapel Hill, and cousin, Aaron, who we’d soon visit outside Cleveland. Abe’s parents, his sister, Hannah, and her fiancé, Brad, arrived that night and we all went to the Courtyard Marriott in Boynton Beach. Abe, Ezra, and Nancy watched the series finale of Game of Thrones together and then we all went to bed. In the morning, we drove to nearby Delray Beach for the unveiling service for Abe’s grandmother, Bubbe. We enjoyed a meal together at Ben’s Kosher Deli in Boca Raton afterward and then spent a wonderful afternoon out by the pool. Arielle was even able to get Grampye in the water, which made the experience special for all of us! After a great dinner at Joseph’s in Delray Beach that night, we said goodbye to most of the group. The next day, we spent the late morning and early afternoon out by the pool with Nancy, Donald, and Grampye, and were very impressed that Grampye, who will be ninety-five this October, was able to throw the ball around with us (and often better than we could!).

We drove to West Palm Beach Airport and flew back on Delta via Atlanta to Westchester Airport, where we landed just minutes after Nancy and Donald’s nonstop flight on JetBlue (Abe obviously wanted to enjoy his Platinum Medallion status, and Arielle was grateful that Abe gave her his First Class upgrade). We spent all day Wednesday cleaning, packing, and planning our next trip, and got to bed earlier than we expected to before setting back out on the road the next day.

Day 32: Bar Harbor, ME to Los Angeles, CA

We woke up around 7am, packed up, and ate our last buffet breakfast at the Acadia Inn, a hotel we’d return to and recommend for future Bar Harbor visitors. We got on the road to drive the several hours needed to get down through Maine. We made a quick stop for gas along the way and then stopped for lunch in Westbrook, ME, where we met our good friend Jacob, who works them on a contract assignment.

We went to Legends Rest Taproom, a small restaurant and bar, which had great food at an unbelievable price. Abe got the smashed burger (ground brisket, chuck, and short rib blend) for a mere $5, Arielle enjoyed the plain tots, which were delicious and also $5, and Jacob got a tofu and black bleak burger, also $5. We ended our efficient and enjoyable lunch to make sure that we would have enough time to drive back to Boston before our flight. Arielle drank her blueberry soda on the way.

Sure enough, as soon as we approached the city we started hitting a lot of traffic. Luckily, we had built in plenty of time and made it to Ezra’s apartment to drop off the car and hop in a Lyft with a lot of time to spare. Despite starting out with a twenty-minute ETA, the Lyft driver impressively navigated himself, jumped in the carpool lane, and trimmed down our travel time to a mere ten minutes. Arielle headed as usual to the Delta SkyClub to peruse the food options while Abe, having been upgraded once again to Delta Comfort +, asked the gate agent about Arielle’s chances. Despite politely replying that they would kill him if he bumped up a basic economy ticket, he showed the exit row upgrade he had already given her and said he would keep her in mind if the seat was still open. When Abe went back to ask if it was possible right before to boarding, we saw that he had in fact made the switch, which was very nice. Much to Abe’s chagrin, Arielle once again got upgraded despite booking a basic economy ticket. We settled in to our comfortable aisle and middle seats for the flight. Arielle had brought Abe some meatballs, which were good, and some rice, which was not because of the artichoke hearts puzzlingly mixed in. Arielle enjoyed a delightful broccoli cheddar soup. We got some work done on the flight and landed early before 9pm pacific time. Arielle’s parents were kind enough to pick us up and we relaxed and chatted at home before getting to sleep.

Approximate number of miles covered: 3287

Day 26: Boston, MA to Katonah, NY

We woke up around 7:30am so that we could get ready and vacate our lovely accommodations before our hosts’ next guests arrived (for a bachelor party). After a light breakfast, we departed and took a Lyft to nearby Dorchester. We picked up Abe’s brother Ezra’s car, which he was generously loaning to us for the week, and hit the road. We stopped at a rest area in Natick, MA to fill up gas and then continued another two and a half hours or so to Katonah, NY, entering Connecticut and New York along the way.

We were surprising Abe’s parents, who thought they were next seeing us in a month, and called to speak to Abe’s dad when we were close by to throw him off with made-up stories about almost being in New Hampshire. He didn’t even have a chance to tell Abe’s mom that we had called, and she was shocked and overjoyed to see us at the door.

This was the first time that her father, George, better known as Grampye, was visiting their New York home, his first trip out of Florida in a number of years and his first without his wife, Pearl, who passed away in June. We had a wonderful time relaxing and catching up outside before departing to get more meat for dinner from the butcher due to our unexpected presence. Grampye loved the experience of being at the butcher and seeing all the food there.

We had a feast to remember at Tengda, a local Asian fusion spot in Katonah. Arielle and Nancy enjoyed California rolls and sweet tempura rolls, while Abe and Donald focused on the Thai Red Snapper. Grampye very much enjoyed his Szechuan chicken, and everyone shared eggplant with tofu and broccoli with soy ginger sauce. We realized at the end of the meal that it was 3:45pm and the restaurant had technically been closed following lunch since 3pm, and we sincerely appreciate everyone’s willingness to stay late to enjoy a delicious meal and that they didn’t even rush us one bit.

Always thinking about the next meal, Abe started cooking beef ribs on the stove as soon as we got back to the house, and Nancy and Grampye made onion challah. We left around 6pm for Bet Torah, Nancy and Donald’s synagogue, to attend Friday night services. A relatively small, lay-led crowd had some good energy, and Grampye was much more eager than we expected to take a shot of whiskey when offered following kiddush. In the car, he expressed how he used to know all of the Hebrew prayers, belting out a few from memory. We had a luxurious feast of mushroom barley soup, barbecue chicken legs, ribs, corn on the cob, and Brussels sprouts, finished off with some delicious brownies and fruit. We retreated to the basement to take a crack at finding the few items we had flagged to locate within our 100 or so stored boxes, resulting in almost complete success. Abe’s brother Ezra and his girlfriend Lauren arrived from Boston around 11pm and Abe’s sister Hannah came in from DC by way of New York City shortly thereafter. We enjoyed some fun conversation before heading to bed relatively late. Hannah and Arielle had a slumber party in the two single beds in the basement.

Approximate number of miles covered: 186