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