Friday Night Fish-Fry and Brewery Tour

In Milwaukee now, home of the famous tradition: Friday Night Fish-Fry! The lovely Anna took us to the Lake Shore Brewery for Fish-Fry and a Brewery Tour!


The Happy Crew awaits the delivery of deep-fried goodness!


The Fish!


Yay plates of deep-fried goodness!


Uhh... there was a polka band, and uhhh... Anna made me do it!


Yet another picture of me and Anna dancing together.



Afterwards we went to Leon's for frozen custard, which is like ice cream, but with egg.



Ahh, butter pecan...

NY-Ohio

After leaving Beth's on Tuesday, we started the long, long, loooong drive through the length of New York State. It looked a lot like this for much of the time:

We were surrounded on all sides by corn. And occasionally there were dilapidated barns:

Once we were in Ohio, the skies cleared, and we decided to stop for some Roadfood for dinner. In good midwestern style, it was 5pm. The White Turkey Drive-In is an institution in Conneaut, Ohio. The on-the-ground directions in the book are non-existant, and of course our Rand-McNally atlas doesn't exactly have a city map of Conneaut, so our first step was to find the place. After driving from the highway to Lake Erie and back by the historic train depot, we gave up and called. A chipper, high-school cheerleader answered, and gave us one-step-at-a-time directions, promising to "stay with us" until we made it. ("OK, are you headed toward the lake?" "Um, yes" [we weren't]. "OK, so, you'll have to turn around." "oh, ok... [believable pause] Done." "Have you passed a Big K?" "Sure." [we hadn't] "OK, well, we're on the other street, so you'll have to make a left until you see a mobil station." "...Great. Fine, we're there..." and so on.)

It was kind of miraculous that we made it at all, actually.

The White Turkey Drive-In is a summer-only ... drive-in ... with stools at the counter and picnic tables around the back. They're schtick is a "secret-recipe" turkey, sort of like a juicy pulled-turkey sandwich, as well as root beer and tons of types of ice cream fountain drinks.



And cheerleaders.



Matt got a Turkey Sandwich and I got the "Large Marge," which is a turkey sandwich plus cheese and bacon. Because really, what can't be improved by the addition of cheese and bacon? And I got a root beer float, which was made with a huge swirl of soft-serv vanilla, and bubbled over the frosted mug when I stirred. It is unclear what the process of turkey preparation is, but according to the menu, the owners and 8 workers spent all of January preparing 8,000 pounds of turkey for consumption during the 2007 season.



We spent more time finding the place than scarfing down our turkey sandwiches, but we were satisfied that we'd experienced a bit of Americana by the time we'd left. The main street, decorated at intervals with flags, lead us back to I-90.



And as the sun set, the tops of the corn were illuminated by the horizontal light, and the white farmhouses glowed orange, a bald eagle kept pace with the car for a split second, and then veered left, out of sight.



No shit.

Pics!

Me in Hyde Park, during our 18 hours in London. We had ice cream.



While we were in Washington, DC, we went to the Smithsonian. Actually, we went and had a nice lunch in the National Gallery and thought while we were there we'd see some stuff. The Nat Gal was pretty empty but Natural History was really, really crowded. Though I did muscle my way in to see my jewels, temporarily on display ;). I always thought that if this was mine, I'd replace the turquoise with something faceted. I mean, the turquoise really doesn't go, does it?



And me, in a crystal structure. Matt says it's salt. Really, if I were to be in a crystal structure, do you think I'd choose salt??



And then I cut Jim's hair, because it was an emergency and also the 4th of July, so his usual Supercuts or whatever wasn't open.


It was only an improvement, believe me.

And Pete took us on a tour - here's us on the little diamond marker that used to be the point-from-which all map calculations were based, directly below the capitol dome and atrium.



And all the states have statues of important people, so here's me with Will Rogers.



And the best part - we got to ride the train!



And here's the first frame from the Road Trip - Leaving Hamilton, VA!

Syracuse-Ithaca-Albany

Like those hot wheels that you click backwards to build up enough wind to zip across the table, we have gone east before our push west. We arrived in Albany in the middle of a storm which brought down trees and powerlines - and we made sure not to park *under* a tree, seeing the back-end of a silver SUV totally crushed beneath several thousand pounds of tree just before arriving at Beth's house. We were awakened during the night by the sound of the city's wood-chippers cleaning up the streets. (The storm did NOT stop us from going to get soft-serv ice cream with sprinkles after dinner, though we had to go to Beth's second-choice store because the first had no power and was closed.)

Before arriving in Albany we made a stop in Ithaca, which was sort of a waste simply because it was so hot and humid that it made for a really unpleasant visit. But we got Hot Truck Pizza Subs based on a recommendation from "Roadfood," a book loaned to us before our trip, which were very good. (Though I must admit, just about the last thing you want on a hot humid day is a hot truck pizza sub.)

Next up, pictures!

Manolo on the Lawyer Shoes

Oh my.

Road Trip, Mark III

You'd think we'd have had enough of this cross-country thing, but here we go...

We began our adventure with a few weeks in Washington, DC and surrounding areas. Highlights included Pete's tour of the Capitol, the Williams-Sonoma and J Crew outlet, mexican food at Abi's, and Matt's mom's magical biscuits (they just appear when you arrive for tea...). Hopefully I'll have a picture or two up soon.

Yesterday our drive began once we managed to stuff the car with all the junk we'd been storing, plus a brand new X-Box 360 that was a wedding gift from Matt's friend Dave. (Thanks Dave. No really, thanks. If Matt never finishes his dissertation now, it's on you.) Driving northward we accidentally happened upon the Gettysburg battlefield while searching for a McDonalds - traffic was heavy with reenactors and slack-jawed amateur historians, so the over-educated grad students turned back and made for the next exit. Yeah, we're those people - seriously, you can see it from Google Earth if you really want to. Passing rolling countryside over rolling countryside, we made our destination by dinner, which was the house of our hosts' Middle Eastern parents, so we were greeted by a bone-in leg of lamb, potatoes, stuffed grape leaves, salad, broccoli, carrots, green beans (I think), rice, and probably something else I'm forgetting, with Kanafi (sp?) for dessert (which is mostly cheese, and orange rind). Eat, eat. Are you finished?! Don't you want some more lamb?

So now we're in Syracuse, tomorrow to Albany to visit Beth. Yay!