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Whale Watch From Boston Harbor
On May 31 I went on a whale watch along with my wife, my mother-in-law, and my son Matthew. We selected the 2:00 pm whale watch tour that is run by the New England Aquarium. Prior to boarding the ship, a relatively modern catamaran that can reach the Stellwagen Bank Marine Sanctuary in about 90 minutes, we were told that the seas would be a bit rough. This is a bit of a concern for me, as I have experienced sea-sickness once before on a whale watch and didn’t want to go through that misery again. Luckily, I had no problem at all this time, although there were several people on…
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Lunch at Fritz, Keene, NH
After picking up my nephew at the bus station, we decided to have lunch. Fritz was very close by, and I was aware of the restaurant because they host an open mike. It had been on my list of places to scope out for quite a while. I ordered the cheeseburger and fries. My nephew ordered fries and a turkey club sandwich. The portion was generous and they were fresh and tasty. My burger was fine, but nothing out of this world. My nephew said he liked the club sandwich a lot. I do want to give Fritz some kudos for being one of the few “sandwich” restaurants I’ve come across…
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Camp Stark: New Hampshire’s WWII POW Camp
Northern New Hampshire is a beautiful place. The Connecticut lakes at the headwaters of the Connecticut river are pristine and wonderful, and the wide variety of activities draw people north all year around. If you should happen to find yourself there, consider making a sidetrip to see New Hampshire’s only World War II POW camp, which housed German POWs from 1944 until 1946. Up north in Coos county is the small town of Stark, New Hampshire. Stark was home to a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp in in the 1930s which was abandoned by the time the United States entered World War II. Late in the war it was converted to…
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Lunch at Solea, Waltham, MA
After shopping in Waltham at an Indian grocery called Patel Brothers, we decided to give Solea a try for lunch, for a couple of reasons. First, we’d never eaten there before, and second, we had been invited to a potluck Tapas party on Sunday, and we were looking for a little inspiration. Sadly to say, we didn’t find it at Solea. My wife and I shared five Tapas plates: baked goat cheese with tomato & basil; snails; a Spanish antipasto platter, a moroccan sheherd’s pie, and a fifth dish so bland that neither of us remember what it actually was. Our choices can charitably be described as a mixed bag. The…
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Dinner at the Gibbet Hill Grill, Groton, MA
On several occasions I’ve dined at the Gibbet Hill Grill in Groton, Massachusetts. This is a restaurant that never disappoints, and it has a menu that is right up my alley–red meat and lots of it! Opened in the fall of 2004, The Gibbet Hill Grill is family owned and offers up a nice variety of gourmet steaks–but for my money, it isn’t the the steaks that makes this place special. Tucked into the menu are several items that place the cuisine here squarely into what can best be described as a gourmet version of American/New England comfort food. From the grilled farmhouse cheeses or the braised short ribs on the…
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Planning Your First Backpacking Trip
Maybe you’ve never gone backpacking before, or perhaps it’s been so many years that you don’t quite remember how to go about planning a trip. Or maybe the last time you went you were a child and your parent, a scoutmaster, or some other responsible adult was responsible for insuring that you arrived back at home all safe and sound. Whatever the case, you’ve decided to venture forth and explore the backcountry, you have an idea of what you want to accomplish, but you have a nagging fear that you might forget some detail, some item, or something that once overlooked means instant doom when you’re on the trail. Let the…
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Open Mikes in New England
I’m just a hobbyist when it comes to playing guitar, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t like performing in front of an audience from time to time. For amateur musicians like myself, often the best venue for satisfying our thirst for public performance is a local open mike. Luckily, New England is full of them. Over the years I’ve played at several open mikes in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, including Keene, Mt. Vernon, Nashua, and Troy (in New Hampshire), and Fitchburg, Waltham, Westford and Westminster (in Massachusetts). Open mikes are a wonderful way to enjoy an inexpensive evening out with live entertainment, and if a particular performer isn’t quite your…
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The Northern Tip of America’s Pizza Belt
Living in New England places me squarely at the northern tip of America’s pizza belt, a region defined by New York food critic and Iron Chef windbag Jeffrey Steingarten as stretching from Philadelphia in the south to Boston in the north, roughly spread out along the Interstate 95 corridor. Major stops along the Pizza Belt include Phildaelphia, Trenton, New York, New Haven, Providence, and Boston, with each exacting their own regional influence on what is arguably America’s favorite ethnic fast food. Steingarten describes the predominant style of pizza along the pizza belt as Neopolitan-American, and credits the existence of the pizza belt to the influx of southern Italian immigrants into this…
