Cross-Country Blog

NAPA

Food and wine country! It’s been 20 years since I was first and last here. It is truly a foodie’s Mecca. At first I was feeling a little envious of all the perfect tomatoes, local cheese, skinny people, lovely restaurants, beautiful flowers,  cool evenings… then I realized it would be too overwhelming for me to live here, so I took in all I could as a visitor.

After a peaceful night’s sleep at an ideal little rental house in St. Helena. Our first day was packed. We met up with Claudia Sansone and her husband Rob Hampton at their lovely home in Napa. I found Claudia through some food connections and she wound up being the perfect person to help make our unusual needs a reality. She set us up with wine tasting’s at the Hess and Jarvis wineries, while Will and Lydia were entertained by Rob’s daughter Trina, at the Napa country Club. We all met back at their house where Claudia had designed a cooking class for all but me (I tried to stay out of the kitchen). Rob was the finest teacher for Mark, bestowing upon him recipes and secrets for his own signature dishes, rack of lamb, beer can chicken, grilled pizza, and cream puffs (yes Mark learned to make pate a choux). Meanwhile, as I tried to stay out of the kitchen, I toured the back yard garden. They have grape vines from which they make their own wine, a vegetable garden with the regulars plus artichokes, squash, fig tree, white peaches falling ripe to the ground, and Rob’s art Studio. Did I mention he’s a dentist? But on the side does amazing bronze sculptures and paintings. We ended the night late, laughing, under the stars, sipping a dessert wine aged 10 years in oak barrels.

The next day, Will’s 17^th birthday, Mark and I met Antonia Allegra at the St. Helena Farmer’s Market (Will and Lydia slept in). Toni is an old foodie friend who has inspired me along my culinary way through coaching, and attending her Food Writer’s Symposium at the Greenbrier. There just happened to be a chef from CIA Grey Rock doing a demo class on eggs, so we pulled up a bench and enjoyed. Hopefully someday, there will be a green market like this in every city – even Hartford! Back at Toni and Donn’s house in the trees, we talked, and caught up, while feasting on watermelon with balsamic vinegar, chicken salad with white peaches, local blue cheese, peanuts and grapes, and Afghani stuffed bread pesto and chile jam. With a candle in a yummy berry tart, and a sweet birthday card from Toni and Donn, Will’s day of birth was officially celebrated. I am overwhelmed by the hospitality so far on this trip, and our mantra of “we’re not worthy” is only getting louder.

Wine tastings, and dinners:

Botega –Micheal Chiarello’s new hot spot- Unfortunately we thought it was loud and the food was pleasant but so so- we have to agree with the LA Times review which we read later.

Taylor’s, a great drive up burger joint where you eat on outside- but they are Niman Ranch beef burgers, and you can order wine, beer and milkshakes- Napa fast food J

Brix was our last meal in Napa. Mark’s sister Terri had given us a gift card for Christmas so we went. It was great! It’s beautiful inside and out among the gardens. I had some of the best duck breast –ever! smoky and tender, with wild mushrooms. A nice man offered to...

Sleeper Car and Santa Fe

We woke up in our sleeping quarters on the train. They are very tight but at least you can stretch out straight. Behind the curtains appear the beginning of a day of spectacular scenery. Cow and corn country as far as the eye could see, all covered with the blue dome of big sky.  Breakfast in the dining car (soso, but all meals are included in the sleeper accommodations).  Just as we are pulling into Lamy to get to Santa Fe, the rain starts. So far CT weather has not left us.  We get loaded into a van and start the steamy foggy climb to Santa Fe with the 5 other wet passengers. But by the time we check into our adorable casita in old Santa Fe, the sun is shining brightly and we are ready for a margarita.

We had very little time in Santa Fe before reboarding the van at 1 pm the next day, but dinner was great at Los Mayas. They serve all the favorite New Mexican dishes, but with less cheese and beans.  My chile relleno was fabulous with very light fried coating, and Mark had chile Nogales which is chile relleno filled with meat and raisins, in a creamy white sauce of pumpkin seed, almond, topped with pomegranate seeds. The next morning we found the Georgia O’Keefe museum, around the corner, and we could have listened to the docent’s stories all day. I need to read more about this incredible woman. One story had her painting in the middle of the desert in her model T, lying underneath for shade when she got hot. Another was when she bought her own painting back from a Santa Fe couple when she saw it hanging in their home. The house was "too cluttered for her painting", so she returned their $10,000 on the spot. This woman and her art bring me to tears, and I’m not exactly sure why. Perhaps it’s her passion.

We filled up with goodies from Whole Foods and headed back for the train. The landscape changed once again,- reading is impossible with the interruption of so much exciting scenery. Plateaus, buttes, red clay, low green desert shrubs, boy I wish I had paid attention to 3^rd grade, or taken a geology course at St. Lawrence. Each rock formation is more spectacular than the last. At 10 pm we are dropped off in the middle of nowhere. No station, no office, just a van (that was good). The driver had to turn out the only light in the parking lot when we left. Check in to the Grand Canyon Railroad hotel, and crash into bed. 

Grand Canyon

After the hokey cowboy show we board the old train for the 2 hour chug into the Canyon park. The old train was brought back recently and carries 1,000 people a day in and out of the park, reducing all those autos. But it only goes 35 mph. Still it’s pretty entertaining. The canyon is as expected- big and deep. It really is dizzying until you get used to it. We got to see the amazing,  newly released California Condors, being brought back from the edge of extinction. With a 9 foot wing span these creatures are quite breathtaking, especially when they coast right overhead like a small jet. We spent the night at Maswik lodge in the park, strolled around in the morning and headed back to the train via Flaggstaff and a full moon. 

Good morning LA.

Maybe the nicest thing any...

The Pendleton Family is on a one month trip around the country by train. Thanks to the kind and generous folks at the Eli Lilly Foundation, who found Mark's grant request worthy, we are having the vacation of our lives. 

Since I forgot to bring a journal and I can't seem to find a place to buy a pad, I thought I'd start a blog. We got off to a great start getting out of rainy CT arriving in Chicago on July 1. Jeff Ward (Uncle Jeff, Mark's long lost brother he never had) met us at the airport with beautifully printed agendas of our next 24 hours. We toured Chicago, visited his fabulous apartment and new puppy, Mr. Bentley, Martinis at the top of the Hancock, Cirque du Shanghai on the Navy pier and fabulous Italian dinner at Volare. Then, just for us, Chicago gave us a fireworks show before we crashed at the Intercontinental on Michigan Ave. 

12 noon Jeff picked us up and took us to the Taste of Chicago by the lake in Millenium Park. If we keep it up we will not fit on the train home in 30 days! Thanks Jeff for a wonderful taste of Chicago. What a great city! 

First leg of the train was great. So much to see and relaxing. We figured if we didn't like the train from Chicago to KC we were in big trouble for the rest of the month. Passing through the cornfields of America is mind-boggling. My first thought, as we passed people sitting on their porches, driving in their cars, or fires of burning brush, was I am passing through moments of peoples lives. They don't think anything of walking up the steps to their house, but I am making note of it. The train, though rumbling and bumpy, is very serene. It gives the four of us time to read, listen to music, stare out the window. But also, because we are seated two by two, we have time for quiet conversation, as it occurs, without interruptions. The feeling of having all the time in the world, and nowhere you need to be, and nothing you have to do, is a precious luxury I was only somewhat aware that I was missing. 

We arrived late to kansas city, crashed and awoke to rain. We are not so sad about this. There is free internet connection in the hotel, and we are able to do things like update blogs.  So today's agenda is, eat and work out. Luckily there is a health club. We get back on the train tonight at 11, and we've got to find some kc BBQ.  

Saturday. The 4^th of July 2009

Kansas City BBQ

We were pretty lazy yesterday, but we did go to LC’s BBQ for lunch. No one in the hotel had ever heard of the place, but our cab driver did. He wanted to know how we knew about the place since it’s so off the beaten path. I told him how many hours I spent researching, and that the fancy obvious places wouldn’t do. We wanted dirty, old, and smoky. I actually did find LC’s through the Road Food website, through a conversation about the best KC BBQ.

A ten minute drive away from downtown, the shabby little building stands at a fork in the road, with lots of billowing smoke perfuming the neighborhood from its rooftop vent. There are maybe 8 tables in the room, with a tall counter where you put in your order. Ordering- the only difficult thing I...