Dave Page

We arose early, to grab some coffee and fruit and headed out at 7 to the race site. We found Sara there by phone. Sam was in an early wave, and was in the water by the time we got there, so we waited on the beach for him to come out. Their running friend Gretchen was also racing, but we missed her. After Sam came out, we went to the transition area, but he was too quick by the time we got over the bridge.

We crossed the other ped bridge and chatted with Sara and her friends from East Troy and Amy, her BFF from Whitewater who arrived soon after dropping off Sara. Our Sarah’s friend from Woodstock, Alexis, now living in St. Paul, met us on the beach. Sara moved off to occupy her slot in Wave 39, and waited to go into the water. We found in her in the chute out to the water, and then moved to the other side of the beach to wait for her to come out.

After she came out in a surprisingly short 20 minutes (Sara did the sprint course, and swam much better than she expected) we tried to get thru the crowds on the ped bridge to the transition area. Bette pushed a little and butted in line, and saw Sara. We didn’t, but waited to see Sam come in from his bike. He came in about ½ hour later, and by that time we were found by Uncle Lou. We cheered, he came to kiss Karin, and he was off on the run. Sara came in about 30 minutes later, and we cheered her and she trotted off on her shorter run.

Then we headed off to the finish line, staked out our spot near the bridge, and waited. Sara came in soon, and then Sam and Gretchen. Turns out Gretchen was cramping and was feeling bad and bailed before the 2nd lap.

We headed back to Sam and Karin’s and made burgers and dogs for lunch and visited. Alexis and Gretchen headed out, and we prepared for our evening with Chef Vincent.

Sam ran this there with Chef Vincent’s team, a fundraiser for Fraser, a support organization for Minnesota special needs persons and their families. Sam raised quite a bit, including OUR donation, and all the team runners got a nice Chef Vincent running jersey and invites to the post-race party at his establishment, Vincent: A Restaurant in the Nicollet Mall. We valet parked and passed white linen alfresco seating and were directed up the stairs.

We were on time, and it was still empty, but the wine was out and some of the food was there, so we dug in. Vincent is a French native, and the restaurant leans French, but he had an eclectic combo of appetizers – and lots of them. My favorite was the Veggie tempura and the salmon toast, and the beef thingies – heck it was all good. Nothing was bad. Okay, the fries were the real thin ones, and those are very hard to keep warm. Everything else was great.

Sam and I talked to Vincent, and he is an interesting guy. Nice, and with a lot to say. We chatted about his work with the organization and his restaurant. Then I spoke with a gentleman, Joe, who is taking Vincent and a bunch of bikers to ride around Provence. Joe’s Mello Velo tours were about $3K less airfare, but the idea of waking up at 10, riding thru wonderful countryside, and returning to a chef-cooked dinner sounds really nice. Except they do 100 miles a day - a bit much for this couch potato.

We headed back to the house, and sat on the porch with some more wine discussing how weird our families are till 11. Time for bed.

The next morning, Amy and Sara, along with Lou and Joan came by for a fresh Frittata breakfast from Chef Sam. Joan and Sara rode back with us to the Fort and home.

Vincent: A Restaurant, 11th Street and Nicollet Mall

Up in Minneapolis to visit Sam and Karin and cheer them on at the Lifetime fitness triathlon. We arrived Friday from a series of thunderstorms thru Wisconsin, and the weather in Minneapolis was gorgeous, but real hot and humid.

We checked into the Casa, and visited with Sam for a while. Karin was out getting groceries. Sara was competing in the sprint distance event, but was out with her BFF Amy from Whitewater for dinner. We would see her tomorrow.

We sat around and chatted awhile and headed off to Al Vento, a local Italian place for carbo-loading. It was busy, with outside seating, we chose to be inside to stay cool. Sam was preparing for a race, of course – we have to be serious.

We started out with Truffled pecorino packets with Swiss chard and brown butter, fried pillows of Pecorino cheese with an oil sauce. Yum! Sam, Karin and I split a bottle of the house Solapaca Rosso red. Bette had a Sauvignon Blanc and Karin had some Col Vetoraz Prosecco sparkling.

Bette and I split the beet salad (Roasted beet with frisee balsamic vinaigrette and hazelnuts), excellent. Sam and Karin split the Mista with balsamic blood orange and local Donnay goat cheese salad, a collection of greens. The choices for dinner were excellent. I never heard of Radiatore, but it is a pasta resembling radiators in meat sauce. Sam had that, and I had the bucattinni, with noodles with a more spicy meat sauce. Mmm. Karin had spaghetti (Spaghetti with mother sauce and veal meatballs) with meat sauce and Bette had the halibut.

We topped off the meal with dessert. Bette & I split a pistachio Semi Fredo …..which was spectacular, but I can’t remember a thing about — I think a ganache type thing. Karin had a Chocolate Oblivion cake, and Sam had a scoop of gelato.

A great meal – Sam said the next day the meat sauce was probably more that he should have had before a triathlon, but, what the heck. This was a nice place, fun atmosphere with a young crowd, and great food. Recommended.

Al Vento, 5001 34th Ave. S., Minneapolis MN

At the Green Zebra we got a little of everything. Yes, it is loud and expensive, and yes, you may hit White Castle on the way home, but it was all good…

We had some beignets. We had two orders of potstickers (Curried Potato Potstickers, cilantro tamarind sauce, fresh coconut) for appetizers. We had roasted beets (Roasted Beets, wasabi gelee, cocoa nib foam, chippys) yum!

Good but small pricey plates. I had the chef’s selection which are all the items on hand in small quantities, each individually explained to me.

I had a rare Vos Amber Belgian-style ale — should have done wine, bottle was huge but good… Lots of wine all around. We had a Sha Na Nas, a Sundance and a Drunken Peach — sounds like Sara’s drinks! Should have gotten the wine flight, but I was smashed as it was.

Bette had a good halibut. (Vegetarian???) They have a great Tater Tot facsimile (Potato Tots, sunny-side up egg, nicoise olives, heirloom tomatoes).

I had the Thai spiced soup (Thai Spiced Carrot Soup, crispy rice noodles) and loved it. It had a cilantro foamy sauce on the surface. Actually, Brad had it too - was good to see him outside of his zone. Someone had Heart of Palm (Hawaiian Heart of Palm, blueberries, passion fruit cream, szechuan peppercorn). We had the tofu (Crispy Tofu, Thai basil, baby bok, Jasmine rice). Someone had the popover (Foraged Mushroom Popover, smoked cippolinis, Michigan cherries, manchego), a kind of pastry thing. We had artichokes (Marinated Artichokes and Feta cheese, arugula, preserved lemon). We had cucumbers (Cucumber and Radish Salad, sea beans, kohlrabi, greek yogurt panna cotta).

Desserts: French press coffee, I had ti kuan yin tea (no big deal), Alberto had a good looking cheescake, Bette and I split a chocolate cake. Someone had the Napoleon. One had poppy cake. None was poisonous.

We caught Gemma taking pictures of the food for Pro Bono Baker. She looked a little embarrassed, but I wondered how she got all those great food pictures for her blog. Now we know.

After dinner, Sara left to visit sister Liz and Alberto and Chellie invited us to their new condo on Franklin in the River North area. We cabbed back to the condo and went up the elevator to 11. What a nice place. They had nice art, a view of the buildings on the river. The club across the street was loud they said, but that what happens in the city.

Alberto talked me into some Lambrusco, a slightly fizzy wine. Good, but on top of the other wine I was flying. Good thing we were cabbing back to the Hyatt. Bad thing was I had to get up the next day for a train back to work.

They had art from Alberto’s trip to Guatemala, and also a 4-image panel from a local artist, who makes cartoony images in the style of Roy Lichtenstein. Their panels were of Chellie’s various pet sayings, but a lot of thought went into the characters and the placement. Amazing.

Chellie gave Bette her birthday presents, a small red book of Italian cooking, and a succulent e.g. cactus in a lovely pot. Very nice. We wobbled back to the hotel.

Green Zebra Chicago 1460 west chicago ave. • chicago illinois 60622

For her birthday, Bette wanted to go to the Green Zebra, a nouveau-vegetarian restaurant in River West Chicago. We heard about it, seen on Check Please, and talked about with friends, none of whom had anything bad to say. Sign me up!

Sara, Bette and I headed down on Wednesday afternoon on Metra, overstuffed heavy hanging bag in hand. Hanging bags are very hard to manage when overstufffed — bulky! Bette was attending the Delta Delta Delta convention at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, so we were staying overnight. Sara had to work the next day, so she was training back.

Since it was holiday weekend, the $5 passes were for sale. The train is so nice for going downtown. The Hyatt is a good 1.5 miles from the train, and there was no way I was carrying the bag that far without a shopping cart. So we hopped in a cab with a dour driver and were there in a few minutes.

We checked in, while I got over my feeling of deja-vu from being there the previous week for the Tufte seminar. We moved over to the assistant manager check-in desk since Bette’s Tri-Delta pals had only signed her up for one night, but things were settled, and we headed up to 2330. It overlooked the river and we could see the new Trump tower, Wrigley building, and other places. Nice room. I changed, Sara worked on her newly shorn locks for a few hours.

Plan A was to go to Chellie and Alberto’s new place, and check it out. Bette checked in with Chellie, and they were in the middle of finding a repair service to fix their A/C. So we would head over there after dinner. Plan B was the Big Bar downstairs.

Sara had been here before, and we pulled up to a table, noticing it was REAL hot there. I took off my sport coat and noticed the table was warm to the touch — maybe the sun was on it all morning, it was now cloudy. We ordered a large Cosmopolitan for $24. Well, it was large! It was a large martini glass about 1 foot tall and 8 inches in diameter with three straws. (No backwash!). Needless to say we were all a little tipsy leaving. And it was still early!

Had a little challenge getting a cab — waited too long, and the evening rush had started, soaking up most of the cabs that had been dawdling outside. We found one, called Chellie to warn her we were on the way, and called the restaurant to warn them we were late, and to expect Gemma, who is usually very punctual. As a matter of fact, she was already there!

We stopped at Chellie’s on Franklin to pick up her brother Brad who, a football player and big guy, would not fit into the back of Alberto’s Miata. 5 minutes later we were down Chicago Ave and at the Green Zebra.

Sara and Ryan gave us a gift certificate for $25 for the Rosebud Cinema Drafthouse last year. We finally got around to using it at the 4PM show of “Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull“. (The certificate had expired but Bette had called to confirm we could still use it). It looks like a small neighborhood theater, but in the lobby is a snack bar that sells *GASP* beer and wine. I ordered a Spotted Cow, Bette got some wine, Sara had some Mike’s concoction. We ordered the appetizer sampler plate with garlic cheese bread, fried mozz, onion rings and chicken fingers, took a plastic number ala Culver’s and headed into the theater.

We saw rows and rows of black velour loveseats, with nice side tables between each one to perch drinks and eats. We sat, set our number on the back of the sofa and waited. In 15 mins, our food came, delivered to the sofa. Way cool.

The movie was OK, typical Indiana Jones, he and Marion Ravenwood a bit older from when I first saw them, but with lots of crashing and smashing about. Bette liked the romantic angle. The ending was a bit bizarre, but on the whole it was fun. Especially on the sofa. With beer. I can deal with a much lower quality of movie in this environment.

We then headed out to find dinner. We started to head back to the expressway, but Sara mentioned the Chancery in Wauwatosa (or Tosa as those in the know call it), and we were driving right by. We parked, and walked across the street to check out the other restaurants along State Street. There was a brick oven pizza joint that looked good, but we walked to the corner and looked into Ristorante Bartolotta. Italian, nice bar, white linen tablecloths. Bette was all about this place. We went in, and found they were booked for dinner at a table, but we could get full service at the bar. I hesitated but Bette did not, and we joined up with Tim at the bar.

Tim set us up with white linen napkins (baby tablecloths) and knew good points and bad points of all the dishes. Bette and I got wine, me a Barbera “Le Orme” and Bette a Sauvignon Blanc. Sara wanted Riesling, but in Italy? Nein. Tim set her up with a rose colored “Bigaro”, a more dessert wine. She seemed to like it. Tim brought around the tongs and dug hunks of bread out of the bread bucket, and dished out the olive oil.

I had the Beef Filetto ($35) with nice garlic mashed and veges. Done medium rare, pricey, but good. Bette got the Pomodoro tomato/cheese salad (which we split, and Tim brought it out on two plates - nice touch) and the small order of Gnocchetti di Semola al Ragu di Crostacei ($16) for the main course. Mmm. Sara had Braciola di Maiale ($23), a huge pork chop on the bone. Nice. She had a heck of a doggy bag (for her dad). Tim answered some questions about Grappa I had from San Francisco, and let me sample one.

For dessert we had coffees and a Sundae di Gelato ($7), which was vanilla bean gelato and caramel sauce. Simple but wonderful.

Tim got a great tip, sitting at the bar was more fun than a table, and I could not think of one thing wrong. Great place, and worth the trip. Highly recommended.

Rosebud Drafthouse 6823 W. North Ave Wauwatosa, WI 414.607.9446
Wauwatosa Chancery 7615 West State Street Wauwatosa, WI 414.453.2300
Bartolotta Ristorante 7616 West State Street Wauwatosa, WI 53213 414.771.7910

JavaOne is the big Java technology show at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. FSC sent me there with two guys from work, John and Joe to scope things out. We caught a limo from work at 9:30A and had an uneventful ride to SF. A gentleman and his (adopted??) son were next to me in the aisle seats, and the 2-year-old boy was fun. He crawled, pulled everything out of the seat pockets, fell asleep on me a couple times, and was a doll. His big sister in the row ahead would poke her head up occasionally to say hi to Daddy.

We arrived about 3:00, cabbed in, chatting with the driver, and checked in at the InterContinental Hotel. Nice place. Expensive. Rooms with the discounted rate were $260/nite. It is very close to the Moscone Center (a short 5 minute walk down Howard St.) The good thing about staying here is we just stayed at the Buckhead IC — so I knew where to go for boarding passes, and a few other details. The bad thing — a draft beer is $10.

I was in 819, a great room just above the fitness center balcony. Big windows, lots of light. At night too, but there are sheet and dark drapes. I kind of like the light at night — you feel like you are in a big city.

We hopped the F train, an old-time electric light rail cars to Fisherman’s Wharf, Pier 47 to Scoma’s, which both George at the office and the concierge recommended. I like to eat at places George recommends in case we get grief for prices on the expense account.

Yum. We had some local brews to start off at the bar while we were waiting, and the personable bartender let John try a sample of one before buying. I had the Dunkle Weiss.

We sat, and waited a while for the waitress to show up. It was just starting to get busy.

Calamari A
ppetizer $15
PETRALE DORE $29
Prawn Annuzzi $28
I had the Seared Ahi ($31) which was nicely rare and very good, with wasabi and a nice vegetable.

We flew this weekend to Atlanta to attend Jen and Brian’s wedding. Jen is Sarah’s friend from Camp Seafarer (New Bern, NC) and we have kept in touch all these years. Her mom and stepdad are great people — we have stayed with them — and we got to talk with her dad, Jeff, this time, and his mother, and found them to be lovely.

We flew Midwest from MKE to ATL, arrived Friday night, and after a $50 (flat rate with tip) cab ride, ended up at the InterContinental Buckhead. Nice place. Buckhead is the new tony area of Atlanta ala Cherry Creek in Denver (site of Robbie and Emily’s wedding last year). Across the street was a new condo “Residences from $1 to $11 million”. Ulp. 2 years old, new, lots of bellmen running about. We checked in, stopped at the conciege to enquire about a restaurant Robin had suggested, Seasons 52. They called and got us a 9:15 (ET) reservation — I guess that was pretty good.

Note to self: if I ever have a cold again, never fly. Landing is painful, and our heads did not clear until we had to go home. As I write this, my right ear is still not clear.

It rained like heck after we arrived, lightning, etc., so we took a cab (at the Buckhead flat rate of $8!!!) to Seasons. I like to try new local places, but it turns out this was a chain. Oh well. We started with a Artichoke flatbread, kind of a thin Indian naan with artichoke and cheese. Good stuff — that and a salad would have been a good meal. I started with a tabbouleh salad, Bette had Tomata Stack salad. I had a nice pepper-spiced filet, with a Ravenswood Cab or two. Bette had Pan-Seared Snapper and a Brampton Sauvignon Blanc.

How to get home? The manager at the podium was great. He confided they had problems getting cabs to show up in good weather, and with the rain, it might be a problem. He suggested calling the hotel, which we did, and they sent over a great guy in a new Cadillac with the hotel logo to pick us up. He is a hospitality lifer, soon on his way to Vegas to stay. Nice guy. So he got the $10 instead of the cab company.

We go another wine pair in the XO bar at the hotel — for $25 plus tip. Yow! We sat in the lobby and the parents walked in with the wedding party from the rehearsal dinner. We chatted for an hour or so, hugged Jen and met Brian, and later turned in.

Arise whenever, and headed down to the Trippe room for the hospitality suite continental breakfast. Bagels, cream cheese, lots of nice fruit. Mmm. Good coffee.

It was raining still so we hung out for a while. The rain eventually stopped, and we walked down Peachtree to find Men’s Wearhouse and some cold meds. We kept walking, found Seasons 52 and asked a nice young woman (reminding me of a Wrigleyville or Evanston type) for a drugstore. She came up with Whole Foods, two blocks over. Got some herbal meds, and some fruit, and Peelu gum to try out. I keep looking for a non-aspartame gum, but they either stick to my teeth or lose flavor in seconds. Peelu did both. Another, called XXXX, tasted better, and did not stick, but still died quickly.

We walked back, noticed a funky looking Cajun place buried in a strip mall called McKinnons The concierge seemed to know it. I wished I would have known the day before. Anyway, picked up the tux shirt and bow tie, no problem. Back to hotel to nap.

At 1PM we woke up. Bette said, “Let’s go to Centennial Park”. This was one tourist thing that Robin had recommended. We checked out the concierge, she said either a cab or MARTA train. We wimped out on public transportation this trip, folks. When on a schedule, it’s worth the cash to not get lost.

We wandered about the park, watched the choreographed fountains filled with kids, and wondered why anyone would pay $15 to see the Coca-Cola Museum. The park was very nice, but not spectacular. We had a hot dog and turkey salad sandwich for lunch and some water.

We returned, and Bette started getting ready, I walked around a bit, sat on the deck reading and watching wedding pictures.

While eating a Mentos from the guest gift bag, I felt something crunch. Aggregate in the candy? Lawsuit? No, just a piece of tooth broken off. Crap.

The wedding was great. We sat with the neighbors, and Sarah knew most of them, so we had a nice evening of connecting and dancing. Everyone we met was great.

We took a drink from the reception to enjoy by the pool, but the pool door locked at 9PM. We went up to the room and looked out the window at the lights. Very nice. Packed up what we could, then slept.

We should have stayed at the reception. Jen had prepared a surprise for her new hubby and at 11:45P or so, Chick-Fil-A Chicken Biscuits rolled in for everyone. Brian does not suffer junk food easily, so this was Jen saying, “Lighten up.”

Books read:
M for Malice by Sue Grafton. Looked like a long series, and I had never read any, so for $10 hardback at the Sanibel bookstore, I bit. Fun whodunit. Fast reading, good characters. I’d do another. (ISBN: 0-8050-3637-7)
The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Dark, haunting. Good read. But I was always wondering how the world ended up burned, always looking for more detail, and for some reason, that distracted me from the story. Glad I bought the hardback for only $10 in Sanibel. (ISBN: 0-307-26543-9)

We got our passports almost 10 years ago. Sarah was still around and we needed them to go to Jamaica. Sarah had hers, of course, from Australia.

After my tour of duty in Edmonton, we figured now was the time. We had heard horror stories about turnaround times of months, and I hoped there would be no surprise trips. After finding (thanks to Alice at the post office) we had used old documents with the OLD prices (aargh) I rewrote the checks and sent them in.

Two Weeks. The old ones came back with the extra pictures in two more days. Nice job for an “inefficient bureaucracy”.

US Deparment of State Passport Page

Sam and Karin left.

Wednesday 26 March

Wednesday 26 March

Everglades Day trip.
Four segments. Boat Ride. Nature Walk. Lunch. Airboat ride.

Wednesday 26 March

Thursday 27 March

Yoga with Grethe.

Friday 28 March

Try to finish off the food, wine, and whiskey sours. Still ended up with some beer; left for the maid. Took some boxes to the pack and ship to go home while I checked in online at their internet computers ($2/10mins).

Sand sculpture 2.

Books read:

• Ice Station Zebra by Alistair MacLean
• Diamonds are Forever by Ian Fleming
• The Everglades: River of Grass (Special 50th Anniversary Edition) by Marjory Stoneman Douglas
• Everglades by Randy Wayne White

Friday 21 March

Barely beat the snow closings out of MKE airport. Arrived on time in Ft Myers. Karin and Sam were at the Twins game. We stopped at the “used food store” (Dixie’s Discounted Wine) on Bonita Beach Rd just east of US 41 for some wine and discount food. Then we had to stop at Publix. The detour is not worth it. Checked in at West Wind. Got a drink at the pool bar and waited for Karin and Sam.

Dixie’s Discounted Wine • 9080 Bonita Beach Rd, Bonita Springs,FL 34135

Saturday 22 March

I rented a 24 speed recumbent bike on the Internet the previous week from Billy’s Rentals. They delivered it to the West Wind to keep it from disappearing like the rest of their bikes — thanks guys! It has chopper style handlebars, which is a whole new trick. I finally got it to go straight, but turns were a problem. Fast hard turns would put me on the ground. With my hip acting up, it was torture.

Rode around the island to the lighthouse. Overcast but warmish; good riding. 15 mins into the ride, it started to rain. We kept going to the lighthouse, looked around, and headed back up Periwinkle for lunch at the Lighthouse Cafe, the “hippie” cafe next to Sporty Seahorse. Great food, great atmosphere. And busy — prepare to wait. We ate lunch, but split a banana pancake just to try it — it was warm and gooey in the middle. Sam wanted to come back the next day for breakfast. So we did.

Karin bolted back on her bike. Sam followed her, and Bette and I stopped at a few shops on the way back. It started to clear up a bit and we got back in time

Dinner with Sam and Karin at Sanibel Steakhouse. We had the Crab Cake appetizer, yum. I had the 16oz NY Strip, I think my favorite cut, with baked potato. Mmmm. Karin and Bette had the 12oz NY Strips. Sam and I started a bottle of Dynamite Zinfandel. Bette and Karin had a glass of Nobilo Sauvignon Blanc. Sam had the blackened Ahi tuna. Yum, but when in a good steakhouse, I get a good steak. Dessert was Chocolate Lava and a Keylime Pie slice to go around. Recommended. $80/ea for 4 people w/o gratuity w/wine. Pricey but good.

Billy’s Bike Rentals - 1470 Periwinkle Way
Lighthouse Cafe - 362 Periwinkle Way
Chip’s Sanibel Steakhouse - 1473 Periwinkle Way

Sunday 23 March

Decided not to do church. The sun was out. Time to build a sand sculpture. Sam had borrowed the book on Sand Castle building from Sons of the Beach and was raring to go.

Started with some simple columns and structures. I played with the dump method of sand. Working out of the bucket was a good way to do it. Then figured out the Padre Island snow balls. Cool. Taught Sam.

Then started the octopus. Started out as a pile, but soon saw that a sea creature terrorizing the village would be very nice. Karin built up some tentacles and buildings and upholstered everything. Sam and I moved the sand into position and Sam and Bette lugged water.