Road Trip to Queens

Not quite a month ago, I had to go on an overnight for work. I'm still leery of being out a lot. Ordering take out and not dining in, masks and all that. So obviously when faced with an overnight trip to Queens, I pulled up map and tried to correlate places I could stay and pizza shops I wanted to try.

The list of pizza places I'm curious about in Queens isn't huge. I'm sure there is more worthwhile pizza than the list. But in no particular order, the places I'd like to try are:

Lucia Pizza, Flushing

Amore Pizza, Flushing

Philomena's, Sunnyside

Louie's Pizza, Elmherst

Brother's Pizza, Flushing

Rizzo's Fine Pizza, Astoria

Margherita, Jamaica

Rosario's, Astoria

Bellucci's Pizzeria, Astoria

There's already another story behind the Bellucci's that I posted about a year ago. The original Bellucci's was opening at the end of Untitled Pizza Movie. But there was a falling out and Andrew Bellucci left and has since reopened another pizza place a few blocks away from the first. Anyhow, the shop currently being run by Andrew Bellucci wasn't open that night and this list of pizza places is pretty spread out. I decided to pick the one I wanted to try the most and get a hotel fairly close with a parking option.

I found a hotel with a parking spot about a mile away from Philomena's. It looked like it would work well. A nice walk there and back plus I was pretty close to where I had to be in the morning. Checked into the hotel, hung out for a bit in the room and set off on my straight shot walk up Queen's Boulevard to Philomena's. The weather was nice and the walk was good. It was nice to be out of the car.

When I got there, I came close to ordering one of everything of the slice offerings and a root beer. While they were reheating, I asked the guy making pizzas if he was Dave. He said he was. I let him know Scott from Boston says, "Hi," Scott is a pizza shop owner in the Boston area and a pizza consultant and incredibly knowledgeable about pizza on the forum and by all accounts incredibly nice. So we briefly talked and then my slices were ready so I headed to a bench outside the shop to eat.

Everything was good. This is pizza made by someone who cares. I think the 2 squares probably could have used a little more top heat during the reheat, but the place is solid. I wouldn't call it destination pizza. If you're nearby, definitely go. I don't think I would be heading out to make a special trip for Philomena's.

With nothing really on the agenda for the rest of the night. I people watched for a little bit to let the 4 slices settle and went in to try some other offerings. I considered ordering a square, but decided that was just too much pizza and picked a small sausage and broccoli rabe pizza to go and was told it would be about 20 minutes. No worries, plenty of time to kill.

A few doors away from Philomena's is a White Castle. I have had microwaved White Castle Sliders but never had the real deal. 

So I walked over there and ordered a slider. It felt like I was the first person in history to have ever ordered a single slider. I had already eaten 4 slices and had just basically ordered 4 more but it still felt weird. 

The White Castle slider tasted like a cross between meatloaf and sloppy Joe. I ate about half of it. I think this might be a thing you had to have growing up to love. It's not for me. Or maybe I ordered wrong. Anyhow, I headed back to Philomena's for my pizza. Once there, I was waiting for my pizza and Dave called me back to where he was working to talk pizza a little more. He told me about his dough and the changes he makes. Right now he is using a poolish and the dough that day was 4 days old. You can definitely taste the poolish. There is kind of a mild, fermented, not quite sourdough flavor in the background of the dough. It was fun talking dough and about the places Dave worked before going out on his own (he started with wood fired pizza).

When my pizza was done, Dave's assistant let him know that he had made the wrong pizza. There is the broccoli rabe and sausage combination, but there is also a vegan combination with a chickpea base and broccoli rabe with garlic. He had made the vegan one. I said it wasn't a problem but he wasn't having that, so he made the sausage/rabe pizza I had ordered and gave me both.

Chickpea with broccoli rabe and garlic

Sausage with broccoli rabe

I went outside and wanted to try the pizzas while they were still hot. They were both good. My only complaint would be that the rough chop on the broccoli rabe was a little too rough and the pieces were uncomfortably lard to eat. The chick pea topping was delicious. Truth be told, the vegan combination was better than the sausage combination. The chickpeas had a coarse grind to them and weren't smooth like a hummus. They were well seasoned and combined with the garlic and broccoli rabe it was my favorite of everything I had tried at Philomena's and before I fell asleep, all the pizza was gone and I didn't really eat the next day.

So Philomena's is good pizza and worth visiting if you are nearby. I still think about that chickpea topping and how I could copy it. But I wouldn't give Philomena's a destination, drive a few hours just to get it, kind of a rating. In fairness, that is an incredibly short list and two of the places making up probably half of the list that comes to mind would also require a time machine.

Lake Placid Trip

If you should happen to have a used bobsled (that would probably go for about 50 grand), 3 very crazy friends and a spare 35 bucks, you could hurl yourself down the bobsled track in Lake Placid. I found out on the tour that each run down the incredibly well maintained mile long ice course costs a team $35.

Or if you are more of a spectator kind of person, for $35 you can get the Olympic Passport which gets you into an Olympic museum, to the top of the big ski jump, a bobsled course tour (and in the summer you can walk down the mile long track) and two ways to visit Whiteface Mountain.

As a last minute summer trip we headed up to Lake Placid for two nights. We started in the village and the Olympic museum and ice rinks. There a lot of cool Olympic history in a relatively small museum. The US outfits from all the winter game, one of every torch, THE 1980 hockey game basically played on loop with a lot of memorabilia...that kind of stuff. There was even a super old school Albany bobsled.

They also had a scavenger hunt for the kids. It was a nice museum to look around. Then we poked in on the ice arenas. There was some figure skating thing that had just wrapped up. There was also a big pile of snow out front. Not sure where they got the snow but the kids got a kick out of it.

We stayed at the Golden Arrow right in town on Mirror Lake. Nice enough place, but the parking situation there is kind of crazy. And now I know too much about pool water...I didn't go in their pool. You can tell if a quarter is heads or tails at the bottom of the deep end in my pool, you can't see your foot in two feet of water in this pool. Eww. But really other than that it was a pretty nice place. Right on the lake with a little swimming area, kayaks and stand up paddle boards you can use, little docks to jump from and the location is right in town too.

In the morning we set out for the Olympic Sports Complex which is a short drive south of the town. I wish I caught the tour guide's name. Really nice guy. He was 25 in 1980 when the Olympics were last in Lake Placid (they were also there in 1932). In 2000 when then new combined course (bobsled, luge and skeleton) was built, he started working there. He maintains the piping system that keeps the ice on the course frozen. They'll start getting the course ready in September and it will be up and running in October. In the summer, he gives tours, "because I'm the only one with a bus license." Really nice guy that knows a lot about Lake Placid, the entire Olympic Sports complex and HVAC. The tour ends at the top and you are given the option of riding back down or walking the course. We walked the course. Didn't really get any "How much further?" questions until the last couple hundred feet.

For some extra money (I think $75 - less a 20% passport discount), you can go down in a wheeled bobsled. But that ride is on the old 1932 course. In the winter, you can go in a real bobsled but only on weekends because athletes are training during the week. These were fun to watch, but if I'm paying that much for the bobsled ride, it's going to be on ice.

From there we stopped at the John Brown Farm State Historic Site. John Brown and basically his entire family were abolitionists so there was some history combined with daily life in the 1800s. The farm is directly behind the ski jumps....which are super cool and way bigger than they look on TV.

Hell yeah we went to the ski jumps. It's part of the passport. For ski jumping, I mainly have two memories. First, you have the Agony of Defeat guy from the old ABC's Wide World of Sports. That kind of imagery was fairly rare in the 70s and stuck with you. It's probably average for the type of injury causing fail that goes viral today.  And then you have Eddie the Eagle. The way I remember the story was that no one in England was doing the ski jump. So Eddie did. He finished last in both the 70 and 90 meter jumping competitions in the 88 Olympics. And he had these big coke bottle glasses and just never gave up. Everybody loved him. It's the kind of 80s phenomenon that will be featured in an episode of The Goldbergs when Barry takes up ski jumping. And at the top of the Lake Placid ski jumps, there is Eddie modeling the ski jumpers outfit.

After looking down from the top of the jump in it's lowest position, I have a new found respect for Eddie the Eagle. I've taken lessons and still can't stand up on skis. This guy flew down a jump like this and even landed. We were too late in the season for the summer training jumpers. I think they start making snow in October and the jumpers will be back.

There were also a bunch of guys doing aerial ski jumps into pools. For a few of them, it was good they were landing on water. There were definitely a few flops.

After we checked out we still spent a lot of the day in the area. We went to High Falls Gorge which isn't part of the passport and probably a little over priced for what it is ($14/adult, $10/12 and under), but it was still nice walk with some very cool views. We enjoyed it.

From there we headed up The Veterans Memorial Highway to the top of Whiteface (part of the passport). The drive is steep and the views are beautiful. When you park at the top you can take an elevator or walk up. With 20/20 hindsight, I recommend taking the elevator up and walking down. Having walked down, I am glad I did not try to walk up.

The last thing on the passport was a gondola ride up Little Whiteface, just one mountain over. After going up to the top of Whiteface (which is significantly higher and cooler), the gondola ride was fun but slightly anticlimactic. Do the gondola then the Veteran's Memorial Highway. 

Nice trip. I'd do most of it again. I think we might head up for just a day to see some real bobsled action once the ice has been made. I think it would be fun to fake speed skate on the oval too.

Vacation, all I ever wanted.

If ever there was a good week to be kind of unplugged from reality, last week was it. As luck would have it, we were on the road. In a rented minivan. Because of a fender bender. My wife got hit driving through a parking lot. Just in time for our road trip. Not a big deal, just a pain in the ass. The vacation began with dropping off a car at a collision center and bringing home the rental. We loaded that bad boy to the roof and headed south. Day one, we drove to Maryland and stayed in a hotel. Day two, we continued driving south to North Carolina. Now we knew we were heading through Goldsboro, NC and pretty close to the legendary BBQ joint named Wilbur's. Wilbur's has the best pulled pork I've ever had. We used to stop in when my brother and sister in law used to live in Raleigh. I haven't been there in 11 years. The GPS said we were going to be about 20 miles away. After sitting in a lot of traffic, it was going to take too long to stop in so we skipped it. Until, we came around a corner and it looked very familiar. and then there it was.

After swerving across a lane of traffic, we parked and went in. We had eaten lunch already so I picked up some pulled pork to go. A pound of damn good pulled pork, 4 buns, 2 dozen hush puppies, and a container of slaw...I got change from $11. From Wilbur's, we had about 2 more hours on the road. We checked into the condo and this was the view we were going to have to deal with for a week.

Rough, right? We were down there with another family and we had a great time. A lot of swimming in the ocean. There was a sand bar on this beach so you could be 40 feet out into the water and it was still only 6 feet deep. The waves would gently pick you up and put you back down. The weather was perfect all week and there was only one day that the waves were a little choppy. And this happened too. In front are my kids, my friend Joe and his kids. That little fin in the back is one of several dolphins that swam by.

We saw sea turtles at a rescue center.

And this happened every day at 4:00. Nothing like some beach side grown up quiet time juice.

Margaritas are just better with sand between your toes. I had never heard of this, but apparently sharks go through a lot of teeth. These teeth fall out and then fossilize in the salt water. Once you know what too look for, you can find a lot of teeth.  Some are still pretty sharp and others have grooves. My friend Joe is a shark tooth hunter savant.

 

We also popped into an old peanut plantation. It was an interesting tour. The family that owned it was pro-union during the Civil War but had about 50 slaves. Here's an old peanut picker. Kind of looks like a Rube Goldberg contraption.

The plantation had a blacksmith shop too. Check out this huge bellow.

 

One last look at the beach before heading north.

We spent the night in Newark, Delaware. In the morning, we headed to Citi Field for a Mets game.

I'm not a huge baseball fan, but if I'm picking a team, it's the Mets. And while they might be in a new stadium, not much has changed. It was a close game with the Mets down 1-0 for most of it. They rallied in the bottom of the 8th to tie it up. They bring in their closer while blasting Journey's Don't Stop Believin' - possibly the worst song to pump up the crowd. They cut the song off just before the "Some will win, some will lose, some are born to sing the blues" line. Here we go. First pitch...home run. Then they get the next 3 batters out. The Mets go down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 9th with the last batter being called out on a check swing. What more could you want from a Mets game?

It was a good time. I'd do it again. How's next week looking?

Bored on a Wednesday In Buffalo?

It's always nice if you know someone that lives where you are traveling. They know the ins and outs. Good spots. Things only a local can know. On my last trip to Buffalo, my friend Kevin took us to the local speedway. On Wednesdays during the summer, you can drag race anything you want for 5 bucks.

For five bucks you get to heat up your tires by spinning them on some water, then you pull up to the starting line, the lights flash down to green, and then you gun it up the 1/8 mile long track. A radar gun/timer combo displays speeds and times. There were some pretty loaded cars there. A white Camero flew up the track. But you could race anything. People raced pickup trucks, old cars, new cars, there were a few Ford vs. Chevy races. We even saw an old Honda Hatchback go squealing by. I don't remember the make of the car, but I'm pretty sure we saw a teenager destroy his father's transmission.

There were guys on motorcycles that got up to 110 mph and did the 1/8 mile in under 7 seconds.  These two blurs...they're motorcycles.

They also had a tire smoking competition. I was familiar with drag racing, but had never heard of this. A vehicle backs into a little cage, locks up the breaks and destroys the rear tires to the delight of the crowd. Seriously, not making it up. This guy insisted on spinning the tires until they popped. Now you see the truck...

Now you don't. 

The smell is not good and there were people just sitting in the smoke. Here's what a completely destroyed tire looks like.

No cost to walk around and see what's going on. It was a fun change of pace. I'd go again to who's racing.

Vacation, all I ever wanted

Took a family trip last week. Some people summer at the Vineyard. Others prefer the Hamptons. I summered in Utica.

Tell someone you are going to Utica for vacation and wait for the confused look followed by one of the following questions:
“Why?”
“Seriously, Utica?”
“On purpose?”

Yes, Utica. While it might not be in its historic prime, Utica has a lot to offer a family. Here’s what we did.

Day 1: With lunches packed and the family truckster loaded, we got on the Thruway and headed out to Herkimer. Gems Along the Mohawk is right off NYS Thruway Exit 30. I had pre-bought Erie Canal tour tickets online ($19 for adults, $12 for kids ages 3-10). You might be able to find a cheaper deal if time an online coupon deal right.

We boarded the Lil Diamond 2 and cruised East on the Mohawk. Portions of the cruise tour are pre-recorded but the boat captain also provides a lot of the tour over a small PA system. In the middle of the tour, the boat goes up and down Lock 18 of the Erie Canal. If you have never gone through a lock on a boat, it's pretty freakin' cool. This lock provides about 20 feet of elevation change and made me want to take a Panama Canal cruise.

You start up here...

 and start sinking...

and sinking...

and sinking...

 and then cruise out the other end...

Then you do the whole thing in reverse. Fresh off the boat, we set off to our hotel which had an indoor pool. Universal truth: kids love pools. After a swim we headed out to dinner. I had always wanted to try Chesterfield Restaurant.

It was too dark inside to get good food pictures. Strangely, my family is starting to get used to me snapping food pictures. I went with Utica greens and chicken riggies and enjoyed both. They recently added a pizza oven. Our waiter said it was a few days old. The kids tore into a large cheese pizza and ate the leftover slices the next day. From the taste I had, Chesterfield’s is onto something very good pizza-wise. I’d definitely come back. We went back to the hotel and the kids pretty much passed out.

Day 2: I got up with the kids and brought them downstairs for breakfast (the hotel had a buffet). To sports fans, two-a-days means two workouts a day during pre-season training. When you’re on vacation with me in a hotel, it means kids go swimming twice a day. After breakfast, we changed into bathing suits and hit the pool. I remembered to bring these little sinking fish. The kids had a lot of fun diving for them. We woke up my wife, dried off and sunscreened up and then we were off to the Utica Zoo (found an online pass - $15.50 for a family of 4). Nice enough zoo. I thought the zoo in Syracuse was a little nicer, but we had a good time going around. The kids got to see a Gibbon take a piss and then a dump (they are 7 and 9 so this was quite hilarious to them). That whole Jurassic Park dinosaurs are birds theory...this crane made me a believer. It's creepy and makes it makes noises you wouldn't want to hear in the dark.

Somewhere at the zoo, we picked up Passport Coupon Flyer that had some coupons for places we were planning to visit. After our day at the zoo, we headed back for the second swim of the day and then we were off to the Franklin Hotel for dinner. I still really like this place. As recommended by Mr. Dave, I tried the fried hot pepper appetizer with a beer.

I really enjoyed the peppers and I’ll offer up this advice: When Mr. Dave endorses something, give it the benefit of the doubt. I’m still putting this rub he recommended on everything. We stopped at the pharmacy next door to the Franklin to pick up a few things. Most importantly, Birthday Cake Oreo Cookies. I don’t know why, but the kinds are under the impression that when you eat those cookies while watching a TV show in a hotel, that’s “a party.” Our room had two TVs. Putting them on the same channel was also mandatory at the party.

Day 3: We had to skip swimming and headed to the Utica train station after breakfast. We got on the Adirondack Railroad and headed north to Thendara. The ride was nice and the kids were excited to be on a train. The train had two passenger cars (I thought they were nicer than the Polar Express cars running out of Saratoga), a baggage car and a snack car. The baggage car was pretty cool. The doors were open to the air, but blocked off by a gate. A steady 40 mile an hour wind was flowing in and at times, you were close enough to touch the trees.

Once in Thendara, two school buses take you into Old Forge. We walked over to a place called Walt’s Diner. I wish this place was closer. Just a great, friendly little joint with good food. There’s a pretty big water park in Old Forge, but the layover wasn’t long enough to make it worthwhile. Next door to the park is a place called Calypso Cove. They have an arcade where you play games to win tickets that can be cashed in for little prizes. A handful of games including several rounds of skeeball netted us 142 tickets that got traded in for a slinky, a bracelet and a little plastic flip thingy. Calypso Cove has a few other things. There’s no entry fee. You buy $5 tickets that can be used for a zipline ridge, go karts, mini golf or bumper boats. That Passport had Buy 1, Get 1 Calypso Cove tickets.

After Calypso Cove, we headed back to town and did a little souvenir shopping. Then the busses took us back to the train. The train returned to Utica around 6:30 and the kids were a wiped out. We headed back to the hotel and had Franklin Hotel leftovers for dinner, followed by a quick Oreo party.

Day 4: We packed up and checked out of the hotel. Then we drove over to the Children’s Museum next door to the train station. (The Passport had an admit one child free coupon. Entry was $22 for a family of 4 with the coupon) It is a nice, quirky museum with some funky hours (make sure it is going to be open when you want to go) but it is all not-for-profit and run by volunteers. They had a plane the kids could sit in and move the flaps plus a lot of other nice exhibits.

From the museum, we headed to the FX Matt Brewery. There is also a Passport buy 1 adult, get 1 adult free coupon for the brewery and the kids were free. Each tour ticket comes with a voucher for 2 drinks in the tasting room.

I don’t think the tour guides really care about the drink tickets. So for $5, we got an interesting tour for 4 people, 4 pints of their soda, and 4 pints of beer. I’m not sure there is a better deal anywhere and the kids really liked having a soda tasting. Interesting little fact: The extra carbon dioxide generated during the beer brewing operation is captured and then used to carbonate the sodas.

On the way out, you can pose with Schultz and Dooley.

After the tour, we grabbed a few slices of tomato pie on the way out of town. We were off to my in-laws for an annual family picnic. And that was a good time too - except for shoveling out a barn, cutting down a tree and weed whacking a ditch, but you won't have to schedule that into your Utica trip.

Bottom line, if you’re looking for a relatively cheap mini vacation that doesn't require a ton of car time, check out Utica. You’d be surprised what the city has to offer.