As
always, it is our devout wish here at VFH Central that all of your horizons
remain bright throughout this new year of 2016. Here’s hoping love doesn’t
escape you and that good fortune trundles along your path. Maybe someone will buy you a much-needed adult libation? Here's hoping there are plenty of new destinations to set your sights on in 2016 and that all your experiences will be sweet....and of course... cheap!
The
gloaming comes early in this part of the world. Combine the northern latitude
with the wintry times and it gets dark mid-afternoon in northwest England. The
sun is usually a rare sighting any time of year, although it was unseasonably
delightful yesterday and there have been silvery glints in the sky. Today the full impact of English weather is on
display with blustery winds and rain that comes in fits and spurts, nothing
full on and nothing quite clear, just a muddling through the day. Other parts
of England are suffering through severe flooding caused by Storm Frank. Nantwich
has been largely spared, although the winds that left my face raw red
after my run was cause for some excitement in this sleepy little town. They
will be talking about the fierce storm of 2015 for decades to come in the pubs
of Nantwich. Not only was an elderly man’s hat blown clear across the street, the
winds did blow over a tree. This offensive tree just happened to be front of
the apartment of our hosts’ daughter and throughout the day she was comforted
and congratulated for her bravery by friends and family.
The boss
of Team VFH, is currently in England visiting her daughter and son-in-law and
their 11 month old child. Work commitments have me here Stateside until
tomorrow when I fly out to Manchester out of Philadelphia.
THE CROWN HOTEL, NANTWICH
This is
an over the hills and through the woods excursion across the pond and hearts
and minds will brim with warm thoughts and embraces and another chance to see
the young grandson that has Janet’s heart on a string. I’ll be there for just 6
days, so there’s not much time for exploring. Usually I am loath to return to a
destination because it is such a big world and there is so much to see, but this particular trip to Nantwich, Chesire in the UK is all about family.
Nantwch
is about 40 miles south of Liverpool and I was last there for the kid’s wedding
at the Crown Hotel, a 16th century building that leans into High
Street like a drunken sailor. Our visit this time to this charming, quiet town
will no doubt include several trips to “The Gun”, The Rifleman, the favored pub
of our hosts. They’ll be little time for anything else. I understand our NYE
celebration will include a pub crawl and then a gathering at the square before
St. Mary’s Church to hear the New Year chime in as we all link arms to sing a
drunken version of Auld Lang Syne. ….before going back to the pubs.
I would be remiss if I allow this date to pass without acknowledging how it changed my life and set me on an around the world course, literally. Twice!
Today is the 100th birthday of Frank Sinatra.
For a relatively brief stint in his illustrious career I worked for him as his teleprompter operator. Some may scoff that he couldn’t remember all his lyrics and I say that every night the orchestra would unfurl their sheet music to play such standards as “I’ve Got The World On A String” and “Under My Skin.” I obviously make a joke that I was The Mind behind The Voice, but it was a necessary job.
The cultural icon was born in Hoboken, NJ in 1915 and always had some difficulty remembering lyrics. During his shows he used to tell a story about his time as a singing waiter at The Rustic Cabin in Englewood Cliffs, NJ and tried to sing a Cole Porter song for the man and his entourage, but forgot the lyrics.
And, that’s where I come in, at least in 1986. Prompting is an easy fix for flawed memories, especially during the swirl and commotion of a live event
My five years with Mr. Sinatra took me to places I never would have hoped to visit. He took me to Australia three times, Japan twice. I cut a wide swatch through Europe in our tours; countries like Austria, Monaco, Finland and Italy, among many, many others. Had I not worked a show in Des Moines I doubt I would ever have visited Iowa.
Yes, traveling on Sinatra’s dime had its perks and as the founding father of Vacations From Home traveling to such varied and exotic locations was quite alluring, especially since I only had to pay for my beer. My passport brimmed with stamps. Yeah, there was work, but that never got in the way of exploring with days off. We once traveled to Italy for five weeks and did all of five shows while there. We would travel to Las Vegas, Reno, Atlantic City or London for a week at a time, which allowed me to travel my fledgling family in for mini-vacations. These were good times.
So, happy birthday Francis Albert Sinatra. I am sure there’s a rip-snorting party going on right now!
Sorry I
didn’t get to this until now. I have been too busy imbibing Beaujolais Nouveau.
It is the third Thursday in November after all.
For the
sober and uninformed or, ahem, boorish reader, the uncorking of this young wine
at the stroke of midnight on the third Thursday of November has grown from a
local phenomenon in the bars and bistros around Beaujolais and Lyon to a
world-wide celebration. Nouveau is the first wine from the past year’s harvest
and is meant to be drunk young, before the next year’s harvest, and meant to be
drunk while better Beaujolais take their good old time aging. Picked quickly,
rapidly fermented and speedily bottled, Beaujolais Nouveau has bided its time
until TODAY!
(French law since the 50’s states that this is
the earliest the Nouveau can be released. The regulation used to have November
15 as the date, but was changed to this third Thursday to allow the partying to
readily flow into a weekend.)
Yes, the uncorking of this young fruity wine on
this date is cause for parties and fireworks in France and with the frivolous
celebration now extending beyond France the “race” to export the Nouveau has
led to gimmicky deliveries via the Concorde, by elephant or a hot air balloon. Yes, it
may be all a marketing ploy, but Nouveau is best served slightly chilled, and
gulped rather than critiqued; which lends itself to a festive air and a gathering of friends whether
self-proclaimed oenophiles or not.
So, if you
are unable to fly into France for this silly wine event to take dinner at Paul
Bocuse’s L’Auberge du Pont de Collonges in Lyon for some of his Nouvelle
Cuisine, know you can simply pick up a bottle or three of Beaujolais Nouveau,
flip open a pizza box with
friends and party like it is well, the day the nouveau has arrived!!!
Your
humble
scribe of all things cheap and fun hasn’t had much fun lately. I’ve been
sequestered in the dark cold confines of control rooms busily working, working,
working. I’m “tapped out,” as it were. But, I know there is a big world there,
like the one I see on TV, and people out there, somewhere, are having fun. If
freed from these chains of commerce though, I have a fun wish list a mile long,
but as this is October I’ll whittle it down to two favorites, Oktoberfest and
apple picking.
GET YOUR OOMP-AH ON
Oktoberfest
begins with the proclamation “O’Zapft Is!”… It is tapped. And, that’s about as
much information about the traditions and history of this 16 day German
celebration here. You can read about how it began in Munich in the early 1800’s
elsewhere. You can fret that in America the beers served at the myriad of
copycat fairs and harvests and Oktoberfests around the country may not have
been brewed within the city limits of Munich or that German purity laws, or
Reinheitsgebot, are ignored, but I won’t. You may even say that Oktoberfest
begins in September and should be over by now, that no matter how many German
Oomp-ah bands honk and chortle, no matter how many people cavort in a chicken
dance, eat pretzels, follow around the two guys dancing with a roasted pig on a spit over their shoulders, no matter how many Alphorns warble, it can’t be
Oktoberfest because it’s over! I say, I’m gonna elbow past you to get to the
bar.
If I
get out of this dark room anytime soon I’m going to try to hit three different
places.
Zeppelin Hall Biergarten
One is
the Zeppelin Hall Biergarten, 297 Grand Street, Jersey City, NJ. It’s loud and
airy and a lot of fun. Live bands, but no lederhosen. It’s more hipster than
anything else, but the array of beers is fascinating. They claim to have
Oktoberfest festivities through to the next October.
More
traditional in its beer offerings, the Radegast Hall & Biergarten has a lot
of German beers on tap. Located on the
corner of North Third and Berry in the hipster capital of the world,
Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Radegast is vast, with live bands, but still no lederhosen. Food is
exceptional here. Spring for the Currywurst or Venison Sausage!
The
Oktoberfest experience in Stoudt’s, North Reading Road, Adamstown, PA, is much
more traditional and worth the long drive out there. Indeed, here you’ll find
men in Lederhosen and families doing the chicken dance. They serve only their
beer here, but when the two guys with a roasted pig on a spit slung between
their shoulders shimmy along the dance floor you’ll swear you hit the jackpot
by saving on the airfare to Munich. $30 gets you 3 drinks and a mug and all the knee slapping fun you can handle.
Their
Oktoberfest goes on every Sunday through to the end of the month.
Apple
picking is fun and I’ve been doing it for years with the kids. I remember great
times trolling the rows with the kids communicating via walkie talkies as to
where to find the best apples. Countless families have similar experiences, but
for me what makes Tree-Licious in Port Murray, NJ special is its solitude.
The rolling hills make for beautiful scenery and the rural setting makes for
sparser crowds. There have been times our only other contact while at the farm was their Yellow Lab who would lope along with us. Supposedly they are only open on the
weekend, but we always managed to talk our way in during the week. (There we
go, the chains of commerce forcing me to work weekends even back then…sigh).
It’s too late for their Apple Festival held
last weekend, but you can pick apples until November 22nd.. Come for
the apples, the cider and fresh baked goods, or just hang out in this beautiful
setting in western Jersey. Earlier in the growing season you can pick your own
peaches, plums and pears and for the first time this year through Halloween you can pick
your own pumpkins.
This
weekend, October 17th, Tree-licious is holding their final Farm to
Table dinner of the year. This BYOB series, features food grown on the farm,
costs $35 per person. There will be live music.
The
Aloha spirit is pervasive in Hawaii, thankfully. We could all learn from living
with Aloha. Smiles are in abundance in Hawaii and a relaxed attitude permeates
the very air no matter what the heck is going on. From native to local and (hopefully)
tourist alike, the Aloha spirit is everywhere, off-setting the idiosyncrasies
of life. No matter what is going on, keeping the Aloha spirit will get you
through the day. A volcano is spewing lava and threatening your home and the
very island? Acceptance through Aloha and all will be fine. What will be will
be many will say. Lava is now covering the road, but sparing your homestead? It
must be the provenance of good Aloha in your life!? After the lava decides to
go off in another direction your house is now at the end of the road with
nothing but miles of black cooled lava flow afterwards? Why this is a great
reason to throw a party.
Uncle Robert
PARTY AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD
There is nothing else south of the Big Island of Hawaii for
thousands of miles, except Antarctica, and clinging to the very edge of this
island, that is growing daily from the Kilauea Volcano lava flow, is the
partially hewed town of Kalapana. When the world’s largest shield volcano
started its unpredictable eruption in 1983 it buried much of the town of
Kalapana, but spared the homestead of Uncle Robert Keli‘iho‘omalu. Before
this current eruption Uncle Robert’s compound was already a place for weekend parties
and music for his family and friends, but now the tradition continues for
anyone who comes to the edge of the world where the Kalapana-Kapono Road
abruptly stops. Whether native, local, or tourist, everyone is accepted at the
weekly Wednesday night party at Uncle Robert’s Farmer’s Market and Awa Bar.
When we
began to research the Big Island as a possible destination last summer, the
Wednesday night event that is Uncle Robert’s Farmer’s Market was mentioned
several times by possible AirBnB hosts. At first we did not think much of it,
but after three or four “mentions” we decided to go to experience this Hawaiian
block party.
Uncle
Robert’s homestead was spared the lava flow in 1990 and now this farmer’s
market was THE destination on a Wednesday night in the Puna District. More than simply arts and crafts and food,
although we ate some of the best seared Tuna in Hawaii while there, Uncle
Robert’s Farmer’s Market is a party, with live bands and dancing late into the
night.
Your immersion in the Aloha spirit is inescapable at Uncle Robert's and we quickly understood why this party was on the lips of many in the Puna District. In all our travels in Hawaii, going to Uncle Robert's was for me the closest ideal of a Hawaiian experience. Going to a luau was fun for it's history, but this farmer's market/block party was more Hawaiian for its Aloha. At Uncle Robert's you are partying WITH the natives, while at a luau you're watching them perform. As word gets out, Uncle Robert's Farmer's Market as a destination grows in popularity. Area
resorts have begun to bus patrons in to this weekly fete. It is free to attend
except for a small parking fee and whatever you spend on food, crafts and
alcohol. It begins in the early afternoon and throbs late into the night. Pull
up a bench seat and listen to live music, peruse the stands for food or
trinkets, or take a short walk along the cooled black lava to the beach that
did not exist 20 years ago. You can bring your own drinks or purchase beer,
mixed drinks or Awa at the thatched roof bar. No one cares. Everyone brims with
smiles and it is a wonderful night. It is a true Hawaiian experience and should
be on the do to list for anyone visiting the area. Mix with locals and natives
and your tourist outlook will swiftly melt away.
Stirred in with the revelry of the night is a little political news about the Kingdom of
Hawaii. Those attending who are not familiar with the history of the annexation
of this island chain are given a bit of news about the sovereignty movement. A sign near the entrance to the farmer's market proclaims this land as the Kingdom of Hawaii.The information that is shared with the crowd is just a few notes; no one is militant about it; but it is met with applause before the music begins anew. You can follow the Kingdom's agenda here:
Sadly Uncle Robert Keli'iho'omalu passed away earlier this year,
but his Aloha spirit lives on. The farmer's market party is every Wednesday.
For me, personally, it was a highlight of our trip. We left Hawaii just two
days after going to Uncle Robert's making our departure for the mainland much
more difficult.
