Emily and Linda’s Travel Blog

We’ve been in Tucson, AZ since last week, but somehow I haven’t found the time to blog about it yet.  We flew into Phoenix and rented a car to drive down to visit our friends Marg and Chris who have taken a house just outside Tucson proper for a month and invited us to stay with them for part of that time.  

Our overnight motel in Phoenix was very forgettable, but it was right next door to a Denny’s, which brought back memories from college days of late night breakfast runs - cheap and reliable with big booths that a bunch of us could crowd into.  Changed a bit over the decades, but still recognizable (not sure I’ve had that kind of hash browns in decades).  In a nod to the times, there’s an option for a gluten free english muffin now.  

Arrived in Tucson later that day and checked out the pretty grand house C&M rented.  

Today we were in Elizabeth, NJ famous for Ikea and the Sopranos intro. We were there for a different purpose, perhaps best not discussed online, but let’s just say it had to do with being seniors with joint pain and sleep issues. 

For lunch though we headed to the Columbian District 

Where we ate at Sabor y Arte since it had appealing looking sidewalk tables. 

It ended up being a bit noisy - a lot of passing trucks. But the food was good. Linda had Arroz con Pollo and I had a Cazuela de Mariscos. Both accompanied by salad and tostones. The service was excellent and I was grateful our server didn’t immediately switch to English when faced with my patchy Spanish  

Took this shot on the way back to the car. 

Wednesday we headed out to Brighton Beach - off the tourist track and again a perfect day for an outing by the shore. 

First we wandered along Brighton Beach Ave. - the shopping street under the elevated train line. This area is sometimes called Little Odessa. Fabulous produce markets and specialty shops with Ukrainian and Russian goods. It can feel like you’re in a different part of the world. Caleb was able to find some piroshki's which he remembered from San Francisco's Russian bakeries. 

Our friends Denise and Caleb visited last week on their way home to Oakland. Billy was an instant fan - especially of Caleb 

Today it was 31 degrees outside.  We love our Saturday brunch out, but Gov. Hochul's lift of the mask mandate notwithstanding, we're not ready for indoor dining.  What are 2 Brooklyn gals to do? Answer: the new Italian restaurant on Montague St. that has individual heated pods outside (click on the video for the 360:

It was a little chilly at first, but by the time our food arrived, we had opened our jackets. The food was fabulous.  Linda had a breakfast sandwich with thin strips of grilled zucchini, parmesano, and eggs (truffles held at her request). I had a tarted up avocado toast on gluten free bread with poached eggs and a remoulade on the side. Both were accompanied by delicious roasted yellow potatoes. 

We'll definitely be back for dinner - it’s quite lovely at night. Friends said it was even more so one night as the snow fell  

Today we had temps almost to 60 so we went out for brunch at Friend of the Farmer on Irving Place

The food was simple, but well prepared  Linda said it might be the best French toast she'd  ever had  

Next we strolled around the Union Square Farmers Market

Smaller and lacked the variety of spring and summer, but we managed to score 6 pounds of bread , both regular and gluten free. Not a lot of produce beyond potatoes and squash, but a lot of prepared foods, meat, and fish. This one was new to me:

Next we went to a movie theater for the first time since 2019 !!!  We actually went to see the Met Opera HD showing of Fire Shut Up In My Bones by Terrence Blanchard. Really moving and the singing was fabulous. Angel Blue in particular really blew my socks off. I was sorry we missed it when the Met reopened so glad to catch it this way  

Today we met up with Chris, Margaret, Chris's brother Michael and her sister Julie and another friend Phyllis. We started with lunch at a really sweet little restaurant called Alison on Lexington and 103rd Street. A little chilly for outdoor dining, but none of us are ready for indoor dining yet.  

The food was really tasty and unusual (sorry no pictures). Several of us had Mediterranean eggs with cous-cous, tomatoes,cucumbers, labneh, and salad. Also recommended were the grilled chicken sandwich and the quinoa bowl ( with avocado, tomatoes, spinach, spaghetti squash and shrimp). They didn’t have unsweetened iced tea on the menu, but made some for us anyway. Such great service.  We'll definitely be back for another visit. 

Next we visited the Graffiti Hall of Fame which surrounds a school playground on 106th St at Park Avenue 

Our next stop was Central Park where we visited the boat basin.  Phyllis and I remembered it fondly from childhood row boating and I also remembered it as the setting of an old B&W children’s series Journey to the Beginning of Time where a group of boys start out rowing on the lake after a visit to the Museum of Natural History and end up hanging with mastodons and other creatures. 

From there we walked over to the Conservatory gardens. We were surprised to find that the North Garden was very much in bloom, despite it being late October

All in all a good "staycation" day in NYC and a lovely afternoon with old friends during this still-restricted time. 

Once we returned to NYC, we got ourselves tested to make sure we weren’t bringing home any California Delta variety. Negative, so cleared for careful local travel. We took the train to visit our friend Phyllis up in Scarsdale. We decided to take Billy on the Metro North for the first time. We spent the week before getting him used to the carrier by putting treats in it randomly. By Saturdayhe was pretty up for whatever went with that magic treat box. 

He had a few qualms about the train, but mostly seemed OK

Once there, he showed his usual excellent lap dog skills

By the trip home he was kind of over the whole business. But he'd reached the pliable stage of fatigue  

We declared it a success. Next goal Greenport by train (which is about 2 hours longer). Better get out the treats and chew toys. 

While we were there, Phyllis put out an amazing spread including shrimp cocktail, brussels sprouts with bacon and almonds, fall off the bone fabulous ribs, torched sausage for Max, pigs in blankets, crudite (which people actually ate), and fresh fruit with ice cream and cookies.

Then she asked us what we wanted for dinner!?! 

Saturday we met up with my old friend Diana Cushway from Oak Park, IL days. We met in middle school more than 50 years ago, but hadn’t seen each other since the late 1960s. So great to see the grown women we've become and to find that we still have so much to connect about. Also wonderful to know that we have both found supportive and loving partners. We should have taken more photos to include Linda and Diana’s husband Bill, but once again the conversation crowded out that thought. Next day I ran back over to Jack London Square for a quick photo of two old friends.  

The one below is from our 8th grade graduation photo

Thursday we met Jim and Louise at the ferry landing in Alameda and took a ride over to San Francisco. The Bay was lovely as always, though that day there was a fair amount of smoke from the fires up north, muting the views. We were grateful for the breeze off the water once were underway.   

Louise was able to dig up some old paper tickets left over from when she used to commute via ferry to SF.  Pretty much everyone else on board was using a pre-loaded card or their phones, but the ferryfolk said the tickets were still good  

The trip is about a half hour and we were able to get seats on the top deck outside. The iconic SF Ferry Building approach always reminds me of the of all the old noir movies and newsreels  where that view is used to set the scene. 

It was a short walk from there to the Rincon Post Office which has some WPA murals.  But more on that later.

There was also a more modern wing 

Next stop was Perry's for lunch - beautifully situated on the Embarcadero with views of the Bay.  

I took some photos of the food, but it wasn’t visually remarkable so I'll summarize by saying it was good American food - burgers, salads, chicken, steak etc.  The standout for me was the New England clam chowder with beautifully fresh clams.  

Finally it was time for our entry to the Gallery (you have to make an appointment for a 2 hour slot) so we made our way there  The exhibit was called "Looking Back: Ten Years of Pier 24 Phoography” It’s main focus was portraiture - some of the photos were traditional examples of the genre, but others were more loosely tied to the idea, like this one -"Manufacturing" #10ab by Edward Burtynsky  a sort of group portrait of factory workers in Xiamen City

Followed by a more traditional portrait by Liu Zheng - Xinjiang Girl Working in a Textile Factory 

The exhibit featured Avedon, Arbus, Lange, Robert Adams, and Hiroshi Sugimoto as well as less well known photographers.  These were a few of my favorites 

Palm Sunday by Alec Soth

Jasmijn, away from the Light by Richard Learoyd

Lift Portrait 24 by Mikhael Subotzky and Patrick Waterhouse

New York City 1970 by Lee Friedlander

One room was dedicated to mug shots, introduced by this quote:

"Classic mugshots, which typically pair a full-face picture with a profile, tend to be as impersonal as photo booth pictures but more brutally matter-of-fact.  The results aren’t intended as character studies; they’re descriptive, recording a hooked nose, a jutting chin, a mole, a scar - features that can be used to identify the suspect if he ever comes to the police's attention again.  There’s no photographer behind the camera hoping to open a window on his subject’s soul, but because most mugshots are taken shortly after a suspect’s arrest, in a moment fraught with tension, fury, defiance, and shame, they can be incredibly revealing.  Only the most carefully composed arrestee can avoid being emotionally naked" 

- Vince Aletti

I was particularly fascinated by this sort of flip book of mug shot cards which included the detainees' "Bertillon number".  It turns out Bertillon was an early criminologist in France who was trying to systematize the cataloguing of apprehended suspects with a goal of being able to track repeat offenders and to uncover people using aliases.  He was a student of "anthropometrics" and the inventor of the mug shot (which preceded fingerprints as a way to identify individuals).  

More here for the mystery-readers among you (as well as his role in the conviction and eventual overturned verdict in the Dreyfus Case)

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphonse_Bertillon

One "portrait" that Got Linda's and my interest was this one - Lovell Beach House by Veronika Kellndorfer:

It’s printed on glass.  The lights across the top are reflections of track lights which light the photo, but also produce both a projection of the work behind and shadows created by the surface image.  Anyone who know Linda's work can see how that would intrigue her.  

We strolled back along the waterfront and stopped for ice cream in the Ferry Building market before taking the ferry home 

The lowering sun had by then reached the smoke, imparting a moody light on the Bay and buildings