It's the calm before the storm. The first intake of 5 degree air hurts, but the next breath is invigorating. The air is crisp and fresh. I can smell how clean it is up here in New Hampshire's Upper Valley. The pine scent from the only plant making it through the winter combines with the smoke coming from every chimney in the neighborhood. The full moon reflecting off the already deep base layer of snow is giving more than enough light to see, yet the brightest stars are still clearly visible under a very light layer of clouds slowly creeping in.
I know I'm going to change my mind in the morning when the first flake falls en route to what is supposed to be another foot of snow....but right now, tonight, winter doesn't seem so bad.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Providence's East Side
Personally, I'm not a fine dining guy. It's not that I don't like good food, because I do. Maybe I would be if I were sitting in a corner office somewhere, raking in six figures instead of driving a truck for a living then I wouldn't mind dropping a huge wad of cash down onto a restaurant's table. When a big bill hits the table my mind immediately goes to just how many hours I had to work to pay for that and how it totally wasn't worth it. So while Federal Hill gets all the credit as the best neighborhood in the state of Rhode Island to go for a bite, I'd prefer to pass up Atwells Ave and head to Providence's east side.
A recent episode of Best Thing I Ever Ate on the Food Network had us wondering if there were a place where we could get a good bowl of noodles in the area. After a quick search on Yelp it seemed as if Noodles102 on Ives St was the place to go. I'm no expert on noodles. In fact, I made only one or two half-assed attempts at using the chopsticks before digging in with a fork. I am, however, an expert on delicious lunches and that's exactly what we found here. My only regret was that we didn't realize that the place was BYOB. The next time we go, and there will certainly be a next time, we plan on taking advantage of that.
While we were still on the east side we hit a couple of stores to get the makings for a night at home. Our first stop was Bottles, in the Eastside Marketplace plaza on Pitman St. The five second rule is upped to the fifteen second rule in a place that clean. It certainly isn't your typical dirty neighborhood liquor store. The shelves are stocked with quality products, organized in a way that actually makes sense. If you're looking for an IPA, all the IPAs are in one cooler. All the Belgians are on one shelf. The Sam Summer isn't packed with the rest of the Sam Adams beer. No, the Sam Summer is packed along side other varieties of summer beers. It makes it very easy to find what you're looking for and avoid what you don't want. They also have the most comprehensive section of local Rhode Island beers that I've found. They have Grey Sail, Narragansett, Bucket, Fool Proof, and Revival making Ravenous is the only RI brewery they don't stock. I even went home with a growler of Bucket Pail Ale. As far as I know, Bottles is the only liquor store in the state to carry that. The girlfriend bought a couple nice bottles of wine, one of which would be opened later on with dinner.
Our next, and final, stop on our east side tour was Farmstead. Still full from our lunch we didn't sit down to eat, but we did peruse their selection of fine cheeses. I had heard of this place before and was expecting it to be bigger, but what space they do have is crammed with things that I want to buy and try. We wound up with a soft goat cheese, a smoked gouda, and some local sopressata from Daniele Inc of Burrillville fame. I didn't think that cheese, wine, and sopressata would count as dinner, but I thought wrong. It turned out to be a delicious dinner served at a place with impeccable service, al fresco dining, and a relaxing atmosphere; our place.
It was a successful trip filled with delicious food. It was my first time hitting all three of those places, but it won't be the last.
A recent episode of Best Thing I Ever Ate on the Food Network had us wondering if there were a place where we could get a good bowl of noodles in the area. After a quick search on Yelp it seemed as if Noodles102 on Ives St was the place to go. I'm no expert on noodles. In fact, I made only one or two half-assed attempts at using the chopsticks before digging in with a fork. I am, however, an expert on delicious lunches and that's exactly what we found here. My only regret was that we didn't realize that the place was BYOB. The next time we go, and there will certainly be a next time, we plan on taking advantage of that.
While we were still on the east side we hit a couple of stores to get the makings for a night at home. Our first stop was Bottles, in the Eastside Marketplace plaza on Pitman St. The five second rule is upped to the fifteen second rule in a place that clean. It certainly isn't your typical dirty neighborhood liquor store. The shelves are stocked with quality products, organized in a way that actually makes sense. If you're looking for an IPA, all the IPAs are in one cooler. All the Belgians are on one shelf. The Sam Summer isn't packed with the rest of the Sam Adams beer. No, the Sam Summer is packed along side other varieties of summer beers. It makes it very easy to find what you're looking for and avoid what you don't want. They also have the most comprehensive section of local Rhode Island beers that I've found. They have Grey Sail, Narragansett, Bucket, Fool Proof, and Revival making Ravenous is the only RI brewery they don't stock. I even went home with a growler of Bucket Pail Ale. As far as I know, Bottles is the only liquor store in the state to carry that. The girlfriend bought a couple nice bottles of wine, one of which would be opened later on with dinner.
Our next, and final, stop on our east side tour was Farmstead. Still full from our lunch we didn't sit down to eat, but we did peruse their selection of fine cheeses. I had heard of this place before and was expecting it to be bigger, but what space they do have is crammed with things that I want to buy and try. We wound up with a soft goat cheese, a smoked gouda, and some local sopressata from Daniele Inc of Burrillville fame. I didn't think that cheese, wine, and sopressata would count as dinner, but I thought wrong. It turned out to be a delicious dinner served at a place with impeccable service, al fresco dining, and a relaxing atmosphere; our place.
It was a successful trip filled with delicious food. It was my first time hitting all three of those places, but it won't be the last.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Celebrating a Great Year by the Boston Bruins
I know that a sports fan like myself is supposed to be devastated when their team is eliminated from the playoffs. Fans spend the entire season investing time, energy, and emotion into their team. When the season comes crashing to a halt, it's supposed to hurt and it usually does. With that said, I'm really not feeling all that upset over the Bruins losing to the Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup finals. Yeah, the way that they lost, blowing a one goal lead with 90 seconds left to go in the game, was a punch in the gut. Overall though, it was a great year and the B's lost to a fantastic team.
It could be the fact that the Bruins won a couple of years ago. The epic run of championship titles flowing through New England in recent years has changed the mindset of the local fans. There's no sense of panic or desperation. Winning makes everything a little better and a recent title kind of tides you over for a little while. Sure, a legitimate dynasty is always great to live through, but a title here and there is enough to keep the spirits high. There are 30 teams going for the same goal and only one of them can be the best at the end of the year. That team can't, and won't, always be the Bruins.
It could be the fact that there's no shame in losing to the Blackhawks. In their first 24 games of the season Chicago had exactly zero losses in regulation. It was the best start in NHL history. They went on to win the President's Trophy with the best record in the NHL. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane gave them one of the most exciting duo of young forwards in the game. Corey Crawford took a huge step forward and provided stellar goaltending all year. They were a team with plenty of obvious streaks but without many glaring weaknesses. The Boston Bruins were a good team in 2013. The Chicago Blackhawks were simply better than them. The Chicago Blackhawks were better than everyone. There's no shame in losing to a great team.
It could be the fact that the Bruins had a great season. They may have had a bit of a lull in the second half of the season and that caused them to lose the division, but when the playoffs rolled around they were a lot of fun to watch. Krejci, Lucic, and Horton finally stepped up to be a legitimate number 1 line. Tuukka showed the world that he's a top of the line goalie who doesn't wilt in the playoffs and can carry a team. Bergeron and Campbell suffered tremendous injury, but kept on going. Krug provided some unexpected excitement, Boychuk provided some unexpected goals, and Chara provided a completely expected and entirely perfect playoff beard. Looking for an entertaining hockey season followed by an even better two month long playoff run? The Bruins gave us that this year.
Obviously I wanted to see the Stanley Cup towering 7+ feet above the ice in the arms of Zdeno Chara. I wanted to attend another victory parada, would've liked to sing "We Are the Champions" with a bar full of Bostonians, and wished for another Bruins Stanley Cup flag. But it's tough to be upset with the way the NHL season ended. Next October can't come soon enough, but until then it's time to enjoy the summer and the baseball season.
It could be the fact that the Bruins won a couple of years ago. The epic run of championship titles flowing through New England in recent years has changed the mindset of the local fans. There's no sense of panic or desperation. Winning makes everything a little better and a recent title kind of tides you over for a little while. Sure, a legitimate dynasty is always great to live through, but a title here and there is enough to keep the spirits high. There are 30 teams going for the same goal and only one of them can be the best at the end of the year. That team can't, and won't, always be the Bruins.
It could be the fact that there's no shame in losing to the Blackhawks. In their first 24 games of the season Chicago had exactly zero losses in regulation. It was the best start in NHL history. They went on to win the President's Trophy with the best record in the NHL. Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane gave them one of the most exciting duo of young forwards in the game. Corey Crawford took a huge step forward and provided stellar goaltending all year. They were a team with plenty of obvious streaks but without many glaring weaknesses. The Boston Bruins were a good team in 2013. The Chicago Blackhawks were simply better than them. The Chicago Blackhawks were better than everyone. There's no shame in losing to a great team.
It could be the fact that the Bruins had a great season. They may have had a bit of a lull in the second half of the season and that caused them to lose the division, but when the playoffs rolled around they were a lot of fun to watch. Krejci, Lucic, and Horton finally stepped up to be a legitimate number 1 line. Tuukka showed the world that he's a top of the line goalie who doesn't wilt in the playoffs and can carry a team. Bergeron and Campbell suffered tremendous injury, but kept on going. Krug provided some unexpected excitement, Boychuk provided some unexpected goals, and Chara provided a completely expected and entirely perfect playoff beard. Looking for an entertaining hockey season followed by an even better two month long playoff run? The Bruins gave us that this year.
Obviously I wanted to see the Stanley Cup towering 7+ feet above the ice in the arms of Zdeno Chara. I wanted to attend another victory parada, would've liked to sing "We Are the Champions" with a bar full of Bostonians, and wished for another Bruins Stanley Cup flag. But it's tough to be upset with the way the NHL season ended. Next October can't come soon enough, but until then it's time to enjoy the summer and the baseball season.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
The Pawtuxet and the Narrow
I recently bought a couple of kayaks and started to hit the waters of Rhode Island. We went to a couple of places last weekend, one of which is pretty well known and I highly recommend, the other of which...well, it kinda smells like sewage.
When we were trying to think of places to go I remembered seeing a boat ramp at one point in my travels, so we headed there first. At the end of Knight St in Warwick there's a small parking lot that gives you access to the Pawtuxet River. It had the potential to be really nice and it probably was last summer. You could hear traffice buzzing by in nearly every direction, but it still had an isolated feel to it. The woods were thick on both sides and we even saw a deer coming down to the water. But thanks to the epic flooding that hit RI a couple of months ago, it was pretty bad.
There were old tires, bleech bottles, and other various bits of trash along the banks, some of it high up in the trees from when the water was ten feet higher. The stench was pretty bad because of the sewage overflow during the flood. We even saw a shed that had floated down the river and a Target carriage that came from the mall a mile away. Maybe by next summer it will be a little cleaner, but I think a pretty serious cleanup effort would be needed to turn the river back into something worth paddling down.
The Narrow River, on the other hand, was great. We parked at the end of Boston Neck Rd in Narragansett and headed away from the ocean into the river. It was a busy place with motor boats zipping by and other kayakers all over the place, but it's big enough where all of the other people weren't really an issue.
There's a kayak rental place on Middlebridge Rd so it's a pretty popular spot. Between the main channel, lined with houses I wish I own, and all the little inlets to explore, there was plenty to do. The salty water was the perfect temperature and clean enough to get out for a swim or a walk on one of the sand bars. My only word of advice is to make sure you time it right with the tides. The current will go in or out depending on the tide so you don't want to be fighting it both ways like how we wound up doing.
When we were trying to think of places to go I remembered seeing a boat ramp at one point in my travels, so we headed there first. At the end of Knight St in Warwick there's a small parking lot that gives you access to the Pawtuxet River. It had the potential to be really nice and it probably was last summer. You could hear traffice buzzing by in nearly every direction, but it still had an isolated feel to it. The woods were thick on both sides and we even saw a deer coming down to the water. But thanks to the epic flooding that hit RI a couple of months ago, it was pretty bad.
There were old tires, bleech bottles, and other various bits of trash along the banks, some of it high up in the trees from when the water was ten feet higher. The stench was pretty bad because of the sewage overflow during the flood. We even saw a shed that had floated down the river and a Target carriage that came from the mall a mile away. Maybe by next summer it will be a little cleaner, but I think a pretty serious cleanup effort would be needed to turn the river back into something worth paddling down. The Narrow River, on the other hand, was great. We parked at the end of Boston Neck Rd in Narragansett and headed away from the ocean into the river. It was a busy place with motor boats zipping by and other kayakers all over the place, but it's big enough where all of the other people weren't really an issue.
There's a kayak rental place on Middlebridge Rd so it's a pretty popular spot. Between the main channel, lined with houses I wish I own, and all the little inlets to explore, there was plenty to do. The salty water was the perfect temperature and clean enough to get out for a swim or a walk on one of the sand bars. My only word of advice is to make sure you time it right with the tides. The current will go in or out depending on the tide so you don't want to be fighting it both ways like how we wound up doing.
Friday, May 21, 2010
An introduction
Recently I decided that I want to start a blog. Over the years my rants and dribblings have been plastered all over the net from Red Sox blogs to Livejournal to Facebook and Twitter. But those mediums don't really cover it all and sometimes a guy needs to say something that takes more than the 140 characters that Twitter allows.
So I decided to start here. The only question was what the blog would be about. It obviously needs to be something that's interesting to me. I also don't really want to write about what's going on in my life. Let's face it, unless you're a superhero, a ninja, or the president, then your life isn't really exciting and probably not worth reading about. I am no exception. I even bore myself when writing about me. So what could I write about that interests me? Well, to name a few, I like sports, food, getting outside, and exploring. It's tough to find a common theme amongst my interests though. Then it hit me. The who, what, why, when, and how of my life always changes, but the where is nearly always a constant. Sure, there's the occasional vacation, but it's the local stuff that I care about. I follow the local teams. I eat the local food. I hike, bike, and blade the local trails. And my explorations have lead me through many of the nooks and crannies of Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
I can write about New England. At first I was thinking of centering around Rhode Island, but that would be a bit of a sham. Sure, I spend most of my time in our country's smallest state, but I live in Massachusetts and the local teams are mostly centered in Boston. So I figured I'd expand my focus a bit. I've been to the south, I've seen the west, and I've visited a bit of the middle. But my favorite part of this country will always be the 5 and a half states (western Connecticut barely counts...most of the time they don't realize that they're not part of New York. I'll gladly welcome Mystic and the casinos, but New York can keep the rest) that occupy the northeast.
So here I am. The people and events will change, but they'll almost always be taking place in New England.
So I decided to start here. The only question was what the blog would be about. It obviously needs to be something that's interesting to me. I also don't really want to write about what's going on in my life. Let's face it, unless you're a superhero, a ninja, or the president, then your life isn't really exciting and probably not worth reading about. I am no exception. I even bore myself when writing about me. So what could I write about that interests me? Well, to name a few, I like sports, food, getting outside, and exploring. It's tough to find a common theme amongst my interests though. Then it hit me. The who, what, why, when, and how of my life always changes, but the where is nearly always a constant. Sure, there's the occasional vacation, but it's the local stuff that I care about. I follow the local teams. I eat the local food. I hike, bike, and blade the local trails. And my explorations have lead me through many of the nooks and crannies of Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
I can write about New England. At first I was thinking of centering around Rhode Island, but that would be a bit of a sham. Sure, I spend most of my time in our country's smallest state, but I live in Massachusetts and the local teams are mostly centered in Boston. So I figured I'd expand my focus a bit. I've been to the south, I've seen the west, and I've visited a bit of the middle. But my favorite part of this country will always be the 5 and a half states (western Connecticut barely counts...most of the time they don't realize that they're not part of New York. I'll gladly welcome Mystic and the casinos, but New York can keep the rest) that occupy the northeast.
So here I am. The people and events will change, but they'll almost always be taking place in New England.
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