Archive: Around Town

Our apologies to our readers for the lack of a column recently. Mary spent a lot of time and effort on our Mardi Gras costumes and we had a fun time even if we didn’t win. Then she went off with Tigan to visit several colleges: really an excuse to go south in March and see her long time friend, Karen French and Godson, Bryan, formerly from Lansing. Bryan and his new bride, J.J. got married at Sunset Beach, NC on New Years’ Day so this was her chance to visit and congratulate them. She also got a chance to visit with our son, Bill Steinhardt, and his wife, Julie, in DC, while Tigan looked at colleges there.

Travels with Tigan took them to Greensboro and Guilford College, a small brick and pleasantly wooded school. Down town Greensboro is the site of the first lunch counter sit-in and they have just opened a museum at the old Woolworth store there. Unfortunately, the museum is closed Mondays so they settled for taking pictures.


The trip into DC on Tuesday the 23rd was a bit of a nail biter since the flight was into BWI, not down town, traffic was heavy and they had timed tickets with only a 30 minute window for the Terracotta Warriors exhibit at the National Geographic society. Bill and Julie saved the day by meeting at the hotel and driving to the exhibit. It is well worth seeing and an amazing insight into Chinese culture and industry. Dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant and an all too brief visit with them made for a full evening.


Our capitol has some wonderful non chain hotels for reasonable prices if you don’t just take the “rack rate”. The State Plaza Hotel on E St. NW is quiet with large rooms and full kitchen facilities and two queen beds for under $130/night literally at the back door to George Washington University. The Windsor Inn on T St. NW was a charming B&B in the Georgetown neighborhood that we moved to when our flights were cancelled on the 25th. For $99/night plus tax we got a room overlooking a patio garden and they even packed early breakfast to go on the shuttle to the airport. The only real down side was the lack of an elevator but the host carried our bags up the two flights of stairs and the resident cat (Mona) was there to greet us. Both places had free high speed internet in the room. Most places are within 4-5 blocks of the metro and we found the service easy to use. The extra day gave Tigan a chance to explore American University and found mary off to see the pandas at the National Zoo.

It may have been snowing enough in nearby Philadelphia to cancel flights but both the 24th and 25th were warm enough in DC to be comfortable in a long sleeved shirt and light winter coat if your head and hands were covered. While Tigan spent an afternoon and night in the dorm with a student host, Mary had the day to explore the National Museum of the American Indian and the living history of Native Peoples of this hemisphere. Unlike the presentation of the past in the Museum of Natural History, visitors are made aware of the history and rich cultures that existed before the European invasion, but they also learn how these indigenous nations have endured and adapted to their changing surroundings. It is a beautiful modern place with cascading fountains, a small marsh and one of the best cafeterias in any museum featuring Native foods beautifully prepared with authentic recipes from each major region. The grilled venison, squash soup, smoked salmon, wild rice and bison burgers all called out but there were plenty of southwest dishes and wonderful corn breads as well as elegant chocolate desserts too.

One of Mary’s former students, and his mom who grew up in DC, met her at the museum and gave her the grand tour that included President Obama’s favorite, Ben’s Chili Bowl, what’s left of China town, and U Street NW with all manner of cool restaurants. There wasn’t much room after splitting an “appetizer” of Ben’s chili fries three ways (french fries smothered in chili with melted cheese on top that makes arteries shut down on the spot) but we found the various noodle bowls at DC Noodles very tasty. The huge bowls of steamy noodles are ample enough that one was enough for Tigan and Mary to split the following night when they found themselves only two blocks away at the Windsor Inn. The ginger / chicken or the duck are their favorites so far.


The flight home on commuter jets is always scary when you know that they are diverting planes from Reagan to BWI because of the wind and they have to check to see if Ithaca is actually open before they board from Philly because it has been closed for a day. The Ithaca airport was opening as they boarded and the crew checked one more time before we actually took off. All things considered, it was only a bit choppy coming up through the clouds but the passengers had to wait on the plane in Ithaca while the ground crew shoveled and sanded a path to the door since the jet way was frozen in place. Unlike the commuter flight on another airline in similar weather that ended with Jim on the frozen tarmac in Denver, there was an attendant at the bottom of the stairs and the stairs were actually resting on the ground so they didn’t bounce around. It was quite the adventure.

Poor Jim had to not only miss the trip south, but he had to travel back from Albany Thursday in some very nasty weather that more than doubled his time even with the big 4 wheel drive truck. He was not without fun these last two weeks though and we’ll back track to some of the more local events for your pleasure:

Thursday the 18th, Rogues’ Harbor had a fund raising event for the SPCA up in their 3rd floor ballroom. The place was packed and with the help of many wineries and a local chocolatier, the folks at Rogues Harbor raised in the neighborhood of $1000 for the shelter plus they donated a generous portion of their dinner proceeds as well.  There were representatives from wineries from around Cayuga Lake and even one from Seneca represented with a nice selection of wines to sample.   Jim is the designated sampler and prefers very dry, oaky wines, while Mary likes fruity or ice wine.  Jim’s choices for the evening included a sampling of some dry reds from Sheldrake (Cabernet Frank and a Merlot), a very nice Chancellor from Dill’s Run plus a Syrah and Merlot from Longpoint.  He was hoping that the folks from Dill Run had brought along some of their Concord Wine.  Yup, that’s right; Jim, a very dry red type actually enjoying a Concord wine!  However, we have to say that this one is not your Mogen David Concord.  Imagine a wine with a Concord flavor but dry with a bit of oak and a bit of fizz.  (Mary, amazingly, likes it too. It’s what you get when you cross the home brewed moonshiner tradition with a  “do–it-your-self” wine maker, I think, but it is really worth a taste)

Towards the end of the evening, a trivia game was the high lighted entertainment in addition to the wine and chocolate.  We were up to the task with both of us displaying our knowledge of semi-useful local trivia and wining a couple of bottles of wine.  Knowing the answer to the Harbor parrot’s question during prohibition was a good thing (to be found on the front of the menu at the Harbor).

The whole event was quite a success and generated both some much needed funds for the SPCA and provided an entertaining evening out. Our thanks to Eileen at Rogues Harbor for hosting the event and for her generosity to a worthy cause!

We spent a fairly quiet weekend after Mary got home digging out and catching up, but Monday was Jim’s birthday so he had taken the day off hoping to visit his identical twin brother in Buffalo. The weather was, unfortunately, not very cooperative so we ended up having a casual lunch with our good friends, Carol and Ole who had just returned from a winter train trip to the Grand Canyon (definitely on my bucket list). Being Monday, several places were closed and we miss Hope’s Way (yes, I know Ithaca Bakery kept some of the recipes, etc. but it’s still not quite the same) so we decided to revisit The Rose at Tripphammer Mall, a long time native Lansing favorite. I have to say that the food is still quite good; Mary had the soup and salad bar combo while Jim had the turkey Reuben. The slight mention of Jim’s birthday and the waitress brought him a complimentary fried ice cream with a candle for dessert!! We’ve always been curious about this and we have to admit it was surprisingly good. While it was definitely hometown casual, the service was professional and the place has changed little in the last 15 years. We all had a good meal and it was a very pleasant place for lunch and conversation with good friends.

We hope to see you out and about, too. Supporting our local hometown cafes, restaurants, wineries and farmers’ markets helps our local economy grow. Name brands and chains send the profits elsewhere. 

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