November 10, 2026 · 11:52 pm

Another Dispensary (Uniq cannabis) in New Buffalo and The Mason Jar in Benton Harbor — SW Michigan; the Townsend and Phoenicia in Birmingham.

I tried yet another dispensary in New Buffalo, in search of gummies to help with sleep. This time I was joined by my 92-year- old aunt who was impressed by the clean bathrooms, in particular, at Uniq cannabis.

I found yet another option to try, this time Camino chews, rather than gummies. Think hi-chews or starburst rather than gum drops. Very efficient and pleasant place with a much-pierced salesclerk, maybe one-third my age, who referred to us as “hon.”

We had an excellent breakfast (Huevos rancheros, poached eggs) at The Mason Jar in Benton Harbor, which was very busy on a Sunday at around 1 pm but there are lots of tables inside so the wait was only 15 minutes.

Mason Jar brunch

In Birmingham, the restaurant at The Hotel Townsend proved a nice quiet place for dinner, as did Phoenicia (skip the artichokes and spinach cheese pie, yes to shush tawock or baked chicken) for the cutest 90-something’s.

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November 1, 2026 · 8:32 pm

Touring Chicago’s Art Deco Gems in the Loop

One Lasalle

One of the many perks of volunteer during the Chicago Architecture Center’s annual Open House in Chicago is two free tickets (normally $35) for a CAC Tour. We chose the excellent Art Deco Skyscrapers: the Loop tour, featuring  “five historic buildings within a five-block radius of Chicago’s financial district.”

135 Lasalle, Art Moderne (The Field Building)

Our veteran guide Mary Jane took about 10 of us to buildings around n or just off LaSalle, ending at the Spectacular Board of Trade. The visitors center video tracing the history of the trading floor is also a must see. (We also visited 33 Lasalle and another on Monroe or Madison.)

Board of Trade
Board of trade

We stood outside to admire the exterior and then went into the lobby to admire the ornate elevators, old timey mail chutes, and clever light fixtures.

the Rookery

On our own, we dropped in at the Rookery to see the Frank Lloyd Wright updates and the wintrust building. We also found a good coffee shop with Publican pastries nearby, Brewlee, with an adjacent lobby to sit and rest up.

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October 26, 2026 · 12:16 am

Nodo – sandwiches in Iowa City

We may have found the perfect short order takeaway sandwich shop in the restaurant-rich college town of Iowa City. Thank you Yelp and Reddit for sending us to Nodo, a hole in the wall on Dubuque Street near Prairie Lights that is so small we passed it without notice today…and for who knows how long in the past.

The #8 C&P (corned beef and pastrami) is a winner as is the pork Bahn mi, which the cheerful woman behind the counter recommended. It has a kick but is not too spicy. We took the sandwiches to our nearby city park College Green and ate dinner at a picnic table on a hilltop overlooking trees with bright yellow and red leaves. Ahhh, Iowa! Will always love you. Here’s hoping you get the senator you deserve!

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October 7, 2026 · 2:06 pm

Not Taylor’s Cleveland but nearby — Courtyard by Marriott Cleveland Westlake, Banana Blossom Thai Cafe, Lake Erie shore, Paris Baguette — pitstop off I-90

We broke up our 13.5 hour drive from Glen Cove NY (Long Island) to Chicago with a perfectly serviceable overnight just west of downtown Cleveland near Lake Erie.

As we were driving past large lakefront homes along Lake Road (route 6) in/around Avon Lake, Ohio (searching for an indie bakery that turned out to be too indie, located in private home in a residential neighborhood), we wondered if we were in Taylor and Travis’s new neighborhood but turns out Bratenahl is east of downtown.

Not Paris.

The courtyard by Marriott Cleveland Westlake is conveniently located off Interstate 90, quiet, clean, bland, inexpensive ($128) — no breakfast included so we ended up at Paris Baguette, a chain with, again, serviceable fare and a view of a Menard’s across a pancake-flat road. (The long baguette was excellent; pastries, yes, serviceable.)

Dinner was at Banana Blossom Thai, again serviceable fare, in a slightly gritty Cleveland neighborhood (with character including a disheveled person who panhandled tables vs. the bland suburban/exurban strip with our hotel and bakery cafe).

Our drive from NYC on a Sunday midday was easy, with only a little congestion around the George Washington bridge over the beautiful Hudson River. Some day I may drive through the Pennsylvania mountains along Interstate 80 without rain and fog but that day has not come.

Back in sea cliff

The leaves were changing, entertaining us with fiery reds, oranges and yellows. We stopped for apples (honey crisps) outside of Bloomsburg, Pa. at a do-it-yourself veg and fruit stand (after finding the nearby OHF orchards a pick-your-own option only. (No time for picking. Just passing through.)

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October 4, 2026 · 9:06 pm

The Mansion, The Creek, Sea Cliff — family wedding weekend in Glen Cove, NY

Rubiners do black tie

A family wedding brought us to the north shore of Long Island, in and around the well-heeled town of Glen Cove.

Squinting into the sun at The Creek

And what a wedding it was, at The Creek, a country club in Locust Valley with a golf course renowned for its design (or so the priest told us during the wedding ceremony at St. Mary’s, a pretty old Spanish Catholic Church in Manhasset.)

Sea cliff view

The rehearsal dinner was in the “main clubhouse” high above the Long Island Sound. The silhouette of one of my former residences, Stamford, Connecticut was off in the distance.

A white sailboat was blown in the blue water. The wedding reception and rocking’ party was a mile north at the club’s “beach house” right on the water. Not too shabby.

Campground

We didn’t have much time to explore but we did go to the pretty small town of Sea Cliff, stopping for coffee at Campground (not the coffee shop with the line, a block away.)

At The Mansion

There’s a few shops among the old house along the main drag, including a decent gallery and ceramics shop. We also picked up nothing fancy sandwiches at Matt’s Deli. The highlight was a small park on high, overlooking the Sound.

Matt’s deli, Sea Cliff

We stayed at The Mansion, a somewhat faded, huge rambling pile of bricks that word has it is haunted and was the summer residence of President Herbert Hoover. Gorgeous grounds with a long tree-lined drive cutting across a huge sweeping green lawn with old trees. Lots of mansions nearby in Jay Gatsby territory.

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October 3, 2026 · 4:27 pm

Sew Green, Moosewood, Simply Cookie’s Kitchen at former Wells College – Ithaca my Ithaca!

We rarely went to the famous Moosewood Cafe when we were Cornell students: too far from campus and too pricey. But we all had the cookbook, of course. We had a lovely lunch there. I had a Peruvian Stew that was excellent.

@ Simply Cookie’s

We also had more luck at Sew Green downtown which resells gently used Eileen Fisher clothing. We hoped to get to two other places downtown — odyssey bookstore and Found, antiques —but ran out of time. Same with Food Lab, an interesting looking restaurant downtown.

Dinner was at the golf course up on a hill behind the now defunct Wells College in Aurora, with hearty home cooked meals by a chef named Cookie. Hence the name: Simply Cookie’s Kitchen. Excellent burgers, fries, brisket bowls and quiche.

Dirck and Mike enjoyed the Sims-Jennings Preserve at Cayuga Cliffs, near the cottage, which has an almost 2 mile trail through meadow, woods, waterfalls and gorges. Next trip! Our favorite place was the new porch at our friend’s new improved cottage on Cayuga Lake. A mesmerizing view before and even more so now.

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October 2, 2026 · 12:02 am

Sundries, Ice Cream Bar, Taughanock Falls State park overlook – in and around Trumansburg, NY

Visiting Taughanock Falls never gets old. Always stunning to see the water shooting down, down, down between a split in the rocky gorge.

@Taughanock Falls

In nearby Trumansburg, we shopped at Sundries, a favorite store with well-chosen clothing, pottery, home-goods, jewelry, cards.

And we discovered Ice Cream Bar, half ice cream outdoor stand, half outdoor bar with alcohol. We went for the ice cream!

Ice cream at last

Dinner tonight got was at Salt Point Brewery in Lansing, with delicious thin crust pizza and Caesar salad.

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October 1, 2026 · 3:07 am

Watkins Glen, grist iron brewery, lively Run — in and around Seneca Lake

The waterfalls at Watkins Glen were running full as we trekked along the gorge trail, thanks to the recent rains and the views were as spectacular as ever, although the trail was wet and somewhat slippery. We parked at the main entrance which proved to be more convenient than the south entrance. We did the north rim trail back which was fine except at the end when there were lots of steps going downhill.

Lunch was at Grist Iron brewery, yet another brew pub that has popped up along the east side of Seneca Lake. Great views, decent food (bbq brisket, pulled pork, steak sandwiches. Then we drove east to the western shore of Cayuga lake to get some award-winning cheese at Lively Run.

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September 28, 2026 · 11:03 am

Niagara Falls, Ontario and USA

The falls did not disappoint. On a spectacular fall Sunday morning we took in the famous falls from the US/NY side which has a lovely state park (the country’s oldest). The Canadian side has the big garish stuff — high rise hotels, casino, theme park, Ferris wheel.

We drove across the Rainbow Bridge, ehich has stunning views. Then at the park we walked along a gorge-side trail (paved and accessible) to the American falls and then across a pedestrian bridge to Horseshoe Falls. Glad we arrived early (9 am). Still easy to park ($15 on a Sunday; the park is free) but lots of tourists, especially of East Asian descent (and lots of East Asian restaurants on the Canadian side.)

Another highlight: Mississauga Fort and path along the lake in Niagara-on-the -Lake. Gorgeous views at sunset, with the silhouette of Toronto skyline off in the distance, across Lake Ontario. Refreshingly free of other people/tourist and overpriced parking. We did walk along Queen Street, the main tourist drag, which was packed w/ people windowshopping, eating ice cream and visiting bakeries. We ate at one of the two famous pubs, the Olde angel inn, circa 1789, which was atmospheric but very loud. It’s English. “Probably the best pub in the world” boasts the historic looking plaque by the entrance. (The other town pub, the Irish Harp, gets good reviews from our Ithaca pals!) Good pub grub (shepard’s pie and fish and chips.)

At the fort along Lake Ontario

The town is charming with old buildings, lovely public gardens and the Shaw Festival but more developed since our last visit, maybe 15-20 years ago.

American side

GPS took us on pretty rural backroads (apparently to avoid traffic on bigger roads) where we noticed lots of houses flying Canadian flags which we guessed was a reaction to our President’s ridiculous threats.

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September 27, 2026 · 4:00 pm

Cravings@Pacific Rim/Portage, Mi and Giovanni’s in Detroit

We’ve been going to traditional red sauce southern Italian restaurants lately: Gian-Tony’s in St. Louis on “The Hill“ last week and this week to Giovanni’s in downtown Detroit, in an industrial area with several large hulking factories. Around since 2958, Giovanni’s has a dark interior with old fashioned decor and servers dressed like wedding ushers in all black. Very good lasagna, chicken piccata, veal masala.

En route to Detroit we stopped at our usual place in Portage,Mi at Cravings, a counter in The Pacific Rim asian food store. We tried several excellent items- a scallion pancake with sliced beef that turned out to be huge and delicious. Easy to share. The pancake was thick and bubbly/crispy (my new go-to entree); the meat sliced lean and good quality, with a light sauce. Also had a nice fresh spring roll and D had the pork chop entree with cracked rice, a fried egg and broccoli.

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