Fishing on Lake Erie

Cooler full of walleye

Reeling one in on the Finlander

My dad and a friend of his chartered a fishing boat on Lake Erie one day while we were in town.  In recent years, my dad has become a bit of a fisherman, taking periodic trips up to Northern Michigan to fish for steelhead and salmon, and then scheduling the fly fishing trip in Jackson Hole.  So of course, I was excited to go and see what it was about.

Chartered fishing trips are a little odd, I found out.  It’s certainly fun to catch all those fish, but it was a much less “active” process than fly fishing (my dad confirmed he prefers fly fishing).  The boat captain baited and set the lines (we couldn’t do it because the boat used a complicated system with something like 12 rods at a time), and as the guests on the boat, it was our job to reel the fish in when they bit.  That day, the walleye were biting like crazy.  We hit the catch limit of something like 8 fish per person within the first 1 or 2 hours of the planned 5 hour trip, and it was a blast reeling in fish after fish.  We were back home in time for lunch.

That night, we invited a bunch of family over and cooked a mountain of fish in various ways.  We sauteed them, grilled them on cedar planks, “oven fried” them (the runaway favorite), and prepared them using a few other methods I can’t even remember.  Walleye are very, very delicious.  What an excellent day!

Detroit Reception

The spread

Hanging out outside

A few days after returning to Detroit, we were set to stay with my family for about 2.5 weeks, during which time we were going to host our second wedding reception.

The reception took place at my parents’ house in West Bloomfield.  We had decided to do a full middle eastern spread for lunch.  Every time Kristen and I visit Detroit, may parents ask “what do you want to do for dinner,” and the answer is always the same: “Middle Eastern.”  So of course we were going to throw a middle eastern feast if given the opportunity.

My mom put together a list of all the best dishes from various local eateries.  Tabbouleh from Anita’s in Ferndale, shawarma from Al-Oumara in West Bloomfield, and grape leaves, hommous, and babaghannouj, and even some chicken skewers from other far flung corners of the city.  My dad and I ran around all morning picking it all up.

And wow was it great!  The food was delicious, and it was fantastic to have our whole extended family all in one place; I think 50 or 60 people came to visit us that afternoon.  Some I hadn’t seen in many years, and a few people Kristen had never even met.  Plus, Steve, Barabara, Karoline, and Wentao all came in for the weekend as well, so they got to meet the whole gang.

Algonquin Park Canoe Trip (Fail)

In the canoe on Rock Lake

Kristen and all our gear

We planned a 4-day, 3-night canoe trip in Algonquin park (in Ontario, Canada).  I went to Summer camp in Algonquin park as a kid, and we used to take these fantastic multi-day canoe trips.  I figured, when else in our lives would we ever get the chance to go to this obscure park, to do this obscure thing, in a particular middle-of-nowhere I happen to have some memories of?  Never.  That’s the answer.

The closest town to Algonquin park is Huntsville, ON.  We drove in and spent  a night at the Motel 6 (which I don’t recommend by the way) after buying some backpacking food at the local supermarket.  The next morning, it was raining pretty steadily, but the forecast called for it to be nice and sunny for the next 4 days, so we were excited.  We headed into the park to pick up our rental gear – a beautiful fiberglass canoe, tent and sleeping bags, and some massive trip packs we would use to carry our gear and food across “portages”, or short trails in between lakes.  Just as we were loading up the car, the sun broke through the clouds and the day was glorious, if a little humid.

Our planned schedule was to launch the canoe at Rock Lake, then spend our first night at Pen Lake, our second night at Henry’s lake, third night at Louisa Lake, and then complete the loop and exit again at Rock Lake.

We launched the canoe around 3pm or so, and paddled along gorgeous Rock Lake.  There were great views, and barely any other people around.  We managed our way through the first portage over to Pen Lake, though the mosquitoes were a bit annoying.

After launching again on Pen Lake, the clouds started to gather again, so we decided to look for a campsite ASAP.  The map showed one on a nearby island (and Kristen loves islands), so we decided to head over to it.  On the way, we stopped in the middle of the lake to purify some water (deep water is generally cleaner).  After a few strokes, an un-fixable part of the filter pump broke.  Crap.  Now we’d have to use gross iodine tablets to purify our water for the remainder of the trip.  Then it started to rain.

We paddled frantically to the island campsite, and thankfully the rain began to let up, and the air was still.  We dragged our stuff up onto the island and made camp.  Almost immediately we were mobbed by mosquitoes and black flies.

Black flies are these tiny little bloodsuckers also commonly called no-see-ums because you can’t even see them while they’re destroying you.  Their bites itch worse than mosquitoes, and bleed.  Kristen is allergic.  When we were in Brazil, she’d gotten a series of black fly bites on her feet, and they swelled up so badly she couldn’t walk.

They were coming through our head nets, up our pants, and down our shirts.  We sprayed ourselves with 40% DEET.  They bit us through it.  We put on gloves and rain jackets, and long underwear.  We tucked our pants into our shoes.  And they bit through everything.  We had blood streaming down our faces from the bites.  But finally, we finished setting up camp, and got into the safety of the tent.  We should have been cooking dinner, but neither of us wanted to go back out there.

We discussed the situation.  We had no water pump, the weather forecast appeared to be incorrect, and we were getting absolutely destroyed by black flies.  Ugh.  Did we really want 3.5 more days of this?

It was around 5:30 or 6pm.  We decided we had just enough daylight left to tear down camp and paddle out.  So we did.  And on the way out, we were greeted by the sight of a mama and baby moose hanging out in Rock lake!  In all it was quite a pretty paddle out at dusk.

Back at the car, we again were mobbed by black flies while unloading the canoe.  It was inevitable.  We left the canoe at the launch, and headed for the Best Western, where we slathered on anti-itch cream and took ridiculous pictures of our bites.

The next morning, we returned all our gear (the people at the canoe rental place were not the least bit surprised to see us), and got the hell out of Canada.

On the way to Detroit, Kristen gently told me she was right.  “You were so excited to go on that canoe trip, how was I supposed to tell you that going into the woods in Canada in May was a terrible idea?”

Montreal

Schwartz’s deli, serving Montreal Smoked Meat

Pig odds and ends at Au Pied du Cochon

The next stop on our road trip was Montreal.  It turned out to be a pretty serendipitous trip, too.  Ben, my best friend from high school, and his wife Betsy were going to be in town at the same time we were planning to be there!  Which was perfect, because they are in the midst of having a baby and buying a new house to make room for said baby, and so were not able to attend any of our wedding reception parties.  We were very glad we got to see them.

Montreal is a very nice place (at least in the Summer).  Kristen had been there years before, but I had never been.  When we asked friends from the area for recommendations on what to do, their lists kept coming back filled with restaurant recommendations.  Ben and Betsy had the same experience.  It turns out that the best thing about the city is the food.

And so we ate.  After we arrived at our absolutely tiny rental apartment (complete with scary old elevator), we headed out to meet Ben and Betsy for dinner.  They took us out at Au Pied du Cochon (At The Pig’s Foot), which was one of the better dining experiences of my life.  It was the type of place where they serve every part of the pig in gourmet fashion.  Kristen and Betsy were a little leery of some of the odder organs and parts, but Ben and I dug in.

The next day, we woke up early and walked around the Plateau neighborhood, meeting up with Ben and Betsy to get breakfast at a Montreal style bagel shop called St. Viateurs (the bagels are baked in a wood oven, giving them a crunchier crust).  I liked the bagels a lot.  Sure, they’re different from New York style bagels, but they are delicious.

Afterwards, we spent a few hours walking through a street fair in the Plateau, and ducking into some little shops and boutiques.  For lunch, we tried the Montreal smoked meat at Schwartz’s deli.  The restaurant was very similar to Katz’s deli in NYC.  It had the long deli counter, the menu on the wall, the pictures of celebrities up everywhere, etc.  Montreal smoked meat itself appears to be very similar to pastrami, and we all thought the sandwiches were pretty comparable to the best NYC pastrami (i.e. very good).

From that point, we needed to walk off the meal, so we headed toward Old Montreal, which looks a bit like Paris, but smells yeasty (there is a huge Molson brewery nearby).  Kristen stopped for a coffee while Ben and I looked at some cool old poster prints.

At that point, it was time to say goodbye to Ben and Betsy.  They had reservations that night at the famed Joe Beef restaurant and had to go get ready, so Kristen and I walked around a bit more on the riverfront.

That night, our last, we were grounded a bit in our assessment of Montreal food (which to that point had been 100% incredible).  We went to the bistro L’Express, which was recommended by several friends.  It was good, but not great.  So normal restaurants do exist in Montreal!

Boston

After leaving NYC, we planned a short road trip en route to Detroit (for our next wedding reception party).  The first stop on the road trip was Boston.

We were set to stay with our friends Becky and Dan, who live in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.  I had been to Boston only one time before, so I was totally thrilled with how charming that part of the city is.  The architecture looks authentically colonial, the cobblestone streets are horse-drawn carriage width, and ivy climbs the walls everywhere.

On the way in, we stopped for a visit at the MIT campus in Cambridge.  We figured I got to show Kristen around Princeton a week earlier, and now it was time for her to return the favor.  And I have to say, the MIT campus is nice.  When I walked through there years ago, I remembered only seeing the bland concrete block buildings (like the library and one or two of the dorms), but Kristen took me through the beautiful academic building, which has a huge grassy courtyard that felt much more “college-y” than other parts of the campus.  That, plus some of the other interesting buildings (like Toon Town) definitely changed my mind – the MIT campus is in fact quite nice.

That night, Becky and Dan took us out for a walk around Boston Common (where it rained for the exact length of time it took us to find and buy umbrellas), and then out to a cool restaurant/bar downtown for a delicious dinner.  They were fantastic hosts all the way through – though it was brief, we really enjoyed staying with them!

NYC

The outdoor space at 34 Berry

Rob, Nicole, and Kristen

Keenan the bartender

After a week in California, Kristen and I headed to NYC for a week and a half.  The focus of the trip was to set up for and have our NYC wedding reception/party, but given that we are moving out of the city, we also wanted to see our good friends and visit our favorite haunts.  Our time in the city can be divided into 3 parts: pre-party, party, and post-party:

PRE PARTY

When we first arrived in NYC, we stayed with our friends Rob and Nicole, at their apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  This turned out to be perfect, both because we got to spend a ton of time with Rob and Nicole, but also because their apartment is located very close to our wedding reception venue.

Most of that first week was consumed by party planning and set up (securing the food – BBQ from Fette Sau and some fantastic salads from Cara’s friend Erin, finding helpers – Cara hired some of her friends for us, renting chafing dishes and plates, etc.).  We did manage to do a bit of sightseeing and reminiscing, though.  We took a trip down to Princeton for the day, had dinner at the restaurant where we’d had our first date, went out for my birthday, and went for some long walks and bike rides.

THE PARTY

We had the wedding party on the roof deck at 34 Berry, the apartment building where Cara’s (and our) friend Stacy lives.  Our original location (the roof deck at our old building in NYC) fell through, so Stacy saved the day.  The space was perfect, and my mom and Barb Kasprzak help decorate it with flowers the morning of the party.  Keenan bartended, and he devised a drink that was extremely popular, using some (way too) spicy vodka we had infused earlier that week with chili peppers, kiwi, and lime.  And everyone seemed to appreciate the food we served: 3 appetizer salads, ribs + pulled pork + brisket from Fette Sau, and an Argentine-style steak I cooked up on the outdoor grill.  For dessert, we picked up a few small cakes and cupcakes from what we think is the best bakery in NYC – Two Little Red Hens.  Delicious.

About 50 or so of our friends showed up, and it was great to see everyone.  This seems to be the main function of these sorts of parties – they work as an excuse to get lots of people together you’d normally have to see individually.  Plus, one sort-of-planned consequence of having 3 parties is that we get to actually spend time with individual people at each.  Sure, tons of different people came up to us to say hi, but we got to have several actual conversations, to taste all the food, and to relax and enjoy ourselves.  I get the feeling that “real” wedding receptions don’t offer that kind of intimacy with the guests.  We are very happy we did it this way.

POST PARTY

We had booked a rental apartment in our old building (The Monterey) to stay in for a few days after our wedding party.  This is why we initially planned to have the party on the Monterey roof deck.  But as it turns out, renting out apartments on a nightly basis at the Monterey is against the terms of the lease (as we had initially suspected), and so they freaked out when we mentioned we wanted to have a party on the roof.  I guess the people who had the lease on the apartment were scared we would draw too much attention to their rental operation.  Regardless, we were “checked in” to the apartment we rented the day before the party by an extremely shady and sleazy property manager, who kept telling us we were not allowed to use any building facilities, and that we should lie if the doormen asked us who we were.  Ick.  We really wanted to call the whole thing off, but we have such great memories in that building, we just had to stay there.  And in the end, we had a great time.  We walked around our old neighborhood, went to Central Park, I did a couple bike rides, and we enjoyed the views of the city from the roof.

One thing I will say about NYC: we forgot how cramped everything is.  After being away for a year (and in the rural middle of nowhere at that), it was sort of a shock to remember how small the spaces are (apartments, restaurants, etc.), how busy the sidewalks are, and generally how congested it all is.  It took us a few days to adjust.

In all, we had a fantastic time in NYC.  The wedding party was really the perfect way to say hello (and goodbye) to all our friends there, and our time before and after the party was the perfect way to say hello (and goodbye) to where we used to live.