Tag Archives: Florida

Unchained–Air B and B

Our AirBnB cottage in New Port Richey Florida.
Our AirBnB cottage in New Port Richey Florida.

The first four nights of our Southern States Road trip have been what I fondly think of as “unchained”. Instead of picking a familiar chain motel,we went with alternatives.

We have used VRBO several times for multi-night stays, so it was not a great leap to try AirBnB. The only question was, would they have digs for people past the couch surfing stage. We really did not want to share a house or apartment.

It was reassuring when I went to their easy-to-use web site and found that was their first question. Their selections are not as numerous in the “whole house” category, but we found this tiny efficiency cottage (aka converted garage)with rave reviews for it and the owners.

We searched the area around Holiday Florida and got many suggestions. Two places I marked for possible disappeared by the following week, and this was 2 months in advance of booking, so don’t shilly-shally.

One in nearby New Port Richey came with WiFi, the right location for us, a kitchen in case we wanted to eat’at home’ and an overgrown garden/lawn in which to relax.

Kitchen portion of cottage.
Kitchen portion of cottage.

Cottage - private, fun & convenient in New Port Richey 2015-05-27 10-22-06

The bed was smaller than we are used to, but for 3 nights we could survive. We were delighted with how completely it was equipped—far better than the 200 a night Paris apartment. The hosts were as lovely as their previous guests claimed. She’s from Finland and spends summers there. He’s a traveler and photographer whose photos liven the walls.

When I mentioned that the only thing missing was a place to hang clothes, he unlocked a closet for me. (Most guests are there for fishing or the beach, not to go to a wedding, as we were, so the closet is mostly private storage space.)

The neighborhood is mid century Florida bungalows surrounded by towering live oaks trailing their Rapunzel-like Spanish moss decoration. The town is down at the heels, seeming to have more closed than open businesses. We did enjoy waking to Capozi’s Diner for breakfast one day, but headed further afield for other meals. Busy Rt 14, paralleling the Gulf, hosts every chain motel and restaurant known to America.

The beautiful beaches and wild life preserves are everywhere around you, but it is easy to miss them in the freeway traffic. When we asked a native Walgreens clerk for directions to Green Key park which edges New Port Richey along the Gulf, he didn’t have a clue.

He probably didn’t know tourists were staying a couple blocks away in a residential neighborhood, either.

Bottom line: Air BnB is a good alternative to chains if you want something with more character and like to stay in a residential area. Their web site gives very complete information. Don’t assume every place will be cheap. They carry pricier places as well. I would not hesitate to use them again.

Pictures are from the owner, posted at http://www.AirBnB.com

DETOUR: Going Somewhere and Somewhere Else

Detour Sign Dunedin FL
Detour Sign Dunedin FL (Photo from WikiMedia.org)

We are flying from Arizona to Florida to attend my grand daughter’s wedding. Nice trip. Exciting event.  However it seems that every time I have an opportunity to go Somewhere, I can’t help thinking about the opportunities—to go Somewhere Else. Soon I’ll be sharing our trip to Somewhere Else.

Do you think that way, or do I have a detour built into the routing of travel thoughts in my brain?

Here are some examples.

OHIO TO NEW YORK

Visiting Ohio
Our sons with my husband’s grandmother in Ohio, 1966.

In the 1960’s, once a year we drove or flew from Arizona with our young children to visit our family still iin Ohio.  In 1964, that was a perfect excuse to go to the New York World’s Fair.

1964 New York World's Fair
1964 New York World’s Fair

Boston to Cape Cod and D.C.

Paul Revere's Tomb, Boston
Offerings left at Paul Revere’s tomb, Old Granary Burial Ground, Boston

In about 1968, Ken was scheduled to go to Boston for a national bridge tournament.  We turned that into an extravaganza with his family joining us in Cape Cod and then passing us off to my family for a trip to Washington D. C.

Capitol Hill at Night, by Thomas Hawk from Flcker
Capitol Hill at Night, by Thomas Hawk from Flcker

Sweden to Russia

In the late 90’s, we decided to make a long delayed visit to Sweden to see some relatives of my sister-in-law. But of course that led to Somewhere Else–St. Petersburg Russia.

Singapore to Cambodia

Hong Kong
Hong Kong Harbor at Night

Not to mention Hong Kong, Macau and Thailand.  As a club president, Ken took a Rotary-sponsored trip to Singapore in 2000.  Well, heck, if you’re going  Somewhere in Southeast Asia, you might as well add your life-long dream of visiting Angkor Wat–and stop in Singapore–and take a ferry to Macau–and spend a few days in Thailand–right?

Mobile Grocery Store
Mobile Grocery Store in Cambodia

Budapest to Bavaria and Austria

Chain bridge over the Danube, Budapest
Chain bridge over the Danube, Budapest, just blocks from “our” apartment

Hey, it was all once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after all! This one had a different start. Ken laughed when I said I had won a 3- night stay at an apartment in Budapest, thinking that was about the most remote possibility on our travel list.  However, after a bit of plotting and planning, we realized that we could get a long-delayed look at Austria and it just happened to be a big birthday year for Mozart, so Salzburg was full of music. And as long as we were going to Budapest by way of Austria, why not land in Munich and see Bavaria and the famous Neuschwanstein Castle as well.

Old town cafe, Salzburg
Old town cafe, Salzburg, opposite Mozart’s childhood apartment

Aegean Islands to Ephesus and Meteora

Island of Serifos--sailing out
Island of Serifos–sailing out

Looking back on it, some of our choices look just plain greedy.  After all, if one is going to rent a sailboat with friends and hire a captain and sail around the Aegean islands for ten days—isn’t that a life-time vacation?  Well, yes, but we went all that way—so why not extend just a big and go to Ephesus in Turkey. And as long as we’re staying a little longer, how about a jaunt up to Meteora in Central Greece, since Ken had never seen it.  We’ve never regretted our “travel greed.”

Meteora Greece
Ayios Triados, Meteora Greece
 Ephesus,
The Library – Ephesus, Turkey

AND NOW

Key West Florida Beach
Key West Florida Beach

Oh, yes, where was I? I started talking about a wedding in Florida. Very nice state. But SO close to three states of the five I have not yet visited–so we will catch them with a Southern road trip. We’ve been wanting to travel to one of my favorite cities– Chattanooga,  and also to the Great Smoky Mountains, so we’ll go there before driving back through South Carolina to Atlanta and flying home. (The three states I had not visited–Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina. The two to go–North Dakota and Alaska.)

Great Smoky Mountain National Park
Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Tennessee

See?  Somewhere always leads to Somewhere Else.

Detour Sign

 

Love of Food and Family: A Midwestern Memoir

Book Cover
Destination: Michigan and Anna Maria Island, Florida

Book: Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good: A Memoir of Love from an American Midwest Family by Kathleen Flinn.

 

 

I’m always happy to find a book that sheds life on real life in the Midwestern United States.  Too often those “fly over” states are ignored, or misunderstood. This food memoir understands life in Michigan–and as a bonus, life in Florida, too.

Since I grew up in Ohio, Kathleen Flinn’s life sounded might familiar to me.  She says in the introduction that she set out to write her parent’s life, but along the way discovered other generations were woven in so tightly that she had to include her grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and siblings as well.

Quote from food memoir

Each chapter tells a story that illustrates the importance of a particular recipe. For instance chicken and biscuits follows the story of her mother and father’s attempt at poultry raising and the downfall of a nasty rooster. You have to read the whole story to appreciate the denouement with her mother, half naked, locked in a chicken coop on a cold Michigan winter day.

Later this conversation in the kitchen between Kathleen Flinn’s mother and father:

“Did you fix the coop?” Mother asked, stirring a pot of soup on the stove.

“Yes, and I fixed the rooster, too.” Dinner the next day was chicken and biscuits.

And you also have to read the entire story to appreciate a honeymoon spent fishing in an Upper Peninsula lake and hanging out with the bride’s parents. But it all makes sense when you get a look at Grandma Inez’ recipe for fried fish with almonds.

Kathleen Flinn had her grandmother’s recipe box, her mother’s notes and oral history, and her own and relatives’ memories to draw on. Additionally, she obviously has done a lot of research to provide the context for the life of her family who struggled to survive while living on a farm, thrived in town life, and finally lived part of their lives in Florida.

Because Flinn paints her family portrait with such telling details, we meet some very interesting people–some that sound familiar, because aren’t they in every family? and some that you’re glad were NOT in your family.

But her most potent memories involve food and the stories of why her parents and her grandparents and others cooked the way they did. Flinn realizes that her love of food and cooking comes with her genes.  Her parents had a restaurant in California for a time, both her grandparents (her mother’s parents) cooked, and her surroundings frequently influenced the food she ate growing up.

Flinn put a lot of thought into how circumstances influenced the food that her family ate.  When they lived on the farm and shopped at the Thrift Store (which her mother called a Department Store so her youngest daughter wouldn’t be ashamed) her mother raised vegetables and chickens and canned hundreds of jars of food each year.

When Flinn’s parents got better jobs and moved into town, they began to eat things that formerly had been considered out-of-reach luxuries, like frozen TV dinners, or meals at McDonald’s.

Because the family joined a German-American club, even though they were  not a bit German, sauerbraten and hot German potato salad  played a role on their menus.

As she grew up, much of Flinn’s cooking was influenced by watching Julia Child’s  shows on a black and white, snowy TV set with a hand-turned antenna and reading  Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Eventually she achieved her dream of attending Le Cordon Bleu in France. All these experiences taught her that the best food was not always the most trendy or the most expensive. Fresh caught fish would always beat out frozen fish sticks.

Each chapter ends with a recipe. After describing the origin of the recipe, she gives us a slightly modernized version. For instance, she skips a lot of the mushroom or celery soup that seemed to be a prime ingredient in just about everything in the 1960s.

On the other hand, she doesn’t fancy-up the recipes, these are American comfort food–Midwestern staples.  You are not going to find the latest  ingredients (no salted caramel or kale and blueberries) or fanciful presentations here.  Instead, you get homey recipes for dishes like stew (see the recipe for that one at Ancestors in Aprons), refrigerator biscuits, apple crisp, oatmeal cookies, panfried steak or spaghetti sauce.

Apple Crips Recipe

I love the way she recreates a time and place.  And I felt so connected to the people in her family that when I cook one of these recipes, it will be like borrowing from a friend.  Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good provides a great example for anyone planning to write a memoir or a family history–even if she is only intending to write it for her own children.

Two quotes from the end of the book sum up the author’s most important lesson.

Like Francie from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn I’m pieces of my parents, siblings, grandparents, and great-grandparents. 

 The people in my past helped make me tough, passionate, and endlessly optimistic.

And, she might have added, in love with food and family.

———-

I have included links to Amazon for your convenience. You need to know that I am an Amazon affiliate, so any purchase you make through my links helps A Traveler’s Library. Thanks.

The insert with a quote form Grandma Inez and the recipe for Apple Crisp are used with the permission of the publisher,  Viking, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, A Penguin Random House Company. Copyright © Kathleen Flinn, 2014.