Family Day, Amanda’s Birthday

Friday 11th August 
Something to like about the weather here at this time of the year, it’s damn consistent. At home it rains, it shines, it blows, it howls, it scorches sometimes all in one day, but not here, warm it is and warm its going to stay. Until that lazy change makes its way from west to east at a leisurely pace giving you plenty of warning, if you are unprepared then so be it, you knew it was coming. 

And so this morning is a continuation of yesterday, warm but not hot, thin Cirrus clouds drift high above on their journey eastwards.

Once again the trades arrive to continue with their task, the kitchen and laundry now complete no go zones. The basement also affected is now having the final coats of paint applied before the new carpet can be laid and Justin can again move back into his room. Heather is taking the day off today, Troy only working this morning, we will take the kids to lunch at Isaac Newton’s bar and restaurant. In the meantime all we can do is relax outside in the warm air under the Pin Oak. It is Amanda’s 67th birthday today and so a special day for her. We all gather for lunch and make our way to Isaac Newtons pub, strange name for a pub, apparently the famous English mathematician that came upon his theory of gravitation after an apple hit him on the head spent a god deal of time in pubs. A little known fact is that Isaac in his later years was a warden of the English royal mint, during a time when old coins where brought in and new coins issued. As result it was estimated that 20 percent of the coins brought in where counterfeit, this of course was against the law, punishable by hanging. Isaac disguised himself, touring the pubs of London to uncover evidence of counterfeiting and so help bring the criminals to justice.

We enter the pub from the carpark at the rear the atmosphere is dark and obviously pub like but opens into some light filled eating areas, we are shown upstairs to a large eating space after Troy tries for an outside table, but apparently only tables of five or less outside, and we are seven. The food is understandably pub food, designed to go with the many beers that they have on tap. The crew order up, Fish Taco’s, Korean Taco’s (this one amusing, a cross between Korean and Mexican?), Korean Burghers, meat loaf and for Amanda and I a Yuppie turkey sandwich, consisting of toasted wheat bread, Turkey slices, Brie and apple wedges, to share. Every day a new experience be it culture or food here on the east coast of the USA.

Well fed we return home, Heathers parents are at the house when we arrive Stan shifting the rest of the mulch he didn’t move the previous day and Bonnie waiting for us to arrive home. We sit and chat with Bonnie for awhile in the warm sunshine. While Stan works away outside and the tradies continue inside ripping up the layers of kitchen flooring. Time comes for Stan to load the Kubota to take it home, but there is a problem, a large split in the rear tyre has materialised, making it impossible to drive the machine onto the trailer. Stan pumps up the rear tyre with a compressor and hastily drives it up the ramp and onto the flat bed before the tyre is again flat and sits lopsided on the trailers bed for the ride home. 

This little bit of excitement over, Justin leaves with his grandparents to spend the weekend with them on their farm property about 45 minutes away in the New Jersey countryside. As does Aubrey who is off to spend the weekend with her father and has hitched a ride with the grandparents as well. That leaves Calista who is off to spend some time with her girlfriends. They all say their goodbyes and I take some birthday pictures of them with Amanda before they leave.

This leaves the adults free to have a relaxing afternoon in New Hope and then dinner at Marsha Brown’s a creole influenced restaurant in a converted church situated in New Hope’s main street. New Hope is a quant tourist town on the border of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the border being the Delaware river. At one time York Road travelled through the town then known as Coryell’s Ferry and was the halfway mark between Philadelphia and New York. In 1790 though several mills in the area where destroyed by fire, the newly constructed replacement mills where seen as a new hope for the town, and so the town was renamed “New Hope”. Now the street is filled with arts, craft and antique shops as well as bars and restaurants, in a way similar to our own Hahndorf at home.

We take an uber cab to New Hope, spend a little time in the shops before settling at a bar for some pre dinner cocktails. The sky is threatening, the cloud cover has thickened during the day, the now grey skies threatening to open up, fortunately the rain stays in the sky allowing us to enjoy our drinks before our dinner reservation next door at Marsha Browns. After ordering our cocktails we seat ourselves around a large outdoor low concrete table with a fire pit of volcanic rock as it’s centre piece, an indication of the potential cool autumn nights to come. 

The time arrives for our dinner reservation, just a short walk next door from the bar we are sitting at.

On arrival we are shown to our table up stairs on the churches second floor, as I mentioned the restaurant building is a converted church but apart from the obvious high pitched ceilings and the rows of large windows that run along either side length of the open space that would have been the nave, there is not a real church atmosphere. The stain glass windows are magnificent but not at all religious in nature. A huge mural, depicting two lions being speared by Saracens dominates a wall that would have originally held an alter below. A small painted angel with a fire helmet on, sits above a fire extinguisher but I don’t spot any other episcopal adornments. 

From the moment we arrive Amanda is greeted with happy birthday wishes from all of the staff we encounter, the word has spread. A stiff maitre de appears an takes a group picture then hurries away to print it off for us. Dan our humorous waiter, advises specials and that he is happy to eat any leftovers, as one of ten children he was used to eating the scraps. After lunch today we are not feeling overly hungry, a light appetiser of a beet salad looks good, sliced beets on a bed of spinach in a light balsamic dressing. Amanda and I share this, then each if us follow up with the French Quarter surf and turf that consists of crawfish risotto, crab cakes, BBQ shrimp and two small eye filets of beef (Tournedos). There are some new untried flavours here particularly in the risotto and crab cakes that make this an interesting and delightful meal. I pair the meal with a glass of Napa Valley Merlot and Amanda sticks with a Chardonnay also from the Napa.

I finish with a creme brûlée that is not one of the best I have had, the caramelised topping is soft and the filling stodgy but only the texture is affected not the taste. Heather has the same and agrees. Amanda has a slice of birthday cake with ice cream delivered to her, on the house a nice touch. The maitre de arrives with a printed copy of the picture hof the four of us he took earlier again gratis, great service.

After dinner we Uber cab back to Holland and our beds, the rain has stayed away but the humidity is building with a definite chance of rain tomorrow.