August 6, 2025 Albuquerque to Ephrata, PA. A Classic Summer Dinner - a Crab-cake, Corn, and a slice of tomato
We awakened at 5:30 and dressed and I sliced a bagel into three slices and toasted them and spread them with cream cheese and garnished them with slices of red onion and the spliced smoked Aji tuna seasoned with sesame seeds we bought at Costco for $11.98 for 1/2 lb., about 1/2 the cost of smoked Norwegian Salmon (Gravad lax) and threw the bag of croutons and six small apples we picked from our tree in the food bag we were carrying onto the airplane.
While I prepared the bagels I ate the PPI piece of tenderloin Donnie packed for me that I had not eaten at the Monday night shell club meeting and then the last wedge of PPI clafoutis from Sunday dinner two weeks ago.
At 6:30 we drove to the airport and Suzette drank a Black Mesa coffee and I drank a chai while waited for the 8:15 departure of our flight to Chicago.
We boarded last and sat apart on the flight, which proved to be fascinating because I was seated in the middle seat between two very literate ladies. One seemed to be a correspondent or perhaps poet who wrote letters and poems during the flight. The other was a very bright Hispanic lady who explained that I was incorrect when I described my relationship to Suzette as compadre por Vida and instead should be Comadre por Vida, because comadre is the feminine form for the word for a close familial relationship of two persons not connected by blood. Wow, lesson learned. Then it got more exciting when I tried to find the picture of my Helen Hardin painting. She showed me how to label and add text to a photo and even how to link it to notes for adding descriptive material, so I can find a painting in my album of photos that Suzette created for me and record the history or notes regarding the piece in Notes. Wow, Wow, Wow. I discovered the immense capacity of an I Phone.
Then in Chicago Midway we transferred to a Chicago to Philadelphia flight. While we waited at 12:30 for the 1:00 flight to Philly I ate one of my two slices of bagel with tuna. It was really soft and delicious, as the cream cheese, red onion, and bagel had melded together into a cushion for the tuna. It was wonderful to have a delicious snack after the long airport walk through two concourses at Midway.
Actually by the end of the day I had walked about 4500 steps, less than the recommended 7000 steps but more than my normal sedentary 3000 steps.
We were able to sit together. Suzette drank a Bloody Mary with her bagel sandwich and I drank my preferred airplane drink, a Dr. Pepper.
I also ate a few croutons.
When we arrived in Philly at 4:45, we fetched our bags and caught the Budget rental bus and selected a Nissan SUV from the line of vehicles in the Fastbreak section. Instead of waiting in line, there was a fastbreak clerk at a monitor separated from the line who confirmed our paid reservation and sent us to two attendants at the end of the rental office who said, “Take any vehicle parked against the fence.” The integration of computer systems has become just as efficient and eased commerce as much as the I Phone has helped to organize our lives.
We we were on the road at around 5:10 and plodded through bumper to bumper traffic most of the 67 miles until we reached the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and arrived at Jean’s house in Ephrata at 7:10 where we were greeted by Jean and three thawing large crab cakes.
We rested and Suzette had her evening Scotch while she and Jean talked and the crab cakes thawed and Suzette calculated the Mumm Brut Prestige sparkling wine. After some research we determined that wine was produced from the three main champagne grapes, Chardonnay, Petit Meunier, and Pinot Noir in New Zealand. It tasted a little heavier than the French and had very few bubbles with a 3.8 rating by Vinvino, but a lovely addition to a lovely dinner of a very crabby crab cakes, a pile of Pennsylvania Silver Queen spring corn corn, perhaps the best corn in the world and a slice of fresh Amish grown tomato garnished with a small dollop of Mayo.
It was a perfect welcome to Pennsylvania summer meal.
After we sipped the last of the non-sparkling wine we retired to our bedroom upstairs to bed.
By the way, today was a good day in the market with Apple going up $10 and NVDA up $1.16.
I slept easy on three counts, I am on vacation on a wonderful day in the market with wonderful food.
Bon Appetit
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