Last leg of the trip

I think I've fixed all the spelling errors in this post and the last.

 I still have no good pictures of the food from Strong Hearts Cafe. I have no idea why. Needless to say, they have an egg 'trick' muffin that tastes a lot like a sausage McMuffin (I barely remember them, but the texture of the tofu is distinctly egg-like, it's very good.) Their milkshakes are incredible, and so are their cupcakes, which are pretty fancy to look at. Most, if not all of their food is incredible, and I could spend the entire post raving about how great it all is. But I have the trip to post about.

On Chauncey's second touring day for Boonville and Old Forge, we decided to get them in at once so that we could take a trip he surprised me with suggesting. Farm Sanctuary's New York location was only a 2 hour drive from us, and they did tours from 11am to 3pm. I was pretty excited about that.

Boonville was impressive, a very small town with a lot of nice buildings. Here are a few pictures, though ugly cars are mucking up the scenery. First is a tree farm I saw along the way, I have seen a lot of these.

The river is Moose River, I think. Could be the Black River. They run near each other. I ran out of battery power at this point, which is a shame, since there was a cemetery with rolling hills and a beautiful view from the top.

I didn't really have any charge on my camera until Farm Sanctuary. This was by far the most touching place for me. It's worth visiting even if you have to drive four or six hours to get there. They were also having a Hoe Down soon after we left, I was sad to miss it.

You'll notice the pigs look very lazy. I scritched one on the tummy and he stretched out and turned a bit for more scratching. All the animals were very social. The freakishly large turkey you see is a bit old, and sat there while we talked, but after a few minutes he stood up and puffed out his plumage to show off.

The sheep were being sheared, so we didn't get to see them sadly. There was also a chicken who was shy of people, but had become friends with a blind duck. At feeding time, since he couldn't tell where the food is, she guides him to it.

The goats were super curious and nibbled on our clothes to check and see if they were food. One named Peanut kept following Chauncey around to nibble on him and get neck scratches.

The cows even showed a distinctively higher intellect, given the chance to socialise and spend time doing what they wanted to do rather than being penned up in crates.

The chickens and turkeys mostly had their beaks seared off at the ends and their toes cut off, which is common to keep tightly packed birds from fighting.

Here are some examples of factory farm treatment.

It was very inspiring for me and Chauncey as vegans, but, though my dad was interested, he had no problem eating Filet Mignon that night.

The next day was a stressful trip on two airplanes, fortunately with a very small layover. After that I was completely exhausted, and went to bed fairly fast.

The next post will probably be on the puppy soon to come into our lives, we are both very excited.

Chautauqua

I've been too busy/lazy to post on the blog about the vacation, so much of the following will be a bit
compressed.

On the 20th we spent our time looking for my great uncle Mar's house, which we failed to find after much searching. There were some beautiful pictures of the countryside, but my dad was eager to move on. One weird thing we noticed was bronze stars on many houses, and they are prevalent here in New York, as well.

I did get a picture of this beautiful house on a hill, but the picture does not do it justice.

One last trip to ligonier tavern and we were done for the day. My father got onion soup again, and I got a thai salad.

The next day was a travel day. On the way to Chautauqua, we went through Johnstown, and I got some interesting pictures.

 

Most of  these are of Cambria Steel Works, (I think that is the name,) a factory that is very old, probably before the flood, but still partially in use.

After Johnstown was the long ride to Finley Lake, near Chautauqua, to our hotel. We went through Cook Forest park and a ton of little towns like Sugar Grove (which is almost to Chautauqua.) I tried to memorise them all, but failed miserably.

I'll summarise Chautauqua so I don't make too lengthy of a post. The air was so hot, and sometimes humid, that it damaged this leg of the trip for me, sadly. The heat wave that decided to hit at the exact time we went on vacation was cruel to say the least.

I wandered the institution, my dad pointing out official monuments, while I pointed out monuments important to a child, all to Chauncey. Here I wiped out on my bike, here I played paleontologist, and here I caught crayfish and wondered at the spider cave, too scared to go in. Only, my spider cave isn't a cave at all now, it is ruined!

I did actually take some other pictures of Chautauqua, no worries. Though I missed the orchestral concert because my father wasn't in the mood to go, which was a shame.

While in Chautauqua, we ate at Whole Foods Coop in Erie, Penn. They had excellent food, though they were a bit obsessed with cheese on their menu. My dad tried some of the food, and his first attempt weirded him out, but he ended up being okay with the club sandwich, which was very good.

Those are the meatless lover's wrap, one of the quesadillas, and the reuben. Unfortunately, it appears the last picture is slightly corrupted.

When our travel day arrived, (to head out to Syracuse to visit Boonville,) we intended to stop in Buffalo at the Eights Bistro, but I wasn't hungry at the time. I hear food is very good though.

My father picked out a great hotel in Syracuse, Hotel Skyler. It's a green hotel, and very very nice. Here are some pictures of our room.

And of the hotel itself...

Places we've eaten so far that I don't have pics of: Alto Cinco and the Strong Hearts Cafe. Alto Cinco has a good vegan burrito called the Angelino, but Strong Hearts is all vegan. I've has a reuben there and their dill potato salad, along with blueberry cheesecake. By far, by far, the best vegan food I have ever had at a restaurant.

Pics to come. We've checked out Boonville, but the real touring we do today.

The Start of the Trip: Pittsburgh, Latrobe, and Ligonier

The majority of the 18th was filled with high altitude gawking out of windows for me, while Chauncey tried not to panic. We had two flights, one about 2 hours and one 1 hour, Fort Myers, to Charlotte, to Pittsburgh. My father rode first class, and Chauncey and I sat in business class, which was just fine with me, the passengers that sat next to us weren't any trouble.

For lunch we stopped at a Mexican restaurant in the Charlotte airport that had absolutely nothing vegan, my dad had tamales, and I had french fries from Burger King afterwards. I noticed something, as well. In the better paying restaurants, almost entirely white people were employed. At Burger King, all black people. You decide what point I am making.

By the time we got to Pittsburgh my nerves were shot. The retrieval of the luggage was delayed, and getting the van took forever, then, blessedly, we were off, heading towards Latrobe, where our hotel, Wingate by Windham resided.

We drove through several tunnels on the way, one under a river! I didn't get the camera out in time to take a picture of that, but perhaps the tunnel beneath the earth we drove through will suffice.  They were both fairly dark and eerie after such an exhausting day, and Pittsburgh was filled with industrialization.

I collapsed quickly at the hotel on a soft, cushy king bed.

Day 1:

I woke up at around 6 am, in a surprisingly good mood. I got some breakfast from downstairs, (they even had a waffle iron and batter so you could make your own waffles). Chauncey was still tired so I went back to bed to pass the time.

By noon we were both wondering why my dad hadn't come by, and were tired of sleeping, so I dropped by his room next door. He didn't look like he had been up long, though he insisted he had been letting us sleep. We were out the door an hour or two later.

The primary visit for the day was my father's childhood home. It is very lovely and I will include pictures shortly. When we arrived, my father was moved to tears at the sight of it. It was worth visiting for that reason alone. However, before we took a great deal of pictures, he wanted lunch.

My father had chosen the Ligonier Tavern for lunch, Chauncey and I figured there would be nothing for us to eat there, and were prepared to be disappointed. Instead, we were pleasantly surprised. We had hummus as an appetizer, with pita slices and veggies, and my dad had french onion soup. Then for lunch we had vegetable rosti, and my father had a panini reuben. I took some pictures of the food, if you are ever in ligonier, the place is definitely worth visiting.

Then it was back to my father's former home to take pictures. No one was currently at home, so we just trespassed up a storm. Apparently the former front door was now an elevator, and a former dining room window was now the front door. There was also an addition to the house and several other small changes. The largest change, however, was the trees. My father insisted that there had been no trees when he lived there, and condemned them regularly throughout the day, insisting that Ligonier needed to be cleared of these interlopers.

The deer above were in the neighbor's yard. How bold! Apparently they are safe enough here for that. Not like Florida where anything wild will be killed on sight by the first hunter to see it with a gun.

We visited several more houses from my father's youth, as well as a school, engaged in more trespassing, and then headed over to Johnstown. Johnstown is eerie looking, I don't have any photos though. I am heading back today and will update with some soon.

We also visited Laurel Mountain, and then last, an old rundown drive-in theater, where my father used to drink purple jesuses (1 part vodka, 1 part wine, in a big glass) with friends and dub over movies with obscene dialogue.

Here are a few photos from the theatre.

I'll either update today's travels tonight or tomorrow. Today is the last part of our Pennsylvania leg of the trip.

Update

Just a quick update.

I've been reading religiously, which I haven't done in years. I finished all the Song of Ice and Fire books up to date, which are very good. Read the God Delusion, also very good. I am probably going to start on A Brief Introduction to Neo-Liberalism next to get back into non-fiction, since the last book I read was book five of the Song of Ice and Fire. Then on to Capital. Neo-Liberalism is the concept that the market can drive the ethics of humanity and define them, not the usual definition of liberalism. It was a mistaken purchase, but will be an exciting read.

Something I also intend to read but do not expect to be impressed by is the short story, the Pre-Persons, by Philip K. Dick. It is  pro-life story. Apparently it is one of the better cases argued. Fiction, which makes it less appealing. It involves a society that allows for "abortion" up until the point when the soul has joined with the body, apparently when a person is capable of algebra. Obviously this is an absurd concept, but that is his point, no doubt. Still, I can't help but feel it will be emotionally based, and the concept of a soul being involved just screams religion, which is always the basis for pro-life arguments. Short of a few vengeful people who think those who get pregnant should have to reap the punishment for their actions, (as if children should be a punishment at any time. I can't see that making good parents or happy children.)

This was a hard story to hunt down, and you either pay ten dollars for the collection of short stories it is with, or search around for a free pdf, which I found, (unfortunately the words are too small on my kindle,) here.

I hunted for a viable or reasonable pro-life argument for a long time when I was in high school so that I could pose an argument/counter-argument case for a 'zine I did, (one whole issue, partly due to overhead costs,) in 12th grade. All that I found were emotional, religious, and reactionary arguments. The pro-choice side has its share of gut arguments, and I am full of my own gut feelings about choice, but there are logical arguments as well, which buffer these emotional pleas.

An interesting side debate, regarding reproductive rights, is China's forced abortions, sometimes at nine months, to prohibit more than one child. this has successfully controlled their population, however, so while it is morally possibly deplorable, it is sound in all logical senses. I struggle with the idea of forced abortions. The right to choose should go both ways, should it not? But we have so many people on this earth. Perhaps we should sterilise everyone and require certificates to breed. But no doubt only the rich and privileged would receive them. Who is in a position to decide who can breed and who can't?

Perhaps this has been more than brief. I might delve into the subject of abortion further at some point, but the New York vacation is in two days, and I will have much to report. My father has dubbed it the Ligchauboon vacation. For Ligoneer, Pennsylvania, Chautauqua, New York, and Boonville, New York, our choice spots to visit.

Recipe Time

In Lieu of anything deep, since I have been busy reading the Song of Fire and Ice books nonstop, I am going to share a recipe. It is a modified version of a magazine recipe, which I have worked over and reworked to eventually make my own. It is not in exact measurements, as I rarely measure things I am familiar with.

Pasta Shells Marinara

-Ricotta Cheese- 

1 container tofu (roughly 1 pound) firm
1 package frozen chopped spinach
1/4 to 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
2-4 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp garlic powder (optional)

-Sauce-

 6 cloves of garlic minced
1 large can crushed tomatoes
1 large can diced tomatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
Italian seasoning to taste, or basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme, and sage to taste
salt (to taste)

one package large pasta shells

-You will need a large casserole dish, a food processor, hand or otherwise, helps as well.


Put at least 16 shells in a pot to boil, you shouldn't need them all. Some will break up, but 16 should be enough.

While shells are boiling, put the frozen spinach in the microwave for 6-8 minutes uncovered on a plate. Next, crumble tofu in big bowl using your hands, mix in oil, garlic powder, and yeast. When spinach is done, mix it in as well. If you have a food processor, you can process it all, though it can be done without processing.

To make sauce, saute garlic until golden, then pour both cans of tomatoes into a large pot with garlic. Pour olive oil and seasoning in. Olive oil should create a thin layer on top until mixed in, (which should take a bit of work.) You may need to add salt to lessen the sweetness of the sauce. Let cook for a bit to get the spices to cook into the sauce. 30 minutes on low after it has come to a boil should be enough.

Fill casserole dish with cooked shells, even broken ones (no reason to waste). You might want to wash them with cold water first so they aren't hot. Fill each with ricotta cheese and add extra cheese in between shells.

Pour sauce over shells. If any extra sauce remains, feel free to use for spaghetti later.

Bake covered in tin foil at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Let stand 10 mins before serving.