Another wonderful week to be alive in Providence

April 6, last Sunday marked the fiftieth year since my parents were married. Unlike most kids, I had the unique opportunity of attending my parents' wedding. I remember my mom wore this chic dress with a fur thing around the collar. And a hat of course. Although they never had much money mom and dad were always spiffy dressers. I was less than three weeks away from turning 10 years old, precisely the age that my niece Mallory will be celebrating this month.

April. I like this month. Spring is here, and summer is just around the corner.

We've had some odd weather here in the Ocean State -- but I suspect that weather on this planet has always been odd, no matter where you live. Certainly it's better here than in Bangladesh or the North Pole. Anyway, after rain, wind and temps all over the place, yesterday, Thursday, was an absolutely gorgeous day, a peek at what summer promises to be like here in Providence.

This last weekend was a curiously enjoyable time. On Saturday Susie went in to Gracie's of course and I grabbed my camera and headed off to the Rhode Island Saltwater Angler's show at the convention center. I've already blogged my notes from the show but let me say it was quite a learning experience: who would've thought they had fishing simulators? Anyway, it was fun for me and I took a few interesting photos -- assuming you enjoy staring at fishing lures. . .

Susie and I had originally planned to get over the Johnson & Wales university Saturday afternoon to see a cooking demo by Martin Yan ("Yan Can Cook"); I hoped to pick up some tips on cooking better Chinese food if nothing else. And from what I remember of seeing him on TV years ago he is quite the lively character so it promised to be entertaining as well. Unfortunately Susie had a long day at Gracie's so we had to forgo the pleasure of meeting Martin.

That evening we drove up to Douglas, MA to have dinner at Dick and Dorothy's house -- they had also invited several of their old friends, Bill and Becky and Phil and Donna, over as well. It had been years since we had seen this group together and so there was plenty of catching up to do. Yet it was almost as if we had been with them just last week. Very friendly folks, warm conversation and good food , plenty of good food, topped off my Dick's chocolate "item", which rounded out a fun and lively evening. We drove back to Providence relaxed, content and ready for a quiet Sunday.

Sunday was quiet enough but overcast and with a cool drizzle hanging in the air for much of the day. Still that didn't prevent us from attending the 25th anniversary party of the West Broadway neighborhood Association, or WBNA, of which we are now officially members.

Created in 1983 by a handful of citizens who were tired of the lack of services provided to their neighborhood, the organization todays counts more than 250 households and businesses as members and boasts a large volunteer network working with a full-time executive director. Bounded (roughly) by Broadway to the north, Cranston avenue to the south, and the service road to the east and Route 10 on the west, the WBNA provides help and assistance in repairing sidewalks, replanting trees, volunteer cleanup of the Dexter Training Ground.

One might say that much of the rehabilitation of this part of Providence, the "West End" I think it's called, is the result of the work of the WBNA. They are one of the driving forces behind renovating and remodeling many of the older buildings in the neighborhood as well.

We attended our first meeting of the WBNA on April 1 and heard about the party scheduled for the 6th at Julian's on Broadway. Naturally we planned to attend. And so we did.

It was an overcast and drizzling afternoon when we headed over to Julian's.

You had to roll a pair of dice to get in -- paying whatever the roll was for cover. Of course Susan rolled a 10 and I rolled a 7. You would've thought one of us could've rolled "snake eyes."

Anyway, we had often walked by Julian's but had never been inside. It is very funky with lots of hard-to-find beers on tap and plenty of creative food on the menu.

The place was already starting to fill up so we grabbed a couple of glasses of wine at the bar and searched for someone to take our membership dues -- it turned out to be Jean, one of the WBNA officers. We proceeded to sign up and so are now officially members of the WBNA. While we didn't feel significantly different it left us both with a rather pleasant feeling. We're happy living here and want to do whatever we can to help support the growth and development of our neighborhood.

On Tuesday I discovered the East Bay Bike Path, which runs from East Providence all the way down to Bristol I'm told, some 13 or so miles. Anyway I walked along just a portion of it on a sunny day and enjoyed myself immensely, getting a reasonably good view of the city (photo above) and the the remains of the working side to the northern head of Narragansett Bay.

One of my goals of late has been to shoot some video of Susie in the kitchen -- and I had a perfect opportunity earlier this past week to do just that. We had arranged for her to call me and let me know when she was going to pipe some meringue for the Baked Alaska that's now on Gracie's menu. The phone rang Tuesday mid-morning, it was Susie on the other end saying she would be ready in half an hour. I grabbed my cameras, jumped in the car and after running a couple of errands found myself in the kitchen at Gracie's, camcorder in hand. You won't necessarily learn a step-by-step how-to pipe from this video but here it is:

On Wednesday we stopped by Gracie's for the regular midweek wine flight: Oregon and Washington state wines this week. Adelsheim Pinot Gris (a recent favorite of ours as it turned out), a Semillon, and two reds. The wines were very nice and the reds smoothed out gracefully (get it gracefully?) with the food. We've come to see these evenings as a nice way to enjoy hors d'oeuvres paired with several wines before heading home for dinner.

Wish you were here,

Steve