We flew out Tuesday afternoon. We spent probably 2 1/2 hours actually in the air, but our trip took 5 hours. Oy.
Wednesday was my grandfather's 75th birthday. That's the reason we went to see my family. I was pretty excited about seeing my grandfather; I was always his girl. My grandfather's eyes did not light up when he saw me. They only showed confusion. He asked for my mother, even though she died more than four years ago. He thought we were going on a trip. He has grown frail. I had never seen him without a mustache. He's lost weight, his hair is finally grey. Once a well spoken, well dressed man, now my grandfather can barely complete a thought. Dementia is stealing my grandfather from me. It's excruciating to know that there's nothing I can do to stop it.
After we saw my grandfather we went to the Jewish bakery that we've been going to since someone in my family discovered it. It's in Philadelphia's Old City, a few blocks from the Delaware river. There is nothing as lovely as a piece of fresh rye bread, lightly toasted, with a thin layer of butter. We bought three loaves of bread, one unseeded rye, one seeded rye, and one marble rye. We also bought a pound of cookies. My great aunt used to stop by the bakery before church and pick up a pound of leaf shaped cookies. I don't know what's in these cookies, but I would consider a special trip just to have one. I was kicking myself when I got on the plane and realized that I left them at my aunt's house. So it goes.
G and I tried driving around Philly by ourselves on Thursday. The morning was fantastic. We went to Eastern State Penitentiary. The audio tour is superb. I'm usually not into audio tours, but this tour is narrated by Steve Buscemi and is completely self paced. It was the best of both worlds for me. I picked up lots of random knowledge, and I got to take as many pictures as I wanted. Eastern State Penitentiary has entirely too much history for me to get into here, but Al Capone was incarcerated for eight months in 1929 - 1930. Eastern State is supposedly haunted, but G and I didn't feel any "presence" or anything. Nonetheless, it was a highlight of our trip. After Eastern State, we tried to make it to Reading Terminal Market. Unfortunately, it was lunchtime, and after spending almost an hour driving around with no luck on a parking spot, G and I decided it might be better to head back over the bridge. We had a pretty good lunch at a diner and headed back to my aunt's. Dinner was with my uncle. That was awesome.
We went to Ocean City on Friday. G and I shared a soft pretzel and a frozen, chocolate dipped banana. Delicious. We also went out to dinner with my dad. Pizza was split between four of us, and G and I shared a plate of hot wings. Afterward we went out for frozen custard. G and I have a running joke that I always order the best thing on the menu, even if we're eating somewhere new. I never get to finish whatever I order; G is like a seagull swooping in for crumbs. In this case, however, G definitely ordered the better custard. His was peanut butter flavored. It tasted just like Nutter Butter cookies. So good. Definitely one of the best parts of our trip.
We came back to SC today. My aunt made us breakfast this morning, then we headed to the airport. I'm exhausted. I'm glad I had the foresight to freeze that lasagna. Sometimes neurosis pays off.
For this lasagna, you will need:
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- 1 large can tomato sauce
- 3 tablespoons Italian seasoning (or 1 tsp each dried basil, parsley, and oregano)
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 cups chopped mushrooms
- 6 cups chopped fresh spinach
- 1/2 cup roasted red bell peppers
- 2 cups fat-free ricotta
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 package whole-wheat lasagna noodles (about 8 oz, or 9 noodles)
- 1 1/2 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella
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