Epic trip to the US

On Monday I got back from a pretty amazing week in the US.

The first leg of the tour did not go entirely to plan, with an unscheduled stay in Chicago on Saturday night - thank god for the internet and the Hilton Rosemont which meant the evening was not spent on a park bench. Things improved considerably on my arrival the next day in Grand Rapids, when J kindly picked me up from the airport, I dumped my stuff at the hotel and then we met J's wife and little boy for brunch at Cygnus27, on the 27th floor of the Amway hotel with an amazing view and excellent selection of doughnuts.

We did some more exploration of the town. When J met G and me last year, she told us that every year in Grand Rapids they have an enormous art prize - "it's called Art Prize" - and indeed this was a pretty big deal judging from the way works of art were scattered all over the place. Then it was off to J's house to get down to more important business - the long-promised tour of the cellar and inspection of the dedicated champagne fridge!

This number went down very well as did a Chateau Montelena Riesling which I failed to take a photo of but which was a beautiful golden colour, and I think there might have been a Vouvray involved at some point too. J cooked some amazing Indian food and I spent a considerable amount of time paying my respects to the majestic Raja.

The majestic Raja

The next morning, we met for coffee and then got down to some serious culture. First the Grand Rapids Art Museum, which is the home of this amazing piece.

Then we visited a bar called the B.O.B which was on three levels, each one dripping with works of art. We navigated through hordes of school children and J took loads of photos which I subsequently stole.

For lunch, we went to a restaurant called Reserve, which has a pretty serious wine list. A bottle of Franciacorta went down very well as an aperitif, followed by this very pretty Cote de Brouilly along with half a pulled pork panini and a salad.

I must have been in a good mood to allow this photo to be taken!

I was given the afternoon off to recuperate and then we met up again for dinner at New Hotel Mertens, which despite the name is actually now a French restaurant. J had brought along a bottle of Chateau Duhart Milon 2003 which was very enjoyable with cheese - I felt very at home eating Delice de Bourgogne - and a charcuterie plate including rabbit rillettes!

They made a damn fine negroni, too

J's little boy is very sophisticated and wanted croquembouche for dessert. We helped out but there were still leftovers for the next day. This entire plate cost $10. Can't argue with that!

Spot the skeleton dog!

On Tuesday morning, our first destination was Outside Coffee - fortunately the drizzle had abated somewhat, the coffee was excellent, and I enjoyed the kitsch Halloween decorations.

Then we spent some time at the Frederik Meijer gardens, which includes some botanical gardens, a concert amphitheatre, sculpture park, Japanese garden etc.etc.

A possible career move? Perhaps not

We made it back to the centre of town just in time to meet one of J's friends for tacos. Apparently there are 30 taco places in Grand Rapids, and this one was judged to be safe for a visitor. Also, it had a cocktail called "Darker Than Your Soul" so obviously that clinched it.

We then took a whistle-stop tour of Grand Rapids so that J could buy a bottle of gin called "St George" for a certain person. He and I are planning to try it out this evening!

Later on, I got an Uber back to J's house where I was treated to a pre-prandial bourbon tasting.

Oh, the suffering!

I cracked on with that while J put together a treasure chest of goodies to take to our dinner destination.

J's friend R very kindly had invited us round to her place for dinner, and we were joined by some other friends so this wasn't just between three of us...

I wasn't familiar with this champagne but I really enjoyed it - it's not often I get to drink champagne from the previous millennium these days!

My own contribution was my last bottle of Clos des Papes 2002 and I was pretty nervous about it but, hurrah! it turned out to be on top form and everyone loved it.

R's paella was absolutely spectacular and extremely delicious.

It was no time for tasting notes but I seem to recall these two beauties went down very easily!

And this Chateau d'Yquem 1981 certainly did, along with R's fabulous creme brulee.

It was a really wonderful evening and I very much enjoyed meeting people I'd heard so much about, and hanging out outside with R and J afterwards, while the Uber driver got lost trying to find us. Enormous thanks to J for looking after me for three days - I'm so glad I made the trip to Grand Rapids and am sure I'll be back.

On Wednesday I flew to Detroit and enjoyed a couple of hours watching the little tram thing whizzing up and down, with just a tiny sparrow keeping me company, even though we were indoors. Then it was off to Pittsburgh, where D picked me up in the famous Jeep.

Back at D's house, I was delighted to renew my acquaintance with the two felines, Sable and CC, and a happy couple of days were spent including a trip to the booze shop where I picked up this little local number, now installed at AduV Towers. G is particularly pleased with  the back label, which declares "Certified Organic by Pennsylvania Certified Organic".

On Friday morning we headed off to Quebec Run which is a nature reserve in the south of Pennsylvania. Our plan was somewhat scuppered by the discovery that heavy rainfall had turned the track into a stream and we reached a point where what was probably normally a trickle had turned into a sizable river with no obvious means of crossing. I'm trying to be more rugged these days but like the woman said, ain't nobody got time for that. We turned back and found an alternative route to the delightful campsite which D had in mind. This had been described to me as being "by a babbling brook" but was actually now more like a roaring waterfall.

I gathered firewood and took surreptitious selfies while D did all the real work.

Our new 3 man tent, just right for 2 women 

A salamander! Not in the tent, fortunately

We didn't see a single other person on the trail on Friday but on Saturday morning, we were in the middle of breakfast when a horde of boy scouts went past. Apparently this is the sort of thing that happens out in the woods. We packed up and made it back to the Jeep in one piece, although the way back seemed to be mostly uphill, something that we had strangely failed to notice the previous day. Let's just say my gym regime has been kicked up a notch, as the next trip is a month today! Thanks to D for everything as always and I can't wait for our next adventure.