Robert Reiss Travel Blog and Other Ramblings

Sorry but I was too tired to post late last night but we had a spectacular dinner at Filomena in Georgetown (1063 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, DC 20007). Portions were huge and yummy. The dessert menu showed a series of pictures appropriate for a high end bakery.  Each one looked like it could feed a family of 10. We had 8 people (if you count baby Julian) so we ordered 4 desserts.

Today we took a tour of the monuments and memorials (Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Korean War, and Vietnam War).

At the Jefferson Memorial Charlie was feeling tired and asked if I would carry him. This was only our first stop but how could I turn down that request? While I was carrying him I said “I think I need a Charlie kiss to keep my strength up”. At that point I received a barrage of kisses. We were headed back to the bus and the little guy was starting to feel heavy and my back was evoking a major protest. But there was no way I was going to put him down. I made it back to the bus and Señor Cuteness said the most precious thing, “I want to sit next to grandpa so I can keep kissing him”. I told him I was very grateful but I’d carry him and he didn’t need to give me more kisses. Luckily David unknowingly bailed me out by saying he wanted his son to walk.

 

After the monument/memorial tour we went to the African American Museum.  Of course slavery was prominent among the exhibits.  Lindsay tried to explain to Charlie what it meant to be a slave. First she looked and me and said, “Dad help me with this one.” Then she went on to say, “Well, imagine if there was a person who did everything for you and you didn’t have to pay then. They would get you your food, clean your clothes, straighten your room and anything you needed done they would do. Also THEY would go to work but YOU would get the money “. She then paused and looked at me for my input to which I added “Sounds like you just described your parents”.

Time to watch the NBA playoffs.  I am happy to report that Owen has become a basketball fan.  Now I just need to figure out how to make him an SC fan.

 

We greeted the boys at the entry of the hotel last night. Owen, Charlie and Julian were excited to see Patrice, Lindsay and me. David and Robyn seemed relieved. Travel from SF to DC with 3 young children and have your flight delayed?  My reaction would be  “#^+%{{” but David and Robyn seemed to be handling things just fine.

This morning Patrice and I were awakened by young children screeching next door. No, it wasn’t our crew but some other people who obviously were not on California Time. I finally had had enough. I banged on the wall and yelled “Keep quiet, my wife is trying to sleep and I’m playing Words With Friends”. That seemed to do the trick.

After resting a little longer we headed down to breakfast. This hotel (St. Regis 923 16th St NW, Washington, DC 20006) is very special. It is old so you would expect some things like poor insulation between the walls (we learned the hard way) but it is extremely classy. All the employees are falling all over themselves trying to make us happy. The hostess in the restaurant pulled the chair out for me and I thanked her and then she thanked me (not sure what I did other than thank her and sit down).

The check-in people were also great. They informed us that breakfast is included with our room. Then they said since we are platinum level guests, breakfast is included. Does that mean we can have breakfast twice? It was obvious we the only Californians in the dining hall. There you had a bunch of men wearing suits and ties. Then you had me (See below)

 

Breakfast was great. I had Salmon Benedict (see above) and Patrice had Crab Cake Benedict. Yes, we are not at the Residence Inn this trip.

This morning I got a text from my sister-in-law, Fayla, asking the plans for the day. I said “I don’t know, I just do what I’m told”. To which she replied “Another perfect Reiss man. Do what you’re told”.

Dobyn and crew joined us along with Lindsay as we were finishing breakfast (they are much better sleepers than we are).

After breakfast I was told I wanted to go to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.  We had a great tour and saw the Spirit of St. Louis (Charles Lindbergh), Glamorous Glennis (Chuck Yeager), Friendship 7 (John Glenn) and host of other historic aircraft.  I have seen all these vessels before but I really enjoyed seeing them again.  Also visiting a place like this with young children takes advantage of my vast experience.  Yes, I am an invaluable travel partner.  See below.

After the Smithsonian we headed to Georgetown.  This a lovely area of the city and the home to Georgetown University (who would have guessed it?).   We happened onto a sign that explained some of the history of the area dating back to meetings between George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.  The sign also noted that a young U.S. Senator from Massachusetts and his wife (John and Jacqueline Kennedy) used to live there. see below.

More tomorrow but first I need to decide what I want to do.  I will be told soon.

Today was supposed to just be a travel day. Dobyn (aka David and Robyn) were not due into D.C. until after 9 pm. They were flying in from the Bay Area and we were coming in from LA so we hoped for smooth flights and maybe a quick hello prior to getting to bed.

Prior to boarding Lindsay asked if she could switch seats with me so she could sit next to her mom.  I said sure but what if the person sitting next to me is Ryan Gosling?  She replied “He is married and has a kid, so that would be fine”.   As it turned out it was not Ryan Gosling.  Nor was it Cameron Diaz or my new personal favorite, Charlize Theron.  Instead it was………………  see below.

So I sat next to former presendential candidate, Bernie Sanders, the entire flight to D.C.  We talked about his presidential aspirations, Donald Trump, the future of America and the world.  We talked about movies, sports, books, foreign policy, economics and I can’t begin to list all things we discussed………………….. IN MY IMAGINATION.

In reality we spoke very little.  I now know why he didn’t beat Hilary in 2016.  The man doesn’t have any charisma.  We did talk a bit and it was fun but not earth-shattering.

Unfortunately Dobyn and the boys are not in town as yet.  Their flight was delayed leaving San Francisco.  Imagine that, what are the chances a flight leaving SFO would be delayed?  Correct, 100%.

Enough excitement for one day.

Tomorrow we leave for a week long trip in Washington D.C. with David, Robyn and their 3 sons.  Oh yes, Lindsay is coming too.  But first we had a big day planned here in Los Angeles.

Today was the annual “Take Steps Walk” for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation.  Each year Team Reiss raises money to help fund the research needed to find the cure to Crohn’s disease.  As you might know 2 of our 3 children have Crohn’s disease.

We had a great turnout for Team Reiss.  Thanks to so many kind and generous people we were the #1 fundraising team this year.  We also had an excellent turn out of team members for today’s walk. See below.

In addition to some great exercise walking there were lots of fun activities.   We had live music, face painting (a kid favorite) and my personal favorite, pseudo-sumo wrestling (See below).

The Walk is over but it is not too late to join Team Reiss.  If you have not donated yet please follow this link to the Team Reiss page.

http://online.ccfa.org/goto/robertreiss2018

If you donate I will get an email notifying me and I will send you a personalized thank you as soon as we arrive in D.C.    Or possibly sooner.

 

Unfortunately our trip must come to a premature end. Rae Elster, Patrice’s mother, died last night at her home. Followers of this blog who knew Rae, are aware of what a special woman she was. Those of you who did not know her missed a very special person. She will be sorely missed by everyone. She was 91.

Patrice and I are ending our trip today and returning home.

Today was the final day of judging. This was the big day.  This was the day when all the champions would be crowned.  Judging categories are Ribs, Shoulder and Whole Hog. On arrival to the judge’s tent Patrice and I were assigned to judge Shoulder. I don’t really care about the category. What I like is going onsite (where you go to meet the competitors) rather than blind judging (when you just receive boxes of product).  It is when you really get to taste the flavor of the competition.  You cannot begin to imagine how important this is for the people who participate unless you are an onsite judge.

As you pass the various tents on your way to your assigned tent, all competitors are on the lookout because they don’t know which passerby might be their judge.  When you arrive at the tent to which you are assigned  you are typically greeted by the captain of the team (not necessarily the head cook).  The first team I met was an experienced team but still seemed very nervous when talking to me.  For example their greeter introduced himself and forgot my name 3 times (not a problem for me).  He introduced me to his team, Billy Bob, Billy Ray, Billy Joe and Daisy (yes, they are from the South) and then escorted me over to their cooker and explained their cooking method.  Then Billy Ray (or was it Billy Bob?) brought the pork over to a small table which was set with a table cloth, napkin (with a napkin ring), plate, but no silverware (any judge who uses any cutlery is immediately labeled as an “Idiot”.   Also on the table was a glass of water and a sorbet to, in Daisy’s words, help cleanse the palate before trying the meat.  Billy Ray then started to pull pork off the bone hoping to satiate my appetite so I would not even bother going to the other booths.  When I was done tasting they handed me a moist hot towel to clean my hands.  Then as I left I received, the always embarrassing, round of applause accompanied by the chant, “Thank you Judge Robert! Thank you Judge Robert!.

Then it was on to my second team.  They too tried to kill me with kindness.  Again they seemed like they were nervous.  I am the one who should be nervous.  They are just in a silly barbecue contest.  I am the Jew who will burn in hell for eating all this pork plus I have to face my vegetarian niece and try to explain my actions.   Team #2 was a much larger team and I can’t remember all their names.  They did have a nice touch by serving me (in additional to some amazing pork) some of “Aunt Phoebe’s” lemon tart as a little dessert.  I didn’t have the heart to tell them I am a chocolate lover and lemon is just not my thing.

I then visited my third and final team.  Here I met Sam, David and his wife Sarah.  This had my worried.  Had my rabbi sent this trio to kill me?  I have never seen a team with less than a small army (rather than a team of only 3) and these names definitely had me freaked out (these were not southern BBQ type names).  I was offered some pork but before I tasted any I insisted they eat some first.  Much to my amazement the pork was spectacular.  This team was also unique in that instead of giving me a moist towel to wash off they gave me a dipping bowl.  I said, “Wow feels just like Passover”.  My joke was followed by complete silence.  I realized this was the wrong crowd for that joke but at least I knew it wasn’t an Israeli death squad sent to eliminate an infidel.

The festival is now over and it is time to move on.  It has been a rough few days in Memphis due to all the heat.  But I will be up and ready to go in the morning.

 

Many of you know my dear niece Leslie.  A sweeter human being has never existed on Earth.  I credit her with saving my mother’s life.  It is a long story and I won’t bore you with the details but just take my word for it she is amazing and I love her dearly.  The problem here is that she is a vegetarian and a real animal lover.  What I saw today blew my mind and would tremendously upset her.  So my warning to her is to NOT LOOK ANY FURTHER.

Today was a day of more judging.  We arrived at the judging area early so I decided to take a stroll around the park.  The competitors for the Whole Hog competition had just had their meat inspected and they were working hard getting things ready for tomorrow’s competition.  At the first tent I was greeted with this sight:

The next booth I reached was from Mexico. I could hear Spanish being spoken as I approached and was excited and hoped that I could practice my language skills.  But as I got closer I realized that the Mexicans had two ringers in their midst.  The two workers in the middle of the picture below were doing most of the work and did not sound like they came from south of the border.

After my little tour I returned to the tent where Patrice and I judged poultry.  When I first sit at the judging table I like to exchange greetings with the other judges.  The judge sitting across from me said his name was Julian.  I told him that I have a grandson named Julian.  He seemed pleased when he said, “I don’t meet many Julians”.  I asked where he was from and he said “D.C.” at which point the judge to my right said, “You’re from the Swamp”.  Julian seemed confused.  I explained to him “We are in Trump Country”.  Julian smiled and said, “Oh”.

Getting back to my mom (who is now 102 years old) I called her tonight.  I like to check in with her on regular basis.  She asked where we were.  I told her Memphis and then asked if she received the trip itinerary that I mailed her.  She said yes, so I asked “Then why did you ask?  You already knew where we were.”   To which she replied, “I wanted to check to see if you knew”.

Dinner was a blast.  We went out with our friends Gary and Smooch to a restaurant called Tsunami [928 Cooper St, Memphis, TN 38104] located in a upscale area called Cooper Young.  We read about the area in American Ways magazine (the American Airlines inflight magazine).   The food was great.  We ordered lots of appetizers (tapas style eating) but many of the dishes came in orders of 5.  I asked the group, “Why is it when they have a party of 4 they just don’t give you 4 or 8 pieces so the diners can divide the portions equally?”   When we ordered the next appetizer we asked the waitress if we could get 8 shrimp instead of 5.  At first she said yes but then came back and said the chef could only make us one or two orders of 5 shrimp.  We decided on the the single order and then I went on a tirade talking to the group about the educational system in our country and how I see young people on a regular basis who cannot do simple math.  I finally settled down and we finished our meal.  When the server brought our bill.  She asked if we wanted her to divide the check in half to which I said, “No, in fifths”.

Tomorrow we have the judging finals.

Today was our first day of judging. This is a lightly attended day since it involves sauces and wings. Neither command much interest except from diehards like us.

We connected with some old friends like Lance from Tastin’ ‘Round Town (www.tastinroundtown.com). We can blame him for this craziness since it was his BBQ tour in 2015 that got us infected with the Memphis in May BBQ bug.

We also had some time to explore the booths. The contestants frequently like to have catchy names like “Boars Night Out”, “The Pig and the Pigulum”, “Nice Rack”, “Aporkalypse Now”, “Born in the Que SA” and “Love Meat Tender” to name just a few.  There are over 200 booths competing in the three main categories of Whole Hog, Shoulder, and Ribs.   There are two phases of the competition “Blind” and “On Site”.  The blind competition will occur tomorrow when product will be presented to judges in styrofoam boxes that are numbered.  Each box will be judged by 4 judges.  The second phase will occur on Saturday when judges will go to booths and meet the team and taste their product.  Each judge will go to 3 teams and each team will have 3 separate judges visit them.  On site judging provides us with a great opportunity to taste some amazing BBQ but it is the cultural experience that I enjoy most.  More about that on Saturday.

Today Patrice and I did blind judging of sauce and wings.  Just to give you an idea of how arbitrary this can be, at my table one of the judges and I decided wings #2 were the best that we tasted.  A judge sitting across from me thought #2 was the worse of the lot.

There are a lot of people out at the festival so it is easy to get separated if you are not careful.  I made sure I didn’t lose Patrice by having her wear a shirt that described her perfectly (see below)

When we were leaving the fair to return to the hotel is started to rain.  At first there were fine droplets but soon after we had to run for cover.  Luckily they had room for us at the Metro PCS booth where they had phone chargers set up for the fair attendees.  So in spite of having to wait for the rain to clear we at least had an opportunity to charge our phones.  The rain let up for a bit so we hustled home while we had a chance.

After having those wings I thought I wouldn’t need to eat again until Saturday at the earliest but when dinner came around I was ready to go.  Gary and Smooch picked out a place called Flight [39 S. Main St, Memphis, TN 38103] and the place was spectacular.  They specialized in fine dining but portions can be ordered in small sizes called Flights.  So if you can’t decide if you want the Scallops, Soft Shell Crab or Shrimp you can have all 3.  They do that with their wines, appetizers, entrees and desserts.  The food was spectacular.

Until tomorrow when the real BBQ judging begins.

Yes, the food is unhealthy (but delicious), the weather unbearable, and the politics are much different than back home but the one thing I really love here is to listen to people talk. As you might recall on our trip to Canada I was very suspicious of our location because it took about 4 days before I heard anyone say “eh”. Well there’s no doubt where we are today. Leaving our room a member of the housekeeping staff greeted us with a friendly good morning and a directive “Y’all have a good breakfast “.  Then at our favorite morning diner, Blue Plate Cafe [113 Court Ave, Memphis, TN 38103], the server (oops, I forgot we are in Tennessee) I mean waitress asked if we were ready to order or “y’all need a few more minutes?”

After another great breakfast we headed do the Cotton Museum.  Patrice liked it but I would recommend a pass.  After the museum we went back to the hotel for something that should be a part of every vacation.  We both had massages.

After that I played Uber driver and picked up our friend Gary and his friend Smooch (not a typo and no, she is not from the South).  We dined at the Barbecue Shop [1782 Madison Ave, Memphis, TN 38104] a place first introduced to us by Lance on our BBQ Food Tour in 2015 .   This place is famous for their BBQ Spaghetti (yes spaghetti).  We needed to get our BBQ palates ready for the judging which will be starting soon.

Here are the musicians from yesterday’s quiz.  This time with their names included.

Today was suppose to be just a travel day as we took the long drive from Dallas to Memphis.  Sunday when we had dinner with our friends Kathy and Sam they asked if we were going to stop at the Clinton Presidential Library.  I was embarrassed to admit that I hadn’t even considered it.  How could I plan to see the George W. Bush Library and not even consider Clinton?

Little Rock is about 320 miles from Dallas.  I looked at the Clinton Library website and saw that they had tours with the last being at 1:30 PM.  Getting there by that time would take some real effort on Patrice’s part.  You have to remember that we are still on California time and that would mean we would have to be on the road by about 8:00 AM.  We did manage to get in the car, ready to go, at 8:25 AM and we were making great time on the road.  We had to bypass some sites.  For example we saw sign from the highway that read  “Dr. John’s Lingerie” but we decided we would have to wait until next time for that one.  We did stop in Hope, Arkansas (Bill Clinton’s birthplace) to get gas but decided we didn’t have time to see the monument to commemorate Clinton’s site of origin.  We rolled into the Library parking lot at a trace after 1:00 PM in plenty of time to make the tour.  Of course the docent called in sick and the tour was cancelled.  Instead we toured by ourselves.

The Clinton Library was much like the Bush Library in that it was freezing inside.  This time I came prepared with my jacket.  They had the Presidential limousine which I liked seeing and a short presentation about the Secret Service.  Like Bush there were lots of puff pieces making this President the greatest of all time.  The most interesting thing I saw were personal letters from a variety of well known people and Clinton’s replies.  It showed a side of these individuals that you often don’t get to see when they are showing their public faces.  Letter writers included Elton John, Sheryl Crow, Paul Newman, former NYC mayor John V. Lindsay, the Dalai Lama, Katherine Graham, John Kennedy Jr., Fred Rogers (aka Mr. Rogers)  and a variety of others.

The museum had a special exhibit discussing music in politics.  This included a 13 minute film that showed a number of very famous musicians performing at benefits to raise money for a variety of worthy causes.  There was a display of Elvis Presley in the military and showed pictures of a number of other celebrities from their military days.  Can you identify these three musicians in uniform?  One I think is easy but can you name all three?  I will show the photos with their names tomorrow.

Before we left Little Rock I had to go see Central High School.  For those of you not up to date on your US History this was the site where 9 Black teenagers attempted to integrate an all White high school in Little Rock, Arkansas.  Governor Orval Faubus attempted to block their entry in September of 1957.  President Eisenhower sent federal troops and later federalized the Arkansas National Guard to ensure that the students would be registered and could safely attend the school.   In 1971 my friend, Greg, and I traveled about the USA in a van.  One thing we both wanted to do was travel through the deep south.  We both had relatively long hair at the time and neither of our parents thought this was a great idea.  I wasn’t always as smart as I am today and Greg wasn’t too bright either so we went and had a FANTASTIC time.  To this day it remains one of my favorite trips of all time.

Today’s trip from Little Rock to Memphis gave us a little laugh and excitement.   On our way to the Clinton Library we saw a warning sign, “Road Dangerous When Underwater”.  Shortly after taking the picture of Central HS we found out what they meant when we were caught in a heavy rain storm.  It was interesting in that after lunch we experienced the sudden onset of some very strong winds while walking to our car.   Soon after starting to drive we saw some lightening.  Then the rains came.  They were extremely heavy and prevented us from driving faster than 30 mph on the highway.  After about 30 minutes they cleared and we were on our way.

Tomorrow I will tell you about Memphis but don’t forget to try to name the musicians above.