i am back from a lovely week in upstate new york, the finger lakes region specifically, and auburn, new york, even more specifically, and it's time for the ridiculously long vacation update, a long-standing tradition on the pita. auburn, i learned, is home to a federal prison that hosted the first execution by electric chair, and was the birthplace of a beautiful friendship between harriet tubman and an important white man who purchased alaska. other fun facts here.
this is what happened there in 2006, in my world: carl, paul stuart and i bussed up there in the early a.m., fueled by apples and caramellos. we arrived in ithaca, greeted by a calmer, more reasonable stuart, matt stuart, and their friend dan. immediately dan went to fill up his "growler" (a large glass jug) at a local brewery, then we had lunch at a mexican joint after an extensive standoff involving one person's extreme desire to eat vietnamese food (paul) and another person's extreme desire not to eat vi
monday we borrowed sally's car and started off at one of carl's favorite joints, doug's fish fry in skaneteles (pronounced "skinny atlas"). extremely greasy but delicious scallops and fish sandwiches and grilled shrimp. then we did some thrift shopping, some driving around looking at cute lakeside towns, and ended up at long point winery, where we picked up the first of nine bottles we would eventually purchase. we went dinnerless to the gorilla biscuits show at this pretty nice club in syracuse. a chandeli