Friday...
What to do w/leftover pizza dough? I rolled it out, brushed it w/olive oil and sprinkled some sea sat on it...grilled it on our indoor cast iron grill, and served it for lunch w/a salad ~ baby romaine, olives, beets, goat cheese and walnuts w/Annie's Shiitake & Sesame vinaigrette...(it appears again on the river in photos below...)
Sam chopping, creating and inventing in the kitchen...
. . . . . .
Saturday morning at the river...the view from my teacup...
The river's so beautiful, we took our tea right down to the beach...
. . . . . .
I am prepared for a wonderful unplugged LONG weekend at the river...
. . . . . . .
Perfect river day (and we're thinking about LUNCH!!)...
Dave's grilling the hot dogs...
And there's more of that leftover-grilled-pizza-dough-now-turned-into-a-hot-dog-bun...YUM.
This was THE best s'more of my life...
I burned my foot on a George Foreman grill. (OK...you're only going to get that joke if you are an *Office* fan). Seriously, though...it was the Dave Ohman grill. Dave decided the grill was not in the best location, so he picked it up and moved it. What did I do IMMEDIATELY after he moved it?? I stepped right on the spot (yes, the heated ROCK spot) where he just had the grill. I screamed. And I spent the rest of the time on our rock w/my foot in the cool, flowing water. Not too bad, because I got all of my delicious food served to me...
Not wanting this river trip to end, we made one more stop for Dave and Sam to jump from their favorite rock...
. . . . . . . .
Not long after returning to our cabin, we were heading out again with FOOD on our minds.
Wrangling on the dirt roads...crossing the river from PA to Callicoon, NY...
Jake & Sam standing up in the back of the Wrangler...
We go to the pizza place in Callicoon and order our pizza and calamari...
Then we go to the wonderful wine store and buy a couple of bottles...
And we picnic.
This day's picnic was quite unique, as we are usually the only ones in the park for our Saturday dinner, but today, we were quite blessed to have shared the park with Mark Ruffalo, his wife Sunrise, their 3 children and their nanny. Here's what happened...
As we began eating, we saw two women and three kids running joyfully with the children from a local restaurant toward the park. We, at that point, had no idea they were a part of Mark Ruffalo's family!! I thought, "What Joy!!" And then they started playing right near us!! Then I thought, "Really?? You have the entire park and you're playing right HERE??" But the Joy of those kids and the way the adults were respectfully Joyful with them was not a problem to us at all...it was quite cool to be around (and a nice change from the *typical* scene of parents controlling children).
The kids were continually drawn to us...and our puppies... After running and playing for some time, one of the little girls couldn't resist any longer, and she came over to me and asked if she could pet Roxi. Her brother and other sister followed her, and we all chatted and played together w/the puppies. Keen, the brother, asked about petting Monty, saying, "I love English bulldogs!"
While this was happening, a man ran from the same restaurant down to the park, and he honored his boy's request to time how fast he could run the length of the park. As he joyfully exclaimed with the boy over how fast the boy had ran, I said out loud to my family, "Ohmygod! Is that Mark Ruffalo??"
I was kidding. I didn't really think it was. He LOOKED like Mark Ruffalo and SOUNDED like Mark Ruffalo...but how could the dude who is in my all-time favorite movie that I've seen 611 times (yes, I'm talking about 13 Going on 30) be THERE?? In Callicoon, NY? At our weekly Saturday evening picnicking spot??
Both of our families started the process of cleaning up and leaving the park...we all said our good-bye's and I thanked the kids for giving our puppies some lovin'!
My family and I joked that we should follow them to see where they go to see if it WAS, in fact, Mark Ruffalo. And then for the remainder of the weekend, we kept coming up with reasons WHY it MUST have been Mark Ruffalo. I was ~ still ~ joking about it all. I did not really think it was him.
And then we got home to internet access and I googled him. His wife. His kids. Is this getting a bit stalker-ish?? I just needed to know!! The photos of his wife are so *Hollywood* that I still was not convinced...but then I read the kids' names. Sam said that when the little girl was getting close to Roxi, she'd call for Bella. Yup. Three kids. Names fit.
Still unconvinced, I googled Mark Ruffalo and Callicoon. There it was. He does have a home in our small river town. How Freakin' Cool.
Damn ~ I didn't get any photos. But we have really wonderful memories of our conversations with the kids and are impressed with what joyful, respectful parents he and his wife are (as they drove away in their old beat-up SUV, we wondered where *he* was and realized he had gotten in the back...with the kids...).
. . . .
Sunday ~
Starting the day off right...
Blueberry pancakes w/peaches, real maple syrup (my kids have never had any other kind), and whipped cream...
. . . . . . . .
Before heading out on the river, we went to the Farmer's Market in Callicoon, as Sam had a request for some tomatoes and lettuce for his sammo that he'd be having on the river, and Jake wanted some goat cheese on his grilled eggplant sammo.
. . . . . . . .
I made the sammos for our kayak trip on my homemade baguettes...and then we proceeded to walk in the direction of getting on the river at *some* point (it's usually directed by our stomachs, as we want to eat on the river).
. . . . . . . .
Today's beverage...piña coladas...
Good sammos...
. . . . . . . .
Monty would like to go out, please...
EnJoy!!
3 comments:
Oh, I love your Mark Ruffalo story. I have met him before myself, actually, and I can confirm that he is a really awesome guy. I worked with with him at The Goodman Theatre, where he was in Eric Bogosian's Griller with us (and no one burned their foot on that grill in this play, by the way). I worked in the press office there and had lots of contact with the artists and always felt like I got a good sense of them by how they treated the staff. He was nothing but kind, truly made an impression on me for how thoughtful he was. I have closely followed his career ever since--that was in 1997 or so, and he was relatively unknown then. I recently heard a great interview with him on Fresh Air, and he talked a bit about his family there. I got a very good feeling when I heard some of the things he said. Anyway, I am delighted to hear this story about him.
I had a similar experience a few weeks ago. I was at a party for some friends and I heard this very familiar voice. I looked up and thought the voice was coming out of a very familiar face, but I could see no reason this person would actually be at this small event celebrating my two friends contract renewal (instead of getting married, my friends sign a 5 year contract together and renew it every five years--a good excuse to have a little party and renew their relationship, which is really a lovely one). Anyway, I was interested to see that this woman had a daughter, with whom she seemed to have a lovely relationship. And then in the bathroom, I ran into her daughter, who had apparently spilled juice all over her shoes and was feeling sticky. I had a nice conversation with her about it, acknowledging that juice in flip flops feels pretty icky, and then later, I observed how connected the mom and daughter seemed to be as they sat together in the garden.
I was quite delighted by them, and although I didn't actually talk to the mother, because at that point I was quite sure she was who I thought she was and I wanted to give her space, I really enjoyed watching their interactions (and I admit I felt a bit like a stalker, since I could not resist watching them).
When we all signed the contract, I saw that she signed her name: Julia Sweeney. Cool. ;)
Interesting post at least I think so. Thnx for enlightning this information.
Craig Torson
camera jamming
Nice post, sweetie! I'll be happy to read more! BTW, why don't you make this site a little more social.
Barbara Martin
dominos coupons
Post a Comment