Vassar

The Hudson River Valley is always beautiful but at no other season can it compare to fall. The colored leaves, sky and water make a wonderful panorama.
We left Manhattan Saturday morning and drove to Poughkeepsie to join our Granddaughter, who is a senior at Vassar. She and 3 other young women share an apartment on the campus grounds but are separated from the underclass housing and academic area.
For lunch she had chosen "Baby Cakes" an upscale "Panera" type restaurant located near Vassar's North Gate. The individuality of the place is noted on arrival. Not only is there a long line but a fully stocked bar covers about two thirds of the dining area main wall.
I didn't know the routine and ordered my grilled ham and Swiss before being told there was a separate listing of daily specials.( Grilled shrimp salad) Too late but not a catastrophe. Our Granddaughter had a full breakfast( served all day long) and my wife her usual chicken salad. Fresh Leonade and diet Coke made up the accompanying drinks.

Our Granddaughter is the stage manager, director for the Senior Play and is a member of the Vassar drama club( slogan; FWSA (Future Wait Staff of America). We toured the set, underconstruction, and met some of her crew who were in the assembly process. After that we spent a wonderful hour or more at the Vassar Art Museum. A small museum, on campus, with a wonderful array of examples of paintings from the Renaissance to today. Some of the time a curator was with us and the time was both educational and delightful.

That night it was off to the CIA ( Culinary Institute of America) 845-471-6608, just up the road in Hyde Park NY.  They operate 2 main restaurants, as training facilities for there students, and we went to the "American Bounty" whose name implies the food and it's heritage. The other is a classic French. Drinks, appetizers, salads and main courses make up the meal. Marilyn had a Portobello salad and duck for her entree, our Granddaughter went with Caesar salad followed by a fall, vegetable Risotto while I also had the Caesar and Beef Short Ribs. I was sightly disappointed as I had ordered the "Skate Wings" and was informed that they had sold out. A substitute is hardly ever as good as your initial intent. CIA funtions well as a training school and that taken into account the food is very good, but not earth shakeing.

The next morning the 3 of us were off to Boston where after a frustrating half hour spent looking for the correct streets from crowed Harvard square we finally met more of our family at "Legal Sea Food" in the Charles Hotel.
Our son, his wife and youngest son had been in Cambridge to visit with their daughter ( a freshman at Harvard) over parents weekend. They had picked up another of are Granddaughters and the 3 of us joined the 5 of them. There is no way that I can recount what everyone ate but I do know I split an order of lump crab cakes with one Granddaughter while Marilyn and our son split a fish sandwich and a large lettuce wedge. Our youngest Grandson had a cheeseburger. So much for a well known seafood restaurant.