Category: alexander city

We’re in the midst of college tours for Shug, and as part of our New England trip this summer (Shug’s now overseas for the summer and we have Shugie here a bit longer before he leaves the country) wanted to show Shugie some of the big universities in this part of the country.

In New Haven, of course, Yale.

And lunch! New Haven is famous for a certain coal-fired pizza like at Pepe’s

They had a nice-size queue outside too

but we decided to have lunch at Zeneli’s Pizzeria e cucina Napoletana further down Wooster Street. We ate outside and the weather was terrific. Shugie gets all the credit because he picked Zeneli himself (here’s a piece about them from CT Insider)

above, we started with the ricotta e miele

the meatball appetizer was my dish

and the tre carni pizza with spicy salami, proscuitto cotto, sweet salami, and basil got a great reception too

Shugie spotted Libby’s Italian Pastry Shoppe across the street so we hopped over

and this was the selection — a peanut butter cheesecake, a peanut butter cannoli, and a Heath bar cannoli.

And next we were off to Cambridge, where one of my besties works at Harvard. My sweet-sweet Suzanne showed Shugie some of the oldest parts of the school (and he did a good walk too) and we were really taken with the newer buildings:

It was great to see my niece-doggy Tulip, and we had a terrific supper at Waypoint

oysters

Shug’s Jonah crab angel hair pasta

salt & pepper soft shell crabs

fish & chips

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BTW, we happened to drive by the Julia Child home in Cambridge — it’s a private residence, so there’s nothing to stop for. If you visit the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, there’s a replica (down to things placed *exactly* as she had them) of her kitchen. Some pics from my last visit in 2020:

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Julia Child: A Recipe for Life is on exhibit through September 2, 2024 at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture in Richmond.

This weekend we went to the 192nd anniversary of the battle of Horseshoe Bend, which is not too far from Alexander City, AL. This is going to sound silly, but I grew up hearing about Horseshoe Bend and it never dawned on me that it happened in Alabama, or what the consequences were (for instance, 800 Upper Creeks died defending their property here, that Sam Houston fought and was wounded here by an arrow, that afterwards the Creek Nation surrendered 20+ million acres that helped form Alabama and Georgia, that it was this battle that helped catapult Andrew Jackson’s political career, that although the battle ended March 27, 1814 that it is still considered part of the ‘War of 1812’).

Anyway, I really thought we were going to spend a relatively quiet weekend home, but then Sunday came, and we were in the mood to drive somewhere. I looked on the Alabama Tourism site, and the only other things going on really were a reenactment in Bridgeport and some plays that will be going on for several more days that we can catch later if we like (there are a couple of things I really want to see at the Shakespeare Festival, but that will probably be later in April). We decided to go to Horseshoe Bend and just see what they were doing…

At the festival, there were people who were teaching crafts like basketweaving (above), and demonstrating weaving (below), another who was showing how arrowheads are made. There was always a crowd around him – he taught himself how to make arrowheads, and made one while we were standing there. I don’t really know anything about arrowheads, but his demonstration was just really interesting.

This was nice to do once – but another thing we did on Sunday (even better) was a visit to the Kymulga mill and covered bridge. I’ll post that tomorrow. All the pics from Horseshoe Bend are here in my Flickr set.