What I Did On My Summer Vacation

After an (absolutely) (delightful) drive though Canada we arrived in Vermont for a week at the Tyler Place.

When I was growing up our family vacations consisted of a two-week car trip; sometimes north, sometimes south. My father would plan an itinerary to include as many historical house tours and national forests as could be packed into fourteen days; my mother would stock the car with books and granola bars and off we'd go. We camped a lot or stayed in motels, preferably the old 50s kind with a pool in the parking lot. They were very good trips (in retrospect - family tradition has it that I bitched my way through most of it) although now my only clear memories are of the food because I am the sort of person who has forgotten everything about my first mother-in-law apart from her pickled red cabbage.

[Montreal could be one of my favorite cities for any number of reasons but the truth is that I developed a passion for the place when I was six years old on the strength of two superb lunches there: a chicken pot pie that thirty-plus years later I can describe down to the last leaf of tarragon and a bowl of Potage St.Germain that was as life altering as pea soup can be. From other trips I remember fried shrimp and sweet tea and okra and green tomatoes. Chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches in Maine. Maryland crab cakes of course. A dining hall in the Smoky Mountains that had a really nice beef vegetable soup. Fudge on Mackinac Island. Even as an adult (or maybe especially as an adult?) I tend to perseverate about food, like the tomato and onion and blue cheese salad that I ordered three days in a row on Maui and when my boss asked whether we enjoyed our honeymoon the very first thing I said was, "I had the best salad." He looked at me funny.]

Anyway, my point is that this is how we would travel when I was a child and that - plus a week in a rental house at Rehoboth every summer - was the extent of my personal experience with family vacations. So when Julie went to the Tyler Place resort three years ago and sent me an urgent telegram immediately upon her return saying "SELL ALL AVAILABLE KIDNEYS stop COME HERE NEXT YEAR stop WEATHER FINE AND OH MY GOD THE STAFF MEMBERS WHO ARE NOT BUSY REMOVING YOUR CHILDREN TO EXHAUST THEM WITH CAMP SONGS AND NATURE HIKES ARE ASKING IF THEY CAN BRING YOU SOMETHING FROM THE BAR OR TELLING YOU THAT TODAY'S HOMEMADE ICE CREAM IS CARAMEL TURTLE FUDGE" I was interested but I didn't totally get the concept.

It goes like this:

You pay $x per person per day (rates vary depending upon how old the kids are and where you stay) in exchange for which the nice people at Tyler Place make everything about your life completely perfect for an entire week. You reserve one of the dozens of different cabins (some little, some really big; some new, some nicely patina'd) which ring an incredibly beautiful bay on the Vermont/Canadian border. Kids are divided into groups like summer camp and the big ones spend mornings (8:30 to 1:30) and evenings (5:30 to 8:30) with their counselors doing things like swimming and boat rides and pirate treasure hunts and campfires and arts and crafts. Little kids have similar hours (less naps and bedtime as needed) at their own playhouse and they go for walks and hay rides and make play dough with their parents' helper. And they feed them. Did I mention they feed the kids? Breakfast lunch snacks and dinner are handled by the counselors, which... words fail me. I think that alone would have made it all worthwhile but if you have been doing the math with me you will notice that in addition to not having to hassle with meals the schedule leaves eight hours a day for the parents to do anything they want. So that's the deal and it sounded pretty good to me so we went last year and it was awesome. Seriously. Amazing.

I think, somehow, this year was even better. Kind of like Harry Potter's room of requirements, they provide whatever it is you need most at the moment. Last year I slept a lot. Caroline and Edward were eighteen months old and had yet to sleep through the night - EVER - and I was so tired I was growing transparent. So as soon as their parents' helper wheeled them away I would collapse into a boneless heap and just... sleep. 

But this year I was feeling much more zesty so I signed us up (singularly jointly and collectively - they have activities for every taste and familial combination) for a bunch of things, starting with the guided canoe trip for Steve and me. We had a great time. Well, great until the bracing Scotch mist turned into a driving rain and the bay we had to cross turned all Deadliest Catch on us. I swear that I could have made it the rest of the way but admit I was grateful when the entire group was rescued by pontoon boat. I also admit that I spent the next three days unable to lift my arms above my shoulders. Paddling is hard.

After that the weather cleared and Steve took a sailing lesson   

 

which was apparently comprehensive enough that it took a mere thirty minutes of instruction before he decided that he was competent to take me for a spin around the bay. I fully expected to need another pontoon rescue but I guess the Hobie cat is amateur proof and I only had to paddle a little to get us back into the dock.

After I indulged his Aubrey-Maturin Steve agreed to play basketball with me. You can tell how seriously he took our game by the fact that he is wearing flip-flops and he didn't stop laughing (at me) the entire time.

For the official and extremely public record: I beat him at Horse. I happen to have a killer lay-up, which Steve very rudely referred to as a weird short person under-basket toss but against which he was nonetheless helpless.

The rest of the week we played mini golf and found ourselves alone in the cabin at ten in the morning and rode around on bikes and went swimming and drank too much one night and went to Montreal for lunch without the children (you have to be a Formula One fan to appreciate this photo but look where we drove - Steve DIED.)

Meanwhile Caroline and Edward:

they bounced

and they swam

and Edward got to try out a tractor.

One day they went to a toddler yoga class. Caroline wanted nothing to do with it, so their parents' helper (wonderful Emma) got down a dollhouse for her. As Emma was helping Edward get into his half spinal twist everyone started shouting Eeek! and Emma discovered that Caroline had climbed into the dollhouse and gotten well and truly stuck, head out the window a la Alice and everything. Three people tried to see if the roof came off and Caroline said, "I'm upset!" and Emma eventually told her that she had gotten herself in there so she needed to find a way to get herself back out again. So Caroline twisted her head and slid out like an oyster and there was much rejoicing. Emma told me that sometimes you need to be a little firm with Caroline. I consider this the understatement of the century; also I loved the fact that I was not the person who had to figure out how to get Caroline out of a dollhouse.

Patrick bloomed. He made friends (and introduced them! to me! with relevant details about them like their names and where they were staying!) He ate more than just bread. When questioned in the evening he admitted that he enjoyed everything including the lake, which was arguably pretty damned cold. One afternoon he even had a play date. At the end of the week the counselors gave awards to all of the kids. Patrick was named King of the Sandcastle. When we got home last night he put his certificate on his bedroom wall and said, "You know, it's surprising but this is the first international recognition I have gotten for my work."

So that was Vermont.

And then we drove home as fast as we could under the Great Lakes (stopping to visit family in Vermont and Ohio) and the children did not come completely unglued until Eau Claire. 

A very very nice trip except for the last two hours and who can ever say more than that?

PS On an administrative note my computer died so I have been incommunicado since last week and will continue to be so until my hard drive is replaced this week. If you have emailed me I'll get back to you.

PPS I would add my usual defensive caveat about the fact that Tyler Place is pricey but after spending seven days on the road I have concluded that all travel with children is expensive and for what you get (everything) Tyler is actually a pretty good deal. We went to Niagara Falls on the way home (pictures to follow) and they charged us ten freaking dollars just to park for thirty minutes. Scandalous.  

PPPS Steve thinks it is strange that I remember with such passionate clarity decades later things I have eaten. Do you remember meals?

Comments

[tgsdmom]

I have limited memory (of meals). Only first or unique experiences. And even then - the memory is usually vague.

Patrick's line is hilarious. And he is too beautiful to be true, when not putting on a Calvin's face.

So glad you had a great vacation.

[Rebecca]

I do remember meals. It's a family thing with us. My uncle-by-marriage will say about how his wife/my aunt will say things like "Oh but you had that last time we were here!" and he'll say, "Yes, but it was 20 years ago!"

[babelbabe]

I can tell you exactly what we ate where on my weeklong honeymoon in Italy. I mean, yeah, so I saw the Sistine chapel and the Duomo and rode a gondola, but the gelato! and the gnocchi! and the shrimp pizza!

[Courtney]

Yup. One year when I was about 12 my parents won a dinner at the Ritz. We got to go in a limo in everything. I didn't want any of the entrees, so I got two appetizers: gazpacho (which I had never had before and I LOVED), and this ball of goat cheese wrapped in phyllo dough. It was amazing - I still think about it. At a party for a bunch of fellow law school interns, these amazing donuts from Maple Donuts in York, PA - I must have eaten three or four of them. Rose petal pasta with zucchini sauce on the beach in Positano on our honeymoon. The brioche with foie gras and marmalade on my 30th birthday. The first time I had fish tacos and realized they weren't disgusting, they were delicious!

I also love that you through in references to Rehoboth and other random Maryland-ish spots - sometimes I forget you grew up around here. Do you visit DC anymore?

[PamL]

Maui: Macadamia Nut Crusted Mahi Mahi-the best ever! Some place in Kihei, the Sandpiper, Sandcastle? or some such place.

Two orders of blueberry pancakes on a road trip through New England one summer as a kid, not sure where, but they were SO, so good.

Trout Almondine and Mock Turtle soup, Old Bookbinder's in Philly

Anything I ate in Venice or Rome after starving in the rest of Europe (sorry Germany, Switzerland, England, you were pretty but I lost 10 lbs.

[llcsis]

It's all food memories here too. One more bonding point w/ all the readers :)

[Jennifer]

Oh Patrick. That kid will never cease to amaze me..."international recognition...!" Snork!!!

Oh, and so.freaking.jealous. We're going to Duluth for the weekend, but somehow it just doesn't seem to match up.

I don't remember the details of a meal, but I do remember particular meals where we were so happy with everything and each other, it was great. Appetizers on the deck overlooking the Colorado River in El Jebel; Morton's in Chicago...all before children.

So glad that you are back!

[Reba]

My whole life revolves around food. Luckily my sister and husband share the same passion but no one else in the family gets it. My mother thought we were kidding when she heard the 3 of us talking about a restaurant my sister had been to over 10 years before and sis remarked "remember? That was where I had that piece of bacon I emailed you about". And we did remember :)

[TeacherMommy]

You just made me laugh until tears came into my eyes with the story about Caroline and the dollhouse. And since fifteen minutes before I had tears in my eyes from a rather nasty and passive-aggressive (but of course) email from my (oh thank God it's legally true) ex-husband, I am so very very thankful.

I can remember the food from the West African country where I grew up with such vividness that I can almost taste it.

[Alexicographer]

LOL. Yes, I remember food, but I am the sort of person who when traveling (or not) will think, "Gee that sounds odd, I think I'll order some and see what it is." An example: [Hungarian] Gypsy spit with fries (so translated into the 3 languages I could understand well enough to read and that appeared on the menu!) = salty pork chop topped with finely grated fried potatoes. And then there was the time I ordered deep fried bone marrow (overall I cannot recommend this dish though I found it more bland than (otherwise) unpleasant.

The rest sounds fabulous, well, except the last two hours of the car trip. But what can you do? Glad you had fun and are safely home.

[PamL]

The first time I had baklava at a people's fair in Philly., also my first cheesesteak on South Street

[MAR]

Re: expensive parking. The parking fees at Niagara Falls do not sounds so bad to me. But I live in LA where you can easily pay $20/hour to park your car.

Your comment about food reminds me to ask about your food blog. I miss it. I am sure you are too busy right now to spend all day in the kitchen, but perhaps you will update Scrambled again when C & E start preschool?

[Noelle]

Julia, I'm so glad you're home! I'm so glad your trip was so great, and I can't wait to hear all the details. It's summer - I have time! ;-P And yes, of course I remember food I've eaten - years, decades, later. Like the charbroiled oysters at Drago's when Max was a baby, the crazy good and crazy cheap noodle soup at the dingy, giant noodle shop in Milapedes, the perfect ploughman's lunch and pint of cider in Cornwall and the clotted cream on scones in Devonshire the same trip, the so-hot-you-cry crawfish at Ted's jazz band picnic at the Fly during college ..... Oh, I can go on and on (as you know). :-) I'll call you tomorrow!

[Lori]

Oh, my dear lord, it is completely about the food...that nasty beef in Geneva in 1989. The BEST baked muscles in Brussels 1990 (and it rhymes) and just about everything I ever ate in Tokyo except what my Dad fixed (sorry Dad). And the list of other places/dishes too long to mention--at the top of which is Bird in a Jade nest and Spicy Squid at Dong Ting right here in Houston. Oh, yummy!

But, seriously. The parents helper? Eight hours of free time and someone to bring me whatever I need? I'm still crying.... Where in the h*** is this place and how long is the waiting list?

Seriously glad you had a good time! Bummer about the hard drive.

[Jen]

"Sometimes you need to be a little firm with Caroline." I laughed so hard reading that I almost choked. Maybe I'm cold-hearted, but I love the "you got yourself into this, you can get yourself out". I think it sends a message of empowerment and trust.

I remember meals from international trips. France! Spain! Italy! And yes, I guess some of my more local trips, too. In fact, I probably remember meals better than hotels, if I think about it. Some friends I used to travel with and I used to say that a good trip was one where you planned the next meal while consuming the current one.

Can I stalk you at The Tyler Place next year? I remember your and Julie's descriptions from last year, and it sounds Absolutely Fabulous. Especially to a sole parent who Loves Her Daughter More Than Life Itself, but gets tired of crawling around on the floor on all fours playing Kitty all day every day.

[andrea]

Tell Patrick that you have readers from all over the world (I, for one, am from Australia) and so he was already internationally recognised and admired!

How I wish there was a holiday destination like that near me. Sigh.

[Marsha]

Oh, yes. The food. I remember a dish of mussels I ate with a friend, a dish I've never been able to replicate - ginger, peppers, lemongrass...oh, how I've tried.

I remember a meal of hamburger and mushroom soup in East Berlin in 1985. The whole meal was beige and that's about what I thought of the city, too. I'd like to go back and see what's changed. Then there was a meal of seared tuna on top of pearl couscous and drizzled with a burnt tomato dressing that still wakes me at night - this happened on what I think of as the last happy meal my family of origin ever enjoyed together. And then there's the first meal I cooked for the man who became my husband - I remember where I shopped, the flowers on the table, the temperature in the apartment and every detail of his reaction.

So, yes, my memories hang on what I ate at the time. You're not alone!

[Jan]

Food as memory portal to the extent that it includes literature. Like others here, I've read and read and read my whole life, and what is the most Proustian description for me? The toasted cheese in Heidi.... I think I'll go make some right now!

[kara]

This post and the comments have made me ravenous. Yes - achiote shrimp in the Yucatan, creamy potato-sausage soup in Austria, a BLT in Berkeley and kumquat-chestnut honey salmon at home for a birthday years ago. OMG.

I miss your food blog too! No pestering, just genuine appreciation.

[Cara]

This sounds like a perfect vacation and just reading about it was a lift to my day. About the food? No, sorry.

[craftyashley]

Duck Creek: Buffalo Soup and Navajo Tacos.

[yasmina]

Marsha, could that be mussels cooked in white wine and parsley? Houston has a Belgium restaurant serves this, entirely unique.

[Kristin]

I remember meals, absolutely.

A particular chocolate cake in Aspen, CO. A particular chocolate cake in Philadelphia, at the bar at the Black Cat, when I was alone for New Year's Eve and treated myself to dessert and a glass of champagne. A particular chocolate cake in NYC with friends. (I sense a theme here.)

My first ever really good croissant. My first ever serious restaurant tuna, prepared a little rare down the center. Cioppino in San Francisco. Dim sum in San Francisco, come to think of it.

Etc. Often, it's the occasion or the company that helps me remember the meal, but still, yep. I getcha.

[Alison]

My mother in law makes pickled red cabbage too, and pickled herring, and that's it. Not a great person to around if you' re pregnant.

Can' t wait to look into Tyler Place - if we ever do a vacation that's not in England of course.

[N.L.]

I remember meals. I am a foodie, though, so it's to be expected.

In New Orleans once, I had a salad and a chocolate bread pudding. The bread pudding had to be ordered before the meal and when it was served, the chef himself brought it out to me and poured two flavors of liquor over the top with flair and flourish and enough food porniness to make me exclaim "I need a cigarette" when he was done, as the ladies next to us applauded.
It was so, so, so incredibly good. It was so fantastic, I can't even put it into words.

BUT! This is not a story about bread pudding, because of that salad.

I came home the very next week and spent two hours trying to copy the salad. And I've made the salad, and every variation of it, a million dozen times. I serve it to guests. I brag about it on Facebook. I live to think about that salad.

And it was an entire year later when I was looking on the website to recommend the salad to someone that I came across that bread pudding on the menu and remember it for for the first time since I'd eaten it.

So, yes, I remember meals.

[coach purses]

Health is the best treasure (which) a man can possess. Money can do many things, but it cannot buy happiness. However, so long as man has good health, he can enjoy the pleasures of human life.

[Amy]

I can't remember specific meals, but I can remember dining experiences, down to what I was wearing and where everyone at the table was sitting and the decor of the restaurant.

I am SO tempted to seriously consider this place. We were supposed to go on a Vermont adventure that was centered around a concert, but the concert was cancelled and now we don't know what to do with ourselves. Hm...

[sarah]

Your trip sounds amazing and totally recharging for all of you. So glad you enjoyed it.

Hubby and I have a bad habit of trying to find replicas of our favorite vacation meals at home, with less than stellar results. :) Our favorites, meals I'll never forget, would be Maui Onion rings and Mai Tais on our honeymoon, along with the dinner we had the last night (steak for me). And a street vendor crepe (cheese, mushroom, ham) in Paris so good it has me drooling, 3 years later.

[Chris]

they charge you $20 to park at the beach where we live...

check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hltNARxQqh4

guess it's worth it, but $20 BUCKS? LOL.

[Liz]

I like to ask (or steal) menu's from restaurants that I've eaten at.

I had a fantastic pumpkin salad that I can remember with incredible detail (creamy ricotta, decadent avocado dressing, you name it) that I had in Leura, New South Wales, Australia.

I took a photo of the salad and the lady at the cash register even gave me an old menu to keep.

I still have it.

And I still dream of that salad.

[liz s]

Food glorious food! My father in law and husband tease me to no end about how I can remember everything that happened on a particular day as long as someone reminds me what we ate.

[paul]

Doppelte Kraftbruehe mit Ei. Of course I remember bad meals too, so the horror of my first Mcwyouknowhow hamburger with ketchup and mustard and pickle mashed into the steamed boxboard is still right there too.

[dvilleoysters]

The oyster industry isn't dead, it just moved!

The best Chesapeake Bay Oysters are grown on our family farm!

www.deltavilleoystercompany.com

[Bianca]

yes, I remember meals. Most of them took place in Italy when I went for six weeks back in '98. Specifically some pizza I ate in Taoromina, Sicily. A ratatouille sandwich in Sorrento. A melenzana (sic) parm at a place called Gato Nero or something similar. A ribollita I had in Sienna or Florence (can't remember which) which was AMAZING. The food was so good- especially for a vegetarian which I was (and still am). It's hard to be a food lover who is also vegetarian, but I manage.

[Daily Cup of Jo]

I'm the youngest of five children and one of the things I remember growing up was all my siblings talking about "The Tyler Place". I was just a baby when we went and so remember none of it. I just remember thinking it was yet another great place we visited that I don't remember because I was always the baby. I haven't heard anyone mention The Tyler Place in about thirty years. It sounds like heaven, mostly because it's summer and I have three children whose first question every morning is "what are we doing today?" I just want to curl up in a little ball.

This whole post reminds me of all the road trips we took in our station wagon, cruising around the U.S. and staying in motels. Thanks for sharing your journey.

[TheLuckyGal]

We did the Tyler Place a few years ago. I loved that they had a special song for each age group that they had the kids sing as they pulled them around the place in wagons ... so we could hear them coming and jump behind a bush so they wouldn't see us! (My DD was 3. One day they went fishing and she caught a "porch" <-;) I liked the evening activities for adults - Chad was a great host. Tyler place is now a baseline for all other family vacations. We're just back from YMCA of the Rockies Estes Park - that was pretty awesome too. (Though there was no Ben & Jerry's for dessert!)