Category: Places to Go

A Nice Little Place On The Chee-Funky River

Tchefuncte River signThis weekend, The Civee and I went to Louisiana to visit my grandparents. We had a good time and went at the right time of year. The weather was in the low 80s, clear and dry.  Any later in the year and it would be oppressively hot and humid.

My grandparents live an hour north of New Orleans, across Lake Ponchartrain.  This was my first time to the area in four years. My grandparents’ area was hit by Hurricane Katrina (as was pretty much everything else down there), and while life is back to normal, things definitely look different than a few years ago.

We spent most of the weekend with my grandparents, eating breakfast (The Civee and I are not regular breakfast eaters) and doing family things, but for a few hours Sunday, The Civee and I had a few hours and a car to ourselves.  We didn’t have enough time to go into the city, so we decided to drive around in the backwoods and not-so-backwoods of the North Shore of the Lake. 

While driving around, we drove over a bridge spanning the Tchefuncte River (pronounced Chee-Funky) into a small town called Madisonville. On one side of the river was a large marina. On Madisonville side, a row of restaurants.   We parked and walked around for a while, eventually deciding to stop at Morton’s, a bar and restaurant with an outside deck facing the river.

Morton's Restaurant signI have to admit, one of the things that drew me to Morton’s (considering all the restaurants had decks facing the river) was the sign to the left, promising hot boiled seafood.  The Civee and I got an outside table and just enjoyed ourselves by talking and watching the boats and the moving bridge.  The bridge we passed over was a Swing Bridge (check out the wikipedia link for a cool animated image), which would open every half hour for about five minutes to let marine traffic through.  While watching the bridge was fun, the fulfillment of the advertised seafood was even better. 

Because we had breakfast a few hours earlier, I didn’t think I could finish off a whole tray of boiled crawfish, so I opted for two broiled soft shell crabs, which were damn good.  I also helped myself to some of The Civee’s Mahi Mahi, which was also superb. 

After eating and sitting around for a while, we found our car and started to head back.  But as we got the car going, we noticed we had just a minute or two before the next closing (or opening, depending on your point of view ) of the swing bridge. So we high-tailed it out of Madisonville, lest we be held up.

Even though we sped out of town, it was a nice place, one I wouldn’t mind going back to (if only to polish off a plate of boiled crawfish).

King Tom

The Store Where People Buy Nothing

So the Sharper Image is declaring bankruptcy. As part of the reorganization, the company plans to close 90 of its mall-based stores (About half the SI retail outlets in the U.S.),

I’ve been in their stores in various malls many times. But I don’t think I’ve ever bought anything from them. Regardless of how cool it might be to own the life-size Darth Vader costume, the R2-D2 that really works or the Trump Steaks, I never really wanted to spend my hard-earned money there. Apparentley, I wasn’t the only one who felt this way.

One of my most memorable “shopping” experiences happened in a Sharper Image, probably about 10 years ago. I was hanging out with my brother Pete, who, at the time was about 12. We stopped in to the store and started browsing. They had two of those massaging chairs set up and I sat in one. I have to admit, it was quite comfortable. I told Pete that he had to try it out, so he sat in the other one. As soon as he did, some salesman in his mid-30s came over and said to Pete, “Excuse me, sir, but you have to be 18 to use the massaging chairs.”

I laughed so hard (especially because of the emphasis the guy put on the “sir”) that I almost fell out of the chair.

Well now, lil’ Petey is old enough to try the chair. Too bad SI is closing all those stores.

King Tom

Exciting Things Happen On Staten Island

The next installment the Grand Theft Auto franchise is supposed to come out next year. I’m a big fan of the three versions of GTA3, and while I don’t have a next-gen (or current gen) gaming system, I’ve been looking forward to GTA 4, which is supposed to feature a near-close version of New York City as its playing area.

However, I was a bit offended the other day when I read that the forthcoming game would not feature Staten Island, because (according to Wikipedia):

Rockstar believes it would not be fun to play there

Not be fun? We’re talking about the home of what was the world’s largest garbage dump! New Dorp! The fishin’ hole! And now, the mysterious Ninja Burglar!

He is brazen enough to enter a home through an open garage door in the morning and sneaky enough to slip through a skylight under the cover of night. He always wears a black ski mask, seems to consider himself a jewel thief and strikes with a disregard for whether anyone is home.

And to anyone who would take the other side in the great Ninjas versus Pirates debate, I ask you, who ever heard of a Pirate Burglar?

King Tom1 Comment

Color Me Disappointed

So I’m driving from Bowling Green to Dayton down I-75 and outside of Wapakoneta, I see one of those temporary road signs that says:

Cutting Crew Next Five Miles

I started scanning both the AM and FM frequencies, but didn’t hear one note of (I Just) Died In Your Arms.

Who do I write to at ODOT to complain about this?

King Tom

Changing terms on my terms

I’ve been on the road a lot recently for work.

Wednesday, I was coming back from an event in Morgan County, and while I didn’t have much time, I needed to grab something to eat. I stopped at the Zanesville Wendy’s off I-70 (a Wendy’s I have been to many times before) to get something quick.

While eating my fingerless-chili, I was thinking that technically, I have an hour for “lunch.” And while I wasn’t taking the full hour that particular day, I have that time available to me.

The best part of it all is that while it’s a mid-day break, no one is forcing me to eat lunch during this hour. If I had wanted to, I could have toured Zanesville. I could have driven across the Y-bridge 20 times. I could have gone to the nearby state park to collect leaves. I could have done anything but eat lunch.

At that point, I decided to stop referring to the hour as my “lunch” hour. Instead, I’m going to refer to it as the “hour of me.” It’s more accurate, don’t you think?

These are the things I think about when I have a few minutes to myself. Free thought is a dangerous thing.

King Tom

Best.Restaurant.Ever!

I’m adventurous when it comes to food. I really like Japanese food- and not just sushi. I’ve been to a lot of good Japanese places and quite a few bad ones.

Back when I was in college, there was a Japanese restaurant about a mile down the wall. During my first year, I avoided it as it had a hole-in-the-wall vibe.

A friend took me there for my birthday sophmore year and I knew that I was wrong to have passed the place by for a whole year. The atmosphere was fun, the chef was entertaining and the food was great. In the years that followed, my friend Bemis and I went to Tomo’s Cuisine so often we probably put his kids through college.

Tomo even once talked us into trying fugu , which wasn’t that bad.

After moving out to Ohio, I got to go back twice. But Tomo’s closed up shop in South Orange in mid-aught-two, and trips back east haven’t been the same.

Well, (and the point of all this) is that he’s back. According to this message board, he’s re-opened up shop in Little Falls. If you’re out there, go- trust me, it’s worth it.

Tomo’s Cuisine II
113 Rt. 23 in Little Falls.
(Near the Willowbrook Mall.)
973-837-1117

King Tom1 Comment

Whoomp, There It Is

So I’m back from a trip out to NJ for the wedding of one of the Civee’s cousins. It was a nice trip, and as an added bonus, I got to see my father.

But while driving through Bedminster NJ, I came across a building with no identification other than this:

THE World Headquarters

Well, rest assured. It’s THE World Headquarters. And it’s in Bedminster New Jersey. I never would have guessed that. But now you know.

Other things:

-The worst thing about the drive to New Jersey/New York is Pennsylvania- five hours of mountains bereft of any civilization. If it were up to me, I’d take out Pennsylvania, put it somewhere on the West Coast as a runway of sorts to Hawaii and zip up the borders of Ohio and NJ.

-To all DJs out there: Know your audience. I swear this DJ actually said “We’re going to play two more Latin songs before some regular music.” Thing is, during these songs, there was no one on the floor. No one at this wedding was looking to do the salsa or merengue.

Mmmmmm…salasa meringue.

King Tom

Pumpkin Land

Yesterday, the Civee and I took a drive to Circleville. Didn’t really have a reason, we just hit the road. And yes, I knew the pumpkin show is a few weeks away- but we just wanted to go somewhere.

When we got there, we visited the Ted Lewis Museum, a quaint little memorial to one of America’s biggest entertainers about 80 years ago or so. I had heard of Lewis from his performance in Abbot and Costello’s Hold That Ghost, but thought he was just some lounge singer.

Probably the most entertaining part of the trip was the tour guide, one of Lewis’ most devoted fans. As she put it:

“Well, for me, there’s my God, my husband, then Ted Lewis, then Tecumseh.”

It was a fun little trip.

King Tom