Fall Colors and More

Our trip to Connecticut last week to visit Jeff, Trish, and the boys was timed perfectly. Not so in past years…two years ago we traveled mid-December and froze our arses off. Last year our plans were canceled when Hurricane Sandy arrived a day before our trip. This year, however, we enjoyed temperatures in the mid-60’s and a beautiful display of fall colors. Perfect!

We spent our first day, Friday, touring the Mark Twain House in Hartford. Samuel Clemons (Mark Twain) was as charming as he was handsome and used both to win the heart of a very wealthy young woman. Smart man! The mansion they built together in Hartford, where they lived for 17 years, was an architectural work of art inside and out and would have cost millions in current dollars. We finished the two-hour tour around noon and drove to New Haven on the coast to have lunch and visit the Yale University Art Museum. It was exciting to see the Yale campus…beautiful old buildings, each filling a long city block, clustered together in downtown New Haven. The Art Museum is a newer, more contemporary looking building and includes four floors of African, Asian, European, and American art divided into pre- and post-1900 works. 

From there we drove on to Newtown arriving late afternoon. Jeff had planned dinner at Fusion 25 where the McKenzie’s celebrate all birthdays and other special occasions and some not-so-special occasions. This visit was to celebrate Verne’s upcoming birthday! After a warm greeting by the owner and a short wait, we were seated at one of the eight tables that offers the full experience of hibachi-style cooking and eating…think Benihana’s.  A good time was had by all!

There’s never a dull moment in the McKenzie house with one commitment or another all day long. I was told the Friday night-Saturday we spent with them is typical...The three boys are active in sports so it follows that the weekend included either a practice or game for each. We finished Friday night with an hour long tennis lesson for Parker…he’s got great foot work and the sport suits him very well. Saturday morning we started our day with Peyton’s golf match, walking with the team through the second hole. It was so cute to see him carrying his little golf bag, practicing his swing, chatting with his golf buddies…all of them so serious about the game and never fooling around. They looked like a foursome of little old men out for a round of Saturday morning golf. We were then off to Patrick’s baseball game. Some things never change…I spent years attending Scott and Jeff’s Little League games and saw the full range of parenting and coaching skills. In all cases, the kids just try to please the parents. Saturday morning was déjà vu all over again! (Yes, I know that’s redundant…it’s meant to be funny!)

We spent Saturday afternoon attending a Sandy Hook event to support local merchants whose businesses have suffered over the past year since the tragedy last December. We enjoyed lunch at the McKenzie’s favorite Italian restaurant where we again were met with a warm greeting from the owner…not Italian, but Albanian. He had me fooled. We were seated inside, and then outside, and then back inside for lunch. Parker must attract bees, because he was stung on the walk to the restaurant and no sooner were we seated outside on the patio to enjoy the warm afternoon sun than the bees arrived and began circling for another taste. It was back inside for us.

Mid-afternoon Jeff casually mentioned he’d invited a couple of families over for dinner that night. The mere mention of a dinner party is enough to cause my blood pressure to rise off the charts. Verne and I have been hosting dinner parties for over 20 years now and we still experience the same anxiety beginning about a week (sometimes two weeks) before the event. There’s hours spent planning and sometimes experimenting (practicing) with the recipes. By the day of the event, we’ve worked ourselves into a nervous frenzy. I’ve even been known to have a small meltdown as our guests begin to arrive. I watched in amazement as Jeff prepared for his company… He and Trish left to shop for groceries around 5 p.m. (YIKES! Not at least the day before???) He returned and began to make guacamole by hand…slowly in a Zenlike state he carefully minced, diced, and chopped the veggies. (Where’s the Kitchenaid mini-processor???) Jeff seasoned the chicken and put it on the grill, sliced the peppers and onions and began to sauté them on the stove, steamed the tortillas in the oven…gradually the fajitas came together. Friends arrived during the process (YIKES, this is when I’d definitely have a melt-down!), the wine was poured, we talked, we laughed, we enjoyed the food (the guacamole was excellent!) and good conversation, and around 1 a.m. (YES! 1 a.m.) our day came to an end. Whew! We were exhausted and hadn’t done a thing!

The balance of our visit was spent hanging out with the family. No sports. No company. Several glorious hours sitting on the back deck in the sun with a view of the woods, stone wall, and creek. Much of the time Patrick was running around playing football by himself, chatting non-stop, occasionally yelling “touchdown” and falling down and rolling in the grass. What a cutie! One of Jeff’s close friends owns a nursery and, more importantly to Verne, restores old cars and engines, so we made a trip to admire his collection, Jeff bought flowering plants for the deck, and the boys each chose a pumpkin from the fall pumpkin patch.

Patrick, now in third grade, wrote a note to his parents when he was in kindergarten thanking them for going to a “learn to be the best parents ever school.” Not only are Jeff and Trish the best parents ever, but active parishioners and community members. They manage to juggle all of these roles with ease, calm, and humor!