Cork 'N Cleaver is consistently excellent

The 54th Regiment Massachusetts Infantry was depicted in the Academy Award winning film, Glory. This African-American army unit led the assault on Fort Wagner near Charleston, South Carolina during the Civil War.

This plaster sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens in Washington D.C.'s National Gallery of Art is a fitting tribute to the brave unit and its leader, Col. Robert Gould Shaw. When I think of the 54th MA, I think of excellence, tradition, and something classic. This is also the way I feel about the Cork 'N Cleaver Restaurant in Fort Wayne.

The parking lot of the Cork, as locals often call the place, is consistently full. Businessmen often meet here for lunch, and professionals network in the bar after work. They have an excellent selection of wines and many cosy small sections of seating to give it an intimate setting.

The salad bar is famous for its large selection and quality of fresh ingredients. Some salad bars have a cafeteria-like feel, but this one is a cut above. It has a rounded, organically-shaped look that is so much more attractive than nearly any I have seen.

On my most recent visit with friends for lunch, I chose the Philly steak and cheese sandwich. The Cork has excellent steaks, so this was no ordinary Philly sandwich. It was slices of one of their best cuts on a thick roll, layered with grilled onions and green peppers in the melted cheese. It came with a savory au jus for dipping. I have never eaten a better one. My companions both picked a chicken kabob lunch special. This was broiled chicken and roasted vegetables laid out of a bed of greens - it looked beautiful and was a healthy, lower calorie choice than what I had.

We didn't have appetizers, but the button cap mushrooms, stuffed with cheeses, garlic, and then baked are a well-known favorite. I also love their seared tuna wasabi. It is pressed with black and white sesame seeds, fresh garlic and ginger, and served with wasabi drizzle and kimchee cabbage. This is about as good as it gets anywhere.

For dinner, you can't go wrong with one of their outstanding steaks, or try the black and bleu salmon. The salmon is seasoned with blackened spices and topped with bleu cheese. It can be baked or charbroiled. The crab cakes are also a nice dinner choice for something different.

I ordered creme brûlée for dessert, and it came topped with whipped cream and fresh raspberries. Delicious, but my only correction would be I found the custard to be too cool underneath - I like the temperature of the crusty top and the custard to be similar, even slightly warm. Maybe this is just personal preference. Cork 'N Cleaver is classy a place to take new companions and people you'd like to impress. It's definitely up there among Fort Wayne's best.

The splendor of August

I see a patio umbrella, far away. Unfurled, it flirts its skirt and waves to me in the wind.

It's high summer; the middle of August. It brings great joy - yet comes the feeling summer is nearly over.

It brings moments remembered. The sight of the Mount Vernon airport in the humid Illinois air, late summer. There is an ambitious expanse of simple ground lights. I know I saw it all more often from a car than from the air.

It seems memories come around in a year's time. Our bodies remember what happened a year ago this time, as if it should happen again now. I am missing something; I do not know where it went, and then later, what it is.

I see a young turkey vulture: one who looks as old as all of his species. He learns to circle and climb the thermal air. Soon he will use his height to spy, drop upon and possess a corpse of carrion on the road. So specialized, his is a world we do not know.

Crab apples are exploding in a nearby tree. What eats these sour apples? I do not know. They look so lovely, they are tempting, but we humans only pucker, spit and scowl upon tasting them. As I approach a tree, a dwarf crab, I see bluebirds fly away from it one by one.

Lastly, I watch my image in the shadow of the patio deck grow to be large upon the lawn. Doves arrive at the beach two by two. Great summer, you will soon be over.

Take me out to the Tin Caps

The Tin Caps are a Single-A division farm team for the San Diego Padres.  There are three other divisions between the Tin Caps baseball team and Major League Baseball.

It was a gorgeous week in Fort Wayne the second full week in August. Temperatures were mostly in the 70's, so Friday night was wonderful weather at Parkview Field downtown. The management works hard to come up with attractions, and this appeared to be an 80's night, and the team wore the 'Wizards' uniforms - the old name for the team. In the photo above, the groundskeepers raking the sand/dirt around the baselines were in costumes, and danced to the music when they threw down their rakes at the end of the line.

I like the fan participation between innings with features on the giant screen Jumbotron. A couple of funny things happened - they found volunteers to imitate famous screen faces: the 'Home Alone' (just slapped his face with after-shave and it's burning) face was the first. There was an applause contest to pick a winner as fans could see themselves doing their best up on the giant screen. Then there was a Mr. Bean face (the actor Rowan Atkinson): crossed eyes, tongue towards nose, eyebrows up - complicated! A winner was picked among imitators here as well.

In a three-hour baseball game, I have read there is an average of about 17 minutes of actual play. The Bowling Green, KY Hot Rods were the Tin Caps opponents this night. Their team leads to the Tampa Bay Rays. The Tin Caps tried hard, and we enjoyed some nice steals (and one great attempt that led to an out, although it took the umpire a few seconds to call it; he had to think about it). It's exciting when a player tends to foul up into the stands - one foul ball cracked up high and bounced off a railing in the stands behind the plate, creating lots of moans from the crowd - the loud rattle off the rail made everyone glad the baseball didn't hit a person. Another foul came up near us close to first base, and again bounced off the rails - as much as people want to catch fouls, it's hard to see the ball coming down in the lights and my seatmates missed it, much to their regret.

Again between innings, there was Jumbotron fan playtime - this time, a chance for fans to mimic the Leonardo DiCaprio "I'm King of the World" move. The stadium railings make a perfect background for fans to stand up and imitate this for a camera to capture: arms and head arched back widespread, hair blowing in the wind off the bow of the ship (ball field). Who comes up with this stuff?

The Tin Caps lost this night, but it was a family-friendly time, as I saw lots of little and big kids, popcorn and Dipping' Dots eaters, kids playing with flashlights and scaling the climbing wall, as well as the typical grown beer drinkers. There were fireworks after the game as well. A good time was had by mostly everyone.

Baseball has a long history in Fort Wayne - the Summit City Club was formed in 1862, during the Civil War. Men named Shoaff and Brackenridge started the first team. In 1871, the first professional game in the U.S. was held in Fort Wayne, when the Fort Wayne Kekiongas defeated the Cleveland Forest City Club, 2 - 0. In 1883, the first pro game to be played under lights also took place in Fort Wayne.

Baseball also made history in 1945, when the Fort Wayne Daisies (of the women's professional league) came to be during World War II. The women's league (the AAGPBL) got a lot of attention after the 1992 movie, 'A League of Their Own'.

The Fort Wayne Wizards became the Tin Caps in 2009, and moved into the newly-built Parkview Field. The stadium drew a record attendance of 408,000 fans in 2012. Since 1993, 117 players have gone from Fort Wayne to play MLB. Maybe I'm becoming a bigger fan of baseball than I thought.

Star Gazing in August

The Perseid meteor shower brought me down to earth recently. The stream of debris, an ancient cloud consisting of particles ejected from the Swift-Tuttle comet, has been in the news as a sight to see in recent days. Small, dime-sized or smaller fragments burn off as meteors, and peak in visible activity between August 9 - 14 this year.

This meteor shower has been observed for at least 2,000 years, with the earliest data about it coming from the Far East. In my mind, I envision shepherds guarding their flocks at night, with no city lights, smart phones or other distractions to get in the way. I'm sure without all the ambient light, the sky must have nearly burst and throbbed with the constellations and comets - a primeval laser show.

I'm not enough of a night owl to wait up for the best view of the shower (after midnight or when the crescent moon had set). Also, here in Northeastern Indiana we had some cloud cover, so I thought the whole idea might be a bust. But low and behold, early Monday morning I found myself waking up at 2 a.m., and decided to get up and see if I could peruse any shooting stars.

I was the only person awake. I tried to not turn on lights so as to keep my eyes adjusted to the dark. Sleepily, I grabbed a bathrobe and a pillow and decided to just lie down on the concrete driveway. A lawn chair would have been better, but there wasn't one on that side of the house so I settled for the cool cement.

I didn't see anything at first, but I heard many things. One was the deep call of the big bullfrog down at the lake. It sounds like it's always the same frog guy. Is it really always this 'Fred', or are there others who have the same sounding voice (and same territory)? I don't know the answer to this question.

I also heard birds twittering and chirping. This really surprised me at after 2 a.m. It made me check the clock, because I didn't know they carried on like that in the middle of the night. It was how I just said though - maybe they were up thinking they saw some fireflies 'way up in the sky to go after (kidding).

The insects put up their chorus as well. Best of all, two owls started up, communicating with each other. First, a higher pitched 'WHO WHO who-who-who WHO!' Then the same call, the same rhythm, but notes in a lower range. They seemed to speak to each other back and forth from different trees for some time, and then stopped. In my mind, with their excellent night vision, they saw me come out and were alerting each other "it's a human - let's owls not track rabbits until the primate vacates."

And then, as I looked straight up into the darkest part of the sky, I began to see the seemingly quickened acceleration of the meteors as they burned themselves up in our homey atmosphere. When I finally saw a so-called shooting star, I got an adrenalin rush that excited me so much, it made me wait patiently through the boredom to see another one. It took several minutes. Then I saw another! Excitement again! I learned to scan the sky in the darkest places, and to try not to blink. I don't have good vision, and I think I need a new prescription for distance, because I even tilted my eyeglasses slightly to better focus the distant sky. I didn't use binoculars or a telescope, but I'm sure that would be great also for those inclined.

I stayed out there at least 45 minutes - I think it was after 3 a.m. when I actually went back to bed, and I am so glad I did it. I'm not sure if there was any vivid color attached or what I saw was just a brillant, sudden light streak - and there definitely was a momentary vapor or dust trailer that followed. It was something wonderful, natural to see.

Perhaps, maybe next time I would recommend to others: remember mosquito spray and a blanket. I do know one thing - in the future when I learn there will be a meteor shower, I will be getting up in the night to go outside to watch it.

Road trip to the east coast

From Fort Wayne, Indiana, it's just a day's drive to get to many locations along the Eastern seaboard. Hoosiers often make Florida a driving vacation destination, but don't realize how many states in the Northeast are a lot closer. I love Florida and the Carolinas also, but there are many wonderful things to see in D.C., Philadelphia and New York, of course.

We made this a destination for a summer get-away, and we got from New York City to Fort Wayne in ten hours. Toll Road 80 was fast, even with some construction. Other than a few grand, picturesque hills in Pennsylvania, It's an uneventful drive.

We stayed at the Renaissance Hotel in Times Square. If you have ever stayed in a city high rise building, you know it's lots of elevator trips and vertical perspective. I liked this hotel's layout, however - there is a second floor foyer with two restaurants and spectacular views of Times Square. The architecture and design is very modern; beautiful wood floors and walls, chrome and silver fixtures, eclectic furniture with leather and textured upholstery, and organic-looking glass art light fixtures. It's masculine, (not normally my style) and I loved it - every bit of it. Earth tones and warmth, it was inviting, creative, and comforting in the big city.

We roamed the city - including Central Park, Barney's iconic department store, and One World Trade Center. The 1776-feet high structure (including antenna spire) is the tallest structure in the Western hemisphere. The complex has a bit of an identity crisis; for a while this building was called Freedom Tower, and the 9/11 memorial is officially called the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. Eventually there will be three other high-rise office buildings erected at the rebuilt World Trade Center site.

The 9/11 Memorial, with its waterfall reflecting pools in the place where the Twin Towers once stood, is in itself worth a visit to New York City. The two pools contain the largest man made waterfalls in the United States. Victims' names (of the terrorist attacks) are inscribed on the edges of the waterfalls. The two one-acre pools aptly symbolize the loss of life and the physical void left by the horrible events that occurred at the World Trade Center. I thought the memorial was breathtaking, and the sounds of the great waterfalls cascading into the void of the building healing.

In the other photo above I've used for this blog post, is a shot from the Brooklyn Bridge, looking into Manhattan. I've wanted to walk over this bridge for years, from learning about the amazing bridge on PBS, and also seeing it featured in "Sex and the City." The walk was a bit crowded the day we made it, and there was construction happening. Traffic from cars below the walkers was noisy also. But it's a gorgeous bridge, and I will never forget the experience and the views. The park on the Brooklyn side is quite lovely also, and worth a stop.

We traversed the city by cab and by subway. Cab travel can be a bit slow in lots of traffic, but interesting, especially if you happen upon an interesting driver with whom to chat. We thought the subway would end up being a lot cheaper. But with a family of four, a cab ride, even across town, was never more than about $12 - $20 for us - the subway was $2.75 per person one way, so the saving were not huge. Yet sometimes a cab was hard to hail in some areas, and the subway ends up being incredibly quick in comparison. Any subway is a bit of a challenge for a newcomer to decipher, but worth it as a unique experience. Be ready for strong smells and foul language at the very least. I stepped on the foot of a kind soul, and he didn't even yell at me. I sat next to a mentally challenged or mentally ill woman who was stroking her plastic pull-along toy dog, and she was charming and sweet - I asked her the dog's name (Spike), and found her a much-needed tissue. I wonder where she lives and how she manages so well, but she seemed to know what she was doing.

We also took a great water taxi, and saw the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I will save more about the trip for a later blog. I am not a city person, and somehow I love NYC - I can't explain it. I hope to return again sometime soon.