CREAM

May 20, 2018

Cream, Summerlin, Nevada

Summerlin Nevada is a short distance geographically from Las Vegas, but a world away atmospherically.  I liked Summerlin – a the rapidly growing town, which included a beautiful, new-looking outdoor mall enjoyed for walking, browsing, shopping, and of course indulging in ice cream.  CREAM featured both homemade cookies and their own ice cream recipies, and specialized in putting them together for some awesome ice cream cookie sandwiches.   These
sandwiches come  in a varitey of sizes, some large enough to be birthday cakes – I wonder if they deliver to New Jersey.

There was a large vareity creative flavors, and I wanted them all, but I had to choose.  I went with two of f their featured ice cream flavors –  Butterscotch Brew and Pink Peach Bellini.  The Pink Peach Bellini was fashioned after the well known drink using real peaches, peach nectar in a champagne flavored ice cream.  I loved both flavors.  

 

 

The ice cream had a great creamy texture and was perfectly flavored – it was exceptionally good.  The shop had  limited indoor seating as well as outdoor seating at nice clean tables.  Today was a warm day with a gentle breeze so we enjoyed our ice cream outside.  This place is worth a visit!

In the area:  Red Rock Canyon National Park is a desert with fascinating rock features.  Set up  as 13 mile senic drive with numerous stops for trails or senic overlooks, made it easy to navigate and enjoy.  Starting off at  the visitor center, we got to get up close and personal with the layered red rocks on the Moenkipi Trail.

 

Other trails we walked included Petroglyph Wall Trail which looked to me like grafffiti – maybe very old graffiti – it says it was created by native Americans centries ago.  I was amazed at how high up some of it was – did they have ladders back then? The  Lost Creek Trail had some short switchbacks up a hill which took us to a lush area – an oasis or sorts – with a spring and waterfall.  We are told that native Amerians lived in this desert climate knew the locations of the few water sources, and also which plants were edible.  I am amazed that anyone could live in such an arid climate.

That evening we dropped Erica off at the airport to go home and we went to Boulder City – one of the only two cities in Nevada that outlaws gambling.   We walked around the city and were mesmerized by the statues, some of which are pictured here.

 

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Ernie’s Ice Cream

 

July 8, 2018

Ernie’s Ice Cream, Mahwah, New Jersey

Ernie’s ice Cream in Mahwah sells Giffords ice cream, ice cream novelties and soft serve in 32 great flavors  via a walk up window.  Service was quick.  Today I tried a new flavor “Jolted Cow” (caramel swirl with brownie bits) .  It was typical Giffords – mediocore taste/texture.  The seating was outside on clean comfortable benches or picnic tables next to a loud busy road.

In the area – we spent the afternoon kayaking on the Monksville Reservoir – beautiful – I recommend it for any avid kayakers/canoeists

Friendly’s Ice Cream Shop, Sussex, New Jersey

July 2, 2018

Friendly’s Ice Cream Shop, Sussex, NJ

Disclaimer – we only went to the walk- up window, so I cannot evaluate the inside of this Friendly’s Ice Cream Shop.

My friend Pat had to have a Fribble milkshake tonight, I am not sure why, but I never say no to Friendly’s!  She and Mary Lou had chocolate Fribble shakes – craving satisified.  I had a Rockin Poppin Cotton Candy Marshmallow Sndae. -(690 calories)  I expected “Rockin, Poppin” in the name meant it would come with pop rocks or something that would explode in my mouth, but I did not do that – oh well,

Coincidentlly, two days later my fellow fifer Jack Belles told me the history of the Fribble name:   Way back a New Jersey  ice cream chain named “Bonds” came up with the idea of a big and thick  milkshake and called it the Aweful, Aweful  – aweful big, aweful good.  They leased the rights to the name to Friendly’s  for  use in New England, the contract specified it could not be used in New Jersey because Bonds located there.  When Friendly’s wanted to expand , they did not want to exclude NJ – so they came up with the name Fribble to replace  Aweful Aweful via a contest open to the public.  Later Bonds went out of business and the Newport Creamery in Rhode Island aquired exclusive rights to the Aweful, Aweful name.  And there folks is the rest of the story.

Nina’s Waffles and Ice Cream

June  24,  2018

Nina’s Waffles and Ice Cream, New Hope, Pennsylvania

New Hope Pennsylvania has long been my Friend Randi’s favorite town and for a long time I could not figure out why.  but this town has really grown on me.  I actually hope to get a group of friends here to just peruse the shops and walk the canal trail in near future.

One great feature of  New Hope is Nina’s Waffles and Ice Cream.  When we entered this shop, we were greeted by the ice cream barista.  She asked if we would like to try anything- of course I did!  I selected Madagascar Cracker made with Madagascar vanilla and it was interesting and good.    We were told that all the ice cream was home made – not a surprise since they had very interesting flavors  and small batches.  I ordered Double Expresso Crunch and Supo Peanut Butter ( chocolate and peanut butter in a vanilla ice cream).  These people know how to make ice cream – flavors were perfect, texture was creamy, portion sizes generous.  There was both outdoor seating at two small tables  and indoor seating at a bar with stools along the windows.  Either seating option offered a nice view of town and a great opportunity to watch the employee from next door try to get people to try samples of her popcorn (which I did when I finished my ice cream).  I must admit I did not expect much when I entered Nina’s Waffles and Ice Cream, but I left feeling like I made a great find – exceptional ice cream served in a friendly place.rail Trail

In the area:  We frequently find ourselves in this area because we love the D & R  Canal Trail.  Today we rode north to Frenchtown along the New Jersey side of the Delaware and back to New Hope and Lambertville on the Pennsylvania side.  Best bike trail anywhere – right along the river, great riding surface.

Niko’s Ice Cream and Confectionary

June 23, 2018

Niko’s  Ice Cream and Confectionary Company, Orange, Connecticut

Walking into Niko’s Ice Cream and Confectionary gave me a good feeling – bright, beautifully and spaciously decorated, with adorned walls, clean comfortable tables  (one of which had a checkers set up and a lady teaching her young grandson how to play), and a large ice cream case (the best part).  They had chocolates and other candy, but really featured Hershey’s ice cream with a wide choice of toppings.  I had Magical Unicorn ice cream (sweet cream ice cream with sweet-and-sour- cherry and blue raspberry swirls with lemon candy flakes) with whipped cream.  This was my favorite Hershey ice cream flavor so far – and that is saying something!  Don had chocolate chip ice cream with peanut butter sauce.  This is a delightful shop with friendly service and a comfortable atmosphere.

In the area (sort of) -Today we went to the Wooden Boat Show at Mystic Seaport – always a fascinating place.  It covers a large array of topics relating to sea-faring history.  There are very knowledgeable and enthuastic employees stategically located to answer all questions.  Today I learned that lobsters in New England used to be 4 feet long,   Ships’ epoxied wood layers set better under vacuum,  that captains on cargo ships had really, really nice quarters and that the Mayflower II was a gift from England and is presently being refurbished at Mystic.   This place is awesome!

Cookie Monstah

 

June 9, 2018

Cookie Monstah, Boston, Massachusettes

When in Boston, speak as Bostonians speak, or more correctly spell as Bostonians speak .. Cookie Monstah is an ice cream truck and cookie truck – their specialty is the convergence of the two – cookie topped ice cream.  – Renee and I both had Green Monster ice cream (mint ice cream with oreo and fudge swirl) with a double chocolate chunk cookies.  The cookies were large and the ice cream tasty.  Since there was no seating available, we ate as we walked toward the harbor so I had a difficult time giving the treat a valid taste test – I can say service was amazingly fast,, the product was attractive and was perfect for our walk today.  But I will never really be able to speak as a Bostonian.  The ice cream cookie truck was located in downtown Boston where a gay pride parade was taking place – there were rainbows and a lot of people everywhere!

In the area:  walking along a waterfront park we found the coolest playground with the best slide and merry-go- round ever!

We also caught an open house of the Portuguese naval ship Sardis – this huge three mast ship is used for training Portuguese military and included modern computers and automated stuff  as well as all the ropes sails and other scary associated with historic ships like the Mayflower.  I would rather cross the ocean on the Sardis than the Mayflower.

 

 

Mr. D’z Route 66 Diner

May 21, 2018

Mr.D’z Route 66 Diner, Kingman Arizonia

Walking into Mr. D’z Diner gave us a great feeling – it was 1950s style  – bright and  fun-looking with a casual, relaxed atmosphere welcoming to both visitors (like us) and regulars (like most everyone else).  Like most diners there were tables and a counter

to eat at –  we went with the counter for the whole effect.  The menu  was “comfort food” that looked and smelled appealing, but we were just there for ice cream, so we resisted.  I got a  Tin Roof Sundae (hot fudge and peanuts) with mocha ice cream – a totaly enjoyable treat in a great diner.

 

In the area:  we started out the morning visiting the Hoover Dam. Fascinating, especially for nerds like us. The amount of planning and engineering involved in this project was amazing:  developing a crane system to get the concrete where it needed to go;  new technology to cool the concrete quickly and evenly using refrigerated pipes; over-sized railroad tunnels to transport goods . The size of the dam, the technology and the politics were all a tribute to the men and women involved.

We then drove through north-western Arizona, much of which was a desolate, mountainous desert.  We stopped at Willow  Beach in  the be Lake Mead National Recreation Area  to hang out dipping our feet in the Colorado River and visit the fish hatchery with rainbow trout and endangered Razorback sucklefish.

We then continued on to Kingman, where we got ice cream sundaes, visited their Route 66 museum and locomotive park.   We then had to experience that famous  Route 66 – the road used to cross  the United States before inter state 40 was built. Driving to Oatman, Arizona was as an adventure of hairpin turns with steep drop offs – no guard rails, intriguing landscapes – we even had to stop for s few burros in the Road.

I cannot imagine this road with traffic jams when it was a major throughfare.  We enjoyed walking around the small, charming town of Oatman, Arizona before continuing on to Ludlow California.