Underbrink’s Bakery is a trip back to a simpler time when baked goods were made with care, by hand, from scratch and with really cool vintage equipment.
Owner and baker extraordinaire, LeRoy Rossmiller the self-proclaimed Nut Roll Nazi, maintains old fashioned ways. He showed us all of the inner workings while delivering a running commentary popping fresh with humor and sarcasm.
Since opening as a traditional German bakery in 1929, this little shop near… CONTINUE READING >>
No trip to Quincy is complete without a visit to Underbrink’s Bakery, and a trip back to a simpler time when baked goods were made with care, by hand, from scratch and with really cool vintage equipment.
Since opening as a traditional German bakery in 1929, this little shop near Quincy University has been doing just that.
In 1990, the current owner and baker extraordinaire, LeRoy Rossmiller, took over with a commitment to maintain the old fashioned ways. He showed us all of the inner workings while delivering a running commentary popping fresh with humor and sarcasm.
In a nod to Seinfeld’s “Soup Nazi,” he calls himself The Nut Roll Nazi.
WATCH: It’s all in good fun (or is it?) Get verbally abused by the Nut Roll Nazi!
The staff’s new babies get their turn in the mixer!
In the customer area, with its display cases that were well worn by the time we were born, LeRoy showed us some of his prized artifacts.
There are hulking antique Hobart mixers, campy trinkets and nic-nacs, and autographed pictures of stars — even a president, all with a slight dusting of flour.
Through the back of the shop we entered the kitchen, where all of the magic happens. Every surface was covered with dough, before or after baking.
There were sweet rolls and “snails” being formed, cookies getting decorated, and cakes being iced. Huge bags of flour, hundreds of eggs, and giant boxes of shortening stood at the ready.
There are no shortcuts, LeRoy explained, the dough must be prepared two days ahead of time in order to bake properly.
Next he showed us the quintessentially low-tech ordering system, a bunch of notes clothes pinned above a table, all the while muttering about dealing with customers.
Veronica attempts to sneak a lick of buttercream frosting.
Behind the character it’s obvious he loves his work and it shows, not just in this phenomenal little shop, but in the outstanding cakes and pastries that come out of it.
By the end of our visit, his gruff demeanor had sweetened to the point that he let us try our hands at icing and nutting some of his famous rolls. Then he presented us with the specialty of the house, angel food cupcakes.
Meet LeRoy Rossmiller. It’s all in good fun (or is it?) Get verbally abused by the self-proclaimed “Nut Roll Nazi!”… CONTINUE READING >>
LeRoy Rossmiller, took over Underbrink’s Bakery with a commitment to maintain the old fashioned ways. He showed us all of the inner workings while delivering a running commentary popping fresh with humor and sarcasm. In a nod to Seinfeld’s “Soup Nazi,” he calls himself The Nutroll Nazi.
Hong Kong is the world’s most vertical city, with two hundred and ninety-three buildings higher than five hundred feet – sixty more than second-place New York City.
Travel with us as we explore the wonders of this great city – all while taking advantage of a mass transit system that serves eleven million people a day… CONTINUE READING >>
We had chased the sun around the globe, making for a full twenty-four hours of uninterrupted daylight, and not only were clueless as to the time of day, we didn’t even know what day it was.
We think it was tomorrow.
Lucky for us the Panda Hotel is one of the largest hotels in Hong Kong, so we easily found a bus that took us right to the front door, and the staff knew just what to do with a couple of seriously jet lagged GypsyNesters… put them in a room, stat.
Perfect, that way we could wake up in the morning and hit the ground running.
So would that be the day after tomorrow?
Exploring Hong Kong in Transit (really cool transit!)
In the light of day, we were fully awakened by the towering height of the city.
Hong Kong is the world’s most vertical city, with two hundred and ninety-three buildings higher than five hundred feet – sixty more than second-place New York City.
It is also the fourth most densely populated area on Earth, just behind Macau, — which is right across the bay — Monaco, and Singapore.
Tip: For getting around, an Octopus Card is a MUST! Use for public transportation fares and much, much more.
By all accounts, the best place to gaze upon all those skyscrapers and people is from the top of Victoria Peak.
For us that meant getting across the harbor to Hong Kong Island and then up the mountain. Great, that would give us a chance to experience three of Hong Kong’s transportation legends, the Star Ferry, the ding dings, and the Peak Tram Funicular. All three have been meeting the needs of the city for over one hundred years.
Mass transit is huge in Hong Kong, in addition to those three classic modes there is an extensive system of rail, subway and bus routes that combined carry eleven million people daily.
That’s ninety percent of all the city’s travels, which is the highest such percentage anywhere.
We began our public transport trek by hopping on the metro, a thoroughly modern subway system that we could have taken us all the way across the bay.
But going under the bay would have been a colossally dumb idea. We would have missed out on what travel writers have voted one of the ten most exciting ferry rides in the world, the Star Ferry across Victoria Harbor. We opted to disembark near the pier on the Kowloon side.
For a just over two Hong Kong dollars — that’s pocket change, about thirty cents U.S. — we climbed aboard the vintage 1965 Silver Star and enjoyed one of the most spectacular urban views on the planet.
No wonder the line’s dozen classic old boats carry up to twenty-six million passengers each year.
Getting Our Ding Ding On
Once we were on the island, a short walk took us to the tram line.
The trolleys are affectionately known as “ding dings” for the bells they seem to be constantly ringing.
A whole fleet of double decker street cars rolls endlessly back and forth along the north shore of Hong Kong Island, which is the most bustling part of the city.
Best seat in the house: We always tried to snag the upper deck front window!
Because the fare for these wonderful old trolleys is also a mere pittance, we jumped on and off several times, whenever something caught our eye.
If You Don’t Have Your Health…
Toward the western end of the line, we bailed out at Queen Street.
This area is famous for ancient Chinese medicines, traditional herbal remedies, and tonic foods such as ginseng and bird’s nest.
These are real nests, taken from swiftlets, and can cost up to $5,000 a pound. Needless to say, we did not make a purchase.
We wandered up and down Wing Lok and Ko Shing Streets looking into shop after shop filled with strange and exotic items that are believed to promote health, vigor, and long life.
With life expectancies in Hong Kong among the highest in the world, who are we to argue?
Close by is Des Voeux Road, known as Dried Seafood Street. We were amazed by the offerings, truly works of art, every one.
The skyscrapers shoot up straight from the sides of the hills.
How do they do that?
We still had one more stop planned for the day and luckily we were near the terminal for the the tram that goes to the top of Victoria Peak.
Back in 1888 the tram began carrying passengers up to the exclusive residences on the mountain. The rich and famous lived up there to escape the heat of the city below, and the area is still home to many of Hong Kong’s high rollers, but more tourists than home owners ride this old funicular these days.
Unfortunately we had dilly-dallied around to the point where we were running out of time and decided to forego the lines at the tram and caught a bus up the mountain. The steep, narrow road with multiple switchbacks made this the second craziest bus ride of our lives, but the views along the way were well worth any anxiety.
At the top we briefly checked out the Peak Tower and Peak Galleria, before taking a little stroll along the Peak Circle Walk.
We think that this trail offered the best views of the incredible cityscape below.
Ready for a rest, we snagged a table on the terrace at the Peak Lookout restaurant. It turned out to be one expensive afternoon snack, but as the old saying goes, location, location, location.
A Symphony of Lights
A traditional Chinese junk sets sail in Victoria Harbor amid Hong Kong’s modern skyscrapers.
After working our way down and finding our way back across the bay, we set out to stake out a prime waterfront spot for viewing A Symphony of Lights.
Every night the skyline on both sides of the harbor comes alive in a spectacular musical laser light show that the Guinness Book of World Records has proclaimed the world’s largest permanent light and sound show.
It was quite an eye and earful but, with darkness upon us, that dazed-and-confused feeling of what day is it? was returning with a vengeance. All we could think about was shutting our eyes.
Plus we had big plans for the next day, really big, as in Big Buddha.
Who’s Your Buddha?
Bright and early we took a train to Lantau Island where we were supposed to catch an aerial tram up Muyu Mountain.
But our tram luck was not with us once again — it was closed for repairs — and busses were supplying transportation up the hill to The Tian Tan Buddha and Po Lin Monastery.
With one look there was no doubt as to why the nickname Big Buddha has stuck, he’s huge, well over one hundred feet tall. We also got our first look inside a Buddhist temple as we explored the monastery.
After another roller-coasteresque bus ride down the mountain, we had one more celebrated landmark on our to do list. Since 1976 one of Hong Kong’s top attractions has been Jumbo Kingdom, a floating restaurant. Wait, floating? Yes floating, as in a boat moored in the middle of Aberdeen Harbor.
We had dim sum on our minds and luckily made it just in time, since dim sum is traditionally only served until mid afternoon.
If we had missed the food, although several other options were available at any hour, a visit to this recreation of an imperial Chinese palace set afloat was still not to be missed.
Half the awe and fun of The Galapagos Islands is underwater. The sea creatures are just as unafraid of humans as their counterparts on land.
You willget up close. It’s a good idea to learn to swim backwards before you go!
Join us as we snorkel with sea lions, marine iguanas, turtles, spotted eagle rays, penguins, and much, much more! … CONTINUE READING >>
The vessel we called home for our Galapagos adventure, the M/Y (as in Motor Yacht) Yolita II.
Half the awe and fun of The Galapagos Islands is underwater. The sea creatures are just as unafraid of humans as their counterparts on land. You will get up close.
Our first underwater animal sighting! A young stingray at Las Bachas Beach on the island of Santa Cruz.
A Marine Iguana, a species found only in the Galapagos, suns himself near the water’s edge. Seeing one of these guys swim was HUGE on our Galapagos wish list!
Sally Lightfoot (grapsus grapsus) crabs crawl across the jet black lava. They are one of the 100 species of crabs on the islands.
Our first snorkel journey directly beneath Pinnacle Rock.
Just seconds from the shore of Bartolomé Island we spotted this Chocolate Chip Sea Star.
Next thing we knew, we were in the middle of a school of Yellow-tailed Surgeonfish, named for the scalpel-like scales along their tails.
A white tipped reef shark scurried out from under a rock and we were in too much awe to snap a photo, but we did capture this Hog Fish.
To avoid making contact with the adorable sea lions we found ourselves swimming backward from the more friendly of these creatures.
As hard as it was to keep from reaching out and petting one, we tried to keep in mind that a finger might just stay in the Galapagos if we did.
WATCH: Veronica is treated to several minutes of frolicking with a Galapagos sea lion.
Cruising between islands, a pod of dolphins joined us on our journey. They seemed to love riding on the surge of water that the ship pushed out in front… surfing the pressure wave.
WATCH: Dolphins frolic in the pressure wave of the Yolita II
Motoring deep into the mangroves of Elizabeth Bay on Isabela Island, we could see an unbelievable number of sea turtles swimming just beneath the surface, along with spotted eagle rays and a large school of mullets.
Since they were under the water’s surface it was hard to tell what sort of hairstyle they were sporting.
When we snorkeled out into Urbina Bay, also on Isabela Island, we found it swarming with huge Green Sea Turtles.
WATCH: Another exciting swim for Veronica – check out Green Sea Turtles – up close and personal!
Near Genovesa Island, we spied the crazy fast Galapagos penguin…
Off of the red sand beach of Rábida Island, we spotted amazing things – sea stars, surgeonfish, puffers, sergeant majors, angel fish, and a Blenny, “sitting” on the rocks atop his little fins.
YES! The Marine Iguana feeding under water — then swimming back to shore –really completed our Galapagos undersea experience.
WATCH: Marine Iguana feeding in the water!
As we were coming out of the water, a worried mommy sea lion called for her baby. When the baby finally arrives, they have a ridiculously cute reunion.
David introduces you to frolicking sea lions, swimming marine iguanas, graceful turtles, and super-fast penguins, and a host of characters! See our entire underwater adventure here! >>
David introduces you to frolicking sea lions, swimming marine iguanas, graceful turtles, and super-fast penguins, and a host of characters! See our entire underwater adventure here! >>
It was hard not to let anger be our overriding emotion. Tolerance and nonviolent resistance were the hallmarks of the movement, certainly we should carry on that tradition today. When adding her name to The Wall of Tolerance, Veronica was openly sobbing… CONTINUE READING >>
Our journey through Alabama led us to The Southern Poverty Law Center and The Civil Rights Memorial Center in Montgomery.
The Memorial captured our attention as we walked up the street toward The Center.
The smooth granite circular slab is engraved around the outside edge with the names of people killed in the struggle for equal rights. Water washes over the stone as a constant reminder of Dr. Martin Luther King‘s words, “We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
The Memorial was created by Vietnam Veterans Memorial designer Maya Lin, who envisioned the plaza as “a con-templative area — a place to remember the Civil Rights Movement, to honor those killed during the struggle, to appreciate how far the country has come in its quest for equality, and to consider how far it has to go.”
Inside The Center there is a tribute to each of the victims and information on many of the cases The Law Center has fought through the years.
After we browsed the exhibits and watched a film in the theater, it was hard not to let anger be our overriding emotion. Tolerance and nonviolent resistance were the hallmarks of the movement, certainly we should carry on that tradition today.
Just before the exit we came to The Wall of Tolerance.
This twenty by forty foot wall is an electronic display of the hundreds of thousands of visitors who have pledged to stand up for equality.
After seeing the stories of so many brave souls who gave their lives in the fight for basic American rights, it was not a difficult decision to take the pledge and add our names.
“By placing my name on the Wall of Tolerance, I pledge to take a stand against hate, injustice and intolerance. I will work in my daily life for justice, equality and human rights – the ideals for which the Civil Rights martyrs died.”
It was a deeply emotional moment watching our names appear on the wall, we’re sure we were not alone in walking out the door with tears in our eyes.
Actually, Veronica was openly sobbing and the nice volunteer at the exit had kleenex at the ready, so we’re absolutely positive we weren’t the first.
