Happy First People's Day!

In celebration of Colonialism Day, we went to New Bedford, MA to eat some Portuguese food and have a look around.  New Bedford is an interesting town.  Economically, it's definitely seen better times, although back in its heyday of drunken sailors reeling through the town it was probably more seedy than quaint.  The historic part of the city is lovely and silent, while all the action, good and bad, happens in the immigrant periphery.

The Portuguese food was just okay.  It's interesting how our tastes are formed throughout life.  I like fancy ("authentic") regional Italian food, but I also like the red-sauce Italian American food of my childhood restaurants (my grandmother learned to "cook Italian" from her neighbor, which meant ketchup on Prince elbows).  The foods of the Iberian Peninsula were not part of my childhood, just grad school nights in mid-priced tapas (pronounced with the aggressive TH) bars.  Our lunch was the Portuguese version of red-sauce Italian American, and it was just okay.

Then we went to the little New Bedford Oceanarium, and it was perfect for LB.

We spent most of our time hanging out by the tank with rays and little sharks, and LB had fun putting her hands in the water and getting splashed by rays.