Going through the notebook from Sen. John McCain's visit with Tom Ridge:

I reported for Monday's paper that Ridge and McCain ordered yellow perch dinners, while Ridge's wife, Michele, ordered walleye Sunday night at Smugglers' Wharf.

"You can't get much more Lake Erie than that,'' Ridge said after dinner.

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Despite several media accounts to the contrary, Cindy McCain did not accompany her husband to Erie. The source was the campaign itself, which announced in a news release that both McCains had dinner with the Ridges in Erie.

Cindy McCain was supposed to appear with her husband originally, but the campaign later said she had a personal scheduling conflict.

The dinner party spoke with Cindy McCain on the phone, Tom Ridge said.

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In Erie, on Monday morning, McCain gave a statement about the Russian-Georgian conflict but took no questions despite one reporter's attempt to ask one.

He spoke in a room at the Courtyard by Marriott, which is owned by Scott Enterprises.
Amid the national and local press was Nick Scott Sr., chief executive of Scott Enterprises, with camera in hand. Scott is a camera buff who snapped photographs during the news conference.

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McCain stayed in a top-floor Marriott suite, which has plenty of room and the feel of a condo, Scott said. Secret Service and other security also stayed at the hotel. McCain staffers and the traveling national press stayed there too, while others booked rooms at the nearby Holiday Inn Express, another Scott Enterprises property.

Scott met McCain on Sunday night and again on Monday morning. "I thought he was very cordial. ... We talked a little bit about his campaign and we wished him well,'' Scott said.

McCain posed for pictures with Scott and members of Scott's family.

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McCain, of course, toured GE Transportation and spoke to about 125 GE employees in a town-hall meeting Monday. McCain staffers and security hurried us along during the plant tour, making it tough to capture images and nearly impossible to write anything in a notebook.

-- John Guerriero