Vacation, Day 7

Day 7, Wednesday. This is when we hang out in Northampton, and stay out way too late watching Beau's band (the Beau Sasser trio) jamming away at Bishop's Lounge.

I met Jeanne at her place, and off we went. First to Target, then off to 'Hamp. We wandered about taking a few pics, deciding where to go for supper. A local bar/restaurant has half price appetizers during the week, so it was decided we'd go there. I got a couple sliders, and stuffed mushroom caps. Jeanne had some Chicken Ravioli and Scallops wrapped in bacon. All was delicious. It was actually pretty busy for a wednesday night, which made for some interesting people watching.

After more wandering and picture taking we sat in Starbucks for awhile enjoying a coffee and people watching. It had started to rain lightly, but as long as it stayed light we were good. The band doesn't usually start until about 10-ish, so we get there about 9 or so and start getting our drink on, making jokes with the band and bartender as they set up.

Started out with a Nut Brown Ale. I forget the brand, but was quite tasty, if not a tad heavy. I usually get Sam Adams, but the local microbrew ale's are just as good a choice.

I really thought I could fit more than one day per post, but that's not happening! Onward....

Vacation, Day 6

I need to get a little more caught up here, no? Day 6 would be tuesday, the 22nd, the day after Boston. The day with tired feet, 3 dead camera batteries, and one very full memory card. I spent a little time in the morning sorting thru the 400+ pics I got, weeding out the blurry, duplicate photos and the SP's I looked horrible in. :)

I knew my sister and I would be hanging out later in the day, but didn't know what she had planned yet. I met her in the next town over where she and her husband had a DR appointment after work. Once she got done there we took off and left Scott with their car. She then showed me the tickets to the Big E that they got thru work.

Since she was still not feeling well, we didn't go on any rides, but we definitely did plenty of walking around. We had some good food, watched the rides (which only made her more ill) and poked around the state buildings. I did good on food. I had to have stuffed clams from the Rhode Island Building, and a fresh squeezed lemonade. I only sampled the kettle korn, maple cotton candy, and pumpkin spice ice cream. YUM! Oh and I had to get the fried oreos. Kinda bummed they didn't offer a small order, because there was no way I could eat 7 of those, and they aren't much good when they get cold. Ah well.

These are a few of the rides. Top left is for those who like loop coasters, minus the parts that aren't a loop... Top right is a hang glider ride, kinda neat. If you look just to the left of the ride's name you can see the platform with 3 people on it....Bottom left is the zipper. 20 years ago, my favorite ride, hands down. Also the best place to find loose change falling out of pockets. Bottom right is the swings. I like that ride, but this one is different. Once people are on, it goes up, and up, then the ride begins. Aside from the ferris wheel, I don't like tall rides. The view is awesome, but I rather like something solid under my feet.

That ends day 6...coming soon, days 7-10.

Stay tuned..

Vacation, Day 5 - Boston!

So, day 5....Boston. Met up in Northampton at 7am to get coffee for the long ride out. Stopped to fill the tank, and program the GPS, and off we went. We don't get there as often as we'd like, so I always freak out thinking we'll miss our exit to the T station in Riverside. Traffic was fine til about 20 miles from Newton, then it just slowly crawled along. It took longer to do those last 20 miles than it did for the first 75 miles...

We couldn't have asked for better weather, it was sunny and beautiful all day long.

These are just a few of the bricks that are embedded on Winthrop Lane, There are just over 100 of them total, and I didn't get pictures of all of them. We had lunch in the courtyard of the Boston Public Library (a delicious quiche and fresh greens with vinaigrette), and supper at Dick's last Resort ('gator nuggets).

So, that's just a small portion of the day...I will add more pictures soon. Thankfully, the last few days of my visit were more leisurely and not so picture heavy. We each took just about 400 pics in Boston.

Tomorrow. I'll be flying back home, and I go right into physical inventory at work on Monday. Joy.

Vacation, Days 3 & 4

On to days 3 & 4 of my vacation. I'm a third of the way thru now, and so far the weather has been super. Saturday was sunny and warm. Instead of heading to town as we had planned Jeanne & I went to the Old deerfield Craft Fair. You can visit her blog to see more photos as well! Lots of beautiful crafts, yummy sauces and dips to try, and "shooters" of different grades of maple syrup, from light amber to an almost black one. Definitely the Guinness of maple syrups! I had an Italian Sausage Grinder/Sub and Jeanne enjoyed a stuffed baked potato. We wandered down the street some and checked out the farm. There were sheep coming in from pasture.

After the craft fair Jeanne's husband picked us up and we drove up to Pocumtuck Ridge and admired the view while the guys talked Ham Radio stuff. It was a beautiful view up there! It will be even better to see when the colors have changed!

On Sunday I drove up to my sister's house, and we decided onvisiting the Hadley Flea Market and Atkins farm. They have unbelievably good cider donuts! We were going to carve pumpkins that afternoon, but we ran out of time. My parents were away for the weekend, and I needed to get the pups fed and outside. We got to the flea market late (for the vendors, not us), as most of them were already packing up, but it was a nice walk around, anyway. There's a horse farm right next door as well, and I enjoy watching the horses. We stopped at a couple local farm stands for mums and to check out the prices on other pumpkins.

Vacation, Day 2

On Friday, My mom & I went up to Vermont for a few hours, We had planned to do a big loop, but decided instead to just go up I-91, and make our way back down Rt 5. We stopped at Harlow farm for coffee and a muffin at Cafe Loco, and she got to pick out the biggest pumpkin she could find. I, as usual, amused myself taking odd pics of everthing.







We stopped at the Dummerston Covered Bridge, built in 1872. Several cars in the lot, but noone down by the water, so it must have been a good day for kayaking. I grabbed a couple nice river stones for the trip to Boston.






The weather was sporadic for most of the day, going from cool and cloudy to sunny and hot every 10 minutes. It never did rain until after we got home to go out for dinner.

Day 1 - Sept. 2009

The travels yesterday were a little less than perfect, but since I didn't have to be anywhere important the flight delay/missed connection wasn't too big a deal, just one of life's little inconveniences. I grabbed lunch (at 9:30am) and a white chocolate mocha at Seattles Best, and settled down for the rest of the morning. This is why I prefer the window seat.

On a happier note, my rental car is awesome, way better than the poorly handling Ford Focus I had back in May. This time I got a PT Cruiser! Sweet!

Today mom & I are headed to southern Vermont to drive around and visit our favorite places noted in yesterday's post. She wants to get her pumpkin at Harlow's. :) I thnk we'll be passing through Bennington to catch a couple Moose.

Have a great day!!

Almost time..

Vacation creeps ever closer. I hope I can slow down just a bit and not feel that it's over before it even begins. I don't have the whole 10 days all planned out, so that definitely leaves me some wiggle room at least. There's Vermont on Friday with mom, stopping at one of our favorite places (Harlow's Nursery) and also Walker Farm. Saturday & Sunday I will be relaxing, maybe catch a movie with my sister, and firm up the Boston plans with Jeanne over a coffee at St. Arbucks. heh.

Did I mention Monday was our day in Boston? We've got so many ideas of what to do, pictures to take, and utter hilarity will surely ensue. People see us taking pics of ourselves, and offer to take a pic for us. We politely refuse. Maybe this time we'll let them? Maybe. No shiny, reflective surface is safe from our cameras.

Then we have the Big E. Here is a favorite shot from several years ago. The last couple of years my vacation hasn't properly aligned with it, so this year I made sure it was!

Time to finish packing!

Scrap Your Day #5

Jeanne & I had a chance to get in some good scrappy time yesterday. Both of us finished the August edition of Shimelle's Scrap Your Day. This month's theme was "all about you". I had a bit of fun with this one, making my way down to the st john's town center as seems to be my habit on SYD. Much more scenic than my apartment. This is also the second SYD in a row with a well known person passing. In July it was Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett, August had Senator Kennedy.

I used Tim Holtz ink and my Studio G stamps for the date, and Martha Stewart pens for the journaling. Cardstock is from The Paper Company. That tiny little piece of PP in the middle is unknown scraps.

Don't forget to visit Jeanne to see what she created!

At least the weather seems to be cooling off, so I will enjoy sitting out on the balcony more in the evening. The cat loves it out there as well.

I also find myself far more willing to go to the beach in the winter. Early morning is especially nice, when it's about 50 deg. F out. Not only is it too hot in the summer to go to the beach, but instead of being able to enjoy the walk, I spend most of it dodging everything from frisbees to footballs to bocce balls. I'm definitely not cut out for the summer heat of the south, but I sure as heck don't miss driving in snow & ice either. A proper fall would be nice, but then I wouldn't have an excuse to go home for vacation. Well, I'd have one less excuse, anyway.

Only 9 days til my vacation, and I'm so happy. I'll miss the kitty, but he is well cared for by a co-worker while I'm away. **Thanks, Julie!

What a week..

And I'm so glad it's over! It started out normally enough monday morning, but by lunchtime I knew I was comin' down with something. Tuesday morning at 8, I headed out to the local urgent care center, since it's easier to get in & out of there than it is to see my regular doctor. It took her exactly 30 seconds to look in my ear and at my throat, and pronounced me the proud owner of a sinus infection. YAY.

I knew with my vacation only 2 weeks away there was no way I was going to be sick during those blissful 10 days back home. Been there, done that.

So home I went with my trusty Z-pack of antibiotics. First dose threw me for a major loop, and my stomach took a couple days to settle. I stayed home on wednesday doing nothing but sleep and reading. I didn't even have my coffee! Thursday & Friday, I still wasn't quite myself. Today is looking much better. Hopefully I have enough drugs running thru my system to keep any other germs away while on vacation! :)

Here's a shot of one more Turtle that I don't think I've shared yet. He's located at Everbank, close to where the Arts Market is.

Have a great weekend everyone!!