busy end of summer

We have traveled a lot the last ten days. Last weekend we were in Rye, NY for my cousin Brett's wedding. We saw a lot of family on my dad's side that we don't see often, which was nice. Friday night a bunch of us got together at a bar and we witnessed my dad knocking back beer or two and holding court. An impressive site. The wedding was Saturday afternoon and was very nice.

Sunday morning Doug took the train up to NY and we drove north to Lake Placid. I got the idea for the Adirondacks from a PBS documentary and reading a NY Times article about bears defeating bear canisters. We had never been, so we didn't know what to expect. It was a spectacular week.

The drive up - Lake Placid is at the northern end of the park - was beautiful. We stayed at the High Peaks Resort, right in the middle of the little downtown area. It was pretty convenient as we were only a few blocks from everything, including both Mirror Lake right across the street and Lake Placid a couple blocks away. I won't bore you with all the details - Lelaine says my posts are always too long - but we relaxed in Adirondack chairs (naturally); enjoyed the beautiful weather - lows in the 40s and 50s and highs in the 60s and 70s; kayaked around the lake; went out in a row boat (ask Lelaine or Doug about my row boat fiasco, involving me spewing a couple f-bombs and throwing a temper tantrum before Lelaine took the oars from me to guide us out into the lake); hiked up Mt Jo for a good view of the high peaks region; went to the top of the 120m ski jump from the 1980 Olympics; saw the arena where the Miracle on Ice happened; white water rafted with Lori Phoebe, our salty guide who grew up on the Hudson River and had her own songs telling the stories of the loggers working the river back in the day; and consumed surprisingly good food and local beer.

I was really impressed with Teddy Roosevelt's old stomping grounds. While the tallest mountain in NYS is only 5,344 ft, the views from the valleys aren't too much different than some out west as the elevation of the base of the mountains isn't that far above sea level.

Friday morning we packed Eddie, Doug's Explorer, and drove east to Lake Champlain, where we took the ferry across the lake to Burlington, VT (no sightings of Champ, the loch ness-like creature who allegedly lives there). Had a quick lunch at a small place in downtown Burlington and then hit the Ben and Jerry's factory for dessert. After polishing off scoops of cookies and cream, Cherry Garcia, Phish Food, and Imagine Whirled Peace (that was just my fat butt!) we drove south through the green mountain state's namesake mountains where Eddie hit 100,000 miles.

That night we arrived in Mystic, CT. Lelaine has wanted to go here for a while to eat at Mystic Pizza. The pizza was pretty good, plus they had the movie playing.

The next morning we woke up to embark on Food TV restaurant day. We started off at Kitchen Little, which had been in a Rachel Ray show. After a boat tour of the Mystic Harbor, led by a guide who started off the trip by saying "you may know more than me about Mystic because I'm not from here" (another highlight was telling us he had written a poetry book and then pulling it out to prove it - he was pretty awesome) we started the trip down to DC. For lunch we went to White Manna in Hackensack, NJ for sliders. Lelaine and Doug enjoyed, but I was a little disappointed, particularly since the place has been on both Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives and on the Best Thing I Ever Had show. We got back into the car and hit the NJ Turnpike. Mizzou was playing Illinois and Doug used an iPhone to relay the game play-by-play. Needless to say, we were happy with the Tigers' performance. For dinner we went to Chaps Pit Beef in Baltimore, which has also been on Triple D and Best Thing I Ever Had. We had been before, so we knew it would be great. I went for Guy's Triple D Special, which was merely an Italian sausage, corned beef, and pit beef on a roll. Tasty.

We made it back home Saturday night, hit the sack for a bit, and then woke up early for a flight to KC. My grandparents' 65th wedding anniversary was Sunday and we were headed back for a party. It was our first time in KC this year, so it was nice to see everyone and hear our stories about Mimi and Papa. I also made it out to see a few friends from college that night, which was nice. On Monday we had barbecue with my mom and Glo and then came back to DC. Somehow I failed to take pictures of the KC trip, with the exception of the gem to the left.

The last week and a half was great. In fact, the last several weeks have been tremendous, from going to Rehoboth, Chicago, NY, the Adirondacks, Mystic, and KC. It wasn't very exciting to get up and go back to work this morning.

Stay tuned for a complete listing of pics from the ADK trip.