Welcome to Mike's second post. I know you've been holding your breath for this one, so wait no longer. This weekend was jam-packed with New England excitement. We headed out to New Canaan on Friday night with our friends the Robbins (Kelli and Jason). We arrived to a brisk welcome - 41 degrees! The next morning we drove to town (CT terminology for the village center) to have bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches at Made It Myself deli. The drive was a beautiful precursor to the weekend - swirling red leaves, frost on the grass, a bite in the air. Nothing beats fall in New England.From New Canaan we drove to Central Valley, NY to the Woodbury Commons outlets. After blowing some coin, we started our drive up the eastern bank of the Hudson River. We stumbled on to a small farm village off of 9W called Marlboro. While picking up some spiced cider, apple crisp, and Jonagold apples, I struck up a conversation with a local and asked where he recommended we find lunch. Given that he had the prerequisite goatee (a staple for the small-town local), I knew his advice would be worthwhile. That it was. He pointed us to the Raccoon Saloon, a pub on a bluff overlooking a waterfall that flowed down to the Hudson (http://www.raccoonsaloon.com/index2.htm). Beyond the spectacular view (which we weren't able to capture due to a lack of memory card for the digital camera), the food was off the chains - I'm not sure who actually reads this blog, so in case that last phrase is too cool for you, here you go - http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=off+the+chain . It turns out that Racoon Saloon has been voted "best burger in the Hudson Valley" for several years running. It didn't disappoint.
The wandering continued up 9W until we reached the mid-Hudson toll bridge that lead in to Poughkeepsie. We got a bit turned around upon exiting the bridge, but instead of flipping a u I decided to keep with the wanderlust spirit and see if the road could bring us to the banks of the Hudson. I exited to what seemed initially to be a dilapidated industrial park. Unrequited, we continued until we reached a long stone tunnel with what appeared to be an antique stoplight at the entrance. The light flipped from green to red, so my cultural indoctrination told me that it was safe to proceed. And proceed we did, through a damp, dark tunnel that left no more that a foot of clearance on either side of the car. We arrived on the other end to find the banks of the mighty Hudson. Talk about spectacular. In the water a schooner drifting up and down the river while the hills above the banks burned with vibrant color. The mid Hudson bridge framed the picture perfectly in the background. Think I'm being a bit dramatic in the description? Perhaps, but we didn't have a camera, so I need to burn the beautiful image in to my mind lest I forget.
From there we found our way via route 55 to the Taconic Parkway. This is a relatively unique stretch of road in that the foliage is allowed to grow right up to the road's edge. At times you feel like you're traveling right through the thick of the forest at 55 mph. The vibrant canopy elicited many "oooh's" and "aaahh's" from the passengers.
Fall is the best. More photos to follow once Blogger starts behaving nicely.
2 comments:
sounds amazing, guys! where did you say the pictures were?
The missing memory stick was noticed as we were posing in front of a farmers market in Marlboro, New York. The kind stranger who offered to take our picture said, "Huh, it says 'no memory stick'." I am an idiot. We have a Sony camera and a Sony computer, so we can pop the memory stick right into our computer to transfer pictures... I was devastated to discover that the memory card was sitting uselessly in our computer. Hence the need to burn the images into our minds.
We are going to go back this weekend- with a camera AND memory stick this time!
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