Saratoga Mid-Winter Interlude

Saratoga Interlude

Winter 2016

           For Christmas I gave Marjorie a LivingSocial voucher as a “Post-Holidays Decompression Kit”: overnight at the Gideon Putnam Hotel in Saratoga Spa State Park plus discount for the Roosevelt Baths & Spa and tickets to either the Automobile Museum or National Museum of Dance (we decide to save the latter for grandson Miles, the dancer in the family). M supplemented this with vouchers for wine-tasting & dinner. Since we don’t get going until the end of January, it seems we should call it a “Mid-Winter Interlude.”

Holidays

Holidays

          This sampling of photos from selected holidays, like my previous “Seasons” post, departs from the explicit travel focus of most of my posts on this blog. But as with “Seasons,” many of the photos here entailed some travel. And besides, it’s my blog so I guess I can do what I want! I’ll focus primarily on Halloween & Christmas, the most colorful & decorated holidays.

Halloween

          I began the “Seasons” post with fall, so it seems appropriate to begin here with Halloween. Halloween can be spooky. 

 

But mostly it just seems fun. 

Christmastime and OtherSites Along the Hudson

Christmastime Along the Hudson

December 2015

          It began with Marjorie’s viewing of PBS show “Craft in America” that highlighted Christmas decorations at the Vanderbilt Biltmore estate outside Asheville NC. The largest privately-owned house in the US: 252 rooms, Christmas decorating includes dozens of trees, more than 1000 poinsettias, miles of garlands & lights. “We should go there some time!,” M exclaims. Russ thinks we have plenty of mansions closer by, googles places in the Hudson River Valley south of us. And so our Christmas outings came to be. It’s been hard to get fully into the Christmas spirit  ̶  no snow yet, temps in the 50s  ̶  so maybe this will perk us up.

          Sunday, 12/13, begins with Marjorie as lector at 8am Mass, Russ later sings w/ the choir at 10, all wearing some pink for Gaudete Sunday. Fr. Walsh called beforehand to ask R to take photos for the church bulletin & website: it’s also Bambinelli Sunday, so children bring figures of Baby Jesus to the altar at the end of Mass to be blessed, 

and the hospitality gathering in the parish hall includes caroling & a birthday cake (along w/ the usual donuts, cookies, etc.). Russ is always happy to oblige photographically, and takes some other photos around the church. Back home for a quick change, then off at noon for the 1½-hour drive to Rhinebeck, an area we’d enjoyed during the fall colors.

Seasons

Seasons

          Some of my previous posts have stretched a bit the travel focus of this blog. I’ll do the same here with selected seasonal photos. But these have themselves often involved travel, so their inclusion should not count against my thematic efforts. My selections here include fall, spring, and winter. Somehow summer doesn’t seem as distinctive, and interested visitors to my blog can find lots of summer photos throughout other posts.

Fall 

           I’ll start with fall, whose colors and lighting seem to offer special photo ops. This can be seen close to home, with some berries and other views in our yard 

 

Jacksonville & vicinity

Jacksonville

 June 2011

          It’s our Spring Break!  A bit late, since we weren’t able to make schedule connections earlier.  But it’s technically still Spring.  We’re off to visit friend Caroline – we met on our Provence river cruise two years ago – using frequent-credit-card miles for free United flights.  Tight connections on our flights (due to several changes in flight times), so we pack light with just carry-on; Caroline promised needed supplies at her end.  Looking forward to meeting her new Goldendoodle puppy, we’re advised to keep things out of her reach.  We’re leaving our own babies behind: newly hatched finches atop a wreath on the front door (they’ve flown the nest by our return).  We arrange a rental car so Caroline won’t feel chained to us the whole time as our guide.  But some trouble finding directions from JAX airport via MapQuest or GPS; does she live in some kind of “Area 51” secret government location?  Some record-pushing heat here just before we leave, will it be cooler in Jacksonville?

Thursday, June 9:

A steamy day in Albany after thunderstorms last night.  10am departure (pretty civilized for us) to Dulles, on-time and flight #2 delayed a bit so no trouble making the connection.  About on time into JAX at 2:15.  Budget car is a deep red Hyundai Sonata, roomier than the expected compact and comfy for the 400 miles of driving we do.  My first photos: documenting some scratches and scrapes on the car.  A lovely PM in J’ville, aka “Where Florida Begins” and “First Coast.”   

An hour drive south to Caroline’s, past the city and nuclear plant cooling towers (also seen as the plane came in), over a pretty bridge, views of such Floridiana as palm trees and waterways.  Some confusion with directions cleared up via cellphone, Caroline (and Dolly) meet us by the gate to her community: Riverwood (within the larger area of Nocatee); and she had alerted gate personnel that we were “OK” visitors.  

New Hampshire Inn

New Hampshire Inn

July 2012

          Back in 1983 we did a New Hampshire trip w/ Uncle Bill.  Matt (then 7), enjoyed the motel pool; and there was a little boy who could walk along the bottom!  Matt struck up friends w/ another boy and his nice dog; they buried a dead bird behind the motel (“Here Lies Pidgie”).  A visit to Clark’s Trading Post w/ trained bears, I’m picked to be part of a medicine show.  Franconia Notch and Old Man of the Mountain (now gone!).   

Andalucia, Spain

Tales of Andalucia

October 2015

 Andalucia has been on my travel to-do list, but wider-ranging tours I’ve seen had not enough time there. Then I found a British-based company (www.tourandelucia.co.uk) focused on the region: staying in a centrally located hotel w/ small van tours radiating out to different cities each day. Sounded just perfect. 

And if we put together our own group of 6-8 we’d have our own tour plus a nice discount. So we put together our Grupo de Siete: my brother Doug (unfortunately, sister-in-law Ann couldn’t join us  ̶  we’ll miss her), their friend Una from a previous trip to Iceland (where we also traveled in March, and small world experience: Una’s a high-school friend of one of my colleagues!), Marjorie’s cousin Jim & wife Susan, & Susan’s sister Ann. I’ve acted as “Principle Guest” in arranging details and payments (& calculating exchange rates between British pounds & dollars) with Gary Montagu, aka Gary the Tour Guy, who has been very responsive to our wishes. AAA agent Donna helped arrange our flights.
One regret: I’ll be missing my 50^th (!!!) high school reunion  ̶  it was thoughtlessly moved from Sept. to early October after we’d made arrangements for this trip. But Marjorie made it to hers in August, and we’ve had some interesting activities leading up to the trip. M had her most successful sales at the big 64^th Annual Schenectady Stockade Art Show a couple of weeks ago  ̶  and we’re partly dug out from the artistic disorder at home. Last weekend we returned to the historic Stockade for the annual “walkabout” to tour some of the old homes & gardens. 

And Sunday (9/27) we saw the rare “super blood moon” eclipse; i.e., during a full moon when its orbit is closest to the earth, last seen in 1982 (full disclosure: left photo is mine, right is from the internet). This makes for a trifecta of heavenly events, combining with clear skies for peak Northern Lights in Iceland in March & for July 4^th fireworks viewing from the East River in NYC.