Painter’s, Bear Mountain Bridge

Hello from NY yet again!

Here’s another recap of a few highlights from the past few days …

Dinner at a place called Painter’s in Cornwall-on-Hudson.We sat outside since it was so nice out. I had a burger with veggies.  Or rather the “Grilled Natural Hamburger on a Portuguese Muffin” ; )

I was SO hungry, therefore my food picture suffered a bit!  I was very happy with the taste of the burger and the bun and the veggies, ha … all around delicious.Erik ordered a side of wild rice and I shared that with him.  It was also really good. Some of the outside decor:
 
View of the outside eating area as we were leaving: This morning after eating out bagels we took a walk on the Bear Mountain Bridge.  This area is so pretty so I took my camera and snapped away! 

Bonus side note: Erik’s great uncle helped build this bridge.

The Bear Mountain Bridge from afar: And up close and personal:
    Hudson River:This neat helicopter kept flying over us and I couldn’t help but take a picture of it.  (Westpoint Academy is nearby; )Love this view!

Tomorrow is off to NYC and then on Sunday, back to Missouri!

Three Cups of Tea & more bagels

This week is going by way too fast!  But I guess that’s just how it is when you’re not at work.

We’ve continued our NY trip after Lake George (see last post) by heading to the Albany area and stopping at my sister-in-law’s house.  But first … I found a new book to read, Three Cups of Tea.  I haven’t had a lot of time to read yet but so far, so good.  I’ve heard good things about this book so I’m excited to get into it!We’ve had a bagel about every morning thus far and will probably continue to do so for the duration of this trip, ha.  As we were patrolling the streets of Saratoga, we found a store right up our alley, Four Seasons Natural Foods.  We had recently ran out of our snack stash of bars so of course, we restocked here. 

(And then later, when getting to my sister-in-law’s house, I found a box of Peanut Butter Cookie Larabars waiting for me … yum! Thanks, Kirsten : ) I also grabbed a coconut water for the road … I love these and passion fruit is my favorite flavor! I love how many trees, rocks, hills, mountains, and bodies of water there are in NY … much different than NE and MO! We then stopped for some food in Schenectady. Feeling nutritionally deprived, I got a spinach salad with grilled chicken.  It looked good but I just didn’t love it.  While it did the job, it definitely didn’t wow me at all. Later, at my sister-in-law’s house … we had good food! It was really nice to eat “real” food after eating out all the time! And to end this post … some beautiful views. Now we’re in Erik’s old stomping grounds and plan to venture around the Bear Mountain/Fort Montgomery area where it’s even more beautiful!

Until later …

Lake George, Algonquin, New Book

Hello from NY another day!

I’m happy to report I have officially finished Eat, Pray, Love and now I’m excited to see the movie.  I think in this instance I might like the movie better but it was a good read.

Today we left the Chazy Lake area and headed to Lake George.  Erik used to come here a lot when he was little.  When we pulled in, we stopped at The Algonquin to get some food. Erik and his dad. Our lakeside view.  I didn’t think I was hungry until I started eating, ha.  I got the black bean burger that come with lots of avocado! I spread one of the slices on my sandwich and set the other two aside.  It wasn’t the best burger I’ve ever had but it wasn’t bad either.

Shortly after that, Erik and I went for a quick swim. And then relaxed by our hotel pool.  Ahhh …   And I finished my book.  After getting dressed, Erik and I ran to the market and walked around.  We worked up an appetite so we stopped at a pizza place and grabbed a slice.We didn’t think it would taste very good but it was surprisingly delicious.  As Erik put it … “crispy bottom, chewy cheese”.  Ha, too much chewy cheese, I’m quite sure!  But who’s keeping track? ; ) Now we need to figure out what we’re going to do tonight and I need to find a new book to start!  Any suggestions??

 

NY Day One: Chazy Lake Regatta

Hello from NY!

Throughout the trip, my reading material has been Eat, Pray, Love. It seems to be a pretty popular book these days and seemed like an easy read so I decided to try it out.  So far I’m really liking it … anyone else have any thoughts on it?
We started our first morning in NY with bagels (of course) … though we only went to Dunkin Donuts.   I got mine with a hot tea. Then it was off to Chazy Lake.  Erik’s brother hosts a sailing regatta every year so we spent the day at the lake.  There were 15 boats in the race this year and unfortunately, this is the best picture I got of them!

Lakes are sure more scenic around here than in NE or MO though, that’s for sure, haha.  After the race, we just kind of hung out for the day eating fruit and playing with the many dogs that were around  begging for attention.

Dinner started out with an appetizer of fresh Maine clams.  I had one but unfortunately, I can’t handle the texture of a clam very well so I stopped there.  Erik, however, had many more than one ; ) and they were all gone very quickly! Erik and me. Shortly after clams, dinner was served … yum!! We had acquired quite an appetite and were SO ready to eat.  And dinner certainly did not disappoint.   Many salads (including a salad with big chunks of crab that was really good!), corn, salad, and beef tenderloin.  We also spent a lot of time playing with our nephews … here’s me and Anders tickling each other ; ) When the sun started going down, we were pretty much parked by the fire.  In Missouri, it pretty much stays hot and humid, even in the evening and I wasn’t prepared for 50 degrees at night! I was so thankful for the fire to keep me warm. Me and other nephew, Soren, who is posing perfectly for the camera. Finally, the day ended with a bunch of fireworks.
It was a good day and I’m happy that I don’t have to go to work on Monday or for the whole week! ; ) (For a more complete version of pictures from the day, you can visit my Facebook).

I’ll be back with more updates later … hope you all had a great weekend!!

Eating, packing, leaving.

Hello! : )

Happy (almost) August … already? Crazy.

Since we just moved, we’ve still been getting things all settled in but life it starting to turn back to “normal” and I’ve actually been taking pictures once again! So without further notice … here’s what we’ve been up to:

Eating! Ha. We’ve been doing A LOT of grilling … so easy and delicious! 

Seen below and above: grilled burgers with a laughing cow and ketchup served with sautéed bell peppers, zucchini and scallops.  Perfect!

As we were eating, I looked out the window and saw a double rainbow and had to snap a picture … so pretty.  You kind of have to look closely to see the double-ness of it, ha, but I promise, it’s there! One of my favorite summer fruits … pineapple, so juicy, so sweet, so good! Newman’s Own pizza doctored up with some grilled chicken. As I said in my last post, we’re going to New York for a week, leaving tomorrow!  Erik is from New York and we’re taking his dad to visit family and have a vacation. 

(Including weekends, I don’t have to go to work for ELEVEN whole days … nice!! ; ) 

Anyways … we went and picked up some traveling snacks tonight and here’s our loot …
Bars, bars, more bars, rice, and tuna, haha.  That may or may not make us weird. 

Erik can’t seem to go very long without food and his typical on-the-road/plane snack is a tuna/rice mixture.  It’s simple, just open the rice, pour in tuna, stir and eat.  It doesn’t even need the 90 seconds in the microwave ; ) ha. And while getting snacks, I saw this, I was hungry, and I couldn’t help but get it for dinner.  Thanks, Amy. I thought it was pretty good.  It had spinach, zucchini and mushrooms inside … mmm, especially loved the mushrooms. And now … off to finish packing, take a shower and go to bed. 

See you later from New York!