Friday, December 28th, 2007
I took some videos with my digital camera of the Red Lion Inn, in Stockbridge, MA while we were up there over Christmas. The camera did a pretty good job, but ran out of room for any real video.
For what I got, I think it did a nice job. If you will notice, I am not the best narrator or video taker. Oh well.
This was just a little bit of the Inn. The place is huge, but people would probably think I was a nut, walking around taking video. I tried to get it while no one was around.
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Friday, December 28th, 2007
For Christmas, Laura asked for a video game. She likes to shoot things and get fierce. In the past, she has shown to really enjoy Unreal. I liked that game too. It had 39 thrilling boards with great graphics and awesome sound. We would get sucked in for hours.
Since we liked that game so much, I decided to get her Unreal 2. The reviews of this game weren’t nearly as good as the original, but we aren’t freaky game junkies or anything. Some people get way too far into these things. Some of the complaints were that this version only has nine boards and the gameplay isn’t as good as the first one. I will admit there is a lot of fluff at the beginning, with the “setting the stage” so to speak.
Just last night, I got to the part where the beasts start killing me off. I already was taken care of a few times and can’t seem to get past one spot. Laura hasn’t started playing it yet, because she is still playing “Planet of the Apes.”
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Wednesday, December 26th, 2007
Well, we got back from the Red Lion Inn just a few hours ago. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas night there. It was a pretty nice little getaway. What was especially nice was actually staying at the inn, at last.
We have been there so many times before for dinner or just stopping by, but never for an actual stay, so that was exciting. After we checked in, we went up to our room on the third floor. There are 101 rooms at the inn, so finding it needed some direction. What caught me immediately after entering the room was the fact that the old inn was showing its age. Let’s just say that things have “settled” over the years. It gives the place its character. I think people like that because the place is always very busy.
Back when I called to make the reservations just a few weeks ago, I asked if the dining room and tavern had dress codes for the nights we would be eating there. The front desk informed me that men didn’t have to wear jackets in the dining room on Christmas Eve, because dinner was for guests only, no outsiders. Also, on Christmas night, I didn’t have to wear a jacket because we were eating in the Tavern and there was no dress code in there. As it turns out, I was supposed to wear a jacket for Christmas dinner, no matter where we were eating. This took me by surprise, because I didn’t bring a jacket.
We got in the car and shot up to “Prime Outlets” in Lee, MA. We went in a few store looking for a sport coat. No one had any…until we saw Brooks Brothers. We went in there to find a bunch of sport coats. I picked one out and bought it on the fly. By the way, I had other (nicer) clothes for dinner, not the ones I was wearing. Whoa, that was close.
So, one of the main reasons we went up to the Red Lion Inn for Christmas was to visit Williamstown, MA. We wanted to check out the town as a potential place to live. We are always doing that. It’s part of me being annoying.
We decided to drive North on Rt.7, through Pittsfield, MA to Rt.9 West and onto Rt.8 North. We drove through Adams, MA and into North Adams, MA. This was a good thing, because I always wanted to visit these towns too. I hear a lot about them while listening to NPR. One big famous thing we saw was Mass MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) (Blog) up in North Adams. We didn’t go in, but we did pass by to grab a few good shots of the place. This one was the best one.
It was a good thing we visited these areas, because we were able to cross them off our list of places to live. I am sure there are a bunch of nice people and some good culture, but it wasn’t for us.
We took Rt.2 West into Williamstown, MA. I have to say, this is a very nice town. Everything was really clean and neat. We drove down Spring Street and around a few roads. I did notice that the whole town was empty. It was Christmas, but we only saw one other person in the whole entire town. This creeped us out a little bit. As we were driving down Rt.7 back into Pittsfield, Laura turned to me and said, “We would really have to like one another to live in that town.” Not that it wasn’t very nice, it just seemed lonely when college wasn’t in session. Take a look at the photos of Spring Street.
There was one last thing I wanted to see on the way back to the inn. It was Pontoosuc Lake. On Google Earth, someone posted a really cool photo of the lake through some pine trees on the south side. There is a little park off Hancock Rd. This is a really pretty lake, so I got a nice shot too.
The Berkshires are a nice backdrop.
We made it back to the inn for another dinner. As usual, it was delicious. I did manage to grab a few nice photos throughout the time we were there. Some of them came out blurry, but others didn’t. Here they are.
At the inn, there is a store called, “Country Curtains.” They have a very nice display in one of the hallways.
This is me sitting in a nice chair near the rear entrance. I thought I looked hot, so I made Laura take a picture.
And that’s it. Overall, it was a very nice vacation.
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Saturday, November 10th, 2007
This is getting pretty bad. I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I noticed there was snow on the ground and immediately thought about writing a blog post about it. Yes, I probably should pursue therapy.
In any event, yes, it did snow last night. It was the first snow of the season for us in this part of New York. It actually hasn’t been cold really and there are still leaves on the trees…green ones on some. That strikes me as weird. Laura keeps telling me they are on the trees until after Thanksgiving. It’s nice to have a little brain so closeby.
When I woke up in the middle of the night, there was more snow on the ground. I guess some of it melted. I have to say, the sight of snow does give you a nice feeling. With all the Christmas commercials on TV these days, it is starting to feel like the season. Also, just a word of warning, these are the days that I start dreaming. These are the days of reflection on what I want to do with the rest of my life. I probably think this way because snow calms me down and gives me some breathing room.
We have had the pellet stove burning for most of the month of November and some of October. I am so happy we got this stove. It’s clean and very easy to operate. Gone are the days of splitting wood, dust and a mess in the house. I don’t think I will ever forget all the bark in the living room when I was a kid. I did like burning it though.
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Monday, August 6th, 2007
Yesterday was pretty fun. We did something that I have been waiting a while to do…to go hiking at Sam’s Point in the Hamlet of Cragsmoor. If you remember, we went up there on Christmas. That was pretty cool, but I didn’t get all that many great photos.
I have been suggesting that we head up to Sam’s Point again and I guess my suggestions paid off. Laura was gingerly excited about the hike. With the hike, came nice pictures, so here you are…
Here we are, down in the parking lot, looking up at the cliff. I thought I really wanted to do the whole walk around Loop Road, but at that point, I was thinking about just getting to the top of the cliff and coming back down. Laura made me do the whole loop. She is a woman of power and not to be underestimated.
At the top of the mountian, past South Gully Trail and High Point Carriageway and about half way through the almost three mile walk, I took a few photos of Lake Maratanza. Using my awesome Photoshop skills, I pasted them together.
A bit past the lake, there was a trail down to the ice caves and Verkeerder Kill Falls. We didn’t walk down that way, but it was a good opportunity to get a shot of some mountains, probably the Berkshires, because we were facing East.
After we made almost all the way around, I begged Laura to take a picture of me. Here it is.
These are some pictures I took of the Sam’s Point lookout. There were a bunch of shots, but I had to narrow them down to these. They all kind of look like each other.
This was a cool big rock we passed on the way back down to the lodge (if that’s what it’s called). Again, I pasted a few shots together to get this one.
This is the bottom of the trail, back at the lodge. Prett cool, huh?
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Friday, December 29th, 2006
We have a new Christmas tradition in our house. We are going to go for a hike. Now, I completely understand that this may be a one year tradition because this year’s Christmas tempurature was in the 50s, but if this Global Warming thing is correct, there may be a few more years to go. By the way, wouldn’t you just love to see Al Gore and George Bush in a boxing match?
Anyway, we decided that Sam’s Point Preserve in the Shawangunk Mountains of Ulster County, New York would be the best place to start, because it is fairly nearby.
We drove up RT.52 towards Ellenville and made a right at the sign that said, “Cragsmoor.” After a few miles of crossing the top of the ridge, we found and parked in the parking area. I took a walk over to the big map and saw that there was a lake about one and a half miles up the trail. Ok, let’s go see that.
We walked for a while and could see the cliffs on the right. They were getting lower and lower to the ground as we continued on. When we finally got to the top, I took Holly (the dog) and jumped up on top of a rock for a view.
The first thought I had was, “What an odd place.” Right from where I was standing, you had a 360 degree panoramic view of the Hudson Valley and the Catskills. Also, there was the lake all right…in the middle of this short pine tree forest. I felt like I was either walking on the moon or walking in Florida somewhere. Again, very odd.
I took Holly down to the edge of the water and came across a weird little area. It must be a spill over or something. It seemed a bit out of place because I was wondering how they would get any machinery up here. I guess it must’ve been a while ago. Also, I was wondering if maybe there was any cave entrances around. I kept my eyes peeled.
We totally forgot what the map looked like, so we only continued to walk for about another mile. We walked out and turned back for the two mile trip back to the car. When we got back there, we realized that a loop actually went around the lake and we were closer to the car at the point we turned around. Whoops. Next time we are going to take the trail from the other direction and take some nice pics from the top of the cliffs.
Till then!
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Sunday, December 17th, 2006
Believe it or not, this is the first year Laura and I actually went out with the intention of bringing back a Christmas tree. I am not sure why we never had one before…probably because we just never got around to it. Well, that all changed today.
I spoke to Paul yesterday and happened to mention today’s agenda (Christmas tree). I said we would probably go to Home Depot or something and just grab one. He said, “No, you less than intelligent, but well intentioned friend. Go to Bell’s Christmas Trees and cut down your own.” Well, I hadn’t thought of actually cutting down our own tree. Somehow, and I do mean somehow, the thought of driving my “kill” home on the roof of my car was a little weird, but I got over it as soon as I pictured myself walking around thousands of pine trees with a saw in my hand.
We woke up nice and early this morning with the goal of beating the crowd up there in Accord. We made it out of the house by 9:30AM and were at the farm a little after 10AM. Like Paul said, there was hot chocolate, a saw and a little sled to drag the tree back to the car with.
The tree farm was better than I expected. You kind of never know what you are going to get up in these parts, but the trees were in great shape and there were plenty of them. The acreage was very clean and the employees very helpful. It was so nice to take our time and stroll around in the great weather (50s) for a while before stumbling across “the one.”
She was a Blue Spruce. She towered over me. She was a beauty and stood about ten feet tall. We thought for a few minutes about how we would fit a ten foot tall tree in the house. I kind of wasn’t listening because my mouth was already watering at the prospect of me putting a picture of me standing next to a ten foot tall tree on my blog. We agreed that a taller tree is better than a shorter one because we could always cut it if we needed to. But, my friends, don’t forget that we have thirteen foot vaulted ceiling in our living room. I cut her down and fastened it to our sled.
Let me give you a small peek into my mind right as soon as I tied it to the sled. “Man, I have about ten puncture wounds on my left hand from these needles.” That’s right, the needles were like little razors on a mission.
Now, let me give you another little peek into my mind as soon as I started dragging the tree back to the car. “Man, this is a very heavy ten foot tree.” Yes, again, that’s right, the weight of the tree created a magnified friction effect between the sled and the ground which, in turn, created a slower and more painful half-mile walk back to the car than if we had no tree at all. Laura helped pull during this agonizing trip and mentioned something about how mules felt. I told her this was no time for jokes and silence would be appreciated. Just kidding, I would never, ever talk to someone like that, especially Laura, my queen.
During our trip back, we paused for a moment to snap a photo of one of the hillsides. This was taken for the blog too. Ok, you know my secret. I take pictures for blogs, now forget about it. When we made it back to the home base, we paid the extra dollar for the nice men to tighten up the tree for us through their machine. Then, some generous guy in the parking lot helped me load the tree on top of my car.
I have no pictures of me dragging the tree up out front porch steps and into the house because I was too busy being maimed by the pine needles, but Laura took a few nice ones after we stood the tree up in the stand.
Not bad huh? She’s giant. We already put some lights up on it but need some more. I am going to grab them tomorrow and then I will post a picture of the final product. All I need now is some Egg Nog.
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