Sunday I went to this place called Texas Barbecue. It is close by. They have Dr. Pepper which is almost impossible to find here. They also have fun Texas decorations that you wouldn't find anywhere else in Connecticut.
It was a rare day that I let myself take a nap.
Later I went over to my dear friend Rachels house and we made apple triffles. We cut the apples and cooked them on the stove with spices. We added ginger cookies, whip cream and the apples into layers in a dish. It was good!
Just about every day I hear the words Fox Wood and Mohegan Sun. They are two casinos in Connecticut about an hour away from me and about 20 minutes from each other. On Monday morning I went to check them out. Not to gamble but to see what all of the talk is about. They both have free parking which was nice. Foxwood looked more like Vegas Casinos. Mohegan Sun looked like Great Wolf Lodge. I did go on a Monday morning which helped. They were not as loud, smokey or obnoxious as Vegas casinos. There were mostly older people there. No young people my age. Foxwood has outlets there. I got all of my winter gear at Columbia. There was a very good worker there that helped me find what I needed. I think I am set for the cold! I found a Cinnabon place there and had to stop for a Cinnabon. I asked the worker how he was and he said to be honest it sucks to be here. He went on to explain how he is in a band and they had a great show the night before but now he is back to work at his minimum wage job. At Mohegan Sun I went to Carlos' Bakery. I went to Carlos' in Vegas and didn't like it. I was going to give it another change but the cupcake I got was terrible. In my opinion Carlos is only good at decorating. The good thing is that I got a cool grocery bag from Carlos. I went to Bobby Flay's Burger Palace for lunch and that was good. I got a burger with chips on it. I went to Bobby's Burger Place in Vegas too. Flay has a nice restaurant at Mohegan Sun that I would like to go back to sometime for dinner.
Monday afternoon I went to the chiropractor. I finally found a good chiropractor! I called a few places and all of the people on the phone weren't very nice. This place is great. Nice workers. Instead of having rooms they have their adjustment tables out in the open. I hadn't seen that before. Dr. Brian was great. I saw him the next morning at Starbucks.
After the chiropractor I got my hair cut. I found a great lady at a salon but she moved to this new place. She rents a space in a salon. It was a nice place. She has a surprisingly great memory.
I picked up a pizza for me and Gabe and Stephen at a pizza restaurant I pass by all of the time but have never been in. In New England they have lots of different types of pizza. I got a baked potato pizza. It had potatos, sour cream, bacon, and cheese. Stephen and Gabe were helping me move so I bought them dinner. I found out after I bought the pizza that Stephen doesn't like potatoes. He was a good sport and pretended to like it. I felt bad after he was doing something so nice for me and I am giving him his least favorite food. I asked Stephen and Gabe to both bring their cars so we would have three cars when we move. Although all of my stuff fit into Stephens Camry when there were four of us driving to Connecticut from New York when they picked me up. I only moved about 15 minutes away. I'm so thankful that the boys helped me.
The Kenneys have a lovely home. My room is perfect with a nice desk and dresser. I am SO thankful to be with the Kenneys.
Tuesday I babysat the girls. They don't have school on election day because the schools are used for elections. I think a politician just wanted to use his kids in their campaigns and had to have a reason to close school. One of the girls had a birthday party at a miniature golf place. The other daughter and I played golf together while the other girl was with her friends. The 7 year old beat me by about 20 points! This miniature golf place was all decorated for halloween. They had great decorations.
I try to get a pedicure once a month but it had been two months! I am picky about where I get my pedicures. I found a great place though! It is in a popular shopping area here. I also found out that you don't have to be licensed to do nails here so technically I could get a job doing nails. They told me at my new good place that I have to be careful about where I go.
After getting my nails done I came home and Todd and I went on a walk. That reminds me of my walks with my dad. In Burlington where I live there are a lot of hills so we were always going up ad down.
Todd had already eaten but he sat down and had dinner with me. I really appreciated that. We talked about the sermon which was about miracles. It was a good conversation.
Meghan, the Kenneys oldest daughter and her brother in law came over to get more furniture to move to Meghan's new house. They needed to get some furniture outside but couldn't get it because there was a mamma bear and two cubs! Just that morning Pat said the garbage was in a different spot so bears probably came. She said they are hard to actually see but we saw them! The cubs were almost as big as the mom. They were in the Kenneys large wooded back yard. They were standing close to the trees in case they needed to climb. There was no tag on the bears ears so they had not been reported. I need to look up some bear safety tips. Whenever I come in at night I am going to need to look around and make sure I don't see any bears!
Later that evening I went to Starbucks and saw two of my freshman girls from church. I also meet their leader form last year that they were with. It was great to talk to the girls and their old leader is fabulous. The girls gave me some suggestions about our group.
Wednesday I went to Hop Meadow County Club to learn more of the event side.
Wednesday evening instead of meeting at the church we meet at the Masters School, a private christian school in the area. It was nice to go there because I know a few people that teach there and several students that go to school there.
We had glow in the dark soccer. I ended up playing on an all guys team. People on our team kept saying okay, guys, and girl. Curtis one of the other leaders was on our team. He would always make funny comments while we were playing. It was fun to play because it was completely dark and we didn't know who we were playing. The goals had glow sticks around them so we would know where we were going, each person had one glow stick around their neck, and the ball was glow in the dark.
Later we had a pumpkin smash. People brought pumpkins and someone built this thing out of wood to launch the pumpkins. The heavier the pumpkin the worse it did.
A leaders shared his testimony.
We had a "bonfire". Anytime we have a fire we have s'mores which is fabulous!
There was pizza, popcorn, apple cider, and apple cider donuts. I tried to heat up my pizza over the fire.
It was a great evening!
I am meeting lots of people at my Starbucks which is great. I think about all of the workers know me. They know me more than I know them because I used to bring them cupcakes. If you want to make friends fast bring food.
Random fact, here in the North East roads aren't very well light so driving at night I have to use my brights most of the time. There are also lots of windy roads.
At the Tiffany Juliet House about a month ago the chef was telling me went to the Great Jack O Lantern Blaze. He went on to tell me how there are about 7,000 pumpkins carved into different shapes. I went online to find out more. I found you have to pre purchase tickets to go. The soonest I could get tickets was November 5th.
The day finally came after about 3 weeks of waiting. I took the day off of work to be able to see more things in New York while I was there. It took me about two hours to get there to the Hudson Valley.
First, I went to Franklin Roosevelt home. They had a nice newly built gift shop and place to purchase tickets.
The guided tour of the house started in the new building on a mosaic tile map of the area.
Our tour guide was formerly a teacher. He was very good at teaching and capturing and keeping my attention. It was a pretty time to go to see the trees changing colors.
At the beginning of the tour our guide was asking where everyone was from I said Connecticut. He said that's a big state, wandering specifically in Connecticut where I was from. I thought that was funny he thought Connecticut was a big state. Compared to Texas Connecticut has nothing!
I meet a lady named Wendy. She was going to the Culinary Institute of America after the tour like I was. I think a lot of people do that because they are so close. Wendy also told me you can tour Eleanor Roosevelt's home. I did not know that. I tried to make that work but it wouldn't fit into my schedule.
On the tour I also meet a lady that used to live in Austin.
After the tour of the home I went into the library/museum. It was nice but not as good as the Bush's but there are newer and George Bush's library at A&M is automatically better because it is at A&M.
Next, I went to the Culinary Institute of America. My friend Otto went there. It was about 5 minutes away from Roosevelt's home. They had several dorms, and a tennis court. Street names were named after spices. There was a main building with a crammed gift shop and 3 restaurants. They also had a few classrooms you could see in. Students are dressed in chef clothes. It reminded of of A&M instead of people being in military uniforms they were in chef clothes. I went onto the Apple Pie bakery. I got mint lemonade, a cookies and cream macaroon and a beef dish. The presentation was perfect. I saw them making the macaroons earlier.
Next, I drove about 20 minutes to Rhinebeck. Otto recommended that I go there. At first it seemed kind of lame. Just a town with shops. Then I started shopping and the shops were really great. In some ways it reminded me of Fredericksburg. Cute town with shops. I bought some cool juice cups that look like Coke cans, wooden spoons in the shape of guitars, and maps of New York. I will eventually get those framed.
After Rhinebeck I drove about 70 minutes to the Rockefeller's estate. I went on the Classic Tour. We started at a very old gift shop. The bus drove us to the Rockefeller's home, Kykuit. Kykuit means high point. They have a great view of the Hudson. It was a cloudy day where it looked like it could rain at any minute, thankfully it didn't. The exterior of the house was definitely the nicest I have ever seen. The house was well advance for its time. The tour was 2 hours and 15 minutes. At first I was concerned about the tour being so long but I feel like we barely saw a fourth of Kykuit. We saw the first floor of the home.
Next, we saw part of the outdoors. The gardens were remarkable. They had a rose garden which was very pretty.
We saw an art gallery inside the basement of the home. After Rockefeller's request Picasso hired a lady to make tapestries of his work. Many of the tapestries were inside the home.
Next, we saw the stables. Very, very nice!
Our tour guide tried to make us have a good view of the Rockefeller's and how they donate a lot of money, ect. One of the ladies on our tour was from Tennessee and said that she heard some bad things about the Rockefeller's that our tour guide did not mention.
On this tour there were many people from out of state and even a few international visitors. I saw a couple of people coming and leaving in taxis. On the Roosevelt tour there were mostly people form just the New York area.
I found a little place in town to get pizza. In the North East majority of pizza places sell slices. If you call ahead they will warm it up for you. This pizza place had chicken parmesan pizza. I think it was the first I had chicken on a pizza. I think my pizza is better off without chicken.
I drove about 10 minutes to the Van Cordt Estate where I saw the Great Jack O Lantern Blaze. There were cops directing traffic and many parking attendants making sure you parked in the right spot. Then, people were directed through the gift shop. They had everything from postcards, to bookmarks, to globes, blankets, t shirts, and books of the Blaze.
Then, we were directed into a tent where they were selling apple cider donuts, popcorn, cupcakes, and hot chocolate.
There was a long line to get to the front of the exhibit. Everyone had times. I had the earliest time, 5:30. Me and every kid had that time. Lots of kids and strollers.
The pumpkins were incredible. There was a pumpkin in the shape of a circus train, snakes, dragons, a clock, and much more! It is incredible! They would combine several pumpkins to make things look full size. It is like ICE at the Gaylord but instead of ice pumpkins.
The Van Cordt seemed to be more like an old house than a really nice house like the Rockefeller's.
About everyone in the Hudson Valley knew about Blaze. It is kind of the thing to do around there. People in Connecticut haven't really heard about it.
I guess you can really carve anything out of anything: ice, butter, pumpkins.
It was a perfect evening to be walking around outside. A jacket wasn't even necessary.
It took me about an hour and fifty minutes to get home. I got in around 8:20 which was good it wasn't to late. I talked to the Kenneys. They were eager to hear about my day.
Todd was showing me of the best place to park my car. As were were outside we heard something and Todd motioned for me to stay back. We think it was a bear. We then ran inside. I asked Todd if I would always be a blue to hear bears. He said no. So anytime a bear could just sneak up on me. My newest fear is bears.
Pat and I stayed up a little later talking about the Lord, life, and our families. Pat has such a passion for prayer and that is easy to see.
Friday morning I forgot something so turned back and I saw many old doors and window in front of a house that was for sale with a sign that said FREE. I pulled in and got a window. The possibilities of what to do with it are endless! Those people could have sold them for at least $30. So thankful for that find!
Friday evening I ended up not working. Todd and I had left overs at home. We worked together quickly to get the food on the table for an early dinner.
Megan their oldest daughter came over. I asked Megan if she would be my Connecticut sister and her response was like duh, of course! I went shopping with her for some furniture for their new home. I wasn't planning on buying anything but found two things I liked. I told Megan she was a bad influence on me. She said that is what big sisters are for. Erin meet us out shopping. We had fun shopping together. Later that evening Todd and Pat and I were home and Todd always says the funniest things.
Saturday morning the middle school and high school meet at the church to rake. We raked an older persons yard from the church and their neighbors. There was probably 50 of us. My chiropractor came with us! He has a son in middle school. He seems like a cool guy. The raking went by very quickly. We did 9 yards in 3 hours. It was fun to watch. In the North East in some towns you don't have to bag your leaves. You can just rake them to the curb. Some people brought leave blowers and that was helpful! I had some good conversations with some girls when we weren't raking.
It was a rare day that I let myself take a nap.
Later I went over to my dear friend Rachels house and we made apple triffles. We cut the apples and cooked them on the stove with spices. We added ginger cookies, whip cream and the apples into layers in a dish. It was good!
Just about every day I hear the words Fox Wood and Mohegan Sun. They are two casinos in Connecticut about an hour away from me and about 20 minutes from each other. On Monday morning I went to check them out. Not to gamble but to see what all of the talk is about. They both have free parking which was nice. Foxwood looked more like Vegas Casinos. Mohegan Sun looked like Great Wolf Lodge. I did go on a Monday morning which helped. They were not as loud, smokey or obnoxious as Vegas casinos. There were mostly older people there. No young people my age. Foxwood has outlets there. I got all of my winter gear at Columbia. There was a very good worker there that helped me find what I needed. I think I am set for the cold! I found a Cinnabon place there and had to stop for a Cinnabon. I asked the worker how he was and he said to be honest it sucks to be here. He went on to explain how he is in a band and they had a great show the night before but now he is back to work at his minimum wage job. At Mohegan Sun I went to Carlos' Bakery. I went to Carlos' in Vegas and didn't like it. I was going to give it another change but the cupcake I got was terrible. In my opinion Carlos is only good at decorating. The good thing is that I got a cool grocery bag from Carlos. I went to Bobby Flay's Burger Palace for lunch and that was good. I got a burger with chips on it. I went to Bobby's Burger Place in Vegas too. Flay has a nice restaurant at Mohegan Sun that I would like to go back to sometime for dinner.
Monday afternoon I went to the chiropractor. I finally found a good chiropractor! I called a few places and all of the people on the phone weren't very nice. This place is great. Nice workers. Instead of having rooms they have their adjustment tables out in the open. I hadn't seen that before. Dr. Brian was great. I saw him the next morning at Starbucks.
After the chiropractor I got my hair cut. I found a great lady at a salon but she moved to this new place. She rents a space in a salon. It was a nice place. She has a surprisingly great memory.
I picked up a pizza for me and Gabe and Stephen at a pizza restaurant I pass by all of the time but have never been in. In New England they have lots of different types of pizza. I got a baked potato pizza. It had potatos, sour cream, bacon, and cheese. Stephen and Gabe were helping me move so I bought them dinner. I found out after I bought the pizza that Stephen doesn't like potatoes. He was a good sport and pretended to like it. I felt bad after he was doing something so nice for me and I am giving him his least favorite food. I asked Stephen and Gabe to both bring their cars so we would have three cars when we move. Although all of my stuff fit into Stephens Camry when there were four of us driving to Connecticut from New York when they picked me up. I only moved about 15 minutes away. I'm so thankful that the boys helped me.
The Kenneys have a lovely home. My room is perfect with a nice desk and dresser. I am SO thankful to be with the Kenneys.
Tuesday I babysat the girls. They don't have school on election day because the schools are used for elections. I think a politician just wanted to use his kids in their campaigns and had to have a reason to close school. One of the girls had a birthday party at a miniature golf place. The other daughter and I played golf together while the other girl was with her friends. The 7 year old beat me by about 20 points! This miniature golf place was all decorated for halloween. They had great decorations.
I try to get a pedicure once a month but it had been two months! I am picky about where I get my pedicures. I found a great place though! It is in a popular shopping area here. I also found out that you don't have to be licensed to do nails here so technically I could get a job doing nails. They told me at my new good place that I have to be careful about where I go.
After getting my nails done I came home and Todd and I went on a walk. That reminds me of my walks with my dad. In Burlington where I live there are a lot of hills so we were always going up ad down.
Todd had already eaten but he sat down and had dinner with me. I really appreciated that. We talked about the sermon which was about miracles. It was a good conversation.
Meghan, the Kenneys oldest daughter and her brother in law came over to get more furniture to move to Meghan's new house. They needed to get some furniture outside but couldn't get it because there was a mamma bear and two cubs! Just that morning Pat said the garbage was in a different spot so bears probably came. She said they are hard to actually see but we saw them! The cubs were almost as big as the mom. They were in the Kenneys large wooded back yard. They were standing close to the trees in case they needed to climb. There was no tag on the bears ears so they had not been reported. I need to look up some bear safety tips. Whenever I come in at night I am going to need to look around and make sure I don't see any bears!
Later that evening I went to Starbucks and saw two of my freshman girls from church. I also meet their leader form last year that they were with. It was great to talk to the girls and their old leader is fabulous. The girls gave me some suggestions about our group.
Wednesday I went to Hop Meadow County Club to learn more of the event side.
Wednesday evening instead of meeting at the church we meet at the Masters School, a private christian school in the area. It was nice to go there because I know a few people that teach there and several students that go to school there.
We had glow in the dark soccer. I ended up playing on an all guys team. People on our team kept saying okay, guys, and girl. Curtis one of the other leaders was on our team. He would always make funny comments while we were playing. It was fun to play because it was completely dark and we didn't know who we were playing. The goals had glow sticks around them so we would know where we were going, each person had one glow stick around their neck, and the ball was glow in the dark.
Later we had a pumpkin smash. People brought pumpkins and someone built this thing out of wood to launch the pumpkins. The heavier the pumpkin the worse it did.
A leaders shared his testimony.
We had a "bonfire". Anytime we have a fire we have s'mores which is fabulous!
There was pizza, popcorn, apple cider, and apple cider donuts. I tried to heat up my pizza over the fire.
It was a great evening!
I am meeting lots of people at my Starbucks which is great. I think about all of the workers know me. They know me more than I know them because I used to bring them cupcakes. If you want to make friends fast bring food.
Random fact, here in the North East roads aren't very well light so driving at night I have to use my brights most of the time. There are also lots of windy roads.
At the Tiffany Juliet House about a month ago the chef was telling me went to the Great Jack O Lantern Blaze. He went on to tell me how there are about 7,000 pumpkins carved into different shapes. I went online to find out more. I found you have to pre purchase tickets to go. The soonest I could get tickets was November 5th.
The day finally came after about 3 weeks of waiting. I took the day off of work to be able to see more things in New York while I was there. It took me about two hours to get there to the Hudson Valley.
First, I went to Franklin Roosevelt home. They had a nice newly built gift shop and place to purchase tickets.
The guided tour of the house started in the new building on a mosaic tile map of the area.
Our tour guide was formerly a teacher. He was very good at teaching and capturing and keeping my attention. It was a pretty time to go to see the trees changing colors.
At the beginning of the tour our guide was asking where everyone was from I said Connecticut. He said that's a big state, wandering specifically in Connecticut where I was from. I thought that was funny he thought Connecticut was a big state. Compared to Texas Connecticut has nothing!
I meet a lady named Wendy. She was going to the Culinary Institute of America after the tour like I was. I think a lot of people do that because they are so close. Wendy also told me you can tour Eleanor Roosevelt's home. I did not know that. I tried to make that work but it wouldn't fit into my schedule.
On the tour I also meet a lady that used to live in Austin.
After the tour of the home I went into the library/museum. It was nice but not as good as the Bush's but there are newer and George Bush's library at A&M is automatically better because it is at A&M.
Next, I went to the Culinary Institute of America. My friend Otto went there. It was about 5 minutes away from Roosevelt's home. They had several dorms, and a tennis court. Street names were named after spices. There was a main building with a crammed gift shop and 3 restaurants. They also had a few classrooms you could see in. Students are dressed in chef clothes. It reminded of of A&M instead of people being in military uniforms they were in chef clothes. I went onto the Apple Pie bakery. I got mint lemonade, a cookies and cream macaroon and a beef dish. The presentation was perfect. I saw them making the macaroons earlier.
Next, I drove about 20 minutes to Rhinebeck. Otto recommended that I go there. At first it seemed kind of lame. Just a town with shops. Then I started shopping and the shops were really great. In some ways it reminded me of Fredericksburg. Cute town with shops. I bought some cool juice cups that look like Coke cans, wooden spoons in the shape of guitars, and maps of New York. I will eventually get those framed.
After Rhinebeck I drove about 70 minutes to the Rockefeller's estate. I went on the Classic Tour. We started at a very old gift shop. The bus drove us to the Rockefeller's home, Kykuit. Kykuit means high point. They have a great view of the Hudson. It was a cloudy day where it looked like it could rain at any minute, thankfully it didn't. The exterior of the house was definitely the nicest I have ever seen. The house was well advance for its time. The tour was 2 hours and 15 minutes. At first I was concerned about the tour being so long but I feel like we barely saw a fourth of Kykuit. We saw the first floor of the home.
Next, we saw part of the outdoors. The gardens were remarkable. They had a rose garden which was very pretty.
We saw an art gallery inside the basement of the home. After Rockefeller's request Picasso hired a lady to make tapestries of his work. Many of the tapestries were inside the home.
Next, we saw the stables. Very, very nice!
Our tour guide tried to make us have a good view of the Rockefeller's and how they donate a lot of money, ect. One of the ladies on our tour was from Tennessee and said that she heard some bad things about the Rockefeller's that our tour guide did not mention.
On this tour there were many people from out of state and even a few international visitors. I saw a couple of people coming and leaving in taxis. On the Roosevelt tour there were mostly people form just the New York area.
I found a little place in town to get pizza. In the North East majority of pizza places sell slices. If you call ahead they will warm it up for you. This pizza place had chicken parmesan pizza. I think it was the first I had chicken on a pizza. I think my pizza is better off without chicken.
I drove about 10 minutes to the Van Cordt Estate where I saw the Great Jack O Lantern Blaze. There were cops directing traffic and many parking attendants making sure you parked in the right spot. Then, people were directed through the gift shop. They had everything from postcards, to bookmarks, to globes, blankets, t shirts, and books of the Blaze.
Then, we were directed into a tent where they were selling apple cider donuts, popcorn, cupcakes, and hot chocolate.
There was a long line to get to the front of the exhibit. Everyone had times. I had the earliest time, 5:30. Me and every kid had that time. Lots of kids and strollers.
The pumpkins were incredible. There was a pumpkin in the shape of a circus train, snakes, dragons, a clock, and much more! It is incredible! They would combine several pumpkins to make things look full size. It is like ICE at the Gaylord but instead of ice pumpkins.
The Van Cordt seemed to be more like an old house than a really nice house like the Rockefeller's.
About everyone in the Hudson Valley knew about Blaze. It is kind of the thing to do around there. People in Connecticut haven't really heard about it.
I guess you can really carve anything out of anything: ice, butter, pumpkins.
It was a perfect evening to be walking around outside. A jacket wasn't even necessary.
It took me about an hour and fifty minutes to get home. I got in around 8:20 which was good it wasn't to late. I talked to the Kenneys. They were eager to hear about my day.
Todd was showing me of the best place to park my car. As were were outside we heard something and Todd motioned for me to stay back. We think it was a bear. We then ran inside. I asked Todd if I would always be a blue to hear bears. He said no. So anytime a bear could just sneak up on me. My newest fear is bears.
Pat and I stayed up a little later talking about the Lord, life, and our families. Pat has such a passion for prayer and that is easy to see.
Friday morning I forgot something so turned back and I saw many old doors and window in front of a house that was for sale with a sign that said FREE. I pulled in and got a window. The possibilities of what to do with it are endless! Those people could have sold them for at least $30. So thankful for that find!
Friday evening I ended up not working. Todd and I had left overs at home. We worked together quickly to get the food on the table for an early dinner.
Megan their oldest daughter came over. I asked Megan if she would be my Connecticut sister and her response was like duh, of course! I went shopping with her for some furniture for their new home. I wasn't planning on buying anything but found two things I liked. I told Megan she was a bad influence on me. She said that is what big sisters are for. Erin meet us out shopping. We had fun shopping together. Later that evening Todd and Pat and I were home and Todd always says the funniest things.
Saturday morning the middle school and high school meet at the church to rake. We raked an older persons yard from the church and their neighbors. There was probably 50 of us. My chiropractor came with us! He has a son in middle school. He seems like a cool guy. The raking went by very quickly. We did 9 yards in 3 hours. It was fun to watch. In the North East in some towns you don't have to bag your leaves. You can just rake them to the curb. Some people brought leave blowers and that was helpful! I had some good conversations with some girls when we weren't raking.
No comments:
Post a Comment