Road Trip (pre Watts)

Last Thursday we headed out of here. A family road trip is perfect this time of year. Lynette said she wanted to come out here w/ her family and do a road trip, we were sold. Road trip, plus seeing great friends - perfect!

Before I give the rundown I've gotta say how refreshing it is to be w/ such a good friend, and old friend. Lenni and I have known each other pretty much all our lives. We became close friends the summer before I left for college. I love this woman! She has so much spunk, energy, zeal. She is a fire cracker, but always stops to make sure everyone around her is okay. She's a giver. She loves to laugh, is not afraid, is always moving. I love every time I get to be with her. She renews my spirit. It's so good to have a friend that needs nothing explained to her, no need to catch up, let's just have a great time together. But don't get me wrong, we can talk for hours about everything. I love her so much. She will always be a great friend, one of the 'handful' ones. In case you don't know what I mean by that... friends come and go through life, but there are a handful of friends that are so special they stay put, they are seared and stuck in your heart.

Ok, here we go.

Thursday we got up and finished packing. I had started Wed, but there is so much and
I had dance and other stuff going. We got on the road and first headed to Herkimer, NY. It is a small town on the way to Cooperstown. They have an active crystal/quartz mine there. We rented tools and the kids got busy digging for 'diamonds'. This ended up being their favorite activity of the whole trip, who knew? Matt and I found pretty much nothing! I'd have been a terrible miner, too much to sift through for something so small! The kids found the best stuff, some really good chunks, their scavenging skills came in handy.



Q took this photo with my camera. She did a good job!

Both kids found some big chunks, but this little gem is so perfectly clear, it's beautiful.

Our cute little boy just kickin' it in his carseat.


We stopped for food then continued on to Copperstown, NY. This is where the Baseball HOF is. Matt wanted to take his dad there, he would have loved it. We got there late, everything was closed, but it is a cute town, loved it.
This was the theme for the first couple of days. These shoes are apparently too big for O at this point. He was dropping them everywhere we went!

Cute boys


We drove until we were just outside Albany, NY. Our hotel was awful! For starters we drove in and the first thing we saw on the street was a sign for some correctional facility, that makes me feel good inside! Our room was not the cleanest, in fact it was the dirtiest room we've ever stayed in. The stars were there, it was a lie, but the stars said it was good. We found a child's binky, which O tasted, we found some change on the floor, we found some left over hair in the bathroom, like I said, nice. First thing is first, take off all the bedding then put socks on everyone! Yum!

I hadn't run yet so even though it was late I went to find the 'workout facility'. I put that in quotations because the box was as large as a bathroom and had only a tiny light. There were two pieces of equipment in there. I wondered if the treadmill worked, sure just plug it in. I must admit my adrenaline was pumping for the first couple of miles as I thought of some corrected inmate checking me out through the window. I was put at ease as a nice adult couple checked into the room right by the 'workout facility'. O had a hard time sleeping that first night, he was so wound up. The kids fell right to sleep.

We got up and headed out Friday morning, but not before a complete walk around the hotel carrying the baby carrier with a very hefty baby in it as well as a bunch of baggage. Matt took the same tour the night before in complete darkness! It felt good to get in our clean car and drive away!

We enjoyed our beautiful drive to Albany, NY, which I have to say is such a great city. It is beautiful, the buildings are awesome. The weather was supposed to be rainy that one day so we tried for indoor activities as well as driving. We got to a park before the rain started so we let the kids play, after G almost got hit by a car. You've got to keep it exciting!






While we waited for the noon tour of our state capitol building we drove around (and played at that park). We saw the same neighborhood about 6 times, then got to see other parts of Albany! Again, some very cool buildings.

We headed to the capitol early and grabbed a quick lunch. We really enjoyed the tour (once we got to the actual starting place, which took us right back to where we were waiting) and the state capitol itself. It has an great story and is SUCH a beautiful structure. Here is a look...


We sat in the state senate chamber and they guy kept telling us it's like a time machine. We kept waiting to go somewhere!!! He was telling us that there are things that were never finished, like in this photo you can see where the stone carving stopped, but we couldn't figure out how that made it a time machine room!

All of those pieces of tile are individual and were laid piece by piece.

The million dollar staircase

From a different angle


Q wanted her photo under the pretty light.


After our tour (which ended prematurly for the sake of the others on the tour) we got on the road again. We ran into some traffic so we took some smaller roads. We stopped for doughnuts and hot chocolate, which were a bust. Dunkin' Doughnuts just sucks! We drove through to Boston. Matt booked us a hotel right in the city (financial district) and when we finally found it we were in heaven!

I've got to insert here that as we started our trip we got ourselves a GPS system. We were going to wait until Xmas, but with the trip we thought it would be handy, which it was until we got to Boston! Matt was getting pretty frustrated and we couldn't find our hotel. Sometimes it's good to just have a co-pilot that reads maps! Our ongoing joke was that of me being angry that the B as we'll call her, was replacing my fantastic navigational skillz!

Anyway, our hotel was top of the line - fantastic! The kids couldn't wait to go swimming so I took them. Another fabulous moment for them! O didn't dig it so much but was content walking around and watching Q & G play. M stayed back in the room w/ E who was just happy to be out of his carseat!
carolyn mcafee3 Comments