The Joys of the Hudson Valley

As this was my first weekend of not working (in a while), we thought it would be fun to just have a great Hudson Valley Weekend. We started off by driving just a smidge upstate to Rhinebeck for the semi-annual Crafts Fair.

On a day like this, most of the cons of NY (higher cost of living, NY attitudes) seem to fade away. Sometimes I just can't believe we live in a place so beautiful.

The Rhinebeck Crafts Fair is MOSTLY wonderful crafts. Joe got information about a Windsor Chair woodworking class, and we met this awesome stone-carver lady from Maine with the best company name - "She Rocks". I swear, if I had $1100 extra laying around, I would have bought this bowl, no doubt. It had to have taken her days to carve it out.

Then there are always the freaky people. Those who create dolls that look just like newborn babies...FROM HELL.

Met a great knitter lady who was selling some felted boxes and baskets (sorry, didn't get the name!), as well as a spinner lady who was selling felted hats. Now, if they'd been selling YARN, I'd be all over that. But I didn't need any hats, boxes, or baskets. What we needed was some pottery. And other stuff.



Ooooh, the addiction that we fed. From top left, moving clockwise...Photos of an old porch and the Hudson Valley at leaf-changing time. Utensil holder. Au gratin dish. 2 misc bowls. Wooden spoons and a set of salad "claws." Turned wood bowl painted the deepest emerald green. Mustard, pepper, wasabi sauce, and cranberry hot sauce. And this doesn't even include the dishes we ordered from Dutch Hill Pottery that should arrive early December. Most of our dishes, bowls, and mugs are handmade ceramic (as well as casseroles, pie plates, serving trays, etc) - we both have a problem with buying more and MORE. I'll definitely take some pics of the new dishes when they arrive.

So Rhinebeck, as usual, was wonderful. But it was very crowded in the town, so we went through Poughkeepsie to have a late lunch at The Coyote Grill. Not stupendous, but very good. Decent margaritas, too.

Saturday night we attended a Broadway Direct performance featuring our neighbor Hal. It was truly amazing. He has a voice as deep and as beautiful as his heart. One thing we learned - he was in one of the original casts of The Fantasticks. Oh, the stories he could tell...

Then Sunday we went to Taste Of Montgomery, where all the local restaurants get to show off their efforts. The day started out HORRIBLY - torrential rain. But right around noon it cleared up in the oddest way.

The tasting tent on the Little League field. Notice the Clouds of Doom in the upper left. They threatened, but they never followed through.

The only drawback was that we were held inside this beer-vs-wine prison. You could have fine local beer, but you couldn't be near the food. So we kept circling back around to the beer area, eventually just having the guy pour the beer into our wine glass then sneaking back to the food area. Sucky NY liquor laws. I shouldn't complain. I can buy booze on Sundays.

The edges of the storm, hours after it hit Montgomery. It seemed to hover in the east all day, but our Sunday afternoon was bright and even a bit warm. You can barely see our house peeking out through the trees over the middle of the long building.

The weekend we had reinforced my love for this area. I'll post more pictures in our gallery soon *Edited to add: They're HERE*, but I just don't have the brain power right now. Plus I need to think of my SP9 answers. Augh! Plus, no WW update right now - had a gain of a week, but couldn't get to the meeting due to work. We'll see if I can get it back down before my makeup meeting.

Goodnight!