Woodstock: The Town, Not the Concert

I have a thing for white Victorian Era farm houses with wrap around porches. I especially like them when they are in wet, green climates, usually with a pond and an old barn near by. Now you might think, sure, those houses are nice. Well no, I have a THING for them. Ask Elijah. Every time I point at a house and say "I would live there." It's a white Victorian Era farm house with a wrap around porch. So when I was fantasizing about finding a new place to live a couple years back, I started hunting for real estate around the country on a whim, to see what was out there. One of the places that caught my eye in a big way was the area between the Hudson River and the Catskills, right where the town of Woodstock, NY is located. So since we were heading back from Vermont Elijah and I decided to spend a couple of days near Woodstock and check it out. What we discovered is that all the things we like about Woodstock seem equally true of Oregon. Just as the Hudson River reminded us of the Columbia River, Woodstock was kind of like Ashland, OR without the theater. It's good to be confirmed in our choice of next destinations. To it's credit, Woodstock and the surrounding area is charming. The woods are beautiful.

The campground where we stayed was a classic Catskill campground.

The town itself is very cute and boasts a lot of very good restaurants. The first night out we went to a place called Joshua's for dinner. The next day we ate lunch at Oriole9 and dinner at a lovely little restaurant closer to Saugerties called The Red Onion.

Eli led the way in being frustrated with me.

He modeled behavior that the other two quickly picked up.

I had a great time wandering around the little main street with the kids waiting for Elijah to get through his meetings and meet us for lunch. We walked into stores, bought chocolate and scoped out the best place for lunch. The kids were not as interested in the town as they were in the toy store. Mostly they were mad at me for making them wander around the whole town before going to the little toy store they had spied when we first drove in to town called Tinker Toys Too.

There were all sorts of tourist kinds of things that played up the false connection to the Woodstock concert.

Izzy was excited to see the references to Bob Dylan.

We stopped and laid down in the grass in front of the local library.

They finally got to buy some toys just as Dad was ready to meet us for lunch.

The restaurant was really comfortable and homey.

One of the fun things we bought at the toy store.

I would have liked to go for a hike in the Catskill mountains, sadly that was not to be, but all in all I enjoyed the area.

The playground at the campground was right near our camp site. The boys played there most of the afternoon after we got back from town. Elijah did meetings and I worked on our blog.

I would definitely come back sometime, especially if someone were to invite me to stay at their white Victorian Era farm house with wrap around porch and fully functioning art studio right next to the pond, just sayin'.

Ni-a-g-ra Falls, Slowly I Turn, Step By Step...

There's an old bit from a Three Stooges routine where every time someone says "Niagara Falls" they get all weird and tell a story about beating up on some guy. The kids always thought this was super funny and have often fallen into this routine randomly just for fun. So when we decided to go to Niagara Falls and check it out on our way west, well lets just say we can't quite say the name of where we are without the inevitable next bit "Slowly I turn, step by step, inch by inch. And then I grabbed him and I tore his shirt, and I punched him and I threw him down on the ground." It's getting a bit old, although its still pretty funny when Hannah tries to say it.

So the thing about Niagara Falls is that it is just as epic as the Grand Canyon, except that at night the whole place lights up like Vegas and they turn the falls colors by shining lights on them, and suddenly I can't help thinking how incredibly disgusting and tacky humans are. This is one of the most amazing, miraculous natural wonders of the world, and what do we do? We shine colored lights on it.

OOOH, AAAH... yuck! Not far from the view of the falls that I see out the hotel window is a large casino with a light sculpture on the side of it mimicking the patterns of water falling, but in a sort of 1980s geometrical design using lights about 30 stories high. The whole scene is very seedy. I only hope that in the morning when the lights are turned off and the sun comes out and the natural colors of the river are once again visible that the natural power of the waterfalls blocks out the memory of this bizarre night time circus.

Goodbye To The Atlantic Ocean

Before we turned the corner and started back west we decided to head to the beach and say goodbye to the Atlantic Ocean. When we first spied the Atlantic we were down in Georgia, now we were up in New Hampshire about to visit Elijah's Cousins David and Linda in Portsmouth.

We drove out to one of the little islands right along the New Hampshire coast and got out to walk on the beach for a moment. Little did we know that we had picked the beach of stacking rock towers.

An unusual way to say good bye to the east coast. It was a beautiful day and the ocean was gorgeous. Elijah had gone surfing near where we were earlier that day, and you could see that the waves were beautiful for surfing.

Elijah and the kids made their own rock tower, and I examined the rocks and the piles of sea shells that made up the beach we were standing on.

Goodbye Atlantic! It may be a while before we see you again.

Boston With Old Friends

We had the best weekend hanging out in the outskirts of Boston with a family we've known since the baby group days in Palo Alto. It was so comfortable to be with them we found ourselves homesick as we were leaving. For the first time on this journey we really wanted to have a home to go home to, and in many ways it was because Sam and Jennifer and the girls made the experience of home so palpable to us.

Sam and Jennifer have a really beautiful back yard.

Their chicken coup was given a new window that weekend by Sam.

It was really a great visit. Our kids got along, the grown ups got along, and the dads got to go surfing on Sunday morning.

Elijah got to go surfing with Sam, they drove up to New Hampshire. The surf was really good that day.

We didn't see the sights of Boston or go to any museums or visit any monuments, we hung out, like normal people with normal families. It was very sweet.

Jennifer took us to Jamaica Plan to look at art and wander around a cute neighborhood. The kids got in a good walk and we got to see Bostonians in their natural environment. It was a beautiful afternoon excursion.

Izzy and Elenore played all weekend together. Izzy grew so attached to her that he didn't want to leave.

Apart from the undercooked Grass Fed hamburgers we were all surprised to receive at a rather over priced hipster burger place.

We've known Grace since she was a baby. I absolutely adore this girl.

Jennifer had allowed herself to be talked into carrying Hannah from the car to the restaurant.

After lunch we headed out into the neighborhood for a walk. Hannah is totally in love with Grace and refused to leave her side most of the journey.

Hannah running on a lawn to show Grace how fast she is.

We went in to a cool children's store that belongs to Jennifer's friend.

The kids played with toys while Jennifer picked out a present for a birthday party.

Eli had a lot of suggestions about what Jennifer should buy.

Elenore really wanted to be the one to pick the present.

We finally moved all the kids out of the toy store and continued our journey.

Hannah showed me that she could hop on one leg.

The kids found a great yard next to an old school house that they could play in.

Izzy was pretending to be a dog and fetch a stick. I suggested this one was far too big.

He found a more practical sized stick.

So did Elenore.

Hannah made Grace play ring around the rosie with her.

Grace was a really good sport about it.

Even though she really wasn't that into it.

We were all pretty tired by the end of our walk.

Jennifer is so beautiful and so great to hang out with.

She's always made my kids feel comfortable.

Even after a couple of hours Hannah still insisted on holding Grace's hand.

I am so jealous that the people of Massachusetts get to vote for Elizabeth Warren! I totally want to vote for her!