We knew the first day would be the hardest – earliest start, longest drive, toll roads, boring freeways but at least it was the beginning! Of course, there was no way that I would actually need the alarm to wake me at 5 am – I was awake at 3:30 and there was no way I was getting back to sleep. We actually managed to get out of the house at 6 am even with Frank having a belated “Happy 80th birthday” call with his mom. Then it was 7.5 hours up the most expensive pavement in North America! Almost $10 just to get out of Maryland then we got to support the transportation budgets of Delaware, New Jersey and New York – nearly $30 in tolls! I’m so glad we aren’t coming home this route! But leaving early paid off and we made it more than 400 miles in just about 7 hours driving time under cloudy skies through humid air.
First stop: Saratoga Springs. What an adorable town! Big Victorian houses with huge porches and lots of gables and garages and places where people should be tying up their horses. (Frank was trying to figure out how many cars the folks with the 4 car garages must actually own!) Thoroughbreds are obviously king here and I’m glad we’re here right before racing season starts – and leaving before the masses descend! We arrived in time for a late lunch at Max London’s – actually it was brunch – where Gillian and Frank had breakfast pizzas (complete with bacon and eggs and since Frank’s was the “full English breakfast pizza” it had mushrooms and tomatoes as well!) and I had a fabulous omelet.
It had started to rain as we arrived but the drizzled didn’t seem to bother others so we went with the flow and wandered up and down Broadway, popping in and out of shops as the fancy struck us. Then we went to check into the bed and breakfast and the skies opened up and we got completely drenched. A brief sojourn in our room at The Springwater and tried to dry out a bit. (Lovely room with a private balcony for our morning coffee if it isn’t still raining!)
Once things dried out again, it was off to wander the streets, checking out the Art District and sussing out where the “Shakespeare in the Park” production will be for tomorrow night’s entertainment. As we continued to wander, the skies again dumped their moisture on us before we could get to a late dinner at The Turf Club next door to the B&B. They had gluten free items marked on their menu and I enjoyed my roasted beet salad but admit I was very jealous of the fish and chips that Gillian and Frank had!
So now we close the books on day one, heading to bed early to prepare for tomorrow’s visit to Skidmore College – Gillian’s current top choice. But what would a blog post be without the pedometer readout! And now we have the new Fitbit so we have an electronic estimation of the day’s activities. Even with spending all that time in the car, we managed 18,944 steps or 8.16 m
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