NY was freakin’ COLD!

Got to Brooklyn late Friday night and hung out there until Monday.

Saturday we walked around the nabe and over the Williamsburg Bridge into Manhattan for a little shopping. The wind on the bridge was bodacious!

Went to the new Home Depot in midtown and that was pretty cool. Not like the Home Depot in the nabe here….no big aisles with sheetrock and lumber, but a nice assortment of things every Gotham resident could possible want to fix up their $3 million dollar one bedroom condo.

Chip made an awesome (as usual) Swedish Easter dinner. He even did the whole Easter Egg thing with contest (my egg didn’t even come in the money) which was a blast from the past. Remember the PAAS kits????

Jim’s Hokie Egg…….

My Charlie Brown Easter Egg…..figures with that theme it would be a loser…

James finally uses his horticulture degree to repot Chip’s plants….

My only shots of the city (incl view of the Empire State Building out Chip’s back window) as I boycotted due to the cold….just had my heart set on going to Central Park for a few hours…oh well…

We left the city Monday to head to Chris and Joey’s house where I continued my camera boycot and just kicked back. Great new house they built with their own bare hands. I’ll get some pix next time I’m there. The diorama with the bobcat Joey killed makes a great backdrop for the bar and excellent photo potential.

The Empire State museum in Albany was really worth the trip. They have an excellent WTC exhibit with many many artifacts from 9/11 including pieces of structural steel salvaged from the WTC.

Went to see Rent at the renovated Proctor’s Theater. They have done an AWESOME job with downtownn Schenectedy and the folk there have a lot to be proud of. The theater is beautiful and a living monument to times when theaters were truly grand pieces of architecture.

The brewery visit was great. Ommegang make D-licious Belgian Ales and the tour was D-licious, too. Especially the sampling at the end! We tooled around and had lunch in Cooperstown but didn’t make it to the Hall of Fame or the museum as planned. Just ran out of time. Will have to go back as Cooperstown is cool as all get out. Lots to do there and beautiful.

Actually had a snowstorm the next day and made it up to camp to check things out. The lake was still down for the winter and high snow drifts up against the woods. Really was sorry I didn’t bring my camera as the place was beautiful with all the new snow.

Left the day after that while it was still snowing. Got out just in time as a Noreaster was heading up the coast and promising even worse weather. No Thanks! It was sunny and beautiful when we got back to Roanoke late Friday. Yipppeee! Spring really IS here.

A GREAT trip and lots of good times with friends and family.

I absolutely cannot believe that I have soaked up all of this beautiful weather the past week here in Virginia only to bolt to the land of the cold, cold north for a week!

Yes, fool that I am, we’re heading to New York for a romp in NYC friends Chip, Tommy and Dean ( take a look at their awesome film company Lucky Frog Films) where the weather channel is showing temperatures in the teens to thirties. How can THAT be!! Today….a mountain bike ride in Roanoke’s 80 degree spring weather and then tomorrow???? Freezing?????

Then off to Camp Dick at Broadalbin, NY to see what winter brings there and check on the old place. Camp, for the uninitiated southerner, is what northern folk call their summer cottage on the lake. It’s an endearing term, much better than “lake house” or “the lake”, and whenever I say it or hear it I think of summer, sunshine, family, friends and all kinds of fun and relaxation. Our camp is a great place where I try to spend a couple of weeks, usually around the 4th of July. The spectacular Great Sacandaga Lake is right at the front door. It is rented out the rest of the summer, but not again this year as the last tenant was booked just a month ago.

If you ever want to travel to some of the most beautiful country in the world and spend a week at a vintage 1932 Adiroandack NY lakefront camp (6 bedrooms and an oh so quaint wraparound front porch just 100+ feet from The Great Sacandaga Lake), then you need to check this out…here.

If you rent in August you can take a trip into Saratoga Springs for the flat track races and all there is to see there. Not that a trip into Saratoga isn’t totally worth it any other time of the year. Lots to see there. The natural springs located all over town are fun to try. The taste of the water at each one varies from deliciously fresh to mineral laden swill (but swill that is rumored to be GREAT for your health). Maybe you could even catch a great concert at the SPAC.

From Broadalbin, we’ll trip down to Schenectady to visit the historic Proctor’s Theater where we’ll see a road production of Rent, and the go on a visit to historic Cooperstown where we’ll see the Farmers Museum and brewery Ommegangg.

Last but not least, I really needed to share some pix I took a while back at the car show here in Roanoke at the Civic Center. I had totally forgotten about them, but I love old cars, and really the people who like old cars are pretty cool, too.

So here is what I saw.

Hope I’ll have some good shots from the trip to share in a week or two.

Stepford Husbands????

This father was totally reaching into his pocket to buy the kid a car!!

What a great day to have a birthday! Everyone’s happy cause spring is in the air, playing April Fools on each other. Yep, an April Fools birthday has to rank right up there with the best.

Somehow, even though spring officially begins in March…April 1st just seems to be solid proof that spring really has arrived. Just the word April makes me think about getting out in the garden, and even the thought of mowing the grass is kind of exciting this time of the year. That won’t last long!

It’s also time to clean up around here and that is exactly what we did yesterday on Clean Valley Day in Roanoke. Gave Downtown Wasena a good pick up and admired all of the new trees that we planted last year along the exit from the bridge and the village center. The cherry trees were spectacular in their first year (sorry no picture) and it looks like the Chinese Elms are leafing out now, too. All of that August watering is paying off.

The night watchman at the Cheshire Gallery was keeping and eye on things..

And the window at the gallery is looking really nice, too…

Went to the VT UVA hockey game last night and unfourtunately we lost 3-1, but the second and third periods were hard fought.

Then downtown to Macadoos for a few beers with friends.

Today, it is my official birthday and I got some really cool stuff. Been wanting a Mint Julep cup to make my Mint Juleps a little more authentic. Got this awesome cup with my initials engraved in it. Can’t wait to use it!! Speaking of which, I noted the mint is leafing out as well so Mint Juleps on the porch are not too far off. Actually had a Mojito last night as discovered kind of late that all of the bourbon is gone…hmmm.

And I also got a copy of Eldest….

….the sequal to Eragon, which I am totally looking forward to reading. Picked up Eragon at Dulles last year just before leaving for Bangkok, hoping to read it on the trip. It started off kind of slow and I lost interest, so didn’t read much of it on the trip. But when I got back, I picked it up again and was I really glad that I did. It may start slow, but Eragon is definitely a page turner past the first 50 or so pages. Can’t wait to see the movie, too.

Well, out to the garden. Tomatoes are looking good…

….so better be ready to plant them. The garden needs A LOT of work right now. But hey….spring is here!

I was a bit late for the annual Roanoke City Parks & Rec Easter Egg Hunt which is always held in my Wasena neighborhood, so I camped out at the (abandoned) RR tracks and shot a few frames of the kids as they left with their parents and played a bit on the tracks.

Here’s just a few shots, not the usual EXCITEMENT associated with this event but the kids were obviously having a good time still.

Adults don’t always know how to play….

I love the community spirit that events like this help foster. Roanoke City is such a great place to live and this is just one example of why.

Next year, I’ll be early!!

There seems to be no doubt in my mind that the most exciting thing downtown is the H&C sign. I LOVE it. Enough to stand out on the middle of Williamson Road for an hour taking several time exposures last year.

But this perspective of the sign may be little noticed unless you happen to look up while dining at the Green Dolphin Grille.

Thanks to my friend Melanie Turner for pointing out this view, which is really awesome. I hadn’t really done much with this shoot until today when we did a little correspondence. I wanted to show Melanie what a great eye she has, so I sent her this shot, which of course, she inspired!

That was a great day of shooting in downtown. I was even lucky enough to catch the building superindendent for the Atelier, who was gracious enough to let me up on the roof so I could get this awesome shot. I LOVE this SIGN!!

A day filled with “eventness” !! Parade at noon was LONG this year, and COLD and WINDY…..kind of seems like a tradition. Headed down with Paula, James and Becky…

then next door neighbor Jim showed up a bit later…

and it was a great parade, Roanoke style. Then after the parade we had lunch at Paul’s where you can get the best value in Roanoke. A Gyro Platter which includes a Greek Salad, gyro and fries for only $ 4.75. AWESOME!

Caught this sure sign of spring on the way to and from the house…

Then down to the City Market where the great controversy is brewing over the Center in the Square project to take over part of the vendor stalls. Found this cool dude at Walter’s Greenhouse stall…

Then we met up with Pam and Stork for a beer tasting at the Jeff Center which was pretty decent. Bowl with and a Cheesy Western at the Texas Tavern before we headed back to the Jeff Center for the Second Wynde concert.

Then….as if we hadn’t already done enough…..off to The Green Dolphin where Bebop Hoedown was playing. They sounded great.

Now, I’m beat and have to still finish painting the living room. Will be SO glad when the upstairs project is over. But the floors look great and we should be able to move back in by Tuesday.

Here’s a few more parade pix. Later!