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.