Back From Vacation!

Well hello there!  It’s been a long time.  I thought I would post yesterday, but first days back at work can be rough, no?  This will be a long post with a bunch of pictures, so grab a cup of coffee or tea, or an adult beverage and sit back.

We had a great vacation.  It was just wonderful to get away.  The weather was pretty good the entire trip (only had rain one night and a few drizzles on a couple of days).  We did not see a lot of color (more in MA than in VT which was a surprise), but managed to have fires every night except the rainy one.  First we headed to the Woodstock/Saugerties area in NY.  It was a relatively short drive for us (3 hours or so) and we had time to set up our camper and then relax before dinner.  For our first night we had steaks and veggies done over the fire:

Don’t know if you can read the coaster on the table, but it’s one Fletch picked up last year and says:  “If drinking on the front porch counts then, yes, call me outdoorsy.”  LOL

Saturday we got up and headed out to Saugerties to the first of the four yarn shops we visited!!  This one was called The Perfect Blend Yarn & Tea Shop

It was a very cute shop with a small selection of teas, mugs and yarn.  I did buy some gifts there, but the only thing for myself was a replacement tape measure.

From there we headed to Rhinebeck!!!  What a cute and fun little village.  Lots of boutique-type shops, coffee houses and restaurants.  We stopped in Al Stickle’s Variety Store at the back of which is the “yarn garage.”  A fun place with really nice yarns.  Since I knew I had two more shops to visit, I practiced major restraint and only came away with this skein of yarn.

A little sparkly and fun!

Our next stop was southern Vermont.  There is a very nice shop in Brattleboro, but since I had already visited there a few years back, we skipped it.  I wanted to get to the cemetery where my parents’ ashes are buried.  This was the very damp day.  So Much FOG.  This was driving up the road to the cemetery:

And there was one tree beginning to turn:

This is (to me) a beautiful place – nestled in the Green Mountains, by a river.  A few years ago Fletch was walking around and discovered a grave stone for someone who fought during the Boston Tea Party!  Anyway, I had a little chat with my parents who are doing fine.  It was misty/rainy, so we did not stay long.  That afternoon we managed to get in an hour’s walk along side the CT River.  And despite the dampness, we managed to have a peach pancake breakfast the next morning!

There is just something about food cooked outside that makes it so delicious!

Tuesday found us headed to Northampton, MA.  I had read THIS ARTICLE https://www.masondixonknitting.com/knitters-weekend-northampton-massachusetts/ by Gale Zuker on the MDK site and it was wonderful to find the places she mentioned.  Well, not ALL the places – I did not have that much time.

The first afternoon we went to Webs!  It’s big, but not as overwhelming as I thought it might be.  Everything is organized really well and the people are helpful.  The back really is like a warehouse with metal shelving and tons of yarn.  It’s the type of place where I should have had a list of projects and yarn requirements…but I didn’t…so I just got a few things:

The bottom two skeins are so soft and a lovely spruce color.  They are a blend of alpaca and bamboo and I plan to make socks for Fletch.  Those skeins were deeply discounted.  And here’s a shot from the front of the store:

It was starting to rain a bit and Fletch wanted some coffee so we drove to a coffee shop.  I spotted this tea that they were selling….not appealing to moi:

After that we walked a bit around Northampton and ended up getting subs to take back to the camper for dinner.  Neither one of us felt like cooking in the rain.  No fire that night – we stayed in the camper knitting (me), reading (both of us) and writing (Fletch).

The next day turned out to be beautiful.  We headed up to Montague and the Book Mill which is just fabulous!  ( http://www.montaguebookmill.com/)  Our timing was perfect for lunch at the restaurant (The Alvah Stone) and we were able to sit outside by the waterfall.  Our meals were delicious and I wish I had been in the mood for a drink.  Look at the cocktail list:

Here’s a shot of one of the rooms inside the Book Mill:

We each got a book and we bought some fun cards.  One of my favorites (from The New Yorker):

The day was still young, so we headed back to Northampton and the last yarn shop:  Northampton Wool.  What a lovely shop.  Lots to choose from and very welcoming.  I came out with:

The latest issue of Laine (FABULOUS!!!) and a fun skein of sock yarn (or course). 

Before heading back to camp we stopped at:

The Pie Bar in Florence!  We both had Salted Chocolate Pie and it was so good.  We also picked up some maple-nutmeg cookies for Colin & Mailing.

The next day we headed back to the Woodstock/Saugerties campground for one final night.  I managed to finish the 2^nd green sock!!!

Our last night and I finished the one and only project I had brought on the trip!  I don’t knit in the car, so it all worked out just fine.

We got home on Friday afternoon.  Saturday morning I met Dee for coffee which was great (it had been too long since we had gotten together).  The balance of the weekend was playing catch-up with laundry, grocery shopping, etc. 

And…the weather has been pretty much awful since we got back – Humid, too warm (we ran the AC Sunday!!) – everything is damp and sticky. 

I’ve managed to start a new sock, but I’ll save that for another post.  Thanks for reading this LONG one.