We've got a couple of more photo albums for you to look at. The first is Devil's Hopyard state park in East Haddam. We went for a hike around there on a rather warm day. The track led to a lovely scenic viewpoint over a typical Connecticut valley scene. I.e. lots of trees! It was a nice park though and the walk ended up at a nice waterfall. There are potholes surrounding the waterfall that, legend has it, were created by the Devil himself!
Another album takes you back to New York. We went to watch the Yankees again one Sunday afternoon in May. We decided that we'd go for Brunch when we got to NY and Annalie happened upon a place reviewed online. Called Nook, it really is that! A real nook and cranny place (read TINY!) on the edge of Hell's Kitchen. The photo you can see of the food was one of their signature dishes, a nice crusty baguette with lashings of Nutella, banana and strawberries. Totally yum!!
Oh, and the Yankees won too! :)
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Hell it's been a long time!
Oops! All we can say is "Sorry"! Time just seem to have flown and we don't know where it's gone. So how about we start where we left you.
At that time we'd ust started our holiday in Colorado to get some snowboarding in. We had a fab four days on the slopes. The Rocky Mountain powder wasn't too abundant this time, apart from a few inches on our final morning, but we still managed to find enough fun anyway.
The good thing about the area we went to was that we could reach four resorts within 30 minutes' drive and all of them were covered on our ski pass. On the first day we headed for Keystone, the closest resort to where we were staying. Probably the best thing about that mountain was the ability to take a Cat ride up into the high bowls that aren't served by lifts. You then pick your own tracks down to rejoin the rest of the mountain. We were a little nervous at first, especially as it was our first day, so we did some of the regular pistes to get our ski legs back.
After lunch we tried it out and had lots of fun in ungroomed snow and boarding through the trees in plenty of untouched powder! Possibly the funniest moment was when two other boarders headed down after us but managed to crash into each other right in front of Annalie!
The second day took us to Breckenridge - the most recommended of all the resorts. There is certainly plenty of terrain there so we covered a lot of ground. There are four peaks to choose from, all very different, so we tried to do as much as we could.
Day three we headed further away to Vail. Our expectations were high but we were unfortunately held hostage to the weather. The high winds meant that parts of the mountain, which were billed as the most fun, weren't open. This meant that some of the open runs were a bit crowded. We managed to find some less crowded areas though and had plenty to occupy us throughout the day. A walk back through the town at the end of the day reminded us somewhat of Austria or Switzerland in terms of architecture - check out the photos for proof!
On our last day there were reports of 5 inches of snow in Breck so we headed back there. We had an ulterior motive too as one of Annalie's old colleagues, Anya, was also in town so we'd planned to meet up at some point. We headed up to the top of the mountain where the best snow was to be found and got there before the crowds. We had lots of fun making fresh tracks and falling over in cotton wool.
It wasn't until we'd finished for the day that we finally hooked up with Anya. We'd headed into town to sample some of the apres-ski and found a bar for her to find us. Finally, after many failed phone calls and texts, she found us and we had a good catch up. Anya lives in Pennsylvania so not a million miles away from us, but it's been hard to find a mutually-agreeable time to meet. So we had to go all the way to Colorado to do it!! We've agreed next time it will be New York - a damn site closer.
This year Ian has got right into the US spirit of things and joined a softball team! It's a bit more American than Annalie playing football (sorry, soccer!). It's a "beer league" so there's little more than pride at stake, but it's a good social scene too.
We had our only visitors so far this year, Jenifer and Fred. We had a fairly relaxed couple of days with them but we had to show them some true American customs ;) On their first afternoon here we took them to Cabela's - an experience in itself that has little to do with shopping! And before they left we thought we would take them to a traditional line dancing club! A few of the guys from work were planning on going to the Caddy Ranch, so we thought Jenifer and Fred might be interested too. It was a most entertaining evening, although none of us ventured onto the dancefloor. Fred was certainly in awe of some of the dancers ;)
Annalie had a night out in New York with the girls as a send-off for one of the RR ladies headed back to the UK. On the way back on the Sunday, we took advantage of the fact that one of Annalie's friends from Uni was staying in Stamford in Connecticut with work. So Annalie stopped off there and Ian drove down to meet her and they both met up with Matt for dinner. It was great to catch up with him as we hardly ever see him since he and Zoe now live in the wilds of Kent!
We went to the Under a Strawberry Moon festival in Glastonbury for the third year running. Each year the event has got bigger and bigger, with more food outlets joining each year. It's a great opportunity to sample some of the various delights from local restaurants. This year there was a big group of our friends all there so it was a very sociable evening.
And then we get to July 4th and the Independence Day celebrations. As we'd not been to Boston for a day out together, we decided to head that way to see the sights and also view the impressive fireworks display that is broadcast throughout the nation. We had only planned to go up for the day but we put Maddy in the kennels anyway so we didn't have to worry about her. Then we decided it would be an awfully long day so we thought we'd get a room. Thanks to Priceline (name your own price) we got a hotel in a great location for just $105, when the hotel's website was charging $224 for the night of July 4th.
We fancied doing a Duck Tour as we've not done one of those before. It was a lot of fun and showed us the main sights around the city. As well as taking us for a ride on the water. This took a lot longer than normal as there were countless boats travelling up the Charles River in order to moor up to watch the fireworks. Check out the photos!
For dinner we opted for Fire + Ice. Now if you've been to a Mongolian Barbeque in the UK you'll be familiar with this concept. Basically you have buffets of raw ingredients to concoct your own dish from. Then there's a range of sauces to add to the ingredients. Then some well-trained chefs cook your food in front of you on a huge grill, that somewhat resembles a mill wheel! All you can eat this way for $17, not bad! Ian sure made the most of it.
Then it was on to the fireworks. Now the Duck Tour driver claimed that around 500,000 people line the banks of the river for the display every year. There is a free concert held in the Esplanade, but sound towers that stretch down the river ensure that everybody can hear what's going on. We walked a long way to find a space where we thought we might have a good view of the fireworks and we lucked out. We had no trees in the way and a clear view of some of the best, most choreographed pyrotechnics ever! It was all set to music and well worked. We can see why it's a popular location, but if there's one thing the Americans know how to do, it's fireworks!
We wouldn't be British unless we spoke about the weather! After a wash out of a summer in 2009, this year has been a scorcher. We've had very little rain so the grass is like hay and Ian's been called out for a few brush/grass fires. Frankly we're surprised there haven't been more, but we're thankful for that too. Maddy doesn't cope too well with the heat and humidity, and on a few walks we've been forced to throw her in the river to help her cool off. Needless to say she's none-too-happy when that happens. Don't think Beagles are renowned for their liking of water!!
At that time we'd ust started our holiday in Colorado to get some snowboarding in. We had a fab four days on the slopes. The Rocky Mountain powder wasn't too abundant this time, apart from a few inches on our final morning, but we still managed to find enough fun anyway.
The good thing about the area we went to was that we could reach four resorts within 30 minutes' drive and all of them were covered on our ski pass. On the first day we headed for Keystone, the closest resort to where we were staying. Probably the best thing about that mountain was the ability to take a Cat ride up into the high bowls that aren't served by lifts. You then pick your own tracks down to rejoin the rest of the mountain. We were a little nervous at first, especially as it was our first day, so we did some of the regular pistes to get our ski legs back.
After lunch we tried it out and had lots of fun in ungroomed snow and boarding through the trees in plenty of untouched powder! Possibly the funniest moment was when two other boarders headed down after us but managed to crash into each other right in front of Annalie!
The second day took us to Breckenridge - the most recommended of all the resorts. There is certainly plenty of terrain there so we covered a lot of ground. There are four peaks to choose from, all very different, so we tried to do as much as we could.
Day three we headed further away to Vail. Our expectations were high but we were unfortunately held hostage to the weather. The high winds meant that parts of the mountain, which were billed as the most fun, weren't open. This meant that some of the open runs were a bit crowded. We managed to find some less crowded areas though and had plenty to occupy us throughout the day. A walk back through the town at the end of the day reminded us somewhat of Austria or Switzerland in terms of architecture - check out the photos for proof!
On our last day there were reports of 5 inches of snow in Breck so we headed back there. We had an ulterior motive too as one of Annalie's old colleagues, Anya, was also in town so we'd planned to meet up at some point. We headed up to the top of the mountain where the best snow was to be found and got there before the crowds. We had lots of fun making fresh tracks and falling over in cotton wool.
It wasn't until we'd finished for the day that we finally hooked up with Anya. We'd headed into town to sample some of the apres-ski and found a bar for her to find us. Finally, after many failed phone calls and texts, she found us and we had a good catch up. Anya lives in Pennsylvania so not a million miles away from us, but it's been hard to find a mutually-agreeable time to meet. So we had to go all the way to Colorado to do it!! We've agreed next time it will be New York - a damn site closer.
This year Ian has got right into the US spirit of things and joined a softball team! It's a bit more American than Annalie playing football (sorry, soccer!). It's a "beer league" so there's little more than pride at stake, but it's a good social scene too.
We had our only visitors so far this year, Jenifer and Fred. We had a fairly relaxed couple of days with them but we had to show them some true American customs ;) On their first afternoon here we took them to Cabela's - an experience in itself that has little to do with shopping! And before they left we thought we would take them to a traditional line dancing club! A few of the guys from work were planning on going to the Caddy Ranch, so we thought Jenifer and Fred might be interested too. It was a most entertaining evening, although none of us ventured onto the dancefloor. Fred was certainly in awe of some of the dancers ;)
Annalie had a night out in New York with the girls as a send-off for one of the RR ladies headed back to the UK. On the way back on the Sunday, we took advantage of the fact that one of Annalie's friends from Uni was staying in Stamford in Connecticut with work. So Annalie stopped off there and Ian drove down to meet her and they both met up with Matt for dinner. It was great to catch up with him as we hardly ever see him since he and Zoe now live in the wilds of Kent!
We went to the Under a Strawberry Moon festival in Glastonbury for the third year running. Each year the event has got bigger and bigger, with more food outlets joining each year. It's a great opportunity to sample some of the various delights from local restaurants. This year there was a big group of our friends all there so it was a very sociable evening.
And then we get to July 4th and the Independence Day celebrations. As we'd not been to Boston for a day out together, we decided to head that way to see the sights and also view the impressive fireworks display that is broadcast throughout the nation. We had only planned to go up for the day but we put Maddy in the kennels anyway so we didn't have to worry about her. Then we decided it would be an awfully long day so we thought we'd get a room. Thanks to Priceline (name your own price) we got a hotel in a great location for just $105, when the hotel's website was charging $224 for the night of July 4th.
We fancied doing a Duck Tour as we've not done one of those before. It was a lot of fun and showed us the main sights around the city. As well as taking us for a ride on the water. This took a lot longer than normal as there were countless boats travelling up the Charles River in order to moor up to watch the fireworks. Check out the photos!
For dinner we opted for Fire + Ice. Now if you've been to a Mongolian Barbeque in the UK you'll be familiar with this concept. Basically you have buffets of raw ingredients to concoct your own dish from. Then there's a range of sauces to add to the ingredients. Then some well-trained chefs cook your food in front of you on a huge grill, that somewhat resembles a mill wheel! All you can eat this way for $17, not bad! Ian sure made the most of it.
Then it was on to the fireworks. Now the Duck Tour driver claimed that around 500,000 people line the banks of the river for the display every year. There is a free concert held in the Esplanade, but sound towers that stretch down the river ensure that everybody can hear what's going on. We walked a long way to find a space where we thought we might have a good view of the fireworks and we lucked out. We had no trees in the way and a clear view of some of the best, most choreographed pyrotechnics ever! It was all set to music and well worked. We can see why it's a popular location, but if there's one thing the Americans know how to do, it's fireworks!
We wouldn't be British unless we spoke about the weather! After a wash out of a summer in 2009, this year has been a scorcher. We've had very little rain so the grass is like hay and Ian's been called out for a few brush/grass fires. Frankly we're surprised there haven't been more, but we're thankful for that too. Maddy doesn't cope too well with the heat and humidity, and on a few walks we've been forced to throw her in the river to help her cool off. Needless to say she's none-too-happy when that happens. Don't think Beagles are renowned for their liking of water!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)