Vacation: Day 2

[winterbadger]

A lovely day, despite a lot of rain.

We went for a bike ride along a RTT path our B&B, which was very pleasant, even though a bit of rain came up and dampened us a little. We had a nice chat with the owners and then put our bags back in the car and headed off. We drove through eastern New York state to NW Connecticut, passing through farm country and small towns that quite enchanted Emily.

We went through Northeast and Millerton and crossed over into CT, arriving first at Lakeville and then Salisbury. We stopped I. At the antiquarian bookstore that replaced the old general (but still eclectic) bookstore that was there before. Johnnycake Books, the current incumbent, does rare books and old books, but we still found things to buy (a book about DC architecture for E, a book about Scottish gardens for me) and others to sigh after. The owner was away at a convention, but we had a nice chat with his locum tenens and his wee dog. E won major visitor points by praising the locale for it's natural beauty and its lovely towns.

We had a very good lunch in the bistro next door. Their blueberry pie E has decided is the Platonic ideal of blueberry pie ( and this is a woman who is particular about her pie). We visited the old spring fountain by the town hall and filled up our water bottle. Then we set off to see the lakes.

My family used to come up here every summer to stay at an old cabin my great grandfather bought. It's passed to another branch of the family, but it still has wonderful memories for me. It's on one of a pair of lakes nestled right in the top corner of the state. Though it was raining pretty hard, we had a nice drive on the old road between the lakes. We stopped by the cabin and, since no one was about, we took the opportunity to skibble down to the dock and gaze at the lake.

Then we drove on, through Canaan and into Massachusetts. I won't chronicle that whole journey, but I should mention the pleasant visit we had to The Mount, sometime home of Edith Wharton, one of E's favorite writers. It's been well restored, and we had a great tour with one of the docents in training.

On we drove, as the rain began to let up, in Williamstown. A wander around the campus, a good dinner at The Red Herring (new to me--not much to look at, but good food and drink), a little more tour, and off to bed at our friendly motel, the Willows.

Now, having spent half the morning blogging, I'm ravenous for breakfast!

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Comments

[redactrice.livejournal.com]

Oh, such nice memories you're conjuring up. Thanks to both of you.

I'm glad you and I both got to see our ancestral lakes this summer.

[winterbadger]

It was funny to watch E becoming more and more entranced with New England the further north we got. She liked Amenia, she really liked Salisbury and Great Barrington and Williamstown, but she LOVED Burlington. We can tell you more when we meet up, but I'm pretty sure that by the time you start vagabonding again there will be a place for you to stay in Burlington, whenever you happen to be in the northeast.