Vacation Post 1

It was a long drive to New York from Chicago, but we made it Sunday evening. We had a lovely dinner at Vico and then rolled into bed. (Dinner included the most amazing French fries ever!)

The closer we got to NY, the more we got into wooded, mountainy terrain. Just lovely. We're not near the Hudson River. The view at the top was on a windy road up a mountain. Late today we drove up to Olana to see where it was. The light in the center is the Hudson River, with mountains beyond.

Here's Marge with Ann's car, outside of our motel this morning. Thank you very much, Ann, for the use of this wonderful car--it's doing great in the hills that we've been climbing!

Just below is a photo of some irises from outside of the hotel. Plants are a few weeks ahead of Chicago here, so lots of things are blooming and very pretty. It's also been very chilly here--nearly cold!

Today we took a long, leisurely stroll up Warren Street in Hudson, stopping here and there. We met a lot of very friendly people and saw some very interesting things.

There are tons of lovely old buildings here with great architectural details.

The next couple of photos are Susan's home--her door and front of her house. I could easily do a photo study of the doors of Hudson--there are some fantastic doors--and the grillwork. There is a lot of great ironwork on the homes. Roofs, too, there is some creative shingling on the roofs here.

Susan's home is amazing, full of wonderful details. She has great plans for it.

On our stroll we had lunch, great salads, at Cascades. Once fortified, we continued up the street.

We passed this incredible garden center (sadly closed) and visited a shop, whose name I cannot remember and I left the bag in the car so I can't check right now...but it was full of wonderful stuff (near the post office, just off of Warren St.). Great hats, western shirts and bags and socks--the ones I bought are shown below.

Along the way we found a lovely quilt shop (again, the name is in the car). I got some Flower Fairies fabric there, but I didn't get a photo of it--my camera battery was low.

We went back to Vico for dessert (a HUGE Napoleon and a chocolate volcano cake) and a rest. Then we took a drive, where I shot the opening photo and some others like the one below.