July in New England...

Go, Go, Go!!

That has been our motto since we got to New England in June.

We just don't want to miss anything during our short 3 month stay!

However, by this time after 

NYC a few times, 

the Hamptons, 

Nantucket, 

Martha's Vineyard,

Cape Cod, 

Boston, 

Connecticut, 

and Upstate New York...

we needed a break!!

Aahh, thats nice... 

We decided to spend our day at the beach in Westport, CT, which is a very affluent part of Connecticut (as almost all the areas where we lived were)

Can you believe it cost $50 for a day pass to this beach!

Honestly, it was a bit of a rip off...

Oh well, much needed r and r.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

OK

Break time is over!

Now, things were a little different the next weekend in July...

We decided to take a little trip to our Nation's Capital to see the sights.

We obviously were not thinking clearly about leaving on a Friday night, going over the George Washington Bridge through the Bronx.  See how clear this picture was?  

Yea, we were STOPPED!  For HOURS!

But we did have a nice view of the skyline!

Positive thinking!

And once we got to the New Jersey Turnpike, we were welcomed with a heart!

See?  So pretty...

Now, we got to our "bed and breakfast" (notice the quotes) very late on Friday night and met our "host" (more quotes)...

All we could think was... Bates Motel??

Notice the boarded up windows, peeling paint.  And I'm sorry to say it but the owners had some kind of head injury... seriously....

Let's just say I was not happy...

We will leave it at that...

yep...

We decided to forgo our second night here obviously!

Washington DC was much nicer than our place of lodging however, and it was a beautiful day!

Here was the Capital Building...

The Washington Monument...

Lincoln's Memorial...

and the man himself...

Another disappointing part of the trip was all the construction on the reflecting pool!  If you can't tell, it's empty!  We were bummed.

And finally, the White House.

By this time it was not even noon, we were exhausted from sleeping with one eye open all night, were a little overwhelmed with all the crowds and decided that it was time to go into an air conditioned museum with a little side trip first...

Yea, that clock says 11:45 am.  Don't judge!  Jason had one too!

The museum I didn't want to miss was the American History Museum.

Jason found Archie Bunker's Chair and Fonzi's leather jacket right off the bat...

My favorite part was the First Lady's gowns...

Here is Michelle Obama's.

And then of course Dorothy's Ruby Slippers!

You can't go to D.C. and not see these!

Jason dragged me to the Natural History Museum to see the dinosaurs.

He was just as excited as all the other 8 year old boys there...

But it did give me a chance to see the Hope Diamond.

This is as close as I got and I had to push a few people out of the way!

I think New York is rubbing off on me!!

Once again, it was a great adventure and something we will never forget

(although with a few extra bumps in the road!)

More to Come!

Current Location:

Stamford, CT

Brimfield or Bust!

Even before we decided to come to New England Jason and I had heard about and knew that we wanted to go to the Brimfield Antique Show if we ever got a chance.  Brimfield is the largest and most well known outdoor antique show in the states and is more than a half mile wide of just vendor after vendor selling the most interesting antiques and collectibles!

When we realized that we would be here for one of the three shows a year we were so excited! 

We booked it to Brimfield, MA which is basically in the center of the state...

The town of Brimfield is fairly small, and is usually only about 10,000 people...

But on show days, apparently the town triples in size!  Jason and I got there pretty early so it was quiet and we could get a good look at the vendors without fighting crowds.

The vendors were selling everything you could imagine!

From vintage pyrex... which apparently is a huge seller now...

to old furniture that seemed to have seen better days...

to even a San Francisco trolley photo booth set up!  What?!

By mid afternoon it was getting HOT!  Luckily there was fresh-squeezed lemonade basically around every corner!

One of the year round antique establishments...

My goal for this trip was to get a vintage flatware set...

I finally settled on the Depression-Era "Coronation" 12 piece set which will be used for whomever comes to our house for dinner from now on!

Whoopie!  I have not had a dinner party for over a year now and I am EXCITED!

The hotter it got it seemed the more people showed up.  The show is situated along a half mile strip of "main street" and by early afternoon the traffic had backed up significantly...

As did the people!

We decided before we left we would make one last stop to pick up some milk glass bedside lamps. We walked around and around looking for the booth we had seen earlier and could not find them at all!

Lesson learned...

If you see something you want at Brimfield, PICK IT UP IMMEDIATELY!

What I did get other than the flatware set was a CT license plate to go with my Wisconsin one, and some very cute milk glass salt and pepper shakers.  

All in all, I think we were pretty successful!

Current Location:

Stamford, CT

Happy Birthday to My Wonderful Husband!

............................................................

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday Dear Jason!

Happy Birthday to you!

I Love You!

............................................................

For Jason's birthday, he knew he wanted to spend the day continuing our exploration of NYC...

When we found out his mother and Jim would be in town for the same weekend, 

we were excited to be able to share the day with them!

We found out they were staying at Jim's friend's house instead of a hotel,

which by the way was located...

*ahem*

 IN THE PENTHOUSE RIGHT NEXT TO THE EMPIRE STATE BUILDING

The views were incredible!  

This picture was taken from the second floor out on one of their terraces (yes that was plural!)

The ESB looked massive!

The inside of the apartment was beautiful as well, it didn't even feel like NYC!

Here is what your own private garden looks like on a rooftop terrace...

And then of course your city sunset...

The view was a little different from my "city view" sunset pic, don't you think?

Jim and Deedee made us a yummy BBQ (that we ate out on the terrace!) 

and we got to catch up with Jim's children who are wonderful.

Ok, now for Jason's actual birthday day...

Our first stop was Doughnut Plant, an amazing doughnut shop only located in NYC...

It was what I would call gourmet doughnuts and I could barely choose which one I wanted!

I ended up with the blueberry, which I think won for best taste out of all that we tried!

YUM!

We decided to go on a food tour of the Chelsea Market and Meatpacking District.

Yes, it sounds very touristy, but seriously, we still can't stop talking about how much fun it was...

 Chelsea Market is a kind of urban food market with only the best of the best let in.  It is in a huge building in the Meatpacking District that used to be Nabisco Factory, and is where the Oreo was invented (see, we did learn a lot!)

On the tour, our guide Cindy, (who was great!) led us through all the stores pointing out highlights and letting us try samples of all the goodies...

The best chocolate milk...

Ridiculously good Italian deli selections and fresh bread from Amy's Bakery... 

Super fresh seafood that apparently is the main supply to all the restaurants in the city...

Incredible jams and freshly baked biscuits...

(This place was so good that I bought the cookbook!)

The smells were fantastic, coming at us from every direction, and all competing for our undivided attention!  This place specialized in the best meats and had us wiping the drool from our mouths.  Seriously. That was a good smell.

A view of the inside of the market...

You can still see the remnants from the Nabisco factory!

Here is our tour guide Cindy with the birthday boy!

She definitely made his day special and wished him Happy Birthday about 67 times!

This was in front of one of the old meatpacking houses that was converted into another fabulous restaurant.

After the tour was over, we had to go back to the market and pick up a few more things that we had our eye on during the tour...

I found my cookbook, Jason found a mini pineapple.  Yep.

Ok, I couldn't help myself.  Before we went out to dinner we stopped by the amazing apartment again and I had to take just one more picture.  Here I was sitting inside at the dinner table!  What great dinner parties these people must have!

 For Jason's actual birthday dinner we ended up going to the Breslin, which is by the same chef as the Spotted Pig.  The food was again incredible as were the drinks.  

I love you Jason!

Happy Birthday!

Who would have ever thought you would be turning 29 (wink wink) in NYC!

Current Location:

Stamford, Connecticut