Greek Festival

Last night we went to Brockton for the Greek Festival. It was a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. We got there and already had to wait in a 20 minute line for dinner. Shara & I took a closer look at the band playing and she had a great time dancing to the music. She really can move! She wasn't so thrilled with dinner though. She tried everything, as was a rule before allowing for treats, but ended up eating some of my gyro meat & 1/2 a roll rather than her pastitsio. I think she'll like it better if it's heated up a little. Alan & I enjoyed our gyros - he much neater than me since i was not using a knife & fork, but opted for the messier hand method. The dolmadas weren't as good as Chris' and the spanacopita tasted much better heated up this morning for breakfast. We got some goodies to go and decided on ice cream at Carvel rather than figuring out what to have there. Should have eaten there because I still ended up having a cookie last night - so so good! and this morning 1/3 of the piece of baklava and Shara had a corner of her heart cookie and we had confectionary sugar all over the kitchen from just that one little bite - I think there is about 2 tablespoons of sugar on the one cookie, if not more!

Today we're going apple picking after dance. Shara wants to go on a hayride. Then Oma & Jidor are going to get to babysit tonight. For the first time in about 2 months Alan & I are going to go out on a date - dinner only, since no movies look good enough to see in the theater.

Summer Vacation - Part 2

View Alan's photos.
Day 5
Since it's been too long since I've written, I may have forgotten the exact order, but we had breakfast today at Martin's in Great Barrington, which was great. I couldn't decide between the apple pancakes or an omelet. I picked the omelet because Shara picked pancakes - but plain, not apple, with syrup of course. She ate quite a bit of my spinach & cheddar omelet, but when I tried to make it for her at home, refused because she doesn't like spinach! She also ate almost all of her pancakes. But I couldn't say anything because I ate all of my breakfast too. It was so good. Alan liked his bagel sandwich but decided an everything bagel wasn't the best choice - couldn't taste the eggs.

Throughout the vacation, Shara's been doing very well with not needing to be nagged about going to the bathroom. It could be that she likes visiting the different bathrooms, and we've not run into any that weren't "clean". So we visited the bathroom at Martin's before we left and she did everything herself, including reaching the soap, etc. There was only one bathroom where she couldn't reach something.

We then took a walk down the street and went to the toy store. Shara kind of took over the place. There weren't any other customers, so I let her use it as a playground, going up the stairs, around and down, making the loop, then wanting us to follow, or wait for her, etc. She was having a great time. She picked out a couple of ballet stickers for doing such a good job hiking the day before and also the butterfly net she'd been wanting. She used her $3 that Bubbe gave her, deciding on the net, rather than "junky candy"! We then walked around and went to a couple other stores, got a little too carried away and crazy at the candy store, and left to go find something interesting to do.

A trip to find a couple of homes was on the list, so we decided to try that. First we checked out Santarella, a really cool home built by a sculpter and used for parties. When a party isn't schduled, they let people into the gardens and tour the house. There was a party, so we weren't able to go on the grounds, but did take a couple of pictures of the outside. Shara limbo'd under the sign, then we left to go elsewhere. Back in the other direction was Chesterwood, summer home to sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial, Daniel Chester French. We sat at the picnic table outside and had a peach and a bar and tried to figure out how Shara would be, since she was clearly tired. We thought we'd check out what was involved with a tour, and after hearing that there were no parts that were free, and only the garden was self-guided, we decided we'd wait until some other time.

We went back to the resort and Alan went to do laundry and Shara & I checked out the pool. She had a great time. The shallow part was 3', so she was basically on her own and was very happy about it. We had a few races, played a few red light/green light games, organized the floats on the rope showing the "adult" side, and then exactly as I was saying to Shara, why don't we head back to the room, daddy should be back by now, over comes Alan! We packed up and went back to decide what to do for dinner. We headed over to Housatonic to go to Jack's Grill. None of us were craving anything, and this was on my list of places that were kid friendly, so why not. It's owned by the same people as the Red Lion Inn and Wednesday nights kids eat 1/2 off the kid's menu. I had meatloaf, which was good. Alan had pot roast, which was good. Shara had chicken fingers & sweet potato fries. The fries weren't that good and the chicken fingers came out super hot, while our meals weren't that hot at all. Odd. We didn't get dessert and also didn't get back until well after 8:30. Already getting dark much earlier these days!

Day 6
Another trip on the list was Bartholomew's Cobble in Ashley Falls. We had breakfast at the resort, then headed out to pick up another picnic and find the Cobble. We went through Great Barrington to get there, but didn't know where to stop for lunch, and then saw Guido's market and decided on that. What a good choice. Alan & I picked a couple of their sandwiches - I had turkey, avocado, sprouts, lettuce & tomato on a wheat bread and Alan had ham, cheese, something interesting on a baguette. Shara had a peanut butter & jelly packed and we picked up some chips, raspberries, strawberries, and a couple local peaches. Picnic ready, we headed through some nice little towns to the Cobble. This place was out in farm country and we even went past a dairy that sold raw milk. We got to the Cobble, went to the bathroom, paid, talked to the nice guy about the trails and our picnic options and while we were talking, a mother & child came in complaining of all the bugs. They said they used bug spray, and I figured they were just wimps. Well, as soon as we hit the trail, which was in the shade, the mosquitos swarmed! We couldn't get out of there fast enough. We decided to go across the street to the trail around a big field and that was a much better decision. It was hot, but not as buggy and Shara got to chase several butterflies with her net. The last part of the walk went through more of a wooded area and again, the mosquitos were fearce. Had they not been there, it would have been a really nice walk - a couple of bridges over streams, etc.

We couldn't find a place to picnic on the walk but thought at the Cobble by the visitor's center it might be nicer. It actually wasn't, so we got back in the car and ended up at a rest stop on the main road. No facilities, so it was just a field where we were able to lay out the neat sheet and enjoy the great sandwiches. Shara again ate filling and didn't really like her PB&J or the veggie bootie we got, but had some other stuff to fill her up.

That evening, after strong requests, we visited a playground and went to dinner at Bizen. The playground didn't end well, someone didn't want to leave, but her "attitude" was quickly found to be caused by hunger. After downing several edamame, Shara was the "perfect" child, enjoying miso soup, noodles, vegetable tempura, etc. We spent some time looking at their aquarium while Alan paid and then walked down the street for a bit to see about dessert options. The ice cream place was closed, so we went back to the car, running into the guy from Bartholomew's Cobble! He recognized us, and we all had a short laugh. We did promise ice cream, even though it was already after 8 PM! Well we were on vacation. We stopped at Friendley's on the way back, though I had made the statement to Alan that I didn't want to eat at Friendley's on our vacation. I guess ice cream didn't count. Shara picked chocolate with rainbow sprinkles, I had a sundae, of course, and Alan had a small dish of something. We got it to go and Shara ate in the car while we waited til we got back. At the resort Shara made her ice cream soup and licked her spoon, and licked her spoon and Alan was long finished by the time we said enough and then it was bedtime, reluctantly.

Day 7
Today we planned to pick up Lizzy at school and go to Magic Wings. Again, breakfast at the resort, and we got on the road for the drive to the school. Shara was great in the car, as she has been the whole trip. We stopped at the Eric Carle Museum to visit their wonderful child-friendly bathrooms and gift shop. Shara actually went in the stall all by herself while I went in the one next door at the same time. It was hard for me to let go that much, but I figured Alan was outside and no one would take her without our knowing. Basically I didn't think it wouldn't be safe. She loves the freedom and being able to do it all herself. We then went to the gift shop and looked around, then to get Liz. We parked and she called saying she'd be down. I walked a little with Shara, looked at corn on the stalk, and when Shara spotted Liz across the street, she screamed, "Lizzy!" It was so cute. From then on, she wanted not much to do with mommy and Liz had to buckle her in her carseat, take her out, sit by her at lunch, etc. We drove to the place and Liz was ordered to sing along to several of Shara's christmas songs from her music book. We found a great bakery next door to Magic Wings that had panini. Next to that was a pizza place, so Shara got a slice while we got panini.

Magic Wings was great. As soon as we went in the butterfly area, one landed on my glasses - what a strange feeling! Then it got a little stuck and I had to help it off. Alan also thinks he had a butterfly pee on him. We spent most of the time identifying the butterflies. We got a chart and Shara checked them off as we found them. She also had a lot of fun with Alan's camera. Liz forgot hers, and I had almost no pictures left! It was really great - Shara performed a little recital for us, Liz almost bought some of the mini quail - they were only $20 a pair! and we just enjoyed the day. After Magic wings, we went back to the college and actually went on a geocache hunt in the woods by the tennis courts. That was fun, again rather buggy, but only as we got to the cache. Liz introduced us to her new Mod before we said our goodbyes and went back to the resort. Shara really wanted to go to the playground again and we said yes, but then when we got closer, realized it wasn't going to work. It was already close to 6 PM when we got back and we needed to have supper and after that it would be dark already. She wasn't pleased, but oh well. She lived.

Day 7 - trip home (coming soon)

Foxtown Coffee and Sandwich Shop

 

Summer Vacation - Berkshires!

Day 1
Not much excitement today. We packed up and left for the Berkshires. We didn't rush and made a couple stops on the way – got a few things from Whole Foods, including lunch – they were grilling hot dogs outside, so shara was all set. Alan got a variety and I had some stomboli. All were good. We also decided to try the all natural marshmallows, but not to share them with everyone at the Lookers party. We then got back, a little stuck in traffic. This wasn't a problem because Shara was having a great time coloring her princess magic color coloring book. We stopped at a rest stop to try out a geo-cache and actually found it hidden among the weeds out back.

We continued on and got to the resort around 4:30 PM. Good thing because check-in wasn't until 5 PM. We walked around, checked out both pools, the arcade – Shara played the spider stomp game, and wandered a bit. Alan waited in line while Shara & I went back to the arcade. She was rather tired and almost got a skeet ball in the face. We got through the place in one piece and Alan changed our room to a townhouse style room. Many concerns about Shara having trouble walking up and down the stairs, etc. but she's been great managing by herself. We also had to figure out the logistics of sleeping arrangements. First we thought she'd sleep on the pullout couch and she liked that idea but then we figured she'd be asleep and we wouldn't have anywhere to go. We ended up having her go upstairs early and go to sleep, which turned out to be a moot point so far because we've been close on her heels. We've been going to sleep rather late and really feel like it's a vacation. The first night it was close to 9 PM before Shara got to bed, and we just joined her at the same time.

We got unpacked the first night and went out for a bite to eat in Pittsfield at Burger. It was really good. I had a turkey burger with grilled onions and bbq sauce, Alan had a bacon cheeseburger, and Shara had some tuna salad. We all split a basket of mixed fries – sweet potato, white potato, and eggplant. Alan & Shara also had a chocolate shake. We headed back and went to bed.

Day 2
In the morning we gathered our things to take to the Looker's camp and had a simple breakfast in the “apartment”. We got going around 10:30 AM and it took a couple of hours to get to the camp. It was a nice drive – Shara continued her coloring work. We got to the camp and only Dana, David & Olive were there. We got out our chairs and started the process of getting comfortable with Olive. It took most of the day, but eventually Shara petted her. Jill, Liz & Samantha arrived about an hour later and got busy getting food organized. I don't even know where the day went or what we did because it was really fun and relaxing, with a lot of trips up the hill! Liz & Samantha took Shara in the lake and eventually Alan and Andy joined them. Shara came out and the “grown-ups” swam the cove, with Andy and his Styrofoam square and Alan loosing his way and almost ending up on a wrong shore. Because we were all snacking too much, Jill thought it was time to go up to the camp and eat some real food, which is what we all did. Needless to say, it was all good, and Shara would have eaten just the pulled pork if I hadn't made her get some variety. We talked and laughed much more and to Jill's delight, Shara gave some good snort-laughs. She sat next to Jill and Belle, who seemed to be her Brutus surrogate, Shara didn't want anything to do with me or Alan, but only Liz, Samantha & Jill. I asked her about it later and she said she wanted to visit with her family, not mommy & daddy. Okay. That being said, Alan & I took a trip down to the beach and tried to get some exercise by moving the wood to the burn site.

Come evening we got the s'more fixin's together, put on our sleeping clothes and headed down to the beach. We had no idea there would be a live band playing across the lake at the boat launch, along with a great fireworks display – both legal & illegal. Have to say the legal kind were the best. We also witnessed some great bonfires, our included. We had lots of fun playing Taboo, looking for sticks in the dark to roast marshmallows, and awaiting Shara to twist her ankle on the rocks or walk into the fire because she was playing the big kid and didn't want to listen to anyone, especially mommy. That's ok, mommy had another beer and all was well. We eventually went to bed around 10 PM. It took Shara about 10 minutes to fall asleep vs. about an hour for me.

Day 3
Shara slept until after 8 AM, and I even had to wake her up. We were set to meet Bubbe & Papa at 11 and had to have some breakfast, get cleaned up, take down the tent, etc. So we had a simple breakfast of the peach cake I brought, which was great for all of you who didn't have any!, and blackberries we picked on the hill. Shara again wouldn't listen to me and sat in her princess chair to eat and tipped her plate over, sending all to the dirt. I salvaged most of the berries and we went in and got another piece of cake. She stayed on the porch this time, but still have me grief and we argued, me telling her, “fine, you do what you want. I'm not arguing with you anymore!” and her then being so sweet, offering me tastes of her food, asking me questions, etc. I think I made my point, not that it lasted all day or anything! We had a nice talk about mushrooms with Andy and he picked a couple to show us. We've been very interested in them since we've been seeing so many different kinds on our walks. We finally got everything together and headed off to Saratoga to meet mom & Irwin. We were only ½ hour late, but when we called, we thought we'd be much later.

We met them at the Price Chopper on route 50 and had deli at their in-store deli/restaurant. Alan & I split a reuben and Shara had some very nice looking mac & cheese, and a piece of veggie sushi, which she knew she had to eat because she asked for the sushi and was told she had to eat at least 1 piece, which is what she ate. We then met bubbe at Congress Park. Bubbe & Shara rode on the beautifully restored merry-go-round (in the chariot, not a horse). We fed the ducks, ran from the ducks when they got way too close, and then played in the park enjoying the beautiful weather. Bubbe relaxed on a park bench, daddy meditated by the stream, and mommy & Shara played tag and went on an exploration, finding a pond with big fish and crossing the stream using the bridge, then the concrete damn, then the bridge, then one ore time over the damn. We then walked around collecting flowers in the grass, stomped a few crab apples, then back to bubbe. We had to say our goodbyes and then continued on with a stroll around Saratoga. We looked in a couple of shops, stopped for a gelato snack, looked in Mrs. London's, and headed back to the car. Shara was asleep within 3 minutes.

The trip back to the resort was only about an hour or so. We stopped at a Greek Pizza shop and got a couple of salads to go for supper and had that and leftovers, after waking Shara up, who would have been just as happy for us to put her right in bed, maybe. Again, bed then wake up and breakfast in the apartment.

Day 4
Today we had planned to go to Williamstown to hike up Pine Cobble Trail. We didn't end up leaving the apartment until about 11 AM, so Shara had a bar in the car. We got a couple of sandwiches at Pappa Charlies for Alan & myself because Shara was more than happy to have a pb&j. We put our sandwiches in our slick picnic cooler backpack and headed off to find the trail. After a rough start, we found the signs. Our directions were old and the original entrance turned into a new neighborhood with a few beautiful homes. Alan did a little scouting because I wasn't sure if the trail would be too hard for Shara. He said it would be fine so off we went. We laid out the rules and it was a learning experience for all of us. We did keep reminding Shara to look down and watch where she was stepping and if she wanted to look around she needed to stop. The trail wasn't that difficult, but it was rocky and Shara wanted to step on every rock, which would have tired her out really fast, so we explained about going the easy route because we had a long way to go. We stopped several times, but not too many and about ½ way up Shara had her sandwich and we shared an apple. We continued on, only seeing another couple with a dog, which happily passed, not to be seen again. We didn't really know how long it would be before we got to the top, and Shara was really getting tired. He'd been going about 1 ½ hours when we decided to not try and get to the top. Alan & I were disappointed, but Shara was more than happy. We had to carry her a little of the way up, and almost all the way down. We did make her walk the last part though because you can't get carried across the finish line. She did great. We were all really proud of her. What was so cool is that she had been practicing rock climbing for the past week or so, and I know it was in preparation for this because when I first talked to her about climbing a mountain, she was really scared of the idea. It was so cool that she had so much fun and was so proud of herself. We went about 1500 feet and a 500 foot incline. She wanted me to write that she felt happy and proud and to tell everyone that she had a pink butterfly cookie.

She didn't mention to tell anyone that she had been given the three strikes and no cookie when she began acting bratty at the Williams College Museum of Art. One thing she liked at the museum though was an animated film that we started watching then had to drag her away from when it showed a person getting run over by a car and other disturbing images. She said she thought it was funny, which I found rather disturbing. I'm assuming she didn't really know how to react to it and was very interested but not at all scared, which is how I expected her to feel. Before going to the museum, we had to eat our rather late lunch. We found a little patch of grass at the far end of the main street, spread out our neat sheet and had a fabulous meal. I don't know if it was the hike or the sandwich really tasted that good, but my Judge Rinehold – turkey, tomato, cole slaw, and russian dressing, was the best! Shara was hungry so Alan and I gave her sandwich filling and she had more dried apples and a piece of cheese.

After the museum, we got the cookie and a couple of coffee drinks (again, the best iced mocha ever!), headed back to the car and on the way back, Shara enjoyed eating her upper-left butterfly wing, She finished in about 2 minutes, then fell asleep until we got near the resort. We stopped for a takeout menu from a chinese restaurant and then back to the apartment to unload and relax a bit. Shara's version of relaxing was to play gymnast and jump around on the couch bouncing into the pillows. Alan went out for the chinese, we ate too much and now I'm writing this, listening to the refrigerator more than the tv, and everyone else is sleeping.

See the Pictures!