New York | Where are the Rogers?

We left Nova Scotia bright and early Sunday morning and made the long drive out (or oat, in Canada). 12 1/2 hours including multiple, but brief stops and a whole lot of rain and slow driving. We probably could have saved time by going on the Interstates, but we decided to take Highway 2 after Bangor Maine, which meandered through some amazing little areas and some adorable little towns that we had never heard of. Gorham and Lancaster, New Hampshire were two we really liked, and we landed in Stowe, Vermont. It is a big ski resort in the winter. Nothing like the kind of skiing we are accustomed to in the Rockies! These are some small mountains, but the town is beautiful! Lots of great restaurants and some nice looking shops.

We decided to stay for two nights so we could do some hiking on the many trails in the area. The Stowehof Inn is an old Inn, built in the 1940’s. It has great character, and it’s a lovely setting. Our room had a four poster bed with a dressing room and balcony. It is a quaint, comfortable, rambling old place with lots of antiques, hardwood floors and fireplaces. There is a big moose head mounted on the landing on the wall in the stairway leading to our room. It was given to the Inn by Alan Alda after he finished filming the 1980 movie “Four Seasons.” There was a violent scene involving the moose….I will need to watch that movie again sometime.

Monday morning, greeted us with non-stop rain, so we had to alter our plans completely. Instead of exercise and the great outdoors, we got a big lunch and the great indoors. Oh well, stuff happens. We considered driving to the Ben & Jerry’s factory which is in Waterbury, but the Yelp reviews of the place were bad-you basically stand in line (for up to an hour) to pay $2 to watch an infomercial about the company then get a miniscule sample of the flavor of the day. Umm, no thank you. Sorry Tyler! We went in to the village for lunch instead and drove around the area, followed by a little nap and some serious reading in the lodge looking out over the manicured grounds and the forest.

On Tuesday morning we headed toward Niagara Falls for a couple of nights. We decided to stay in Rochester since we have a friend who lives there. Found another wonderful deal at the Hyatt Regency through Priceline. God, I love that site! We had a wonderful dinner and turned in early so we could get an early start on the Falls. It began to rain like crazy about an hour after we arrived. We went to the Cave of the Wind where you walk through a cave and get right next to the falls. The water came at us from everywhere, the sky, the falls, the spray when it hits the rocks. Luckily they issue you a pair of rubber sandals and a yellow rain poncho and set you loose to wander at will. I was soaked anyway. Have to admit, at first glance from above our first thought was-thought they’d be bigger. But from below they are pretty amazing and once you get on the Maid of the Mist (the boat-wearing a newly issued blue poncho), and you get right up to the falls, wow! Combine that with the storm raging around us and it was terrifying. There was a clap of thunder and a bolt of lightening while we were on the top deck and I nearly jumped out of my skin. This is an experience that reminds me of the Grand Canyon….. You see it, you are awed by it and you are kind of done. So we headed up to Lewiston, which is a great little town to the north and had a little lunch at The Silo, a Man vs. Food place.

We met our friend Amit, and his fiancee’ Dishy, at a great place called Dinosaur Barbeque for a late dinner, some cocktails, live music and a lot of talking. We have known Amit for many years through the dental biz, but this was our first time meeting Dishy. They are a beautiful couple and we wish them well and thank them both for the lovely evening! Hopefully we can reciprocate the hospitality in Tucson sometime……

: The view from our room in Stowe, VT

: The lodge

: The pool

: The movie star moose

: Fields of green

: Had to stop here!

: Yes, we bought some

: Where they make the maple syrup

: Ben & Jerry’s

: Our 50th night on the road!

: Cold and wet, but still having fun

: The deck view on the Maid of the Mist

: The falls from the bottom

: Rick modeling his outfit

: Me modeling mine

: some random building in Rochester-looks like something out of Ghostbusters

: The Eastman Kodak building. God, we sent them a lot of big checks over the years!

Bright and early on the 15th we headed to Long Island, NY, because after watching Revenge and the Barefoot Contessa, I HAD to see the Hampton’s and it’s so close to New York, so why not, right? Well, we encountered some of the nastiest storms I have ever seen, and while driving on the Interstate, with no visibility. Thank god Rick likes to drive, because, this was horrific. First off, thank you again, Steve and Linda, for lending us your spare EZ Pass-every time we go through a toll booth, we both say “Thank you Steve and Linda!” It has made life so much easier, not having to get in those long toll lines-especially in the rain. Once we hit the Cross Bronx Expressway, we were at a standstill at the Jerome underpass. There was a Cadillac sedan literally floating in the water. Luckily an ambulance needed to get through and we were able to get around, up and over and head back on to the road on the other side. When we checked in to our hotel Rick wanted to see the local news, and sure enough the lead story showed the exact underpass mentioned above. It turns out New York got 2.5 inches that afternoon. You will notice virtually no pictures taken on Long Island. This is because the rain did not let up until late on Wednesday. We still enjoyed it, but everything was gray and damp-which to a desert rat, is a thing of pure beauty, but still not that great for picture taking and sight-seeing. As beautiful as the Hampton’s were, the ridiculous traffic, made it less so. We wanted to go out to Montauk, but we were unable to break 15 mph and mostly just stop and go. We turned around and went back and ate lunch in Southhampton.

Rick decided he didn’t want to drive in to the city, nor did he want to fork out the $55 a day for parking our car in the garage there. We took the Long Island Railroad in, which was really a leap of faith. As we were contemplating our trip, the MTA and LIRR were in discussions regarding a possible strike which was to go in to effect at 12:01 Sunday morning and of course, we were due to leave Sunday afternoon. So, I was very apprehensive of this plan. Rick was fairly certain they would work it out. Off we went on Thursday morning and sure enough, on Friday morning the two parties came to an agreement and I was able to relax about it. He was right again.

We had an amazing few days in the city. The first day is always a little overwhelming, and then you kind of fall in to the natural pace of the city. Did I mention that I love New York City? God, I really do! On Thursday evening we walked around a bit and had dinner at one of our favorite places, The Grand Central Oyster Bar, which sadly was not quite up to par, and a total rip-off this time. And the Albanian server who has waited on us every time before, was kind of a jerk. But, holy cow, a pretty great martini was involved. So, that helped.

Friday morning we were off to buy our tickets to the Broadway play If/Then, with Idina Menzel. She could seriously sing names from a phonebook, and it would be phenomenal, but a story and songs make it all the better. She never misses a note. God, she’s good! We proceeded, tickets in hand, to Trattoria Dell’Arte, for a fabulous lunch and then off to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for a little culture and some great art. Later that night the play. We planned to stop in at the Pig and Whistle, where we usually go for a late night beverage and some live music, and lo and behold it has been replaced with some night club which looked heavily populated by your basic thugs and a pounding bass sound. Oh well. And this after realizing earlier in the day, that our old standby for hot pastrami and New York cheesecake, Roxy, has been replaced by a Radio Shack. This kind of change sucks.

On Saturday we had Asian day (Pho and Sushi in the same day!). First to a great little Vietnamese place for Pho (OBAO) and then we took the train down to the World Trade Center Memorial. Pretty powerful stuff. The last time we saw it, was in November of 2001. They have accomplished a lot here in so many ways. Our last planned event, turned out to be the very best one. We met my brother, Neal, in the East Village for an amazing night that included some great Sushi at Takahachi and a couple of bars in the area. At the end of the evening we went to a quiet little bar called Quartino and talked for hours. We enjoyed visiting with him so much, that I just didn’t want the evening to end, and was totally sad when it did. Every time I spend time with Neal I wonder why we don’t see more of each other (living so far apart doesn’t help). The first time I saw him he was just a few months old and I did not see him again until he was 17. But from that moment, we hit it off. We grew up far apart, with only a father in common (and I use the word father loosely in this case), but we seem to think and feel so similar about many things. He is just so amazing! Anyway, sometime after 1:00 a.m. Neal walked us to the subway and we made it back to our hotel around 1:30. My favorite quote of the evening was what Rick said when we walked out of the subway station at Lexington and 51st, “I get emotionally involved with the people around me-I’m worried about the girl next to me on the subway-her boyfriend is a dick.” Kind of sweet……

I did not enjoy packing our stuff up and leaving. Even Rick said he was sad to head out. I know we have more adventures ahead of us……till then