Running through the country

Wifey and I decided to be spontaneous this weekend. We were supposed to go visit her family in Philadelphia and rented a car to drive down there, but when we called on Friday night it turns out that everyone was suddenly busy and wouldn't be able to spend time with us (they had legit excuses, or so they sounded). So now here we were with a car and a weekend suddenly to ourselves.

No plans + car = road trip!!!

We decided to take the scenic route upstate (i.e., no expressways). It was a pain to get out of the city, but once we did, it was a really nice drive. It's hard to remember that outside of New York City the rest of the state is 1) pretty rural and 2) very picturesque. We took Route 9 straight north. It twists and turns around hills and forests. Every now and then the road would come up against the Hudson and you'd see the river lined by lush green hills.

We appeased our nerdier sides and visited the Home of FDR and drove around the Vanderbilt Mansion (the house was closed by the time we got there). The FDR house was very interesting--definitely not the stately manor I expected it to be. I also learned that during all the years that FDR was in politics he never considered himself a career politician and he always put down tree farmer as his occupation (since that's the trade he learned on his parent's farm).

We drove around a bit more and made it to Woodstock (still the hippie capital of the world) before we decided that we needed to find a place to stay for the night. Eventually we found a B&B in the tiny town of Saugerties.

The next morning I went for a run around the town. Oh man--that was an experience. The cool dry air was a welcome change from the heat and uber humidity of the city, but there was one major problem for this city dweller: no sidewalks! Most of the run I was on the shoulder of the road and constantly listening for cars. I was freaked out for the whole run because I kept on thinking: I'm going to get hit by a car and fall into a bush and then never be seen again. That's probably why I managed to finish the 10 hilly miles in an 8:48 pace when I was trying to come in at 9:00.

Back at the B&B we had delicious French toast and headed off into the Catskills. We didn't get too far when it started to rain, which flushed out all of the outdoorsy activities we wanted to do. We headed back to the city, making a quick drive by Mohonk Mountain House to find out what it was all about (pretty fancy place).

When we crossed into Westchester we loaded up on groceries at the Super Stop & Shop. Man, I miss having big-ass grocery stores like Winn-Dixie and Publix. After that I managed to get completely lost on the expressway in the Bronx and went from the east side to the west side and down to the south side before finally getting onto the bridge to Astoria.

It was a great weekend with Wifey. Lots of fun and no rush to do anything whatsoever. I love it when we get to have these weekends.