Bye Bye Burlington!

CAMPING WEEKEND FANTASTIC STOP WONDERFUL FAREWELL PARTY AND LAST MEAL AT HOME STOP NEXT STOP AUSTIN STOP PACKING STOP


Camping...



Breakfast in bed!



Farewell(s)... 

New friends...

A wonderful farewell dinner!

Next stop... 

  

Weather for Austin, TX

110°F | °C Sun Mon Tue Wed Sunny Wind: N at 3 mph Humidity: 14% 109° 76° 109° 76° 106° 76° 102° 76°

 

Gone camping...

You know how much of an "outdoorsy" sort of girl I am (not!)...imagine then - my joy at reading the weather forecast for the house weekend camping trip:

Vermont's utilities, emergency management officials and planners are gearing up for flash flooding, gusting winds and power outages that could come over the weekend as Hurricane Irene churns up the Eastern seaboard.

The National Weather Service in South Burlington says rain Thursday and Friday will give way to heavy rain and gusting winds Saturday night and Sunday as the storm hits New England and there will be flooding.

 A spokesman for Vermont Emergency Management, says the state is planning for a worst-case scenario. Central Vermont Public Service Corp., which serves about 160,000 homes and businesses, says people should be prepared to be without electricity for several days.

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Is this an early sign of Irene making her presence felt?  Nope - just evidence that the students are back in town for the start of the new school year (they do enjoy a good street party!)

Must dash...off to buy water-wings!

PS...New York signage does not disappoint...

NB: This is NOT our hotel! ---->>>>

Oxymoronic. 
On second thoughts, forget the oxy.

Street aerobics anyone? --->>>

<<<----- Parking is expensive!

Week 18: New York, New York!

A completely fabulous time was had by all!  Thanks to a R and her dedicated hotel research, we stayed in the brand-new and utterly perfect Hotel Z in Queens (Long Island).

R and I met at, and emerged from JFK into glorious 80 degree wall-to-wall sunshine, straight into a super-funky little bar at which I had my first (since US arrival) DELICIOUS bite of full-on all-American hamburger! Which set us up for a lovely afternoon's mooching and meandering around the less high-profile "sights to see", such as the fascinating 5 Pointz, where graffiti is legal, large and loud!

We spent a musical hour admiring the artwork while enjoying the sounds and sights of a street party.

With a little "directional help" from the (very friendly) NYPD, we then stumbled on a "lo-fi urban country club" in Brooklyn - actually dumpsters that have been converted to a swimming pools. It was our personal "only in New York" moment!

 

 The day was rounded off absolutely perfectly with cocktails in the roof-top bar of our hotel, sun setting on the amazing Manhattan sky-line.

 

Sunday dawned a little wet and windy - and we had just the perfect itinerary planned. A long and leisurely Mexican lunch followed by War Horse on Broadway. Both exceeded our expectations. War Horse was a slightly different production to the West End, but equally good - it remains the top of the pops for me!

 

Buick with cat - or cat with Buick!



<<<<----- We fitted in several more long treks through the city in the rain (wet, but warm) and enjoyed the-biggest-pizza-in-the-history-of-the-world, back at the hotel.

   

A very "green" NY Taxi repair garage!



 

 

Our last day was dedicated to seeing a few of the "old favourites" and a visit to "Ground Zero". The skies were intermittently grey and damp, so we were happy to be on a water-tour which motored around and delivered magnificent views including the Empire State and Chrysler buildings, the bridges, skylines,vEllis Island and of course Lady Liberty.

We parted at JFK check-in, congratulating ourselves on "the perfect weekend"... Then we met again an hour later  in departures....and sat out our four-hour delays! Incredibly, the rain had caused massive delays to every flight.

"Irregardless" (sic - and enjoy, R :) we had the most brilliant weekend!

Week 17

Everyone from this and our sister house in the next town was invited to a "cook-out" last week at Malletts Bay, which is a gorgeous location on Lake Champlain a little north of Burlington.

The weather was a little cool, but the food was hot, plentiful and delicious. As you can see, we worked the burgers off with an energetic game of volleyball - and this time I wasn't allowed to be the photographer!



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Had a fabulous day out with M and little M to Shelburne Farms, which is "an education center, 1,400-acre working farm, and National Historic Landmark".  It's a pretty amazing venue with a massive, old stone "barn" (not what you would usually think of as a barn - given its size) which houses a multitude of "petting" animals, which as you can imagine, captivated M junior so entirely - there was no getting her away!                                                   

I walked a couple of miles across the farmland to visit the original manor house - originally a Vanderbilt property. Although it's a very imposing property, it's the location which I find stunning - lovely gardens and incredible views across the lake.

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Have finally made my mark on Dismas as published author! I seem to have been writing for days, as first I interviewed a Volunteer Cook for a piece in the Cooks' newsletter (front page :-) and have also just submitted 300 words on "A Volunteer's View" for the "all stakeholders" bi-annual newsletter. Obviously, I know you will be dying to read my art :P, but you'll just have to still your beating heart until it's published.

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Hard to believe that it's just a little over 9 weeks till I will be back home! I'm much looking forward to seeing the Austin crowd again and of course the final big adventure on the ship. Before then though - New York, New York - here I come!