Weekenders Ahoy!

Location: Catskill, NY (High 67, Low 59)

So far this year, we’ve been seeing more activity in this campground. Last year we felt like we had the whole place to ourselves, as any other traffic in or out seemed pretty sporadic. There were a couple other seasonals, but they were down the road a bit leaving our section pretty empty.

This year when we look out our door, we actually have neighbors across the street!

And of course, this weekend we may have a bunch of new neighbors for the first holiday weekend of the summer season. Last year Memorial Day weekend was crazy – both the number of people and the weather. This year the weather is supposed to be nicer but we’ve heard that the number of people so far is less. We’ll find out today as we get to hang out and watch the weekenders arrive.

So what have we been up to? I think we expected that we were going to have a lot of down time here, but we really have been very busy! Last Sunday we spent the afternoon watching our niece and nephew playing in their soccer games.

On Monday we spent the day in Albany. We both had our yearly checkups, and Harry had an eye appointment. We both are in great health from the running, and probably from trying to make healthier food choices. I’ve lost twenty pounds since my checkup last year, and Harry lost about ten. I got a call afterwards about my bloodwork. My numbers are great – my cholesterol is down in the normal ranges for the first time in a long time. So we were really happy about that.

 

 

While we were in Albany we picked up a hummingbird feeder. I’ve wanted one for a while and we just never got around to it. By the next day we were already having little visitors.

 

 

Also this week we had a fun evening at the kids’ school watching their spring concert. We were excited to be able to cheer on Hannah in her first concert since starting violin lessons last fall.

 

In between all of those planned events, we’ve also had the normal stuff of our daily life….continuing with our training runs…doing the shopping and cooking….and I’m still helping out at my sister’s office a couple days a week. Harry also had a tonneau cover installed on the truck, which looks great. We are also hoping for a little improved mileage when we are using the truck for our daily travels.

So let’s just say that we haven’t been bored! We have just about a week and a half left before we take our first foray of the summer – up to the Adirondacks for a few days and our half marathon in Lake Placid. I’m sure it’s gonna come fast!

NYC Fun

Location: Catskill, NY (High 64, Low 41)

One of the events for this spring that I’ve been looking forward to was accompanying my niece Hannah on her 4th grade class trip to NY City. This past Friday was the big day! We started out at the Amtrak Train Station in Hudson, NY.

 

 

Selfie on the train!

 

 

 

I’ve been to the city several times, but this trip did include one big first – riding on the subway! I was glad that Hannah’s teacher knew her way around.

 

Our first stop was at the American Museum of Natural History. My favorite part was the floor with all the dinosaurs!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our next stop was Times Square!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were so lucky because it was supposed to rain most of the day, but it actually only ended up raining occasionally.

 

 

We made a quick stop at Toys r Us so the kids could do a little power shopping, and then it was on to The Art of the Brick.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can barely make something out of Legos when I’m using instructions!!

 

 

 

 

Pretty awesome!

 

 

 

After dinner at a family style Italian restaurant…

 

 

 

…we walked to Penn Station to catch the train back to Hudson.

 

 

 

It was a really long day, but a lot of fun. I wouldn’t like to live in New York City, but it’s a great place to visit!

Another awesome weekend!

Location: Catskill, NY (High 85, Low 56)

This is so hard to believe, but I realized today that we have almost been back a month - tomorrow. We sure haven’t had any issues with being bored, that’s for sure. It’s been an extremely quick four weeks.

On Saturday morning Denise and I traveled to Albany for the second week of our running program. It was raining throughout the trip to the city, and after we arrived, we were huddling under the tent waiting to get started. But then, happily, the rain stopped just in time for our three mile run. And there was a nice coolness in the air that felt very pleasant.

We headed out on a quick road trip on Sunday…to MA to visit Harry’s daughter Gretchen and our two little guys. It was our first time meeting little Kenny and he was adorable of course!

 

 

We brought Schaun his birthday presents and then Papa was pressed into service to put the newest Lego kit together. Uh-oh, bad day to leave reading glasses at home!

 

I think the truck was a hit!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lovin’ some baby smiles for Grammy!!

 

 

All too soon, it was time to head for home. We have a couple visits planned with Schaun for later this summer when he will come and spend a week at a time with us, and we are looking forward to some quality time with him.

Road Trip!

Location: Catskill, NY (High 69, Low 53)

Last weekend was a great weekend, and a lot of fun! On Saturday, my sister Denise and I headed to Albany for week 1 of a Running training group that we’ve signed up for this summer called USAFit Albany. It was an early morning as we left Denise’s house around 5:30 am to travel to Albany for the 7 am start time.

We met the other participants and the coaches, and they went over all the introductory info. Then we went for our first group run – a short run of 3 miles – to get us started. It’s going to be a fun way to spend our Saturday mornings throughout the summer.

We were home by mid-morning and then Harry and I had a laid-back rest of the day, grilling a couple burgers for dinner and enjoying the sunshine.

 

Sunday morning was another early day, as we headed off to New Haven CT to spend the day with Harry’s son Andrew and his girlfriend Amanda.

 

 

After chatting for a while at Andrew’s apartment, we took a short ride to Sleeping Giant State Park, where we went on a short 3 mile hike.

 

 

There was a stone building of some sort at the top of the trail, which had some nice views of the surrounding area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After our hike, we were ready for some nourishment, so we headed back to New Haven where we went to a local bar for some beer and pizza. Harry decided to try the beer sampler.

 

 

Everyone was ready to relax after our enjoyable hike through the woods.

 

After finishing every bite of our delicious pizza (first time ever having mashed potatoes and bbq chicken together on a pizza! but it was yummy), we then took a walk through a part of the Yale campus, where we stopped by the statue of Theodore Dwight Woolsey, president of Yale from 1846 to 1871, and followed a local custom of rubbing the foot of the statue for good luck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was starting to rain at this point, and we still had to make the drive back to NY, so we walked back toward the car. But first we had to make one last quick stop – at the birthplace of the hamburger!

 

It was a very fast day, but we had a great time, and we’re looking forward to seeing Andrew and Amanda again in just a few weeks.

Shape Up Summer

Location: Catskill, NY (High 64, Low 40)

So far, since we have gotten back to NY, I have been feeling so motivated about getting in shape, eating right and losing weight.

Our days have been full, and I can’t believe that we’ve already been back here for over three weeks.

 

 

 

Our days are finally starting to warm up, and the trees are just now starting to bud and flower. It’s really a beautiful time of year.

So what have we been up to? Well, Harry’s been catching up on some projects around the fiver that he has been planning to do for a while. He took one of the blinds down and figured out how to restring it. He still has several more to work on that can no longer be lowered and raised properly. He also had the truck serviced – had an oil change and needed  some seals on the oil pan repaired. So that has necessitated a couple trips to the dealership. And he also fixed a couple leaking windows by reattaching new seals to the gaskets. Meanwhile, I’ve been keeping busy by spending two to three days a week working a few hours at my sister’s business, helping out with filing and scanning paperwork.

We’ve also kept up with our running program. We are running four times a week and slowly increasing our miles up to the half marathon distance that we will be covering in just six weeks! Today we ran four miles and on Thursday this week we will do our long run for the week, which will be nine miles. I am feeling great. So far I have lost a little over 42 pounds. I am only nine pounds away now from my initial goal! I don’t plan to stop there though. I will be setting a new goal as there is still some weight on this bod that needs to be shed!

This blog is getting pretty long and I haven’t even started to cover what we had going on this weekend, including a hike we took yesterday which provided most of the pictures for today’s blog. So I guess I should save some for tomorrow!