Have you finished your Mother’s Day shopping?
Gift Certificates are available at Adirondack Balloon Flights!!
Wifey and I escaped for a couple of days mid week to visit with my sis and her hubby down in Middlebury CT. Bro-in-law, “The Cap’t, recently took delivery of a new boat that we got a chance to check-out on what turned out to be a beautiful Wednesday to go for a sail on Long Island Sound.
The weekend before, wifey and I attended the 35th Jazz Festival at Saratoga for the second year in a row. The Saratoga Jazz Fest originally was The Newport Jazz Festival Saratoga back in 1978. The featured performer the day we went was Chris Botti.
The show started at noon with Mario Abney Group; then at 1:20, Christian McBride Inside Straight – a great group; at 2:40, Michel Camilo “Mano a Mano” with Giovanni Hidalgo and Charles Flores – another good group; then at 4:10, the Mingus Big Band, playing some great standards and music of Charles Mingus; at 5:50, Esperanza Spalding “Radio Music Society”; 7:30 Chris Botti, a great performer; and the evening finished with Maceo Parker at 9:15 (actually closer to 10 start). Having played for the funk master, “Mr James Brown”, I was eager to hear that sound, which much to my chagrin was a bit too loud for my ears, so, we departed after the 3rd song around 10:30. It was a full day of good music and fun.
Grand Junction is on the Western Slope of the Rockie Mountains, situated in a valley between the Book Cliffs to the north and the Grand Mesa to the south, at the junction of the Gunnison and Colorado Rivers. Downtown Grand Junction recently underwent a significant redevelopment, with redone tree-lined walkways, outdoor sculptures, fountains, play areas for the kids, mini parks and many rest areas to enjoy.
We took a side trip with Grant over to Moab, Utah. We wanted to check out The Arches National Park, and enjoy the views along scenic Route 128. The Utah border is only a short 30 minute drive from Junction, with Moab about another hour or so, depending on the route you take. Unfortunately we got a late start, which somewhat limited our time that we could take checking out all there was to see and do, between taking time for a short hike around the Fisher Towers, lunch at the Sorrel River Ranch, a stop to check-out the Moab Museum of Film and Western Heritage at the Red Cliffs Lodge, numerous pull-offs for photo ops, a quick visit to downtown Moab (a typical tourist town servicing it’s natural attractions), and a limited 3 hour tour of the Arches National Park. Both the Grand Junction and Moab regions are big mountain bike areas, with many trails available for enthusiasts.
Desolate eastern Utah, at the beginning of Rt 128, just off the I-70 exit to Cisco Rd (Cisco is a ghost town).
The scenery quickly changes as you head down 128 toward Moab, once you catch-up to the Colorado River past Dewey's Bridge.
Grant and Tow-mater, only worthy pic we found in the touristy City of Moab, tho we did find a great coffee shop that knew how to make a very tasty, non watery iced coffee.
We now are in the Arches National Park, at the Courthouse Towers Viewpoint, facing the Three Gossips, Sheep Rock and Tower of Babel
Well, that’s it for this trip’s post. See you on down the trail.
While I wait for the grass to dry so I can go mow, after our latest 2 day, 2 + inch rain event, thought that I would blog on a non-balloon related event, an April trip out to Grand Junction, CO to visit with our son Grant and his family. It’s our 4th time to Colorado (2-Golden, 1-Denver/Edwards/Grand Junction, 1-just Grand Junction), since Grant and Katia moved down from Anchorage, Alaska 4 years ago. Up until this trip, we haven’t had much luck with the weather in Colorado. We got snowed-on both trips to Golden, 1 in late April and 1 early November, rain and snow on the last trip to Edwards & Grand Junction, tho it was nice for the Denver part, but, we only got rain as we got off the plane in Grand Junction this time around. It’s funny, we visited Grant 3 times up in Alaska during the winter, and had great weather on all 3 trips, and, he moves to the high desert which is Colorado, that’s noted for dry wx and sun, and we get rain/snow during our spring and fall trips, except for this time, it was sunny and warm in Junction after rain the night of our arrival.
Since we wanted to fly direct to Grand Junction, this removed our usual go-to choice of Southwest, and flew United instead. We found the United experience to be pleasant and efficient, except for the beater regional jet (a Canadair RJ700 operated by Mesa Airlines) we flew from Alb (Albany) to ORD (O’Hare) on the way out.
The RJ145 operated by ExpressJet Airlines for the short, 1 hour hop over the Rockies, also was a very comfortable plane to ride.
So, all-in-all, other than the Mesa Airlines beater jet, United was a pleasant experience getting to and from GJT on time.
Well, it’s time to mow before the storms coming with the cold front get here. I’ll finish this trip blog as a part II.
We’ve been on the road again, visiting our friends the Leahy’s in Clayton two weeks ago, and this past Saturday Rick and Roseann for lunch at 2 Brothers in Middlebury VT.
The further we got up into the Adirondacks, we found snow on the ground. It has been a mild winter so far.
Sunset over the Adirondacks, heading south on Rt 87, after visiting w/bro Steve in Plattsburgh. It was a good lunch, but a long day of driving – about 4 hours to P’burg from Clayton, and then another 1.45 hrs. to Qby and home.
Last Saturday, we met our friends Rick and Roseann in Middlebury VT for lunch at the 2 Brothers. We went via Crownpoint to cross Lake Champlain on the newly built bridge.
For Thanksgiving, wifey and I went to my sis’s daughter’s place, for a family gathering over in Avon CT. We returned to Queensbury the next day, to take-in an Adirondack Phantom’s hockey game Sat. night, and a Tony DeSare, “Home for the Holidays” concert at The Wood Theater in downtown GF on Sunday afternoon. It was a great 4 days of visiting, food and fun with fam.
Unca Chuck and I stopped at Davidson's for a brew, while the ladies did their best for the economic development of downtown Glens Falls retail on Sunday afternoon.
The Tony DeSare Trio - I know it's dark, but take my word, it is a trio, that put on grove Sunday afternoon at The Wood.
Recently back from a trip down south to visit w/bro Richard and his bride Vicky in Charlottesville VA. It’s a bit of a drive, around 9 hours, but it’s all interstate highway driving, so it’s rather painless, other than the heavy truck traffic on I-81. The worst is when you get stuck behind a snail race of passing trucks up a hill when there are only 2 lanes. Anyhow, the scenery from the highway is somewhat interesting to keep you entertained. One travel tip for anyone who is driving 81 north through Scranton & Wilkes-Barre PA, you may want to consider a go-around if you can, there is a construction back-up between Wilkes-Barre and Scranton that looked rather nasty. Heading back home, we took 80 off 81, to 380 N to 84 to the NYS Thruway. This route took around a 1/2 hour off our drive-time. Our trips to Virginia usually involve visits to wineries, good eats and a Hoos (the Virginia Cavaliers, WaHoos-don’t ask) football game and tailgate.
The view inside the tasting room. Virginia wines are similar to New York wines, good but not great; usually better whites than reds. The Viognier is the popular VA white.
Last winery on the day 1 tour is White Hall, near Skyline Drive. I bought a bottle of white, but not worth the drive in my opinion.
That night, we ate out at a Tapas style restaurant, Mas Tapas. It was an interesting place in an out of the way, funky part of town. The building is converted old industrial, with a modern decor. Sorry, no pics, but our food was good, as was our service-we went early. The next morning, we wanted to sample some local diner grub for breakfast. Brother’s bride Vic asked some co-workers at UVA what they would recommend, and they sent us off to The Tavern.
Portion sizes are huge. Of all the grub on the table, bro's sweet potato pancakes were the best of the lot, and no we didn't eat it all.
On day 2 of the winery tour, we visited Ash Lawn at Highland, the home of the 5th President, James Monroe.
Front of the home, that was an add-on to the original home built by Monroe. The big ash tree to the top-left was around 200 years old.
For info, click on the link for Ash Lawn-Highland. Next we continued down 795 to the Trump Winery. We checked-in, then checked out-good grief, what an ego! Fortunately, on the same road was the Blenheim Vineyards, which we were told is owned by Dave Mathew’s of the Dave Mathew’s Band. They had some very nice wines and generous pours for tasting.
On the way back into Charlottesville, we stopped at the Jefferson Vineyard, across from Monticello. The original vinyard was developed by Thomas Jefferson.
That night, we went out to eat at Orzo Kitchen and wine Bar. The food was good, but I enjoyed a place more that we went on a previous visit, Bang.
On next day we started low key with just some Kashie cereal, waiting for Vic to get her work chores done for her boss before we could continue with our food, wine and now Micro Brew Pub tour. We headed toward Crozet on 64, Afton and Wintergreen along 151. Our first stop was The Blue Mountain Brewery in Afton for lunch.
Next up, we visited a rather small winery, Flying Fox Vineyard. So, so wine, but got a couple of bottles anyway-don’t ask me why, just did?
Heading down 151 for Wintergreen, and a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway, we came across a real nice Micro-Brew Pub, Devils Backbone Brewing Company in Roseland.
We sat out on the patio to sample their wares. Brother and I had a real nice Porter, and the girls had coffee and cookies.
Next on the day 3 tour, was a drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway, back toward 64, Charlottesville and leftovers for dinner from the 1st night’s barbecue take-out.
On day 4, no more touring cause it’s Hoos football day and tailgating. We start the day with breakfast at the Bluegrass Grill and Bakery in Downtown Charlottesville, and a visit to the farmers market and a walk down the downtown pedestrian mall.
A very tasty breakfast, a bit more upscale than the fare we sampled at the Tavern a couple of days ago. I got corned beef hash again, but w/a poached egg this time, and a side of biscuits and gravy. My one concession to healthy eating (the poached egg that is;-).
Now, it’s time for some Hoos football and tailgating.
Well, I hope you enjoyed the Jackson’s 2011 eating and drinking tour of the greater Charlottesville VA area. We did!!
Here are a couple of stories that were in the local paper on how the area is progressing after the storm. Click the hot links, 1 – 2. It seems by all accounts, that the Catskills, south of Albany, area got hit the worst, with some parts receiving more than a foot of rain that caused major flooding. Anything along the the Schoharie River received major damage. While our area did receive some damage for the storm, we had nothing like they did over in Vermont, or down in the Catskills and Schoharie County, which are south of us by about 75-100 miles. Here’s an ABC news posting that includes some dramatic videos of the flooding in the Catskills and Vermont, plus other areas that were affected by Irene.
On Friday, wifey and I headed over to Weston VT to hook up with good friends Rick Pollock and Paul Stumpf. Paul had built an experimental balloon for Rick. Rick came down from Shelburne to pick-up his new balloon, and the two were heading off to the Experimental Balloon Meet over in Amherst MA for the weekend. Since it was a nice day and my afternoon flight didn’t meet until 6 PM, we decided to drive over just to see it and them, and have lunch before they left for the meet, and I had to do my afternoon flight.
From a prior trip over to Paul's shop to help cut-out the panels for Rick's balloon. That's Rick on the left and Paul on the right.
That’s it for this post!!
Back in 2008, the fam got together for a gathering at the brother’s place in Vero Beach FL. Part of the trip was a schlep up to Kennedy Space Center for a tour, just before the launch of STS 126-Endeavor, which just made it’s last launch to the International Space Station today. We drove up north to Satellite Beach, just north of Melbourne to watch the night launch of Endeavor on 11/14/08. It was quite a spectacle, even being about 15-20 miles south of the launch. I’ve posted on my facebook page a video I took of the launch, if you are interested in seeing it, click the highlighted hot link. There were tons of people crowded on the beach and other pull-offs to watch the launch. When it was done, the traffic back-up heading back to the main-land was unbelievable. Fortunately, we just headed down A1A with no traffic.
The Fam tour of Cape Kennedy