Thursday, July 20, 2006

NY Vacation notes

Monday July 10, 2006

Here we are at Cayuga Lake State Park in the finger lakes region of New York state. We had a little mix up with the reservations, so our stay will be cut short by one day. Next time, I will call instead of setting it up on the internet. The lake is supposed to be good for swimming and boating. DH is in a cross mood.

7/11/06 What we ate on our vacation

Friday - brkfst - 3 muffins and herbal tea. D didn't stop for lunch, but we had apples and Kraft singles (I ate 2 slices). When we stopped for gas, I bought a slice of pepperoni and bacon pizza and a bag of Cape cod barbeque chips that were just too spicy, so I threw most of them away. DD had a filled sweet cream cheese pretzel and a bag of salt and vinegar chips. DH didn't want anything, but ate 1/3 of my pizza. After finally arriving at the Niagara Falls KOA in Lewiston, we made tuna sandwiches with chips. The carb counting bread was just awful, so I threw it away later.

Sat morning- we cooked on the campstove. Bratwurst sausage, omega 3 eggs, hominy, and toast for breakfast. For lunch we ate at Dora's Place, a rustic restaurant on the Canadian side. I ordered a roast beef sandwich with poutine. It was pretty good, and I took home some leftovers for later. DH ordered a sausage sub with fries and DD just ordered chili fries, which she had leftovers from for later, too.

For dinner we ate at Cafe Tu Tu Tango as part of the Niagara Falls Peep Meet. I ordered the black bean soup, and DH followed suit. We had to return it because the rice was totally raw and crunchy. DD ordered a garlic chicken caesar salad. I ordered the crunchy shrimp skewers and a crazy bananas dessert, which DD (who said she didn't want dessert) and DH (who also claimed he didn't want dessert) ate most of while I was talking to peeps. DH also ate crab and artichoke dip, which I thought was quite good, and a caesar salad to replace the soup.

Sunday brkfst: blueberry muffins, vanilla yogurt, and milk. After coming home from church that afternoon, we grilled a flank steak and some fresh pineapple slices, I pan fried some potatoes with onion in olive oil, and heated up a can of green beans. It was delish, and better than Tu Tu Tangos.

Monday - we had a cowboy breakfast of Bush's baked beans augmented with lemon juice (try it, it's really good!), leftover bratwurst, and fresh pineapple. For lunch, on the road, we ate at Roy Rogers. It was awful. It's the last time we eat there. The food has gone downhill. For dinner, we just had peanut butter and jelly with milk to drink.

Tuesday - 7/11/06 We're going to the Seneca Falls library for internet access. I miss my computer and the A/C! It's in the 80s and 50 percent humidity today. Vacations are nice, but roughing it in this tiny camper with no A/C sucks! I was up at 2 am last night, yearning for the computer. TV, I could live without. It's just not that interesting anymore. reality TV seems so scripted these days, and there's nothing new or exciting. I'd be better off spending my time writing, painting, sewing, reading, researching genealogy (fascinating stuff!), etc., etc. Life is short and there's no time to waste.

Later - went to Seneca Falls Library and found that Webby wanted me to verify my email address so he can send me an Amazon e-certificate. Wow - I wonder how much and why I am getting it. There was a thread about the peep meet, mostly about Friday, but we did get mentioned.

The church sent me an email about one of the kids in the Ward being in the hospital because his appendix ruptured. He's in Children's hospital in DC and his family needs meals and babysitting help. (By the time we get home, he's out of the hospital and doing well.)

I wouldn't mind camping if it weren't for the lack of A/C, lack of my own bathroom facilities, bugs that bite, and no internet access. Some of these things can be remedied. I want a bigger camper with a bathroom, my own laptop, and more space to sit and read in the A/C if I want to. Someday we will trade in this midget camper and get a real one! I guess I'll have to be working or we will have to have a windfall before this happens. At least this camper is paid for, and so is the van, such as it is.

Dinner was cold flank steak, cold canned corn, tomatoes, and salad. I let D and C eat the cold fried potatoes. C is sulky and can't wait to go home. I'm not too thrilled to be here, either. I will appreciate my life more after I get back to it. Oh, and I'll have to go to the local library to get my new Sailor internet account.

7/12/2006 - Raining hard and gee, I want to go home, but everything is too wet to even pack up. I don't want to get D upset by suggesting we go home extra early. We still have 2 more days of this fun, lol. I don't imagine I will grouse about lack of vacation for quite some while. It's noisy in the camper with the heavy rain. Will I ever get used to it?

Later - Visited the church sites. The best one was the printing office where they produced the first Book of Mormons. They showed us the typesetting and sheets. It was tedious work and they had to set the type upside down and backwards.

They had a piece of sheepskin used to cover the book and it was super soft. I loved learning how they did this.

The log cabin Joseph Smith and his family of 9 kids and 2 parents lived in was quite small by today's standards, but it was really cool, even if it was a reproduction of the real thing. It was quite authentic, though, as they used the foundation of the original log cabin and had men who used the same handtools the Smith family used to build the original. The wide plank floors were wonderful. I would love such a cabin myself. Of course, it would be a vacation home.

One upstairs bedroom housed 6 boys, sleeping in 2 beds. It's hard to believe they all fit there, especially since they each grew to be over 6 ft tall. Back then, I think it was fairly normal to live in such small quarters. Log cabins are so romantic, though.

We went to Auburn for lunch, and ate at a family restaurant named Ann's Restaurant. A lot of locals ate there. I foolishly ordered the crab melt, and D foolishly followed suit again. It turned out to be imitation crab (although there was plenty of it, and it didn't taste bad) on toasted english muffins with cheese melted on top, with fries. It wasn't bad, especially for less than $5, but D hated it. Next time I will ask if the crab is real. I had wanted to eat chinese or tex-mex, but was vetoed by C, who wanted breakfast. She ordered buttermilk pancakes with a side of bacon. They were big and fluffy. D and I should have ordered the special, which was a sausage sub, and it looked good.

We had dinner at Applebees and it was better than any other meal this trip. I ordered buttermilk fried shrimp, barbecued riblets, mashed potatoes, broccoli, and toasted garlic bread. D had shrimp alfredo with garlic bread, and C ordered barbecue chicken sandwich. We all had leftovers and the portions were huge.

More later....

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Vacation Bites

That's what I am calling the durn mosquito bites on my legs. Vacation bites. They are still itchy and I'm not sure what to put on them. Hydrocortisone cream is not helping much.

We came home on Friday, a day early, and I was glad when we finally came home. We went to the Finger Lakes drive in movies to see Pirates of the Carribean 2, and had to leave before the second feature (Cars). On the way home, I saw that there was a drive in movie near Dillsburg, a little more than an hour from here. Maybe we will visit there some weekend, just to the movie.

I'll be back later with more thoughts on the peep meet and vacation.