It's been well over a week since Spring Break adventures with Cally. The sixth week of my parenting leave was spent in the best way possible...family road trip. In the past two years together, we've spent Katy's April vacation mountain biking and climbing in beautiful, warm, dry and funky Asheville, NC. Camping at night, biking and running all day, climbing at Looking Glass and topping all with a two day visit to the Merle Watson Bluegrass Festival, near Doc's home in Deep Gap. North Carolina. This year with the arrival of our little peanut, two 16-hour drives seemed inhumane for all. So instead, we did the tour of CT and NY to visit...
My parents, Art & Peg a.k.a. Cally's Nana and Grampa in Farmington. We arrived on Saturday night and on Sunday had a great gathering with my Aunt Lynda and my sister Lynn and the Jones clan. My brother in law Mark is a luthier starting his own guitar company and brought one of his five soon to be signature models for the Jones Guitar Company. My mom crocheted Cally another incredible sweater and prepared a world class brunch for the crew.
Our friends Tim, Sophia and their one-year-old son Beckett invited us to visit their new home in Rosendale, NY between New Paltz and Woodstock. They moved onto an incredible 800 acre resort that Tim and a group of partners are redeveloping as an eco adventure type place with a hotel, spa and two lakes for swimming and paddling. Great mountain biking and nordic skiing to boot. We spent two great days cooking meals, playing with the kids and exploring all the trails and abandoned lime kilns on the property. While Sophia was in NYC teaching for an afternoon, Tim took us to Kingston to explore. There was incredible architecture and old Victorians stacked in the downtown of a small waterfront city struggling to revive. Before leaving Katy, Cally and I had a great visit to the Shawangunks on a rainy morning and hiked to see the abundant rock routes...for another day.
On Wednesday we headed for New York City to visit my friend Michael and his wife Elizabeth in Brooklyn. They just had a son named Dean and he made Cally seem old at 4 months. Michael and I have known each other for almost 20 years. We met playing on an ultimate frisbee team here in Burlington and have seen lots of music over the years. Katy's friend Pixie and hr son Jasper. Pixie is 7 months pregnant and she and Katy have been friends since they were students together at Middlebury College. We had a relaxing afternoon catching up, introducing her to Cally and hearing them catch up on their old friends looking ahead to their 15th reunion here in VT this summer...
The finale' of our week was our visit to Katy's parents Phil and Mary Lou, Cally's Grandma and Grandpa in Darien...we got in late from the city but of course they had to greet Cally with her always wide smile for the grandparents! We had a great a super relaxing visit, our usual long breakfasts (I always get to eat bacon with Phil:), and a great walk on the ocean around Long Neck Point. In the afternoon, Katy, Cally and Mary Lou went shopping, Phil took me to one of his reknowned lunches at Mario's in Westport with his long time buddies. It was nice to be included and the food is unsurpassed.
As our week together waned, we loaded Cally into her little seat with the giraffes on the shoulder straps and headed back up the road to Vermont and the real start of Spring together...
