As promised ...

On our last day in Rochester our wonderful friends gave us a very warm and witty party. It even had a theme - the USA -with travel bingo, US state puzzle pieces scattered around and all American food. Shaped like the USA the cake had the states mapped out in blue and red - and much too much red there was!!! Go Obama!!! And like the good friends we are we gave everyone parting gifts - souvenirs if you will - of things culled from our house. Sam gave us this idea as one day she brought her kids to swim in the pool, took a look at all the boxes
and began to moan how sad, we will miss you until her eye caught the good will pile and she promptly asked if she could have the soup tureen and then claimed the wrought iron ashtray and cigarette holder that she even remembered from our first house. Russell didn't even realize we still had it. Which reminded me that Sue Eisenberg claimed the pepper mill as she was leaving our house one night. The luckiest of those, however, our hosts, received the last of the Mpower memorabilia - collector's items as Russell would say - all the place cards Camaron and I have made over the years for shared holiday dinners -and the piece de resistance - our used snow brushes. Use them well. It was a fabulous send off. It was then we realized we really had to go and so we left the next morning. Didn't want to give anyone time to return any of that stuff.

This past week has been spent visiting family - first Russell's brother Marc and his wife Kathryn in the Berkshires where as always we were treated to a first class B&B experience with brunch at a lovely farm house and one of Marc's famous mixed grills. We loved spending our first night with Marc's dgt Jamie and her family and some crazy games of spit with Rachel, Alyssa(remember the world's best flower girls) and Adam.

It was then off to the Hudson Valley which is much more picturesque than I remember and a great dinner with my Aunt Anne, Uncle Dom, their son Dom, his wife Andrea and their sons Michael and Dominick. They took us to a funky Woodstock kind of vibe restaurant which was lots of fun. At this point, Russell's back unfortunately began to fail. I think the culmination of 2 weeks of packing, etc... took its toll and he spent the next few days in pain missing out on 2 rounds of golf with his brother and nephews. But we did go to the Culinary Institute in Hyde Park. What an amazing place. Set high above the Hudson the view was spectacular. And watching all the students walk around with their white jackets and toques carrying cans of olive oil and knives made me put going to one of their 5 day boot camps on my to do list. We had a lovely lunch at their Italian restaurant and spoke at length with our waiter who is a student about his experience their. The meal culminated in a visit to their pastry shop where I had one of my all time favorite desserts panna cotta. You don't often find this on the menu so it was a treat but this one - as well as all of their desserts - looked like something out of a magazine. Served in a candle votive, it had vanilla beans and a slab of raspberry gel with gold flakes on top. And it tasted even better. Can't wait to go back and sample more of their restaurants. Our last night in NY was spent with all of Russell's brothers and their wives and our nephews David and Andy and David's wife Lisa having dinner together. A great time!

This weekend we are ensconced in a hotel in Trumbull, CT - near New Haven - with Camaron, Josh and Matt - we miss you Nick. We spent the day just sitting by the pool and plan to see the fireworks tonight in New Haven and allow the children to join us on a nostalgic trip past 187 Bradley St - our first apt.

Happy 4th to you all.