HUDSON VALLEY ADVENTURE

My sister and I are on a wonderful adventure in New York state.  She is singing in a wedding at the Mohonk Mountain House Resort, which, for all its beauty, is a bit of a leprous monstrosity from the outside.  It's so big and textured that it's almost too big and textured when you see it rising like a behemoth over the tree line on the top of Mohonk Mountain. 

It is, however, magnificent in its own way, especially considering when it was built.  In 1869, two brothers purchased Lake Mohonk, established a preserve, and proceeded to build a huge Victorian castle-styled resort.  From all I can read and from what I saw yesterday when I was able to get into the preserve and Mountain House for free (I was "on the list") to witness the wedding rehearsal, it seems to be well-run, well-kept, and continues to be a legacy of giving to the community and preserving the natural beauty of the area.

I have planned all along that Saturday would be my work day out of the three days of adventure that we strategically planned.  Of course, all plans go out the window when we follow the GPS instead of our maps (beneficial since I found again the Panera at exit 15 on I-84 that I accidentally discovered traveling to a lacrosse game ... and then could never find again even though I traveled that way several more times but got GPS-rerouted), and also when we excitedly pass the exit for Sturbridge Village.  Note to selves:  Historical Massachusetts on tap for the return trip.  But, still -- Saturday is supposed to be my day of grading and catching up on work while my sister is at the wedding.

Briefly this morning I toy with the idea of going to the Mohonk Mountain House with her, lugging my papers to correct and my book to read with me; these should keep me busy for hours.  After all, the resort is open to day hikers (for a fee), and there are such magnificent things as tea and cookies on the verandas, and lunches and dinners, etc.  I'm quite certain that I can keep myself entertained for hours and hours.  I mean, it may be $800+ a night to stay there, but surely they must have some affordable amenities.  How much could brunch possibly be, right?

Brunch costs $73 per person.  PER PERSON.  $73.  Good god, I cannot eat $73 worth of food in an entire week, let alone in an hour or two.  I check the "light fare" lounge menu.  No prices.  Hmmm.  No prices means "If you have to ask, you're a useless pauper and we fart in your general direction."  Yes, apparently I have decided that this fabulous Victorian castle-like manse is actually the French castle from The Holy Grail.  Yup, my mother was a hamster, and my father smelled of elderberries.

Instead, I stockpile breakfast foods from the free hotel morning buffet to supplement the stockpiled assortment of stuff we brought with us: grapes, bananas, apples, crackers, cheese, cookies, wine (there must always be wine).  I now have a corn muffin, oatmeal, milk, strawberry yogurt, and access to an array of items in the hotel mini-shop as well as access to a multitude of delivery places.  It's not like I'll starve to death in the hours that my sister is at the wedding.  Did I mention wine?  I do have wine.

Tomorrow is supposed to be drizzly and perhaps somewhat dreary, at least in the morning.  That's okay by us.  We will stop up the street at the Walkway Over the Hudson, the nearly 7,000-foot long footbridge constructed in 1889 to connect Poughkeepsie on the east bank with Highland on the west bank.  We will either walk its length and back ... or not.  No pressure and weather-depending.  Then, we're traveling to the Rhinebeck Farmer's Market.  From there, possibly Sturbridge Village and beyond.

Either way, though, I must finish the correcting I brought with me (and have managed to ignore all this time).  Maybe, just maybe I'll start reading the Stephanie Plum novel I also brought with me, or do a few puzzles, or play some cards, or play Yahtzee, or maybe take a walk across the street to the cemetery and snap some pictures. 

It doesn't matter.  We're on an adventure, and it is, much like the Mohonk Mountain House, a magnificent, behemoth of an adventure all on its own.